Ciaran had ophidiophobia, and simple distractions like this could push him off balance.

  Ciaran's eyes snapped toward the apparition for a brief second, acknowledging the threat, but he immediately refocused on Tenzin.

  It was just enough time for Tenzin to flick his wrist, sending a stream of needle-like darts through the air toward him.

  Ciaran ducked, narrowly avoiding the deadly skewers.

  Then, with an arm powered by a lifetime of combat training, he hurled the knife at Tenzin, intending to pull his gun and follow with a silver bullet.

  But something was wrong.

  The knife sailed right through Tenzin's form.

  The Tenzin in front of him was an illusion.

  Ciaran’s eyes widened a fraction in disbelief and then, with a terrifying realization, he pivoted sharply, his hand instinctively reaching for his weapon.

  But it was too late.

  The real Tenzin had materialized beside him, impossibly close, eyes ablaze with dark, twisted satisfaction, and fangs unsheathed.

  Ciaran barely had time to register the glinting. He knew it would only take half a second for those elongated teeth to find their mark in his jugular.

  With a sharp intake of breath, Ciaran braced himself for the inevitable attack.

  Chapter

  Four

  Killian fought through the murky shadows that shrouded his consciousness, an urgent voice threading through the darkness.

  Ivy.

  Her soft murmurings echoed in the cavernous spaces of his mind, tendrils of warmth spreading across his battered face as her magic seeped into him.

  He was barely hanging on, the absence of his wolf a gaping emptiness within. The demon inside him twisted and coiled, eager to exploit the void, yet Killian tethered it back, unwilling to allow it dominion.

  His eyelids, as heavy as stone, quivered, then slowly lifted. A blurry image sharpened as he found Ivy—tear-streaked face yet resolute, her hands bathed in a soft, celestial light as they hovered over him. Her lips moved in a cadence of ancient words, her eyes locked onto his with ferocious intensity.

  Then he began to drift away once again.

  Ciaran's pain was searing and palpable, followed by Ivy's desperate plea.

  "Wake up, Killian. Come back to me! You're stronger than this." Her voice echoed.

  He tried.

  Maybe he had not tried hard enough.

  Ivy's magic pulsated again, a tidal wave of healing energy cascading through his veins, every cell revitalizing, emboldening him.

  He blinked, clarity piercing through the fog in his mind, and the horrific tableau unfolded before him.

  His wolf howled, and that had given him a strong jolt.

  His eyes snapped opened, and and his mind's eyes had registered the danger before he completely regained his consciousness.

  His body moved, he side stepped Ivy, leapt in the air, and off the raised platform toward Ciaran, who had fallen to the floor.

  Tenzin, fangs still extended, blood dripping from the tips, looked up at Killian. A flash of surprise crossed Tenzin's face as he staggered back, but it was not enough to get out of Killian's grip.

  Rage surged inside Killian like a tidal wave. The fury was so great that Killian could tear Tenzin's body in half with his bare hands. His wolf had returned to his body, and was equally incensed.

  Killian wanted to shift right then and sink his fangs into Tenzin's vein, just as he did to Ciaran.

  Then he saw a flash of unusual shade in Tenzin's eyes - anticipation! Why?

  Killian's hands grabbed at Tenzin's neck, lifting him off the ground.

  "You want me to bite you, Tenzin? You want me to inject my blood into your veins? I can inflict pain on you without giving you the blood you want."

  With that, Killian grabbed Tenzin's arm and swung his body in the air before throwing him towards the entrance. The throw was so hard that the momentum ripped his arm from its socket. Tenzin howled in pain as he rolled on the floor.

  But he then surged up onto his feet and started running toward the entrance.

  Killian, muscles tense and mind aflame with the tableau of danger, wrestled with the urge to give chase, to enact the wrath simmering within.

  His gaze, however, lingered on the fallen form of Ciaran. The urge to to give chase vanished.

  Killian pivoted, dropping to his side, his hands cradling Ciaran’s head gently.

  Ivy was already there, a symphony of calming whispers and soothing magic emanating from her hands as they hovered above Ciaran's still form.

