Cars flew by us on the highway in both directions. Billboards lit the horizon against the gloomy Moonless sky, a thick layer of clouds shrouding the stars from view.

“Our exit’s coming up,” Aiden said from the passenger seat, indicating my car’s GPS. He glanced over his shoulder into the backseat. “You’re sure this twenty-four-hour diner is walking distance from Avery’s house?”

“Yes,” Elijah replied. “I parked there last time I… visited.”

Electricity buzzed through my entire body. It’d been nearly a month since I’d set eyes on my mate. I hadn’t seen her since the moment the doctors had taken her battered body from Wyatt’s arms and whisked her away to surgery. It’d taken everything I had to keep from tearing the infirmary apart after that.

“She’s going to be so pissed if she sees us out there,” Wyatt murmured. In my rearview mirror, his shining green eyes took in the cityscape sliding past the window. He fiddled with one of the small black plugs he wore in his ear lobes and smirked. “I hope she punches me in the face.”

“Keep your shit together,” I growled at him. “We’re doing this to protect our mate, whether she likes it or not. We need you at your best, not bleeding all over the place or with one eye swollen shut because you begged Avery to give you a shiner.”

Red rolled across his irises. “You’re the one she’s going to run through with her blade, you dick. You think you’re going to just walk up to her and tell her how it is and she’ll get over everything we did. You’re fucking dreaming.”

My grip tightened on the steering wheel. I wanted to break it in half, launch it out the window, and scream until I passed out. “She’s had an entire month. And camp starts in two days. She has to talk to us sometime.”

“Does she?” Aiden asked sullenly.

I flipped my blinker on and coasted off the highway. “Everyone in this car needs to get their game face on. Not one of you protested when I suggested we make this trip.”

No, the urge to protect our Fated, who would no doubt be traipsing through the streets while wraiths roamed free, had been too much for any one of us or our beasts to handle. The thought of her not being at her best because of her injuries and her inability to shift freely without risking her secret had plagued my nightmares.

The fact that it’d been weeks since I’d had any idea how she was doing or where she was at any given moment had damn near driven me to insanity.

I didn’t give a fuck whether she wanted our help or not. She was getting it.

It was nearing midnight as I parked at the back of the diner. At least a dozen cars sat in the lot, the restaurant full of humans going about their night, oblivious to the fact that soul-devouring monsters might wander into the busy streets around them.

We exited the car and collected our weapons from the trunk. Aiden and I wielded identical sabers, the blade we’d trained with since well before we’d ever entered the Guardian program. Wyatt hefted his battle-ax—a new purchase over the break, since he’d previously only ever cared to use the weapons issued by the program. Elijah strapped a long dagger to his belt, just in case. He usually faced wraiths in his basilisk form and only did so when shit got real.

Aiden had performed the Moon blessing on each of our blades under the last Full Moon—something he, the runes professor, had learned from Avery when he stumbled across her blessing her own blades last semester, the lucky fucking asshole.

“I still can’t believe wraiths wander all the way down here,” Aiden said, eyeing the deserted strip mall down the street. Next door was a trendy brewery, definitely not deserted. He slid his saber into the leather sheath strapped to his back. “According to Council records, the only declared Prime living in this zip code is Rand Baxter. Even with the addition of Avery’s undeclared beast, it shouldn’t be enough to consistently attract wraiths away from the shifter communities, especially L3s or 4s.”

“And yet,” Elijah said, his yellow eyes alight, “hasn’t the recurring theme lately been that everything we’ve been taught is perhaps not entirely accurate?”

I grunted in agreement, sliding my saber into the sheath at my waist. Like the rest of my quad, I wore broken-in jeans that allowed me to move freely, a dark T-shirt, and sturdy boots. Ideally, we would handle whatever we found out here in our human forms because while those without shifter blood would be unable to see wraiths, the same couldn’t be said of our beast forms.

A giant red bear rampaging down the city streets would probably not go unnoticed. I had no idea how Avery’s family handled the balance between keeping the secrecy of our kind and the need to shift in wraith combat.

And I had no way to ask her. My own mate was unreachable to me.

Wyatt settled his ax on his shoulder and held his phone in front of his face, squinting as he studied the screen. “Dad’s patrol maps show the closest Guardian post is twenty miles north of here, and their zone ends at the border of the Redtail Forest, just outside Deerfield.”

Deerfield was one of the southernmost shifter settlements—a small town with a predominantly working-class population and, more than likely, the barest minimum of wards.

