Prologue
Liam’s POV
I had spent years serving as the Enforcer of the Dark Howlers, standing beside Xander and Natalia as they worked to protect our pack and build the Moonbound Alliance. After everything we had been through, it was good to finally see some peace settling across the supernatural world. Packs that had once been enemies were learning to coexist, and the constant threat of war had begun to fade. But I knew better than to believe our troubles were over. Enemies didn’t simply disappear because the fighting stopped. Sometimes, they waited until everyone let their guard down before making their next move, and I had no intention of allowing that to happen under my watch.
That was why I was patrolling the northern forest that night. Everything appeared normal, but my wolf had been restless for hours, pacing inside my head and making it impossible for me to relax. I had learned to trust my instincts over the years, and something was telling me that the quiet surrounding our territory wasn’t as reassuring as it seemed. I stopped when an unfamiliar scent reached my nose. It was wild and predatory, yet there was something else mixed in with it, something that made my wolf lift his head and pay attention. Magic. Witch magic. I frowned and followed the scent deeper into the forest, wondering what a witch was doing so close to our borders without anyone reporting her presence.
A low growl suddenly broke through the silence, and I stopped behind a cluster of trees. The sound had come from a clearing ahead, so I moved carefully until I had a clear view of what was happening. A woman stood beneath the moonlight, her long dark hair falling down her back as she watched something beyond the trees. I couldn’t see what had caught her attention, but there was a tension in her posture that suggested she was prepared for trouble. I took another step forward, and she turned her head. Our eyes met for a brief moment before her body began to change.
I watched in disbelief as her bones shifted beneath her skin and fur spread across her body. Within seconds, a wolf stood where the woman had been. Before I could even begin to process what I was seeing, my wolf surged forward inside me, his sudden reaction so powerful that I nearly stumbled.
Mate!
I froze. After all these years, my wolf had finally recognized our mate, and she was standing right in front of me. I should have been happy, but I barely had time to absorb the realization before the wolf began shifting again. Her body changed before my eyes, her shoulders broadening as her fur transformed into a striped coat. Within seconds, a massive tiger stood in the clearing, staring toward the trees as though nothing unusual had happened. I could only stand there, wondering if I had somehow lost my damn mind. A wolf had just become a tiger, and my wolf was still insisting that she was our mate. I had encountered plenty of strange things during my years as Enforcer, but this was something I had never seen before.
Before I could make sense of it, the tiger turned toward the edge of the clearing, and the ground began to tremble beneath her paws. A loud crack split through the forest as the earth broke open, sending dirt and broken roots into the air. I immediately prepared myself for an attack, but then the tiger disappeared, and the woman stood in its place once more. I thought the surprises might finally be over, but she lifted her hand, and a strange light flickered between her fingers. The air grew heavy as powerful magic swept through the clearing, bending the surrounding trees and widening the crack in the earth beneath her feet. I could feel the energy rolling off her, and there was no mistaking what it was. Witch magic. The woman wasn’t just a wolf shifter or a tiger shifter. She was a witch, too.
“What the hell are you?” I muttered, unable to stop the words from escaping.
My wolf suddenly went quiet, but the silence didn’t last long. A sharp pain shot through my chest, forcing me to take a step backward as I pressed a hand against my sternum. The mating bond tightened, then seemed to fracture inside me, leaving me struggling to understand what was happening. I had never experienced anything like it. The bond was there, strong and undeniable, but something about it felt wrong. It was as though my wolf recognized the same woman through three separate connections, pulling me toward her again and again. I had heard stories about unusual supernatural abilities, but I had never heard of a mating bond behaving this way. How could one woman make my wolf react as though he had found three mates in a single body?
The woman lowered her hand, and the magic disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. The ground stopped trembling, and the clearing fell silent. She stood amid the destruction as though she hadn’t just done something that should have been impossible, then turned her attention toward the trees where I was standing.
“Come out.”
I froze for a moment before stepping into the moonlight, keeping my hands visible. There was no point pretending I hadn’t been watching her, especially when she had clearly sensed my presence. “I wasn’t trying to sneak up on you,” I said, hoping to keep the situation from turning into something neither of us needed.
Her gaze moved toward the tree I had been standing behind before returning to my face. “You were hiding.”
“I was observing.”
“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”
Despite everything that had just happened, I almost smiled. She had an attitude, that was for sure, and something told me she wasn’t the type of woman who allowed anyone to tell her what to do. “My name is Liam. I’m the Enforcer of the Dark Howlers,” I told her, expecting at least some recognition of my position. Instead, she looked at me without the slightest hint of concern.
“Congratulations.”
I stared at her, wondering if she was serious. Most people knew better than to dismiss the Enforcer of a powerful pack, but this woman appeared completely unimpressed. “You’re always this friendly?” I asked.
“Only when strangers follow me through the forest.”
“I’m patrolling my pack’s territory.”
“Then patrol somewhere else.”
I raised an eyebrow, but I decided not to argue. I had more important questions, starting with who she was and what she was doing here. “What’s your name?” I asked, watching as she hesitated before answering.