  "How is he doing?" Killian asked.

  Ivy looked at him. "It's not venomous," she confirmed, her eyes never leaving Ciaran’s pale face. "Tenzin might be a vampire wannabe, he isn;t gotten there yet. The shock of the attack got Ciaran."

  The relief was immediate, an exhale he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, now cascading from his lungs.

  Ivy's focus shifted, a cascade of healing energy flowing from her fingertips, washing over Ciaran like a gentle wave caressing the shore.

  His eyelashes fluttered, the first signs of life since his collapse, and eyes, clouded with pain and confusion, flickered open.

  But the respite was short-lived.

  A deafening rumble tore through the temple, stone and debris cascading from above. Tenzin's final spiteful gift – an attempt to bury them within the temple.

  Killian swept Ciaran’s limp form over his shoulder, and charged toward the entrance.

  Ivy was right by his side.

  The temple groaned, a lament of collapsing stone and shattering glass echoing in their wake.

  Behind them, a tumultuous roar, as if the very earth were splitting, the temple yielding to ruin and rage. Walls crumbled, pillars yielding to gravity’s inexorable pull, and an explosion of dust and debris erupted behind them, chasing them into the encroaching night.

  They burst into the open, the night’s chill a sharp contrast to the suffocating dust behind.

  The temple collapsed in on itself, a maelstrom of ancient stone and defeated magic, surrendering to entropy and vengeance.

  The debris settled like a mournful fog, shrouding the once-grand structure in a veil of defeat and destruction.

  Killian, muscles aching and spirit wearied, lowered Ciaran gently to the ground.

  Ciaran smiled weakly. "Is this too late to tell you I can walk by myself."

  "You're a fucking prick!" Killian said.

  “I've got bitten because of you. Now you bitch because you had to carry me for two steps.” Ciaran sat up, groggily scanning the ground with his eyes.

  “I don’t think Tenzin’s done with us,” Ivy muttered as they all heard the rumbling sound of disaster coming their way.

  From a distance, the shadow of the impossibly reformed Tenzin emerged ominously behind a behemoth of a snowball, rapidly descending, threatening to obliterate everything in its path.

  “Run!” Killian shouted.

  They charged for their lives, hurtling through the snow-blanketed ground, running toward the general direction out of the mountain range.

  As Killian pumped his legs, his eyes flicked to Ivy. Her face a mask of determined concentration, hands hurling desperate sparks of magic at the rolling death.

  "It'll only slow you down, Ivy. Just run," Killian said to Ivy.

  He cast a glance over his shoulder, Tenzin’s dark magic propelling the destructive sphere ever closer, an enormous tidal wave of ice and doom.

  Tenzin was chasing them with an avalanche.

  “I'm not running from this motherfucker!” Ciaran declared as he stopped in his tracks. It was a calculated risk Killian knew Ciaran would take, and it could work--so he let him take the lead.

  A thunder strike erupted from the sky, hitting the giant snowball and shattering it into snow dust. Ciaran staggered back a step, with Ivy right behind him, her palms bracing his back.

  They had been through this several times before.

  Ciaran could draw energy and will it into an electrical discharge that would strike down upon his target without much effort. He didn't understand how it work and why he got the power, but as long as he didn't have to control its magnitude or direction, the power would merely deflect off of him onto whatever he wanted. However, if further control was needed, the borrowed strength would injure him.

  Ciaran's last attempt in the underworld almost cost him his life.

  Ivy was there in case any healing magic became necessary. But with Ivy on standby with healing magic, they were unstoppable.

  “I'm fine, but he's not,” Ciaran said, looking upon the shadow of Tenzin thrown away like a rag doll by his own snow weapon.

  “We have to keep moving,” Killian declared. “Until I see his lifeless body, I don’t think he’ll ever let us go.”

  "Why did you even approach him in the first place? Apart from what Ivy has told me," Ciaran asked as the three of them scurried away from the mountains.

  “He, or whoever he's working with, knows about our significant issue, Ciaran.”

