Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

There was no adequate way to describe the sensation of stepping through the fabric of a world, and when we emerged under the first layer of Angel’s territory in the Honor Meadows, I was basically speechless. Again.

A rarity that amused Shadow to no end.

“In time you’ll come to expect that much of what you see is an illusion,” he said, chuckling at the gobsmacked expression I wore. “We all wear masks and use power to disguise parts of ourselves.”

I swallowed roughly. “Yeah, I mean, I know that in theory, but to see a world turn from a twilight expanse of golden fields into a sunlit realm of clouds and waterfalls, after you cut through that golden field layer, is not really an everyday occurrence. I mean… how in the actual freaking illusion are they doing this?”

It was as if Shadow had peeled a layer of a painting away to reveal a completely new scene below. Or maybe it was like peeling an orange to find a pineapple below. This layer looked, felt, and smelled different to the one above, and I was really starting to understand the many layers of Angel herself.

“It’s just magic,” he told me. “Your eyes see what you’re told to see, and it’s only if you look closer that you’ll notice the delicate edges waiting to be peeled away.”

I thought on this as I followed Shadow along a white fluffy expanse of cloud, marveling at how we weren’t plummeting through it. “Would my wolf have seen the edges?”

He looked back at me. “Not when you were first here; you were resistant to the truth. But today, you could see it all if you allowed the true power within you to rise up.”

“Part of me is still weakened by my wolf side, isn’t it?”

We’d never spoke explicitly about it, but I’d pieced it together from what Dannie had said, and what I also felt inside. I was a hybrid—that much was true—but I could be so much more than. I could be like Dannie; I just didn’t know how to take that step to becoming that Nexus-born being. I wondered if I might have to figure it out to before this battle was done.

“No part of you is weak,” Shadow said gruffly, “and your potential knows no limits. Continue to evolve, and you’ll be the strongest of us all.”

I couldn’t imagine that ever happening, but it was a nice thought.

Shadow picked up his pace, and I noted that the waterfalls around us seemed to stream from above the clouds. The way the light sparkled off the teal-tinted water made it look so damn enticing. Right up until a few unfamiliar creatures splashed through the strands, looking like a hybrid of a unicorn and shark, with a sparkling gold-tinted horn, pearlescent skin, and very sharp fangs.

“The cogarish,” Shadow told me. “They’re native to this world. Their horns are used to reinforce a lot of the armor the transcendents wear—when the cogarish dies, of course, since they’re revered and protected here.”

“How many different creatures live in this world?”

Shadow shrugged. “There’s no way to tell. The layers hide everything, but as far as I’m aware, the only true sentient beings are the transcendents. Otherwise, it’s just these smaller creatures.”

“Do the different families here fight with each other?”

Shadow considered my question. “Again, their secrets are their own, but I don’t believe petty squabbles are part of their makeup these days. Their evolution is old and near flawless.”

Flawless. I liked that. Maybe there was a chance one day, if humans and shifters got their shit together, that we, too, might one day be perfect.

Shadow continued on, only stopping when he reached a particular sparkle of light, and as he had done before, he cut through the layer, taking us from the cloudland into one of water. Huge bodies of water that we used our power to walk above.

“Angel can live in any of these levels?” I asked. “Are they all real?”

He looked around, seeing and smelling everything I did. “Is anything truly real? Or is it all a product of our imagination?” Before he bent my brain further with his philosophical questions, he continued. “But as far as I know, each layer here is as real as the one before.”

To test this, I reached down and ran my hand through the water. It was wet and cool, leaving a residue of liquid on my fingertips. When I touched those fingers to my lips, it tasted a little briny.

“How is it that you still don’t understand the danger of putting a foreign object in your mouth?” Shadow asked with a shake of his head. “For all you know, the water here could kill you in an instant.”

I gawked at him. “You didn’t say anything when I had your dick in my mouth. Where was your concern then?”

He blinked, and then he laughed, a deep, rolling rumble that had many parts of my body sitting up and paying attention. When he finally stopped laughing at me, he stepped forward and cupped my cheek. “I’d kill my mother just for the fact that I might have never heard your inane chatter again. You don’t think before you speak, and it’s… refreshing.”

Forcing myself to swallow the thick swell of emotions, I managed a smile. “She will never take this away from us again.”

He nodded, pressing a lingering kiss to my forehead, and… how was that so freaking hot? I would swear I felt it in my vagina, if the flutter there was any indication.

He turned and walked off before I even had a chance to pull myself together. “Wait,” I called after him, hurrying to catch up. “You didn’t confirm that the water won’t kill me?”

“I didn’t confirm that my dick won’t, either,” he called back over his shoulder. “Guess only time will tell.”

I muttered under my breath as I splashed after him, my magic keeping me mostly dry. Shadow didn’t slow until he reached the next layer, and this time, we stepped into the water, popping out into a new layer.

I straightened to find that this level was what I’d liken to the Amazon jungle. It was humid, filled with millions of plants and trees, some towering over us, others bushy and thick, and the scents. An overwhelming number of foreign smells filled my nose, making my head spin for a second before I filtered them out.

“This is the layer she lives in,” Shadow murmured. “I can feel her energy now that we’re here.”

