Merik lounged nearby with Riyad. They had put down their swords already and were waiting for Crimson to finish for the day. He was usually the last one in the military training compound, but ever since he had decided to spell for his truemate, he'd been too busy preparing for his truemate to continue with his training regiment.

His best friends weren't trying to talk him out of spelling for his truemate, but he could tell they were concerned about what the future would bring. They were worried because he wasn't a full fae, and his truemate could come from anywhere. His journey to find her and bring her home could take years. Both Riyad and Merik had recently turned twenty-five and would spell for their truemates when they were ready. Like he had been, they were not ready to stop their training to settle down.

Except Crimson was ready now. Only a week remained until the full moon, when he would spell for his truemate and cross through into the Mortal Realm to find her. He didn't know what lay on the other side of the portal, and he wanted to be prepared physically to do whatever was necessary to protect her.

Now that he had set his mind on finding his truemate, he wished that he'd done it earlier. Years ago. So that he and his truemate could have grown up together and not wasted any time.

"Aren't you tired yet?" Merik asked.

Riyad laughed. "He's trying to make sure he's all toned before he meets his truemate."

Crimson released the sword, and it disappeared as one of the young apprentices in the compound drew the dummy away with the pulley. Crimson waved at the young male saying, "I'm done for the night." The boy, barely ten, nodded and began to repair the holes that Crimson's sword had left behind.

His friends were teasing him, and he accepted their ribbing with a smile. "I'm not doing anything different." He stretched fully and tucked his wings into his back, cracking his neck. Sitting down on the floor next to his best friends, he took a drink from a wooden cup of water and let out a long sigh.

"No?" Merik raised a dark brow. "You've been in the military since you pa.s.sed the tests at age seventeen, a full year before most males. You raced through the ranks until you attained captain. You work harder, train longer, fight more fiercely than any other male. But for the last three weeks, you've been entirely focused on preparing your home for your truemate."

Crimson raised a brow. "When you spell for your truemate, don't you plan to prepare for her?"

Merik gave a loud snort. "I'm not going to pretend I'm something I'm not to impress a female meant to be mine, Crim. Don't you think you should have left your home as-is so that she'd know what she's getting into?"

"Hey, I'm a clean male; I've just been busy since the last battle. Give me a little credit."

Merik chuckled, and Riyad said, "I'll be sure to pull her aside and tell her just how much of a slob you are."

Crimson's wolf didn't much care for Riyad doing any such thing, and Riyad stopped laughing immediately as Crimson snarled. "Whoa, sorry, man. I was just kidding. s.h.i.t, leash that dog."

"Wolf."

"Whatever." Riyad rolled his eyes, and Merik gave him a shoulder shove, telling him to stop antagonizing their friend who could shift into a big, huge wolf.

Merik stood and offered his hand to Crimson, who accepted the help as he stood. "I'm happy for you, Crim. Whoever your mate is, she's a lucky female."

"Aw, I'm gonna cry, this is so sweet." Riyad said as he made a face.

"You're gonna get your a.s.s beat if you don't stop being such a smart a.s.s," Merik said.

Crimson laughed as the two began to swing lazily at each other and steered clear of their fists as he gathered his things to head home. Each day that pa.s.sed brought him closer to spelling for his truemate. Riyad and Merik were right in some ways that he had changed over the last few weeks. He'd been obsessed with living up to his father's legend to the exclusion of all else, even his own happiness. He'd been content, but he hadn't been truly happy. Something had been missing, and he'd tried to fill the emptiness with service and training, but it hadn't worked. There was something very freeing about his decision to spell for his truemate, and he was glad he wasn't waiting any longer.

Riyad looked at the leather bag that Crimson packed. "You sure this is a good idea?"

"Definitely," he answered, folding a shirt and tucking it inside. After almost a month of preparing to spell for his truemate, he had come to the conclusion that it was well past time for him to settle down and start a family. Yes, he enjoyed living alone, coming and going as he pleased, but he didn't enjoy it so much that he would not take the opportunity to find his truemate. Since he'd been thinking about finding his mate, the house had begun to feel empty, and, in spite of his friends, he found himself feeling lonely.

"What did you do to get your mother to back off while you're gone?" Riyad plopped down on the freshly made bed, and Crimson growled at him until he got up. No one was getting on that bed until he and his new mate came back to christen the room. And every other room in the house.

"I told her I was really busy with training exercises for the first few weeks of the month, and then yesterday I sent her to the spa for a week with a few of her pals and said it was an early birthday gift."

