1
Ember
“Are you ready for everything to change?”
I turned to face my best friend from birth as I walked backward on the path through the jungle behind our houses. It took me a few moments to realize what he was talking about. “Nothing is changing.”
“A lot will change,” he muttered. It was low but I still heard it. However, I didn’t comment. Louder, he asked, “Are you ready to rule the clan?”
Was I? No. It scared the shit out of me. I just turned nineteen a few months ago and even though phoenixes weren’t considered adults until their early twenties, it was a tradition in my family for the heir to step into her position before the age of twenty to work closely with the Alpha to learn everything she needed to know before fully taking the reins as clan leader.
“It’s a case of ready or not. Mom took over the clan at sixteen. So I got this!” I tried to sound confident, but Lucent saw through my shit. Every. Fucking. Time.
He gave me a grin and looped his arm around my waist. “I’ll be at your side every step of the way.”
And he would. I had no doubt about that. We’d never talked about taking our relationship to the next level and out of just friends, but I did feel a draw to him. My phoenix wanted to claim him. Like most shifters we had our legends and tales of having fated mates. The one true mate that completed us, our second half. The only difference was, phoenixes often took multiple mates. I wasn’t sure if Fate had paired us with our predestined partners or it was something my ancestors had chosen, making it a tradition to be passed down.
While my phoenix was on board with taking Luce as my mate, my human half wasn’t sure. I cared for him enough to say I could love him more than a friend. Doubt and uncertainties filled me about what the future as a clan leader would do to us. Because clan leaders took multiple mates. My mom had three besides my birth father, who was banished from our island and our lives shortly after I was born.
Mom and her mates were a complication that I didn’t want to think about. Their situation was something I never wanted to repeat. So I had to be selective in choosing my mates. I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone else besides Lucent. Although I never told him of my fears.
I stepped out of his embrace and linked our fingers as we walked deeper into the jungle—our tropical paradise. Azorea Cay was the uncharted island my phoenix clan had lived on for thousands of years.
The climate was tropical with a few months of a mild winter, which the ice phoenix half of me loved. We had some of the rarest species of plants and animals that were unique to Azorea Cay. So it was natural for us to protect the island from human and other paras who wish to destroy the beauty.
Lucent and I were on our way to see the hatchlings of a dragontail couple. Dragontails were often mistaken for smaller versions of phoenixes only their tail feathers looked like three dragon tails. They weren’t shifters but could communicate with us telepathically.
Before we reached the small cave they chose as their nesting ground, a screech and caw echoed through the jungle, making me freeze in place. Cold fear and dread rushed through my veins. It was a distress call—a cry for help. By the sound of the cawing, it was a youngling. One of the phoenix kids was in danger.
Without hesitation, I released Lucent’s hand and raced through the jungle, leaving him to chase after me. Lucent didn’t ask where I was going, nor did he hesitate. I know he heard the call for help. We’d always been able to sense what the other was thinking or what we would do. We moved as a unit. Many people had commented that we moved and acted like a bonded pair.
The sounds of the call stopped, then started again a little more east from where we were? Fuck. “Can you tell which kid it is?”
Lucent shook his head. “No, but he or she sounds like they’re on the move.”
Yeah, I noticed that too.
How the hell did the kid get this far out into the jungle? Unless he or she was carried off. That was possible. A clan of harpies lived on the north side of the island in the Pacific Ocean. My clan claimed a large span of the southern part of the island.
The harpy clan was small with only about fifty or so members and pretty much stayed to themselves. But every once in a while, they were known to come to our territory and steal food. In recent months, the fly-by thievery had become more frequent. Lucent and I, along with the royal guards patrolled the skies and scared the bitches away.
There was one bitch in particular I’d like to stab through the heart and light on fire—the harpy princess, Stacia. She’d been the bane of my existence since we were preteens. Our tiffs had started off as innocent pranks but over the years had turned into battles of a great war we were fighting. I didn’t even know why we hated each other so much.
Taking one of our kids, would be a way for the bitch to get under my skin, again. And piss me off.
However, I saw Stacia with kids. She loved them, no matter what the species. In fact, the only person she seemed to love to hate was me. It could be something else entirely who carried the child off. That last thought sent cold fear down my spine.
Fury fueled my inner fire and I pushed my legs to move faster. Sure I could shift, but the burn in my muscles from running would calm me and keep me from killing whoever was making the child cry. I hoped it would anyway. I wasn’t making any promises.
The cawing grew louder, indicating we were getting close, so I slowed down. Several more yards and we exited into a small clearing that I was sure where the crying had come from. Then it stopped. So did Luce and me.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Scowling as he turned in a circle, taking in our surroundings, Luce shook his head. “I smell a trap.”
Yeah, me too.
A blur of black wings flew overhead just as three harpies stepped out of the tree line. They were sisters, or at least I thought they were. Their features were all similar, so they were related in some way. The one in front of the other two was the ringleader.
Stacia.
Long black hair flowed around her shoulders of her very nude body. Harpies spent more time in their bird-like forms than their human forms, so it was rare to see them with clothes on unless they were in meetings with other clan leaders or trying to blend in with humans.
Stacia’s dark gaze locked onto mine and her lips twisted in amusement. So glad I could be her entertainment. “I was sure your mother would join you seeing how she adores your young so much.”
Oh, I knew my mother—the Azorea Cay Clan leader—was on her way. Luce and I were closer, so we beat her and the guards. Luce stiffened beside me as if having the same bone-freezing realization. The trap was to draw the guards away from the clan.
I focused on my mother and sent her a telepathic message. “Mom, it’s a trap set by the harpies. Tell the guards to go back to the clan.”
Mom replied, “I’m not a fool. I only have four with me. Don’t do anything until I get there. I mean it, Ember.”
I worked my jaw, ignoring my mother’s scowling tone. Her lack of trust that I could protect my clan didn’t go unnoticed. Just because I wanted to claw Stacia’s eyes out and freeze her insides while her body burned didn’t mean I was a loose cannon. Besides, I hadn’t let the harpy princess bait me in a long time. I had done the grownup thing and walked away, not giving Stacia the satisfaction to pick a fight.