Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 4)
Shadow Kissed: Chapter 1

Jaxson

I pulled my truck onto the shoulder and killed the engine, leaving the road in darkness.

Savannah was close. Every fiber in my body rose to her call—a deep, resonating ache that pulled me toward her like a moth to flame. The power of our mate bond.

It had been over twenty-four hours since she’d fled Magic Side, and it was all that I could take. I needed her. I couldn’t purge my mind of her. The softness of her body, the taste of her lips, the heady scent of her desire. The memory of the night we’d rutted like animals.

Fuck.

I slid out of the cab and slammed the door. Faint light filtered through the trees that covered the Indiana Sand Dunes, and a cool onshore breeze brought with it the sweet, earthy scent of oak and hickory. And something else: citrus and sunshine. Maybe a mile away, but with werewolf senses, it was like pressing my face against her bare skin.

Heat spread through my veins, and my wolf surged in my chest.

Soon, my friend.

I strode down the asphalt road before slipping into the trees. The state park was closed for the evening, and apart from the scent of the small animals that inhabited the dunes, there was only one other creature here tonight—my mate. A twin-soul. The person prophesized to unleash the Dark Wolf God’s wrath on the world and to steal the souls of our pack.

The first part of that prophecy was coming true, but I refused to believe the second. Savannah wouldn’t betray our pack. Somehow, we had to stop the impending catastrophe before everything unraveled.

The fucking fates had a diabolical sense of humor.

My boots dug into the loamy sand as I tracked Savannah’s scent through the thin woods that had sprouted from the ancient dunes. I could see why she was fond of running in this place. It was quiet and desolate, compared to the parks of Magic Side. No exhaust or sound of horns or people—just lake, sand, and trees.

The resonant ache of our mate bond intensified as I reached the crest of a dune.

Wisps of sand drifted along the beach, carried by the steady breeze that churned the dark waters. And there, at the edge of Lake Michigan, stood Savannah, a beautiful siren luring me to my doom.

Her hair whipped around her shoulders as she gazed over the turbulent water, lost in thought. As if suddenly sensing someone watching, she scanned the empty beach, then finally turned to face the dunes. Her eyes drifted across my position, then flicked back and locked onto me.

In a swift movement, she shifted and fled.

I felt like she’d kicked me in the gut. My mate didn’t trust me.

Yes, she wanted to be alone. She was still wrestling with the fact that defeating Victor Dragan had inadvertently released the Dark Wolf God. But while that discovery had shaken Savannah to her core, it was learning of her role in the prophecy that had driven her out of my arms.

Perhaps she thought that by running, she was protecting me and the pack. But I could see the truth. Deep down, my mate didn’t trust me to help her carry this.

I swiftly stripped and kicked off my boots, preparing to shift even as the thought spread like poison in my veins: was she going feral?

I’d seen it before. Wolves who had been hurt and betrayed learned to trust no one, and every reaction was to run or fight. And since coming to Magic Side, Savannah had been betrayed and battered and hunted without end. Was it any wonder she no longer trusted me? Fury tightened around my heart, anger not at Savannah, but at myself.

I’d failed.

Stop, my wolf said. It’s time to leave human thought behind.

Human thought, with all its recrimination and confusion and self-deception.

I let my animal spirit take over, and my muscles knotted as fur erupted across my skin. Within seconds, I was on all fours and running, my paws tearing through the sand as the clarity of wolf thought focused my mind.

Bring her home.

Savannah was fast and had a long lead, but I was faster still. I raced along the ridge, and when she broke off toward a path into the forest, I bounded down the sandy embankment after her.

The thrill of the hunt sank into my bones.

I leapt over a downed tree, and Savannah must have scented me because she beelined in the opposite direction. I wound through the trees after her, and then suddenly, she was gone.

Pausing, I scanned the forest. I couldn’t see her, but I heard the faintest of footfalls slipping over the loose sand. Soft creeping. Pride swelled within me.

My little wolf is cunning. Was she planning on doubling back?

On instinct, I whipped right, out of the woods and down the face of a dune. I erupted onto the beach right in front of her, pinning her against the edge of the lake.

Savannah skidded to a stop, with her head lowered and fangs bared. Don’t come any closer.