"She bought that?"

"I don't know if she really bought it or not, but she was too giddy with the thought of going to the spa to really question me." There was a good chance that when his mother got back from her trip to the spa, if he hadn't already returned with his mate, that she would try to cause trouble, but there was really nothing she could do once he spelled for his mate. The truemate bond was sacred.

Closing the bag, he looked around the room to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything he'd planned to take along. Satisfied, he walked with Riyad out into the main room. His dwelling, like most in the Homelna Glen, was made of the slate colored stones found in the mountains. He'd grown up in the Ulnait Glen, but when he'd turned eighteen, he moved away from his parents' home and into Homelna, which was where the army mainly called home. It was well known as a soldiers' glen, where retired and active members built their homes by hand with the help of their fellow warriors. The military compound was in the center of town, along with market stalls where food and goods were sold and a tavern where they gathered to tell war stories and drink.

He walked out into the backyard where lush givenon trees shaded the stone walkway that led to his private fae ring. "Keep an eye on the house for me, but don't even think about touching anything."

He gave Riyad a good, hard glare, and his friend chuckled and put up his hands in surrender. "I swear on my mother's favorite hen that I will not set foot in your house. But if you die on your quest to find your truemate, can I have your stuff?"

He slugged Riyad in the shoulder. "You should try being serious, Riyad. Maybe you'd find your own truemate."

Riyad gestured at himself. "And deny the female population of our realm the joy of my incredible body? That hardly seems fair."

He gave him a shove on the shoulder, and Riyad left with a wave and a loud laugh.

Kneeling down in front of the portal, he set his bag down next to him and closed his eyes, trying to calm his beast. With each day that drew them closer to the full moon, his beast had been practically clawing him from the inside to find her. He readied the portal so that when he spelled for his truemate he would be able to be taken wherever she might be. As a wulfen, he was more powerful in some ways than other fae, and with his truemate spell, he would be able to go very close to where she would actually be. Most fae, when they spelled, would be taken to the same realm but might not be anywhere near their mate and would have to search.

He didn't know why it was that way, but figured it was just nature's way of making sure the warriors of their people didn't spend ages trying to find their one perfect mate. Now that he was ready to find his mate, he certainly hoped she was ready for him.

He took in a breath to begin the spell but paused. It was entirely possible that the truemate spell would lead him to a fae within his own realm or one living in the Mortal Realm. Because he never felt connected to a female fae in his realm, he believed that his truemate was not within the Fae Realm, but it was possible that his truemate might be a fae. Some fae didn't care for wulfen like himself, believing them to be little more than their beasts. He was one of only two wulfen living in the Fae Realm. Wulfen were so rare they were revered as much as they were feared. His truemate could be any kind of shifter or even human and might be terrified of his shifted form or even his white wings. His wolf shift was much larger than the Mortal Realm's werewolves. Frowning deeply, he didn't know what he would do if his mate was afraid of him.

Shaking his head, he banished the dark thoughts. If she was afraid of him, then he would seduce her so thoroughly that she wouldn't care if he changed into a horn-toed wollbeast.

Preparing the portal, he began to spell for his truemate. He was shirtless and wearing leather trousers, his wings extended from his back like shields to increase his power. His beast rolled under his skin, howling in his mind. As he finished the spell, he felt a great urgency fill him. The portal began to shimmer, and the spell altered the portal to allow him to go straight to his mate. He felt himself begin to shift, and he struggled to contain his beast, but the wolf would not stay confined, and he was unable to stop the shift.

His wings receded into his back as his body morphed from fae to wolf. Before he had finished shifting completely, he was aware of a female's pain and terror, and he roared in anger. His mate! He knew the female in agony was his truemate. He lunged though the portal with fangs bared and claws extended, ready to protect his mate to the death.

Chapter 6.

Lindy parked her car in front of Jason and Cades' home on the night of the full moon. Her wolf was practically prancing in her mind at the thought of the night to come. She couldn't believe how a few small changes, plus a really big att.i.tude change, had made her feel.

Faith climbed out of the pa.s.senger side and looked at her reflection in the window, patting at her hair. "Oh, the humidity is going to make me look like a big old puff ball by the end of the night."

"You're still gorgeous," Lindy promised, chuckling at the forlorn expression on her friend's face. "I always wished I had curly hair."

Faith had beautiful red hair that was wavy most of the time, but curled when it was wet. Or extremely humid like it was that evening.