“How active was that zone last night?” Aiden asked.

Wyatt scrolled. “They marked the zone orange for this cycle. I think that means higher than average.”

Wyatt’s father, Ward, was a senior Guardian officer and in charge of our region’s training program. He had—against official policy—given Wyatt access to the Guardian network when it became clear that we would not be talked out of this excursion.

“Okay, sounds like we need to be ready for anything.” I waved a hand at Elijah. “Lead the way.”

We followed him as he cut a path across the busy commercial area and into a residential neighborhood. Mature trees lined the streets, and every house on the block had to be at least fifty years old. It was pitch-black, save the occasional porch light. The soft yellow glow of the streetlamps on each corner did little to pierce the still darkness.

My heart beat harder in my chest. My wolf pushed against my skin, ravenous for blood, anxious for our mate.

Her voice ghosted through my mind, as it so often did.

Admit you think I’m somehow defective.

Those haunting blue eyes had been so fierce, so furious, so righteous as she’d torn strips from my skin at the ball. I’d never seen a more beautiful girl in my fucking life.

And I’d never been so angry in my fucking life as I stood there, spiraling, trying to do right by my quad and my sister, and there she was, invading our space, challenging me, looking so fucking hot in that dress.

Taunting me with something I thought I could never have.

My wolf whined in my chest.

I’ll fix it. She’s ours.

Elijah put up a hand, bringing us to a stop. “Listen.”

Up ahead, the echoes of a screech sounded. A masculine voice barked orders.

I tensed and wrapped a hand around the grip of my sword, taking comfort in the feel of its worn leather. “Let’s go⁠—”

Another screech, this one louder and coming from somewhere behind us.

Shit.

“Elijah and Aiden, support the group straight ahead,” I said, thinking fast. “Wyatt and I will assess the situation to the west.”

No one argued. Elijah and Aiden broke into a run, speeding off down the street until they disappeared around the corner. Wyatt took off in the opposite direction, running with his huge ax strapped to his back like it weighed nothing. I followed him, and we wound our way west, farther into the neighborhood and away from the busier streets.

We rounded a corner, and the houses fell away, green space flanking us on both sides. A park lay on our left, complete with a deserted playground and a man-made pond, its fountain feature creating the only noise besides the night insects. To the right, a low stone fence separated a cemetery from the rest of the street.

More shrieks rent the air, and three L2 swarmers careened around the corner and into the street in front of us, their bodies pudgy and piglike but their four legs long, hairy, and bent at an angle like a spider’s. Behind them, an L3 Ripper leapt from the bushes, oozing colorless gray blood from where a blade had been impaled in its chest. It had the vague shape of a bear nearly as large as Wyatt’s beast, but its head was twice the normal size, and in place of paws, it had three-toed reptilian talons. It was also missing a chunk of flesh from its skull and its entire left side, the patchy, dark gray hide rotted away to reveal decaying ribs. The faint violet glow of the magic that gave this thing life leaked through the cracks.

It staggered into the street, screeching at decibel levels the SWIM had never managed to replicate. We sprinted right into the fray. Wyatt intercepted the swarmers, yanking his ax from his back and lopping off heads as he ran.

Before I could take a swing at the Ripper with my own blade, Avery’s dad, Kaito, jumped out of the bushes. He took a running leap and shifted seamlessly in midair into a cougar with shiny dark fur. His beast smashed into the much larger wraith with a vicious snarl, and they tumbled over the stone wall and into the cemetery.

Avery sprinted out of the park and shot across the street in hot pursuit, her short swords raised, a light sheen of sweat glistening on her exposed skin.

Time slowed to a crawl.

She wore a black tank top, fitted tactical pants in the same color, and combat boots. Her blonde hair was in a tight ponytail, save the few strands that’d come loose and now stuck to her damp face.

So fucking beautiful. The sight knocked the breath from my chest.

She was laser-focused on where her dad had gone over the cemetery wall with the wraith. Those long legs ate up the distance on the pavement, her beast’s strength pushing her to inhuman speeds.

“Avery!” I bellowed, jogging straight for her, Wyatt on my heels.

Her head jerked in our direction, and she stumbled a few steps as she slowed to a stop.

She stared at us, her chest rising and falling as she caught her breath. Surprise morphed quickly into a deep frown.

She may as well have slid a knife between my ribs.

