I looked out at the settlement we were building,
a shadow of worry crossing my mind.
I remembered the winter this year was especially brutal.
The wolf clan wasn’t as strong as other clans. Aside from the white wolves, the others were not top–tier fighters.
Worse, the Clearwater Tribe was mostly made
up of the very old and the very young.
But the cold was only the beginning.
<
After the winter came the spring, and with it, a
great war between the tribes.
I’d heard rumors about Kiera’s tribe. She was
introducing them to human “wisdom.”
She taught them to cook their food over fire, to
mine crude salt to flavor it, and oven to make
tools and wear clothing.
Her three mates doted on her, and since the
cooked food was tastier and the tools were
convenient, they wont along with all of it.
They worshipped her as their Divine Maiden. I
know she was trying to walk the same path I had in my past life.
A bitter laugh escaped me. The unpurified salt she was using was full of toxins. Anyone who’s
ever owned a pot knows that too much salt
causes organ failure in animals.
<
11:33
And relying too much on tools would dull their natural speed and agility.
That’s why I never forced Kael and the others
to eat cooked food with me.
90
But I had forgotten one crucial detail. I had considered the nature of every other shifter, but I had forgotten about my own.
The wolves had a long, intense mating season.
By the time I realized what was happening, it
was too late.
I couldn’t even hold my wolf form anymore. I
was forced back into my human shape.
I locked myself in our cave, hearing Kael and
the others calling my name, their voices filled
with concern.
<
“Elara, are you okay?”
They had realized by now that I was not the
Kiera from their past.
They were finally beginning to open their hearts
to me.
I shut them out, submerging myself in a pool of
icy water.
But I had overestimated my own willpower. The
water soon grew warm from my body heat, but
the feverish heat inside me didn’t fade.
I began to feel delirious, my body burning with
an unbearable heat.
Just as my consciousness started to slip away, I
fell into a cool, powerful embrace.
I looked up into a devastatingly handsome face.
One of his eyes was covered by a patch, which
<
did nothing to diminish his looks. It only added
a touch of wild, dangerous charm. Behind him stood two other gorgeous men. One was cool and distant, the other had a sweet, shy look, and both of them were staring at me with deep
worry.
“Elara, let us help you,” Kael’s husky voice was like a spell, pulling me deeper into his arms.
The moment our skin touched, he felt like a cool spring in a burning desert. My throat was on fire, and like a traveler dying of thirst, I desperately wanted more.
But some part of me, the part that was still me, screamed no.
“Get out!”
The three men stood outside the cave, staring at each other in disbelief. They had modeled their human forms after the most popular
<
The Kiera from their past life couldn’t take her
eyes off men who looked like them.
Yet after all the effort it took them to finally
shift, Elara had thrown them out.
It was in that moment that Ash and Roc finally
believed, without a doubt, that I was not the
same woman from their past life.
When I emerged from the cave the next day, I
was exhausted.
The three of them were waiting for me at the
entrance. “You…”