"I always wished I had straight hair like yours."

Linking their arms, they walked up the steps to the front porch and through the open door of their alphas' home. It was her first full moon since she'd made changes to her life, and she felt like a true member of the pack for the first time since she'd joined when she shifted at age sixteen.

The large kitchen was mostly empty, as many of the pack members were milling around outside where Jason and several other males manned grills and cooked steaks, burgers, and hotdogs. Cades was standing next to her daughter, Lyric, who was sitting in a booster seat at the kitchen table. Karly's son, Remy, sat in a chair next to Lyric.

Remy, only a few months older than Lyric, picked up his pieces of steak and put them on Lyric's plate. She squealed with joy and fisted the pieces, quickly shoving them into her mouth.

"Oh that's so freaking cute," Reika, one of the mates, said with a chuckle.

"Remy's going to waste away to nothing if he keeps giving Lyric all his food," Cades said, smiling.

"He eats like a horse, and he had three hamburgers before we came over here. I'll go get him another steak, though," Karly said, heading for the back door.

"And one for Lyric, too, I guess," Cades said. She looked at Lindy and Faith. "Hey! Are you hungry? There's plenty on the grill."

"Thanks," Lindy said, accepting Cades' welcoming hug. Shyne and Jenna said h.e.l.lo to them as well, and they headed out to the back deck to get something to eat. The pack got together before the full moon to cook out and visit. Lindy grabbed a plate and stood in line behind Karly, looking over the backyard and the wolves gathered there. The pack wasn't that large, around forty wolves that could shift, but the non-shifting mates and young children made it seem much larger than it was.

"Good to see you, Lindy," Jason said, placing a steak onto her plate.

"Thanks." And she meant it. She and her friends had never come to the before-the-hunt get-togethers. They'd always hung out at one of their homes beforehand, showing up just before the full moon to hunt with the pack. And even then, they'd stayed together in their trio, not really interacting with others.

Faith and Lindy stepped off the deck and down onto the gra.s.s. They spied Mac and Drake sitting at a picnic table with some of Drake's friends, the males who hadn't been kind to her before. Not that she hadn't deserved the s.l.u.tty t.i.tle, but they didn't need to be such a.s.sholes.

"Lindy! Over here!"

Lindy was surprised to see Sunny waving excitedly. Sunny was sitting with two younger females. Lindy looked at Faith, who shrugged. They walked over to the table, and Sunny said, "Sit down. These are my besties, Laura and Honor. They're human, but Alpha Jason said they could come for the cookout. They're going to hang out with the mates until I'm done hunting, and then we're going to have a slumber party."

Lindy introduced herself and Faith and sat down, looking around surrept.i.tiously. Just a month earlier, Sunny's parents had told Lindy to steer clear of their daughter, and Paul had been instrumental in that.

"Don't worry," Sunny said, drawing Lindy's attention to her. "Alpha Cades told my parents that you were a really nice girl and that they were judging you too harshly. She said I'd be lucky to have a friend like you. And," she lowered her voice conspiratorially, "she read Paul the riot act for being such a d.i.c.k."

Laura giggled. "He is a d.i.c.k."

Honor elbowed Laura, who stopped laughing as Paul came up to the table. He looked down at Lindy. At first, she saw concern in his eyes, but then, slowly, his expression changed to one of acceptance. "I'm sorry for what I said. If you and Faith would like to hunt with Sunny tonight, I'd like to come along and keep an eye out for you all. If you don't mind the company."

Lindy looked at him in surprise. He was only twenty, and she'd always thought he was kind of immature, even if he was very cute, but he looked a lot older and wiser in that moment.

"Faith and I are guarding the mates tonight, otherwise I'd take you up on your offer. And thanks for apologizing. It wasn't necessary."

"Um, yeah it was," Sunny protested. "He was a d.i.c.k."

Paul cuffed her lightly on the back of the head. "Stop cursing, or I'll tell mom."

"Next month, then?" Paul asked, and Lindy nodded.

Paul left, and Faith cleared her throat lightly. Lindy looked at her, chuckling at her friend's wide eyes. "That was totally weird," Faith said.

"He's afraid of Alpha Cades," Sunny said. "Mom and Dad are out of town, and when Cades came over to talk to him, she gave him the impression that she'd tell on him if he didn't stop being so rotten to you. I told Mom and Dad that I was old enough to make my own choices in friendships. There aren't any females my age that want to run with me, and Paul doesn't really like me tagging along with him. I think he's afraid that I'll end up mated to one of his friends." She made a face while her human friends laughed uncontrollably.