“What…,” she said, panting. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

We stopped a few feet in front of her, taking care to be outside her sword range.

Wyatt propped his ax on his shoulder and hit her with the most panty-melting smile in his arsenal. “Helping, Wildcat. What’s it look like?”

“We don’t need your help,” she spat.

“Avery,” I growled. “You’re our Moon-blessed mate, and you’re recovering from serious injuries. Let us help you.”

Her knuckles went white around her swords, her jaw tensing as her nostrils flared. “I am not your fucking mate. You rejected me, and you left me to die in the fucking woods. Go away, Heath.”

“That’s not—” I shook my head and took a step toward her. “Avery⁠—”

She raised her blade and pointed it right at my neck. “I said. Fuck. Off.”

Wyatt slipped into the space between us. “Come on, Wildcat⁠—”

Another violent screech echoed from the cemetery. Kaito was still battling a wraith in there.

“Shit,” Avery swore. She turned and ran for the wall, hurdling it with ease. She disappeared into the trees, leaving Wyatt and me standing there like chumps.

Until a second Ripper stalked around the corner. Another mutant bear, which we should’ve been expecting. Wraiths usually spawned in multiples.

It was almost a relief to see it. Now we could actually be useful.

The wraith turned the empty voids of its eye sockets on us. We were two juicy Prime souls, ripe and ready to be consumed. It opened its bear jaws to reveal four rows of dagger teeth and two horrifying tentacle protrusions that darted from the corners of its mouth. It roared, the sound like car tires screeching across pavement.

It charged us, and our cylinders sparked back to life.

This was what we’d been training for, and we were the best in the fucking class at it.

Wyatt’s bear tore from his body and charged the wraith, his ax clattering to the ground next to his destroyed clothes. I ripped my saber from its sheath and followed. Wyatt took the same tactic Avery’s dad had, circling around the wraith before launching his huge bear body at it, tackling it out of the street and over the wall into the cemetery.

I followed them over the wall. Wyatt snarled and snapped at the wraith as they tumbled through the trees and out into an open area filled with grave plots.

The wraith slashed at Wyatt with dagger talons. Wyatt tore into its patchy gray hide with his jaws. The granite headstones bore the brunt of the force of their huge bodies as they bounced off them like pinballs. Packed soil churned under claws and fur, disturbing the dead beneath it.

Taking a page from Avery’s playbook, I vaulted onto the wraith’s back and drove my sword straight into its spine. It shrieked and flailed, tossing me off. I landed nimbly on my feet, and then Wyatt smashed into the wraith once more to knock it to the ground. I lunged and tore my saber from the wraith’s body. Gripping it in both hands, I swung the blade in a brutal downward strike, severing its neck.

Aiden’s Moon-blessing held true. Its disgusting gray flesh hissed, and the wraith began to melt away into thick gray sludge, its foul stench lingering as it went.

Wyatt shifted back into a man, and I threw him a pair of shorts I had in the small pack I wore on my back. We were in human territory, so we’d prepared to be more careful with the public nudity.

I wiped my blade on my jeans and put it away, and then I shucked my shirt, now drenched in wraith guts.

I’d just shoved my shirt into my pack when Avery and Kaito sauntered through the trees.

I spared a passing glance for Avery’s dad, now no longer a cougar and who, like Wyatt, wore only a pair of tight black shorts. About Avery’s height, he had the lean, muscular build of most cat shifters. Wraith gore decorated his chest and coated his katana blade.

For several long moments, I scanned my mate from her gorgeous head to what I was certain were perfect toes inside those thick-soled boots. She must’ve caught some wraith claws, because she had three identical slashes through her shirt, her toned stomach taunting me through the rips. No blood that I could see or smell. Streaks of wraith goo marred her pale neck, and the single blade in her hand dripped the same gray guts, which meant she’d probably beheaded the other bear wraith after Kaito had worn it down.

A possessive growl reverberated through my chest.

Avery stopped in her tracks, frowning at the scene. What I wouldn’t fucking give for my presence to elicit something other than a frown from my mate.

Kaito’s dark brows bounced up his forehead before he schooled his expression into something like mild interest. “Got the twin, I see,” he said, surveying the remnants of the wraith. “Thanks for the assist.”

Avery shook the sludge from her sword and sheathed it on her back with an exasperated huff. “We could’ve taken care of it, Kai.”

I dared a step in her direction. “Killer, are you hurt?”

