I couldn’t see anything in front of me, not even the front of the car. Was I supposed to turn off my engine? I should call someone. I needed to do something. I looked down at my phone and cursed.
No signal.
Did Ravenwood have no cell service?
Someone had to come along soon. Though I needed to do something other than sit here. Someone would come and help me. Or maybe I could walk through the storm and find my way to help. No, I should stay in my warm car and then move towards the town once the storm let up.
That was the smart thing, right?
I looked through the window at the fallen tree in front of me and let out a relieved breath. If I had skidded a foot more, I would have hit it, and I could have died. The branches were sharp. It would have likely punctured the window and me.
Somehow, I hadn’t hit that directly. I had to count that as a win.
I looked up the path once more and froze. A man lay under the tree. I couldn’t be seeing this right. But somebody was there.
I pulled out my phone, even though it was a brick at this point, and scrambled for the door. It might be raining, and it could be a serial killer for all I knew, but I couldn’t sit there and watch him practically drown in the mud. What if he was alive? What if he was hurt? I needed to find a way to help him.
My boots slid in the mud as I made my way towards the fallen man under the tree.
“Excuse me?” I asked over the rain, my voice shaking. “Hello?”
No answer. I knew that was stupid. It wasn’t like he would answer if he was passed out or worse. I swallowed hard and moved forward before I knelt beside the man. His back rose and fell with his breaths, and I saw blood on his head from a small gash.
He was alive, though I knew I shouldn’t move him. What if he had hurt his back? I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.
I leaned forward and slowly brushed my fingertips across his forehead toward his temple.
He had a big beard, strong cheekbones, and a furrowed brow. His dark hair was slicked back, wet from the rain, and splattered with mud. He looked so strong, a little intimidating, but was passed out and clearly hurt.
I didn’t know how to help. Yet something screamed inside of me to at least try. To pull him back and attempt to save him. I’d never felt this way before, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. I could barely breathe. I needed to help this man. I needed to do something.
“Excuse me?” I whispered again and brushed his skin with my fingertips once more.
Shock slid up my body and slammed into my arm. I fell back hard into the mud and scrambled away from him. He looked up at me suddenly, blinking, his eyes a dark brown ringed with a bright gold that seemed to shine in the low light the storm allowed.
He huffed out a breath and growled.
An actual growl.
Then I looked at his eyes again. They were no longer brown. They’d turned fully gold.
Just like the wolf I had seen.
That wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. I was seeing things. I had hit my head harder than I thought, and this was all a dream. A delusion. Because I didn’t feel right. Not with something pulsating inside me: the sudden urge to reach out and touch this man, make sure he was real.
Lightning struck so close, it popped my ears. I let out a squeak. The man beneath the tree growled, cursed under his breath, and then slowly made his way out from under the large branches.
“You shouldn’t…you shouldn’t do that. You could be hurt.” I wanted to reach out and touch him again, to help him. Something inside me pushed me forward, made me want to tell him that everything would be okay as I wrapped my arms around him.
I pushed away that strange urge.
“I’m fine,” he growled. He tilted his head as he studied me, his nostrils flaring. “It seems you’re the one who saved me.”
“What?” I asked, my entire body shaking with warmth and shock. I really couldn’t breathe. What was going on?
He reached out as if to touch me, then let his hand fall. I wanted to move forward but I couldn’t. We both sat there staring at each other as if we were the only two people in the world in a middle of a storm. It didn’t make any sense. “It’s okay, little witch. I think you shocked the hell out of me, but I’m awake now and fine. We should get out of this storm.”
I scrambled away, my eyes wide. Little witch? Why had he called me that? I looked down at my hands and nearly shrieked again, but I had no breath left in me. It looked as if lightning scorched up my arm, white lines of power sliding up to my chest and down my sides.
My hips ached and burned. I scrambled for my shirt, lifting it. The man in front of me raised his brows and met my gaze.
“You okay?” He moved forward this time, his voice a deep growl of anger and… possession?
I shook my head, tried to catch my breath. As if waking from a dream, I realized that what I’d thought was real seemed to be wrong.
My memories were realigning, and I couldn’t make sense of them. Part of me remembered waking up with inked abstract fish and waves across my hips in a belt when I was younger. I hadn’t known why I’d gotten the tattoo. I didn’t remember sitting for the artist, but I’d told myself that I had done it because tattoos didn’t appear out of nowhere. Rupert had never liked it, but it had been mine. It had called to me, and I knew I needed it. It didn’t make any sense. Only now, I remembered the truth. I’d woken up one day with my body inked in this anchor to…something as if I’d been meant to have it.
Why had I thought I’d gone into a shop and requested it?
Maybe because that was the rational answer.
Only there was nothing sane about what I saw now.
The waves thrashed against my hips, moving around my body as if in a current. The fish swam in and out of the waves, breaking through the water and then diving back in.
Maybe I had hit my head.
My tattoo is moving.
The man looked at me and then over my shoulder. “I’m fine,” he said, but he wasn’t talking to me.
I turned to where he was looking, and my mouth dropped open, a scream ready. Then whatever had been pulsating within me, whatever hallucination arced through my brain, hit me again. I fell, my head splashing into the mud. I heard the man in front of me growl again, mumbling a curse as he reached for me.
All I could think about was the creature behind me. The large brown bear that I hadn’t noticed before. I was sure it would finish me off if the burning that sliced through my body didn’t do it first.
And then…there was nothing.
Nothing but questions.
And wrongness.
And darkness.
Chapter Two
Rome
I looked down at the woman in my arms, taking in her long, flowing, honey-brown hair, and swallowed hard. My bear scratched at the surface, wanting to get a peek, wanting to know who exactly we had found. We knew everyone within Ravenwood’s borders. We didn’t know this girl. There was something else my bear wanted, but I couldn’t figure it out yet.
I looked up at my brother as Trace began shifting back into human form.
“Good job scaring the crap out of her,” I mumbled. The rain started to die down, and the wind slowly ebbed to a point where it wasn’t all-encompassing.
Trace blinked at me, completely nude after his shift but not looking like he cared all that much. “You were bleeding and looked like you were hurting. I wasn’t going to take the time to shift back until I knew you were healing. What if you needed me to be in my strongest form?” He growled, looking around. “Who is that? She smells strongly of magic, but I’ve never seen her before.”