Lux Wolf: A Rejected Mate Shifter Romance (The Moon Alpha Series) Read online
Lux Wolf
THE MOON ALPHA SERIES BOOK THREE
G. BAILEY
REGAN ROSEWOOD
Lux Wolf © 2022 G. Bailey & Regan Rosewood
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is written in British English, therefore some spellings might differ.
Created with Vellum
Other Series by G. Bailey & Regan Rosewood
Supernatural Shifter Academy
The Moon Alpha Series
Contents
Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Atlas
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Atlas
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Atlas
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Tobias
Chapter 11
Atlas
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Atlas
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Atlas
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Atlas
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Afterword
About G. Bailey
About Regan Rosewood
23. Supernatural Shifter Academy
Description
I’m finding a way back to my mate—even if it means taking the truth back with me.
After finding out Tobias betrayed everyone, he kidnapped me and took me back to his home. With the Wearbears and his family for one reason only: he believes I’m his mate and he believes our mating would stop the war.
But I have a mate, and I would never change a thing.
The war has begun, and no one is going to win… unless I stop it.
Atlas Arcturus is my mate and I will fight for the future we can have. Nothing, not even a shifter war, is going to keep us apart.
He was once my tutor, my enemy and the first male I’ve kissed.
Now he is my alpha. My mate. My future.
This is a full-length trilogy full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. This is the last book in the series.
Chapter One
When I was a kid, I used to have this nightmare. It was one of those recurring bad dreams that stays with you for a long time afterward, sometimes even years. It’s one of those dreams where I’m flying—you know the kind, where it’s nighttime, and you’re soaring through the air high above the treetops and buildings below, either oblivious to the world beneath you or simply too lost in the adventure to care. It always happens the same way: There I am, weightless, defying gravity, my pack, and all societal conventions as I drift on a wind current. It’s only after I’ve drifted far from civilization and come to hover miles and miles above the earth when I realize that I’m no longer flying at all—I’m falling. Terror washes over me as I plunge down, hurtling toward the ground with no way to stop or gain altitude. It’s just as I hit the ground that I wake up, gasping for breath and sweating, my heart threatening to race out of my chest.
This is a lot like that, except this time, when my eyes flutter open, the wind battering my face as I plunge downward, I don’t find myself tangled up in my sheets, safe in bed. That’s when I realize that it’s not a dream at all, and as the ground races up to meet me, a strangled cry escapes my throat.
Tobias’ grip on me tightens, and it’s only when I look down and see the tendrils of dark magic constricting around me that it all comes racing back to me: The Wolf Witch Academy. The mission to Hartford to spy on the werebears, who are organizing to wipe out the werewolves once and for all. The mole, and the ambush that was waiting for us when we got back. Tobias’ betrayal. My short time as a Wolf Witch in training (as much as I can even be called a Wolf Witch anymore, considering my angel heritage means I’ll never be able to shift) is over. An image of Atlas, the brooding, green-eyed alpha prince who’s been my mentor and my mate since my exile from the New Moon pack, flashes through my mind as we plummet toward the rocks below us, and for a moment, I’m sure Tobias plans to kill us both here and now in a fit of deranged jealousy. Yelling out in protest, I thrash desperately against his grip, a fresh surge of pain going through my head where I struck a tree branch.
That’s right, I think vaguely, my head still spinning. I almost died once already.
“Nyx, stop,” Tobias growls as we hurtle toward the ground, plunging down on a swirling platform of his own dark magic. A few swirling tendrils of it are wrapped around my body, holding me in place and keeping me from moving my arms.
“No!” I shout, my voice nearly drowned out by the wind, and I reach for my light magic, the power that lives in me as a result of my mother’s illicit union with an angel—an actual, honest-to-goodness angel. It’s no use; between my coursing fear and throbbing head, its warmth is dampened, lost to me in the midst of our free fall. I close my eyes just as we’re about to make contact with the ground, waiting for the inevitable blackness…
But we don’t hit the ground, and I don’t die. Instead, Tobias slows the cocoon of freezing cold darkness a split second before impact, depositing us safely on a patch of dusty ground so far from home it might as well be on Mars. Eyes wide, I glance around: We’re standing on a sheer, rugged mountainside ridge that slopes downward into a desolate wilderness on either side. There are no trees here—we’re at too high an altitude for that—and as far as the eye can see, there’s nothing but snow-capped peaks descending into jagged boulder fields far below. I flex my arms, my heart still pounding in my chest, but it’s no use; my former best friend keeps his magical hold on me, defeating any hope I have of countering his power with my own. Even if I could get free of his bonds, I’m wounded and exhausted, my own magical reserves pretty much depleted.
