Chapter 2

Eve

For one brief, blissful second, my mind went totally blank with shock.

Then the reality of my situation hit me.

I was flat on my back in Pandemonium with a dead shifter on top of me. Terror gave me the strength to push him off me, but it was too late.

A ring of shifters stared down at us, a dozen faces creased in surprise. Their surprise turned to horror as they caught sight of Danny's face. Pale green foam spilled from his lips.

"Poison!" A woman pointed at Danny, her eyes wide. "He's been poisoned!"

Oh, no.

Dread uncurled in my stomach.

"Doesn't she run that potion shop in town?" another voice whispered. "I swear I recognize her. Her hair is always a crazy color."

I scrambled to my feet, heart thundering in my ears. I had to get out of here.

The shifters closed ranks, tightening the circle that surrounded me. I was an outsider, and they were a pack.

"You poisoned him." A bulky man pointed his finger at me. "You killed him, you evil witch."

"Fae," the man next to him said. "Pretty sure she's fae. I've seen her with wings. Sparkly things. And look at those ears."

I wasn't fae. That was just my cover, a disguise that I'd created with the help of potions. It was incredibly difficult magic—impossible, almost. But I couldn't tell them that.

"I didn't hurt him!" I gestured down at Danny. "I didn't do anything to him. We were just talking, and then he collapsed."

"He gave you his glass," a pretty woman said. She was pale and slight, with keen eyes and an intelligent face. "I saw him. You slipped something in it."

Panicked, I looked for an escape through the crowd. There was none. I'd come here with backup plans and some potion bombs that could help me out in a pinch—a freezing potion, a forgetfulness potion. But I'd never considered that the entire pack would turn against me.

I backed up, trying to get away from the ones staring at me. Hands pushed me from behind, and I stumbled, going to my knees.

My heart leapt into my throat, fear icing down my spine. Would they tear me apart right here? No. shifter law could be brutal, but that was over the top.

"What's going on?" a man bellowed over the crowd.

Him.

I knew it without looking. His voice had enough power to shake my bones, and I scrambled to my feet, turning toward it.

The Alpha.

My head spun.

Lachlan stood at the edge of the ring, his four opponents collapsed behind him. He stared at us, his presence so commanding that I felt it shake me to my core.

I drew in a shuddery breath, unable to look away.

"She killed Danny!" a man to my left shouted.

The Alpha frowned, and the people behind me moved, revealing the body. His brow lowered, his gaze turning thunderous.

"I didn't." My words were too quiet, but he could surely tell what I'd said.

He nodded at someone behind me, and ice shot through me.

A moment later, strong hands gripped my arms. I thrashed, trying to break free, but the grip tightened, and pain flashed. Tears popped to my eyes, but I forced them back.

"Take her to the tower." The Alpha's voice wasn't loud, but it vibrated with such authority that it sent a chill through me.

The tower.

Oh, crap. I'd never get out of there.

Guild City had nearly a dozen magical guilds—one for each supernatural species—and those guilds each had a tower. If I went into the shifters' tower, it was over for me.

But hell—I was surrounded by dozens of shifters, including the Alpha. There was no way I was getting out of here, either.

So I let them drag me through the crowd, my mind spinning with escape plans. I didn't know what was about to happen, but I had a dozen schemes thought up, some too wild to even be possible. But I'd always been good with ideas. That would get me out of this.

I clung to the thought. Panic and fear would get me nowhere. I needed to stay calm. Alert.

The guards, two burly men with broad shoulders and thick beards, dragged me up the stairs to the main bar. I didn't know what types of shifters they were. There was a hierarchy, with predators at the top, but it was often impossible to tell when a person was in human form.

It didn't matter.

"You won't get away with it," the shifter on my left muttered.

"You're an idiot if you think I did that."

"Pack won't tolerate it."

"Duh." Of course the pack wouldn't tolerate a murder of one of their own, but his desire to jump in and make the damned statement just pissed me off. Loyalty was their biggest thing, and they flashed it whenever they could.

The night was even colder when they dragged me out into it, and the rain was torrential. It soaked me in seconds, sending cold through my veins.

Across the street and the grassy courtyard beyond, the Shifters' Guild tower loomed. The massive city wall stretched out from either side of the tower, disappearing into the dark, where it would join up with other guild towers.

Guild City itself was roughly circular, surrounded by a wall enchanted to keep us hidden from human London. We were smack in the middle of the city, but not a single human knew we were here—which was how we liked it.

The center of the Guild City was pretty much free territory, full of shops and houses for all supernaturals. The edges, though—those were owned by the guilds. Each resident belonged to a guild, and each guild had a tower set into the wall that acted as their headquarters. A courtyard sat in front of each tower, and most were bordered by shops owned by that guild.

And I was about to be trapped on the shifters' turf.

I struggled as the guards dragged me across the courtyard and through the massive wooden doors that led into the tower. The main entry room was vaulted, the long rectangular space filled with trestle tables, like something out of an ancient fairytale of knights and ladies. The huge hearth at the far end completed the look. Golden light gleamed from the wooden chandelier overhead, electric now, though it didn't detract from the old castle feeling. Neither did the massive telly mounted to the wall.

The place hadn't changed a bit.

It wouldn't have. Shifters venerated tradition and family, and this place was both. For as long as our pack had been in Guild City, this had been the room where everyone gathered.

They didn't give me a chance to look around, however. Instead, they dragged me toward the back of the room. As we neared the hearth, I had long enough to wonder if they'd take me left or right. Right led to the main living quarters. Left led to the dungeons.

We went left.

I shivered, bone cold.

I had to act.

They'd slowed enough that I'd begun to walk, and I used it to my advantage. I dropped to my knees, letting my weight break their grip. Only one let go, but I managed to kick the other right in the balls.