Apart from the sea breeze that ruffled her auburn-tinged fur, neither of us moved. I knew that if I pressed, she’d resist. If I backed down, she’d run. So I made neither an advance nor a retreat, just locked her there with my gaze.

She stared back at me with unwavering golden eyes. It was like gripping a knife by the blade.

Hell, that was every moment with Savannah Caine. But I would never wish to dull her edge. That edge was what made her fierce and beautiful and perfect.

Finally, Savy shook her head and began to shift.

Her arms and legs lengthened, and the fur faded away. She twisted gracefully until all that was left was a beautiful woman, naked and unmarred, with her crimson hair whipping around her. Her bare chest rose and fell with heavy breaths, and desire threatened to tear all other thoughts from my mind.

“Fine,” she snarled in frustration. “You caught me, Jaxson. But I’m going for a swim.”

With that, she spun and slipped into the lake. She knew my wolf would hate that.

With a warning growl, I shifted, too. As my body transformed, the clarity of wolf thought drained away, replaced by the swirling miasma of human thinking.

Frustration. Anger. Desire.

I was furious with her as much as I was with myself, but there was nothing to be done about that. I strode out into the gentle waves and dove in after her.

Cold, dark water rushed around me and cleared my mind.

Bring her home.

That was what mattered. Lone wolves didn’t thrive, and she wouldn’t last long on her own with the Dark Wolf God coming for her.

For a second, I spotted her kicking through the darkness, and then I lost her as the murky waters closed in around her. When I surfaced, Savannah was already waiting in the shallows. Beads of starlit water descended one by one across her bare skin. Transfixed, I followed each rivulet as it wound its way around her body. Then, like the witchy woman she was, she slowly formed a black dress of shadows around herself.

I didn’t feel the need to hide behind magic. I was alpha. Rising from the water, I growled, “You made me hunt you down.”

Savannah looked away. “I had to get out of town. It’s safer for everyone.”

I took a hesitant step through the shallows toward her. “You need to stop running, Savy.”

“I’m not running.” Her head snapped back to me. “I’m staying away because I’m trying to protect you and the pack. The prophecy—which you repeated to me—says I’m supposed to take the wolves from every werewolf who resists the damned Dark God. So not only did I release him, but I’m the werewolf antichrist as well.”

Her voice burned with pain and resentment, but all I could hear were the echoes of my own words, foolishly recounting the prophecy of the Dark Wolf God before I realized it was about her.

A twin-soul will come to power. They will be the harbinger of destruction.

I shook my head as I approached her. “We can’t be sure of what the prophecy means.”

She stretched out her hand, and dark tendrils of smoke swirled around her fingers and coalesced into the form of a wicked bronze blade.

The Soul Knife.

She raised it and pointed it at me. “It’s pretty clear what it means. If the Dark God gets his way, he’s going to take control of me, and I’m going to cut out the souls of everyone in the pack with this—just like Dragan tried to do to me.”

My eyes flicked to the wound he’d given her with the blade. It still hadn’t healed.

Cara, one of our pack members, hadn’t been even that lucky. We’d watched him ram the blade into her helpless form and sever her soul in the Dreamlands. She’d lived, but he’d left her a woman without a wolf—a truth that only Regina, Sam, and I knew. No one else, not even Savannah. The guilt of that failure was mine to bear.

But what if that was our whole pack’s fate, all of us without their wolves? Was this the end the prophecy warned of?

It took all my strength to keep my signature and expression steady. “You’re not Dragan. We’ll replace a way to stop this.”

“I killed Dragan trying to prevent the Dark God from returning, but I just gave the Dark God exactly what he wanted. I refuse to be a puppet again.” With a snarl of frustration, Savannah hurled the knife into the sand, then dismissed it into tendrils of smoke with an angry flick of her wrist.

I couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when the cursed thing disappeared.

My mate left the water and headed toward the beach, her shadow dress fluttering behind. “Until we figure out what’s going on, it’s safer if I stay away.”

In a step, I closed the distance and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around. “No,” I snarled, with a ferocity that made her eyes shoot open wide. “You’re coming back to Magic Side. With me.”

She tugged against my grip. “Jaxson—”

“Please,” I said, “we can figure this out together. Please, Savy. Trust me.”