“Yasmine Delmont.”
Yasmine. I repeated the name silently, committing it to memory. Now that I was standing closer to her, I could feel the pull of the mating bond more strongly than before. My wolf wanted to approach her, to touch her and claim her as ours, but I forced myself to remain where I was. I didn’t know whether she felt the bond, and I wasn’t about to assume she would welcome the idea of being claimed by a stranger. Especially when she looked as though she would rather fight me than trust me.
“What’s wrong with you?” she suddenly asked, drawing my attention back to her face.
I frowned. “Excuse me?”
“You keep staring at me.”
I almost laughed. How was I supposed to explain that my wolf had decided she was our mate while the mating bond seemed determined to drive me insane? I couldn’t exactly tell her that I felt connected to her in three different ways when I didn’t even understand what it meant myself. “Nothing,” I answered.
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I’m sure you have.”
She turned away, apparently deciding that our conversation was over, but my wolf immediately began protesting. I could feel his frustration building as she prepared to leave, and I had to fight the urge to reach for her. I wanted answers, and I wanted to understand why she had affected me so deeply, but I wasn’t going to grab her or force her to stay. Whatever her reasons for being alone in the forest, she clearly wasn’t interested in explaining them to me.
“Wait,” I called, and she turned back with an expression that suggested she had already lost patience with me.
“What now?”
I took a breath before answering. “The northern border isn’t safe tonight. I don’t know what brought you here, and I’m not asking you to explain it, but if you’re in trouble, I can offer you protection.”
Her expression changed slightly, although I couldn’t tell whether she was surprised or simply suspicious of my offer. “Protection?” she repeated.
“Yes.”
“From whom?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”
She studied me for a long moment, and I allowed her to do so. I knew what it meant to protect the people who depended on you, and I understood that trust wasn’t something you could demand from a stranger. If Yasmine was in danger, I wanted to help her, but I wasn’t going to force her into accepting it. “I can take you somewhere safe,” I continued. “You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not ready to share.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll let you walk away.”
The answer seemed to surprise her, and for a moment, I thought she might actually consider my offer. Then she glanced toward the trees, and I felt the mating bond stretch painfully inside my chest. My wolf was already protesting the possibility of losing her, but I forced myself to remain still. I wasn’t going to claim a woman who clearly wanted nothing to do with me, no matter how strongly my instincts demanded otherwise.
“You’re either very stupid, Liam, or you have no idea what you’re offering,” she said.
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.”
A brief flicker of amusement crossed her face, and I thought I might finally be getting somewhere with her. Unfortunately, the moment passed almost as quickly as it had come.
“Stay away from me.”
Before I could respond, the air around her began to shimmer. I lunged forward, calling her name, but a burst of magic swept through the clearing and sent leaves spiraling into the air. By the time I regained my balance, Yasmine was gone. I stood staring at the empty space where she had been, unable to believe she had disappeared so quickly. There were no footsteps to follow, no movement in the trees, and no clear trail of her scent. It was as though the forest had swallowed her whole.
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered.
My wolf howled inside my head, demanding that I find her, but I had no idea where to start. I searched the clearing, trying to pick up even the faintest trace of her scent, but the lingering magic made it difficult to distinguish anything. All I could see was the broken earth, the damaged roots, and the evidence of the power she had unleashed. Yasmine Delmont had walked into my life, turned everything I thought I understood upside down, and disappeared before I could get a single answer.
I pressed a hand against my chest as the strange sensation of the mating bond returned. I knew she was my mate. My wolf had made that perfectly clear. What I didn’t understand was why the bond felt fractured, or why my instincts seemed to recognize three separate connections within one woman. I had spent years protecting my pack and helping Xander and Natalia maintain the peace we had fought so hard to achieve, and I had thought I had seen just about everything the supernatural world could throw at me. Apparently, I had been wrong.
Somewhere out there was a woman who could shift from wolf to tiger, wield witch magic powerful enough to split the earth, and disappear before anyone could stop her. A woman who had somehow become the center of my wolf’s attention, despite the fact that she clearly wanted nothing to do with me. I stared into the darkness where she had vanished, my jaw tightening as I tried to ignore the uneasiness settling over me. If someone was hunting her, I needed to know who they were and why they wanted her. And if she was as dangerous as she appeared, I needed to understand what I was dealing with before it was too late.
One thing was certain. I wasn’t going to forget Yasmine Delmont, and I had no intention of pretending our meeting meant nothing. My wolf had recognized her as our mate, and no amount of distance was going to make him forget that.
I looked toward the dark forest and let out a slow breath. “Run all you want, Yasmine. I’ll find you.”
I had no idea that the woman who had just disappeared into the night would change everything I thought I knew about mates, magic, and the supernatural world. All I knew was that my quiet patrol had turned into something far more complicated than I could have imagined, and the peace we had worked so hard to protect might not be as secure as I had believed.
And somehow, I had a feeling that Yasmine Delmont was at the center of it all.