  Ciaran's gaze hardened.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Ivy waved her arms in the air. “Hello, I am standing right here, part of this pack, you know? Do you need to be so cryptic?”

  Killian looked at her. She was correct. Not only she was family, she was his soulmate.

  "The reason that our family split between shifters and non-shifters is one of our painful and ugly problems, Ivy."

  "Blood-fused related?" Ivy asked.

  Killian nodded. "It could be. I don't mean to withhold information from you, Ivy. But we really don't know ..."

  Ciaran added, "If we knew, we could have sorted it out, or at least not let it come back and bite us."

  "Why just the two of you working on this? Don't you have an extended family? Like you run a global conglomerate and all."

  Ciaran chuckled. "That is precisely why the family exists: they run the normal business so that we can concentrate on digging into our mysterious past."

  They had to pass a narrow path to reach the open plateau where the helicopter was parked, waiting. Killian could make out the chopper's silhouette and the muffled thrumming of its blades in the distance.

  "How did they know we were coming?" Killian asked.

  "I messaged them," Ciaran said.

  "Psychically? I didn't see you call." Ivy said.

  Ciaran chuckled. "I wish I had that psychic ability, Ivy." He tapped his wristwatch. "It's still a prototype, but it's better than a phone and it works on our private satellite network. You can think of this as a supercomputer the size of a Fitbit."

  As they prepared to leave the narrow path, a huge boulder dislodged above them, barrelling down with lethal force.

  This was Tenzin's doing. Killian realized that even if they managed to flee from this rock, there would be another disaster waiting for them right then and there. And that would be the fatal blow. He was familiar with this combat technique—the large boulder was meant to capture their attention. When they solely focused on getting out of the way of the boulder, they wouldn't have enough time to avoid whatever hit them on the other side.

  He knew Ivy and Ciaran had the same thoughts as him; neither lunged forward to avoid the boulder.

  But what were their choices? Remaining still and be crushed beneath it?

  A cascade of pebbles showered down upon them as the boulder thundered closer, inexorable in its deadly descent. Ivy, Killian, and Ciaran were pinned, the impassable walls of the path locking them into the boulder’s path with morbid certainty.

  Just as the shadow of the monolith eclipsed them, a radiant glow, silvery and imperious, materialized between them and their doom.

  The boulder halted, suspended mere inches from them, its massive girth held back by an ethereal hand, graceful yet impossibly strong.

  Killian’s eyes were drawn to her, a celestial figure robed in luminescence, with eyes that bore into them with a wisdom ancient and untouchable. Selene, the goddess, stood between them and certain death.

  "Selene," Ivy said.

  With a gentle wave of her other hand, the boulder imploded into a cloud of dust and rubble, harmless pebbles falling to their feet.

  A tangible relief shuddered through Killian, yet it was sharply undercut by the unpredictability of divine intervention. Selene's eyes, soft yet stern, lingered on Ivy, a mixture of maternal concern and sovereign authority emanating from her.

  In the same breath, Selene's hand arched upward, ethereal tendrils of light spiraling outward into the night. Tenzin, propelled against his will, was drawn toward her, his form suspended helplessly before the Selene.

  Selene's grasp tightened around his neck, her demeanor unyielding as he clawed futilely against her hold. A strangled plea escaped him, his voice a desperate rasp, "They attacked me first ..."

  "That's totally bullshit," Killian retorted. "I came to you asking for a returned favor. And this is what I get for saving your life."

  Ivy raised a hand. "I vouch for Killian. He has far more important tasks than coming here to be drugged and then crushed by a boulder."

  Tenzin kicked his legs and questioned. "You're his woman. Your word doesn't count."

  Selene smiled, a slow, mysterious expression that sent a chill up anyone's spine when they saw it. "Tenzin, do I look like I care for your reasoning? You know who I am. So you should know that the second you dare to harm my people, you are on my bad books."

  Ivy’s voice sliced through the tense air, sharp and unwavering. “He cannot be trusted, Selene. He has deceived and betrayed at every turn.”

  Tenzin's eyes widened, desperately darting between the three of them and Selene.