The flutters in my chest went haywire, confirming that the jungle level was the one. “It’s insane. I literally couldn’t feel her in our bond until we got here. I’m starting to understand Angel’s fascination with your mate’s maze house in the realm.”

Shadow let out a rumble of annoyance, and I had to work hard not to smile. Riling him up was too easy, but I really had to stop mentioning Ixana. Mostly because it still hurt to think about that dumb bitch of an ice queen.

“What actually happened to Ixana?” Okay, yeah, maybe I’d stop after this question got answered, since the last time I’d asked, he’d deflected me rather cleverly.

“She was interrogated and disposed of.”

Oh… okay then. “Short, sweet, and to the point, I see.”

He shrugged. “Sweet might be a stretch, but in the end, her crimes were beyond redemption. And she held no remorse—not even as broken as she was after losing the stone she’d been bonded to for a thousand years. She said she would still do it all over again.”

“How did she even find the stone in the first place?” I asked as we started to move through the jungle.

He took a second to answer, focusing on widening the path as we walked. “During her last confession, she admitted that it was her bond with me.” His fury spilled out in his tone. “She kept tabs on me during my years exiled, knowing whom my friends were and what alliances she could manipulate. Apparently, I grew more powerful than she’d expected, and that was to be used to her advantage.” A few trees singed around us, but he managed not to burn the forest down. “I have full access into Len’s territory in Faerie; Ixana could tap into that through the bonds we had with each other from birth. Using my bloodstone as added backup, she figured out how to infiltrate and steal the sunburst stone during one of the Faerie festivals.”

Probably another sex festival because they were all-consuming when they hit Faerie.

“How is it that no fae was guarding the stone?” Even during a festival, an object that important had to have been secured.

Shadow paused, his face almost unreadable in the shade of nearby trees. “There were fae guarding the stone, but they disappeared when the stone did. Ixana wasn’t too coherent in the end, but the general vibe of her plan was seduction followed by betrayal. Len was relieved that she hadn’t taken the rest of his stones, but I knew she wouldn’t. She only needed one weapon and would not waste her time on anything else.”

He recognized the single-minded focus of his former chosen mate now.

“It’s hard to believe she had the brains and fortitude to do everything she did.”

No doubt there was more to the story that she hadn’t revealed, but it really didn’t matter. The end result was the same, and now we had to deal with the fallout.

He scoffed. “Her family helped her plan it in the early days, until she went rogue. She’s the entire reason we even made it back into the Realm. She released the spell and opened the doorway.”

I stumbled, since that was the first I’d heard that. “Seriously? I didn’t break through when I called the mists and creatures?”

He shook his head. “When she felt your surge of power and the exodus of mists and creatures that you called to Earth, she knew there was another Danamain out there who could be manipulated into completing her plan. So she dropped the spell.”

Disappointment rocked me hard, and I couldn’t hide my forlorn expression.

“What’s wrong?” Shadow asked, pausing in the middle of parting twenty fern-like plants.

I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to pull myself together. “I don’t know. I guess I liked being the one person who helped you get what you wanted and needed most. It was a nice feeling to be useful to someone as powerful as you. And now you’re telling me it was still that dumb bitch, and I never outsmarted her at all?”

I’d done nothing in that final fight. Shadow had fought Ixana, Dannie had swallowed the stone and stolen the power from her, and I’d… gotten myself kicked back into Torma with my memories wiped. That didn’t sit well with me because I was no damsel in distress.

I wanted to be on equal footing with Shadow.

“Sunshine,” he said huskily. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me. Trust me; it’s much more than opening a doorway that I wished was still closed. You fought through the memory spell, saving us all. I don’t think you need to worry about your worth.”

That was true. “We do make a great team, and I’m glad that we were both strong enough to reject the ‘perfection’ Dannie gave us. I could have been alpha-mate, and you could have stayed and ruled the realm.”

“I have rejected my position of Supreme Being,” Shadow said with no hesitation. “I’ve built a new world for myself, with you, and there’s no room in my life for the realm.”

Holy shit. That was… huge. He was rewriting his destiny, and he made no apologies about that. “The libraries are mine,” I said huskily. “I will straight-up fight you for them.”

His lips quirked as he wrapped an arm around me, dragging me higher so our mouths could meet. Heat poured off both of us as my tongue slid out to trace across his. I couldn’t be more addicted to the taste of this guy if I tried.

“Let the battle begin,” Shadow said against my lips, and I knew then, with absolute certainty, that this most perfect of true mates was going to challenge me every step of our relationship.

Fuck, if I wasn’t beyond excited for our future.

Instead of grinding against him as I wanted, I just wrapped my arms and legs around him and hugged him tightly. “Sleep with one eye open, Beast,” I whispered into his ear, as if imparting sweet nothings. “Those libraries are mine.”

His chest shook as he let out a deep chuckle, starting to walk again while I was still wrapped around him. With each step, my need to rub against him grew as tingles of pleasure swirled low. “I can smell your arousal,” he murmured.

I sighed. “Yep, that’s me, always horny around the Shadow Beast. But we seriously have to find Angel, so you better put me down.”

With reluctance, I released my hold on him, and he set me on my feet, both of us focused again on finding our pack mate. If there was anything our conversation had just shown us, it was that we had a lot of future to look forward to, and that meant we needed every power at our disposal to take Dannie down.

There was no other option.