After another moment of futile thrashing, I let my arms go limp, turning to face my captor, who up until a day ago was one of my closest friends at the Academy. He’s not looking at me, his gray eyes furrowed as he takes a hand through his shaggy blond hair. Our last conversation comes back to me, his anguished confession of love… But I don’t dare wonder whether things would have turned out differently if I had chosen him instead. I’m in love with Atlas, and never has that been clearer to me than it is now. I’m mated to him, bound to him on the highest level werewolves are capable of. The only question now is what Tobias plans to do with me, and whether he intends to follow through with his plans to hand me over to the Black Omen werebear clan. They want my light magic, just like they wanted the other Wolf Witches’ dark magic, and I have no doubt that they—and by extension, Tobias—will do whatever it takes to get it.
“Come on,” Tobias says, nudging me forward.
“Where are we?” I ask as we begin to work our way along the rock ridge. It’s tough going, especially with my arms restrained, but I manage, not taking my eyes off the path below me.
It’s a long time before Tobias responds, the howling wind the only thing to break the
silence. I’m about to ask again when he says, “The White Mountains.”
“In New Hampshire?” My eyes widen; no wonder I passed out. We must have been flying for hours, as evidenced by the falling dusk, and I’ve lost blood. My slapdash magical healing job was never meant to last this long.
“Yes.” I can’t see Tobias behind me, which is maybe just as well. If I had to see his treacherous, lying face, I might have lashed out and gotten myself killed.
“Why?” I demand.
Tobias is silent.
“You’re taking me to him, aren’t you?” I ask. “Cassius, or whatever the hell his name is. The guy in charge of this alliance.”
“Nyx, stop,” Tobias tells me. “It’s not worth it.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what’s worth it and what’s not,” I hiss, craning my neck to get a look at him over my shoulder. He has his gaze downcast, his brows furrowed in what might be either guilt or frustration—or maybe a bit of both.
“It’s over, Nyx,” Tobias tells me, still not meeting my gaze, and that just riles me up more. “The easiest thing you can do is stop asking questions and start cooperating.”
“Why? So you can feel better about what you’ve done to me? To the Academy?” I lick my lips. My throat is raw from the yelling and the wind, but right now, I couldn’t care less. “You’re a traitor. Spew all the bullshit you want; nothing’s going to change that.”
Tobias doesn’t respond to that either, but I do think I catch him flinch ever so slightly, and I feel a surge of triumph that my words stung. I know I should be formulating a strategy—maybe trying to talk him out of taking me wherever we’re going—but right now, my emotions are reaching a boiling point, and bitter sarcasm is what I’ve always fallen back on when things aren’t going well.
“So that’s it, then,” I mutter as we veer off the ridge and make our way down the treacherous slope of the mountainside. “You’re just going to sell us all out.”
“I have my reasons,” Tobias mutters.
“Your pack,” I say. “I haven’t forgotten.” It’s true, and I can’t say I don’t pity him for what happened—to watch the majority of your pack wiped out by the werebears would be a tragedy. He thinks he’s doing what he needs to in order to protect what remains of his family. But he’s handing over the keys to our magic in the process, and in doing so, dooming the rest of our species. The demons won’t be able to save us, no matter how much they want to make sure the status quo stays intact, and with the exception of my real father, no angels have been spotted on earth for a millennia. True, there are other lycanthropes on other continents, like wereravens and werepanthers, but they’re out of our reach here, and they’re not going to concern themselves with the affairs of wolf shifters. If the Academy falls, our species will fall—and there’s no telling what will happen to the ones who survive.
Tobias makes a pained sound in his throat as our feet crunch along the loose rock of the slope. “I’m sorry, Nyx,” he tells me.
“I don’t want your apologies,” I snap back at him, and that’s the end of it. We continue along in silence until the ground levels out beneath us, and as we follow the ridge deeper into the White Mountains, a dark spot amidst the rugged cliffs slowly becomes visible. It grows as we draw near, forming the mouth of a pitch black pit in the side of the mountain: a cave. Fear seizes me, and I stumble over a loose stone. Tobias catches me before I fall, pulling me back upright, and I’m struck with a fresh bout of despair that someone I was so close to could do something like this. He clears his throat, still not saying anything as he directs me toward the mouth of the cave.
The darkness sucks us in as we step into the rock tunnel, our footsteps echoing on the smooth stone floor as we descend into the bowels of the mountain. It’s only after the light at the entrance disappears that I realize I can still see; there are lanterns set into the walls on either side, guiding us deeper and deeper underground in a maze of tunnels that never seems to end. The sounds of life begin to filter through the still air toward us, drawing closer with each step, and at last we find ourselves at the mouth of an even larger cavern, with a ceiling that towers overhead.