Lindy was an only child so she didn't know what it was like to have an older sibling watching out for her, and with her mom constantly bouncing from one lover to another in her quest to find her mate, Lindy had never had a father figure either, or a good female role model. But she wanted all of those things for her own pups - to be there for them whenever they needed her, their father by her side, and to have lots of pups so they were never alone.

Lindy and Faith mostly listened to the young girls chatter about the cute males in the pack while they ate. The girls reminded her of her own friendships with Faith and Mac, when they'd been young and excited about the future.

When the meal was over, she and Faith walked with Sunny to the full moon meeting place. Cades and Jason stood near the roaring bonfire and called for the pack to shift and hunt. Tina, Jason's mom, came over and said, "I'm going to help guard tonight. Do you mind if I hunt with you two later on?"

"Not at all," Lindy answered, dropping her shorts and T-shirt to the ground.

"Thanks. Usually, Peter guards with me so we can go hunting together afterwards, but Jason asked Peter to hunt with him tonight."

Lindy nodded. "We'd be happy to have you along."

As she shifted to her wolf form, she shook herself out and sat down on her haunches, waiting until the others had followed suit.

"It's times like this that I wish I could shift," Cades said with a wistful sigh. Lindy and the others followed Cades back to the house where Karly, Shyne, Reika, Jenna, and the kids were waiting.

Lindy spent the next few hours watching the woods from the back of the house while the others guarded different sections of the house. The mates were inside along with the children. When she finally heard the call of the males coming back, she barked to her fellow guards, excited to get to hunt while the moon was still overhead.

Once the males were back with their mates, Lindy, Faith, and Tina took off to hunt. They raced off in search of game to chase. Her wolf hadn't minded watching over the mates, but now she was happy to be free. They chased rabbits and birds and found a few deer. She raced with the two females, enjoying the freedom that came from running in her shifted form.

Faith barked sharply in alarm, and Lindy spotted a trap hidden under some leaves and twigs just ahead. She tried to turn, but her paws slipped on leaves, and she skidded toward the trap. With a sickening crack, the trap snapped down on her back leg, and she howled in pain.

Tina darted off immediately, howling in alarm, and Lindy struggled, trying to get on her feet and move back to the safety of her alphas' house. The trap was staked into the ground with a chain, so she didn't get far, and each time she moved, the trap bit into her leg, and she screamed in her mind at the pain.

Slumping to the ground as pain washed over her in hot waves, she felt her eyes roll back in her head as Faith shifted into her human form and tried to pry the trap apart.

"s.h.i.t, Lindy, s.h.i.t! I can't! It's too strong! Stay with me. Lindy? Linds?" Faith screamed her name, but Lindy was beyond the pain, beyond answering, and sinking down into darkness.

Chapter 7.

Faith Radcliffe's fingers cut and bled as she tried in vain to pull the trap apart. Lindy had gone very still, and Faith worried that her friend was either pa.s.sed out from shock or from blood loss. The fur on Lindy's leg glistened in the moonlight as blood welled from the wound and pooled around her on the ground. Tears fell from Faith's eyes as she gripped the iron trap in her hands and tried once more to open it.

"Help! Someone, please, help!" she screamed, praying that Tina would bring help quickly.

The hairs on the back of her neck p.r.i.c.kled, and the air seemed to shimmer around her. What first looked like a ray of sunshine just feet from her and Lindy spread until a hole opened, and she swore she could see a house on the other side.

An enormous white wolf leapt through the hole, and Faith screamed in alarm. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. It was the size of a small horse, with long, deadly looking fangs and thick black claws. It sniffed the air and stared straight at her. Her body shook in fear as she sat frozen on the ground. It seemed to dismiss her with a chuff, turning its attention to Lindy. The great beast nuzzled her and made an almost gentle, purring sound in its throat, snarling when it scented down her body and found the trap.

The creature's body twitched and jerked, and within seconds, the wolf had transformed into a man with white-feathered wings sprouting from his back. He waved one hand over the trap as he whispered a few words, and it fell apart. Then he lifted Lindy into his arms.

"What is her name?" he asked gruffly, cradling her close to his bare chest.

It took a moment for Faith's mouth to work, but finally she was able to say, "Lindy."

He smiled down at the wolf in his arms. "Lindy." Faith had never heard a more reverently spoken word.

The man moved toward the hole in the air.

"Wait! Where are you going with my friend?"