She winced, and my stomach dropped into an even lower circle of hell. “That’s not your concern anymore, Heath.”

“Avery—”

A shrill whistle sounded from somewhere outside the cemetery. Kai returned the call with two short whistles of his own.

A few seconds later, Avery’s Alpha father jogged into view. He also wore only a pair of shorts, indicating he’d shifted at some point this evening. Following close behind him were Ian, Aiden, Elijah, and Avery’s fox dad, Joseph—all of them still fully clothed and splattered with gray guts.

“Oh look,” Ian said, chuckling as they joined us around the grave plots, “the gang’s all here. Aves, you owe me fifty bucks. I knew there was no way they were going to wait until camp to butt back into your life.”

Aiden and Elijah drank in the sight of Avery like dying men in the desert who’d crawled their way to an oasis. She lifted her chin, her eyes sparking electric blue as she glowered under their attention.

Elijah blinked away his beast, his lips quirking into an almost smile, while my brother’s face looked the way my insides felt, which was totally fucking destroyed.

Rand cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well, we do appreciate the assistance. We had to take down a full dozen swarmers and three Rippers in the east quadrant, and the extra blades were handy. It was the most active night we’ve had so far this year.” He met my stare and put the full authority of his wolf behind it. “But it’s probably best if you boys head back home now.”

Wyatt blew out a harsh breath and cracked his neck. His bear did not want to leave his mate.

“We’ll be on our way shortly,” I replied. “If we could just have five minutes to talk to Avery⁠—”

Ian snorted. “Fat fucking chance.”

“That would be up to Avery,” Kaito said, twirling his katana lazily, “and no one else.”

Aiden’s gaze had yet to leave our girl, the turquoise glow around his irises faint but present. “Avery, can we just⁠—”

Avery held up a hand and looked at Rand. “Give me thirty seconds, please.”

He nodded. “Let’s go, everyone,” he said, motioning for the rest of the group to follow him down the path that led back to the road. “That means you, too, Ian.”

“But—”

Joseph snagged him by the back of his shirt and dragged him off.

Once they’d disappeared, Avery crossed her arms over her chest and surveyed the group of us with yet another frown.

And then she let her beast off her chain.

The tiger’s presence crashed into the space between us, a tsunami of pure power. I smothered a gasp at the push of such a dominant Prime against my wolf.

How the fuck had she hidden this from us last semester?

My wolf floated to the surface, growling his approval as he held out against her onslaught.

Elijah chuckled happily. In any other situation, his beast would’ve taken over and gone straight for the kill. Not even my father would’ve dared.

“Fuck yes, Wildcat,” Wyatt said with a deep growl. His bear was riding him hard. “Give me those claws.”

“Shut up,” she snapped, and we all stood up a little straighter. “Whatever this is—” She gestured between the four of us. “—it stops now. We are not mates. We are, at best, classmates and Guardian teammates. That is how we’re all going to act at camp.”

Wyatt snorted a laugh.

“Not happening,” I declared. “You can’t deny it, Avery. Your beast felt it, just as ours did. We are Fated. It’s the Moon’s divine will that you belong to us.”

“I belong to no one,” she growled. “Least of all you four. You made it very clear how you felt about me as a candidate for your central bond.”

Aiden blew out a frustrated breath. “Avery, you know what bond theory says, why we thought⁠—”

“Save it, Professor. I don’t want to fucking hear it.”

My wolf pushed hard against her, and she sucked in a breath.

“Killer,” I said, my voice low and threaded with dominance, “camp starts in two days. You can’t avoid us forever. We fucked up, but we can’t fix it if you won’t talk to us. We have things to say to you, and you will listen.”

Her electric eyes went nearly white, and silver fur sprouted along her arms for a flash before it faded away.

My wolf’s power swelled against hers. We fought it out for two blissful seconds until she snapped my hold like a fucking twig. A sharp sting of pain reverberated through my bones.

“Just like you listened when I begged you not to leave me alone in a wraith-infested forest?” she snarled.

I blew out a frustrated breath, my heart pounding in my chest. Excruciating silence stretched between us.

“Dove,” Elijah whispered. “Please.”

“No.” She pulled her beast back, and the pressure relented. She shot us one last clear-eyed look full of hatred—or was that pain? “Fuck off, all of you.”

She turned, giving us her back.

We could only stand there and stare, our beasts mingling into a mess of longing and anger and self-loathing as the object of our deepest desires walked away from us once again.

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