One of the guards at the entrance stares Tobias down.
“I’ve brought her,” is all my former friend says.
The guard nods slowly. “Good,” he growls. “He’s waiting for you. You know where to find him.”
They wave us through, and Tobias nudges me forward, into the main room. My eyes go wide as I shuffle through the doorway.
Filling the space are stone buildings, of a similar construction to the ones at the last werebear settlement Atlas and I visited. More lanterns are set into the walls, throwing light throughout the cavern, while a few free-standing braziers are burning with bright fires. Werebears—more than I’ve ever seen—are mulling around, some shifted and some not, their voices filling the air as Tobias leads me between the buildings. Several of them look at us as we pass through, snarling and hurling obscenities, but their voices are lost in the cacophony. It might as well be an entire city, all underground, with various other tunnels branching out into the darkness.
I don’t even have time to wonder how long it’s been here, because the next thing I know, we’re coming to a stop in front of a raised dais, where a well-dressed man is waiting for us, flanked by two hulking werebears. He turns away from the male he’s speaking with, sizing Tobias and me up from his place up on the platform, and his mustached face spreads into a broad grin as he takes in the sight. “You must be Nyx,” he says. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Chapter Two
I stare up at the werebear with what I can only hope is a look of defiance, but my fatigue is showing, and the blood and dirt on my face don’t exactly sell the dignified vibe. “Wish I could say the same,” I say, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “You should really talk to whoever handles your PR. The whole ‘world-ending cabal’ thing kind of falls short when nobody knows who’s in charge.”
Cassius chuckles, his voice dripping with condescension. “You certainly have a mouth on you, don’t you, Nyx?” he asks, taking first one, and then two steps toward me, descending from the dais with an expression that looks like the cat that ate the canary. “Tobias did always say you were spirited. I think I’m starting to understand just how much.” He jerks his chin at Tobias. “You’ve kept us waiting.”
“I was held up,” Tobias says in a tone that sounds almost deliberately level. “I had to head them off at the pass.”
“And you didn’t manage to subdue any of the others?” Cassius sighs, shaking his head. “Pity.”
Tobias’ grip on me tightens, and I can sense the frustration in his voice. “I’ve already told you I would teach your men dark magic. No one else needs to get roped into this.”
“They could have been useful leverage,” Cassius insists, crossing his arms. “That said, though, you’ve held up your end of the deal… so far.” He nods down at me. “Let’s just hope our prize is as good as you claim.”
“Fuck you,” I snarl, jerking in Tobias’ grasp.
“Such anger,” Cassius says, clicking his tongue. “We’ll have to work on that, won’t we? You’ve said yourself that light magic requires positivity.”
I swallow hard, my eyes widening. So it’s true: They plan to take my magic. Bristling, I spit, “You’re not getting anything out of me.”
Unimpressed, Cassius crosses his arms. “Everyone says that until the rubber meets the road,” he states. “This would be easier for you if you just cooperated.”
“ ‘Easy’ is relative,” I snark back, barely disguising my fear.
Cassius chuckles. “You have guts, Nyx,” he tells me. “Don’t you think they’d be put to better use elsewhere?”
“Like where?” I demand. “You want to wipe us out.”
“We’re simply attempting to restore balance,” Cassius insists. “Werebears have always been the apex predators. Too long have werewolves stood in our way, invading our territory and
pushing us out of human lands, propped up by the Wolf Witches and their precious demons.”
I balk; I guess I should have figured he would know about the existence of the demons. Still, it’s bad news—I’m really on a roll today when it comes to shitty surprises.
“We’re simply reclaiming our position at the top of the pecking order,” Cassius continues, unfazed. “This is Darwinism at work; surely even you can see that, Nyx. You yourself are living proof that adaptation is key to survival. If you can’t get with the program, you’ll be destroyed by it.”
I snort, rolling my eyes. “It’s not adaptation. I’m just a—” I stop just short of saying the word “hybrid.” The last thing I need is for them to find out I have angel blood, if they don’t know already. Instead I clear my throat and substitute, “Freak of nature.”
“You and the rest of your rejects,” Cassius agrees. “You’ve kept us at bay, I have to admit… Which is why I’m willing to offer you a deal. I’m not without mercy… or good sense.”
I bristle. “Just like you offered Tobias?”
“Nyx…” Tobias begins warningly, but I ignore him.
“You really expect me to believe you’ll keep any promise you make to me?” I persist. “To any of us? All you care about is wiping us out.”