Compelled (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 5)

My heart pounded hard in my broken body as my anticipation grew for discovering the owner of the voice. This gave me a slight reprieve from the pain; it was still there, of course, but it wasn’t all I could think about.

The voice had asked what I prayed for and called me a child. And it didn’t sound anything like Carter or the other masters, so who the hell was in here with me?

“Who are you?” I asked, my breaths shallow. “What do you want from me?”

A pause and then… “I want you to make a choice.”

Great, another fucking cryptic wizard. “A choice about what?”

The pain grew until I wanted to pass out again, but I couldn’t until I knew the choice.

“You can choose to go back or forward, Simone of the Torma shifters.” The voice surrounded me on all sides. “Right now, you exist in limbo. Limbo is painful because you’re torn between two worlds. If you pass forward into the light, the pain will end and you’ll be free of any further hurt and suffering. If you return to the darkness, you will need to claw your way through it to find the light and there’s a great risk of future pain.”

The words were registering but it took a few moments to process them. “Limbo? Are you saying I’m not alive right now?”

“You are.” No hesitation. “Or at least you’re lingering on the edge of life and death, hence the choice.”

“I want to go back to Lucien,” I said without a second thought. “Back to my pack and family. Pain is not forever, and I can heal.”

Especially with my mate.

“It won’t be as simple as that.”

That made me want to rage and throw myself out of the bath, but of course, I couldn’t move. “Why?”

“It started when the Shadow Beast created life.”

Uh, okay then. Not the start I’d expected, but I was completely invested now.

“He was young and without knowledge of what he was doing,” the voice continued. “He is a god, as am I, but I’m an original from the birth of creation. I’m known in many forms throughout many cultures, and in this world, I guard the souls which are due to be reborn. Without knowing or understanding what he was doing, Shadow pulled his shifters from the rebirth pool. All of you have ancient souls, many of which were connected to other worlds and races. You, Simone, have a soul that originated in Valdor. Originated as the true mate of Carter.”

If he’d told me my soul had belonged to a frog in my previous life, I’d have been less shocked.

“But… I was born,” I whispered. “From parents. I wasn’t one of the originally created ones.”

The voice rumbled around me. “Shadow Beast pulled from that pool, so all of your souls are from that pool. He opened the pathway between it and shifters. There are no new souls in the Earth shifters, which is how you possess a soul that was once in Carter’s mate.”

“That’s why my energy called to him,” I groaned. “Why it awoke his need.”

The next rumble felt like an agreement.

“Does he hold my body back in Valdor?”

Another rumble, and I felt weirded out to know my physical form was most likely unconscious in Carter’s lair. “Why did I decide to be reborn?” I asked the nameless god. “Because clearly there’s a choice since many go on to live a pain-free life in the next existence.”

“You weren’t done with this existence yet,” the god replied.

The implication was there that my need to return was for Carter, but I knew better.

Lucien was the one who owned my soul.

“I don’t care what pain I have to work through or how many Carters I need to kill. This soul might be recycled, but in this life, I’ve made my choice. Male, female, shifter, or supernatural, Lucien is the only one to call to my soul. To my blood. Carter was mistaken about his mate being a true one because this soul belongs to Lucien.”

Another rumble. “Okay, child. I am a god who believes in free will. I believe in choices. In truth, I tried to pull your soul through from the moment your body was destroyed, but it was too strong. You held on and refused to leave. I’m proud of your strength.”

No one had ever told me they were proud of me. Especially not my parents. I mean, I’d never really done anything to warrant a proud moment, but it would still have been nice to hear.

The gong from before started up again, and it was louder than ever, the vibrations picking up tempo as the volume increased. It went on and on, filling the space and shaking the walls until the crumble of rock turned into large boulders. They landed all around me, but nothing hit the water or my broken body. Instead, it was as if the fabric of reality was being destroyed.

I could only hope it was breaking to be rebuilt.

As the noise grew louder, it filled my mind and body until my eyes shut, and I desperately scrambled to hold on to my sanity. There was no anchor in this place, so I clung to my wolf, needing her strength once more.

Together we rode out the shattering of limbo, and as her energy swelled within me, I let her go, pushing the change so I could feel whole once more. Whatever weakness I’d felt from her over the last year was gone as the final cohesion between vampire and shifter occurred.

She was whole. Brilliant and strong. Smart and lethal.

A true predator that all should fear.

Especially Carter.