He howled and fell. I rolled away, reaching for the heavy leather bracelet that I wore around my left wrist. Thin vials of potion were attached to it, and I yanked one free, uncorking it with my thumb.

The shifter that I hadn't kicked lunged for me, and I raised the vial to my face and blew. A cloud of blue smoke wafted into his face. His eyes crossed, and he tumbled with a heavy thud, unconscious.

I jumped over him, stopping just long enough to dump the rest of the blue powder onto the face of the man who still rolled around on the ground, clutching his balls. He fell still and silent.

Heart pounding, I sprinted for the door. I had just minutes—maybe seconds—before the other shifters followed. I had to get the hell off of their turf.

But then what? They'd recognize me if they saw me on the street.

I'd have to leave town.

After everything I'd done in Guild City—everything I'd paid—I would have to leave.

The idea broke my heart. I'd tried to leave before, and I missed the city like a limb. It was the only place I wanted to live.

But the alternative was worse.

I reached the enormous door and yanked it open, ready to sprint out into the night…only to run headfirst into another guard. A grunt escaped me, and he gripped my arms.

Unfortunately, there were six behind him, each bigger than the last. And beyond them, the Alpha, striding across the courtyard toward us.

Shit.

I shifted left, out of Lachlan's eyeline, but I was pretty sure his gaze had landed on me. I swallowed hard and looked up at the wide-eyed guard who stared at the bodies behind me.

I wasn't great at math, but it was clear enough that I was very outnumbered.

They didn't hesitate.

The two biggest shifters stepped forward and grabbed me by the arms, dragging me backward through the main room. The other guards closed ranks behind them, cutting off my view of Lachlan before our eyes could meet.

These guards were no fools. They dragged me so fast that my heels scraped the ground.

I could take on two, as long as surprise was on my side. I wasn't dumb enough to try it now, though, which meant that I was dragged quickly through the depths of the tower and tossed into one of the damp, dark cells at the bottom. I landed on my butt in the cold dirt and scrambled up with a hiss.

Two female guards approached. Quick as snakes, they stripped off my leather cuff bracelet and searched my pockets, taking my envelope of cash, my mobile, my wallet, and the last of my candy bars.

"Hey! That's mine!" I yelped.

The bigger guard glared. "You're lucky that's all we took."

Horror flashed through me.

My necklace. It had been enchanted with a special potion to turn me into a fae. If I lost it, they'd know I was a shifter. If Lachlan saw me without it, he might even sense I was his mate, since it hid the magical signature that marked me as his.

I shut my mouth and backed up toward the wall.

She nodded and turned to leave, and the other one followed. They slammed the door behind them.

I ran to the small window and clutched the bars, staring at the guards who'd just locked the door. They strode away, not bothering to look back.

Fear shivered through me.

Alone.

Trapped.

No, not entirely alone.

I had friends who could help get me out of this. It had taken me a long time to find another guild after I'd run away from the shifters. Just this year, I'd joined the Shadow Guild. Unlike other guilds, which were species-specific, the Shadow Guild was home to all sorts of supernaturals. It was a guild for the misfits and outcasts.

I fit right in.

But no. I couldn't drag them all the way here and direct the shifters' anger at them. My friends didn't even know what I was. Not a single person in the world besides the blackmailer knew that I was the chosen one of the Shifters' Guild, fated to be the Alpha's mate. My friends believed I was a fae without a court—a terrible fate, to be sure, but not as bad as the truth.

The lies had been getting heavy, and now they felt like they might crush me into the ground. I was an asshole for lying, but I hadn't seen any other way. I tried to be a good friend otherwise, giving all of my adrift shifter loyalty to them—which was exactly why I couldn't drag them into this. I'd never do that to them. I might be innocent of this crime, but I was still guilty of running. Sneaking away in the dead of night without a word to anyone had been the ultimate act of disloyalty to the pack, especially given that I was meant to be the chosen one. Unforgivable.

I shook my head violently, trying to drive away the thoughts. I didn't have time to be circling that emotional drain. I needed to figure out what the hell to do.

More than likely, they'd come to collect me for an audience with the Alpha. He determined the fate of wrongdoers in his pack. And it wasn't like I would have stood a better chance with a jury of my peers. The shifters were loyal, almost blindingly so. They'd caught me with the body and thought I was an outsider.

They'd want blood for that.

I shivered and rubbed my arms.

The idea of facing down Lachlan made me almost sick inside. What if he recognized me?

I couldn't bear it.

My last memory of him was from when he'd learned that I was meant to be his fated mate.

I'm not mating her. She's a mutt.

The words still burned. I couldn't shift, and I'd been an ugly duckling. Combined with the seer's prophecy that being his mate would end in my death, his scorn had been the one-two punch that had sent me running.

With my mom recently dead, there was nothing left for me in Guild City. No way was I going to stay and get kicked around by Lachlan or face the mysterious and horrible prophecy laid down by the seer who was never wrong.

Fortunately, my mom had kept some spare cash lying around, and she'd had nice jewelry. As much as I'd hated selling it, the nest egg had built me a little life in London. Not a great one, but a free one. Her friend, a potion master named Liora, had put me up for a while, teaching me everything I needed to know to create a life for myself and hide what I was. It had been an incredible gift, actually, since Liora knew how to fake being a fae. It was magic that should have been impossible, but I'd learned it and used it to make the potion that anointed my necklace.

I'd returned to Guild City when I was twenty, after I'd learned enough about potions to use them to conceal myself. The fact that I was no longer an ugly duckling helped.

When I'd first left, I'd planned to stay in London, but I'd missed Guild City too badly to stay away. But now I was stuck here.

Heart pounding, I stared at the door.

What the hell was I going to do?