  Selene's unwavering gaze remained fixed on Tenzin, her voice like a thunderbolt that shook the foundations of the ground around them. "I have no faith in you, Tenzin." She glanced at Killian and Ciaran. "And I have none in either of you two."

  "But Ivy," her tone softened, conveying an invisible bond between goddess and human. "You are the one I need to protect."

  Ivy locked eyes with Selene. "Killian and Ciaran are my family now. We're pack. I won't accept your protection unless you include them too."

  Selene shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me whether these boys live or die, so if this will make our relationship better, I'm willing to offer them my protection as well, Ivy."

  Ivy nodded but said nothing further.

  Selene frowned. "You don't trust me at all, do you, Ivy?"

  "Yes, I do," she replied quickly.

  Killian inwardly cringed; it had been too fast for Selene to believe her. He was going to need to have Ciaran teach Ivy a thing or two about playing mind games after all this was done.

  Selene shook her head. "Just so you feel assured, I'll tell you the truth. I asked you to look for a chest in the LeBlanc secret vault but that's no longer the case. Samuel confirmed to me that your blood and Killian's were mixed; that means we're looking for a different LeBlancs.”

  "Did you hurt my father to get this information out of him?"

  "First of all, Samuel isn't actually your father; he merely gave you a drop of his blood. Second, no, I didn't need to hurt him to get the information—he gave it to me willingly."

  Ivy nodded. "Does that mean we can go now?"

  “Yes, you may go. I will finish him off," Selene replied firmly, her right fist clenching as if she were trying to crush Tenzin's life force out of existence with an invisible grip.

  He hung in mid-air, thrashing and struggling to break free from Selene’s grasp.

  “You’re making a mistake…they’re the LeBlancs you're looking for…” Tenzin cried out.

  Killian, Ivy, and Ciaran hastened along the path toward the helicopter. At last, they reached the exit of the tight passageway, and could just make out the chopper in the far distance. But before they could move any closer, Selene's voice called behind them.

  "Wait," she said. Killian felt dread wash over him as he looked toward the chopper again—it was too far away. Even if they made a break for it, there was no use; Selene had the power to appear wherever she wanted.

  The trio stopped and slowly spun around.

  Chapter

  Five

  Ivy's heart raced as she heard Selene.

  This can't be good news.

  Selene's voice, though a mere whisper, seemed to echo through the silent mountainside, "Tenzin claims he was hired to dig into the LeBlanc family — your future family, Ivy. Specifically, about someone named Alexandre."

  Tenzin bellowed in agony, grasping his wounded shoulder where Killian had forcefully removed his arm. "It's them! He's one of them," he screamed through gritted teeth.

  Selene flicked right palm, Tenzin passed out on the ground.

  Ivy manufactured a smile. "Finally, we have some peace and tranquility. Who is Alexandre?"

  A cruel smile played on Selene’s lips. "It’s better you don’t know. But understand this, I will kill anyone who stands between me and him."

  Ciaran frowned. "There is no Alexandre in our family."

  "Are you sure?" Selene smiled at Ciaran.

  "I'm the head of the non-shifter side of our family, so yes I am certain. My responsibility is to know exactly who are one of us and who are not."

  Killian nodded. "It's the same with the pack. No one has that name."

  Selene’s eyes narrowed. "Why, then, would Tenzin make such a claim?"

  Killian suggested, his voice unwavering, "He’s stalling, trying to buy time. A desperate man will say anything to survive a moment longer."

  Ivy offered, "I could draw a card for you, Selene. If you're looking for someone, the cards can guide you.”

  The goddess scoffed. "I have no faith in such tricks."

  Ciaran carefully removed his wristwatch, holding it toward Selene.

  “You don’t have to take our words, but you can trust technology,” he offered.

  The goddess looked at the watch with suspicion. “Do you want me to talk to a bracelet?”

  “You could call it a bracelet if you like. But it holds the wisdom of the human world. It can tell you what the humans know about you as a goddess; I don’t know anything about your divine world. But if your concern is about our family history, then just ask it.”

 

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