Chapter 1

The knife pricked my wrist, tracing a painful trail as it cut through my flesh.

I hissed softly as crimson blood flowed into the bowl on the stand in front of us, the moon shining bright above. Across from me, Wolfe did the same to his wrist, his face expressionless as our offerings swirled intimately below. The familiar itching of my shifter healing began to soothe the pain almost immediately. Callan and Lily stood nearby with a small group of shifters who had decided to return to the Clover pack.

The battle against Cas three weeks ago had left the group in shambles, despite our victory. Lives had been lost, and once the initial chaos settled, most shifters had chosen to join other packs. Wolfe hadn"t taken it well, but I understood. These people had done nothing to elicit the wrath of my brother. I grieved for those we had lost, who had done nothing more than try to live their lives until my drama had barged into it, stomping over everything.

Now, we stood as what remained of the Clover pack. There weren"t many of us, only a few who had decided to rejoin, while others had already found new homes with different packs.

A soft, ethereal glow emanated from the stone bowl, its edges etched with intricate symbols I had never seen before. The glow took on a reddish hue, mirroring our contributions. Suddenly, it brightened before vanishing completely, leaving me breathless as I peered at its contents. Where our blood had once been, now sat a silvery-blue puddle of glittering liquid, its mesmerizing ebb and flow swirling on its own.

"What the fuck is that?" I asked softly, entranced.

"Ink," Wolfe replied, picking up the bowl with one hand. "Pack bonds are sealed with tattoos using the magic in our blood. It won"t hurt," he reassured me, noticing the apprehension on my face.

"I had no idea," I admitted nervously, furrowing my brows as I tried to recall if I had ever seen a tattoo on a shifter before. "How did I never notice that?"

"It"s not something we advertise," Wolfe answered me patiently, as if he were speaking to a child. "They"re not your typical tattoos, and we weren"t sure if we could trust you at first. Can never be too careful," he said, flashing an easy grin. Even with the smile, a wariness pulled at him as he surveyed the remaining shifters.

His gaze settled on Sophie, a fox shifter, studying the long scar that stretched from her cheek to chin, his jaw clenching. Some of the witches had enchanted their blades, and even Nia"s healing hadn"t been able to prevent the scarring.

Reassurance flowed through me from the mate bond I shared with Callan, and I was grateful for it. It warmed my core, easing my nerves slightly. I was still adjusting to him having direct access to my emotions, and I had been working with Oliver on how to block him out when I wanted, but in this moment, it was necessary.

"Ready?"

I nodded. My forehead creased as Wolfe lifted a hand, dipping it into the thick substance. His gaze flickered up to meet mine, his fiery alpha power radiating off him in waves. "Where do you want it? They are generally pretty small, but eye-catching." He tilted his head towards me, tucking a lock of his shaggy brown hair behind his ear, exposing his tattoo for my scrutiny.

The tattoo was precisely what I would have envisioned for him—three simple claw marks placed right behind his ear. Parallel curved lines were etched in shimmering blue ink. Each line was about three inches in length, with intricate textured details interspersed between them. Arranged diagonally, the marks started behind his ear and extended in an upward direction, disappearing into his scalp. Hints of red flowed through the tattoo, almost as if it were alive and constantly moving. My lips parted as I admired the artwork. "It"s stunning," I remarked.

He beamed, raising his hand to reveal the ink on his fingers. The substance sparkled under the moonlight, and a surge of excitement coursed through me. "Yours will be even better, I can feel it. We rarely use ink of this color."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise, yet it made sense. Nothing about being a halfling fae shifter had been normal so far, so why should it start now? I would always be a bit too strange to completely fit in on either side. Nevertheless, this was now my home. A new family where I had discovered my place. Not connected by blood, but in so many other ways. And I was proud of it.

I turned my neck to the right towards him, my intentions clear. "I"m done hiding things," I told him. "What will it look like?"

"No clue," he said, dipping his fingers back in for a fresh coat. "It"s unique to every person. Magic," he added, flaring his nostrils as if he could actually smell the magic emanating from the mixture of our blood.

"I swear, if you tattoo a giant dick on me, I will kill you."He threw his head back and laughed, a robust, throaty sound before shaking his head. His mouth split into a wide grin, somehow managing to look equal parts charming and feral as he lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. "No promises."

I narrowed my eyes at him but obliged when he gestured me closer.

The alpha of the Clover pack approached, raising two fingers to my neck, the radiant silvery-blue liquid clinging to his skin. As the moonlight cast its watchful eye over our gathering, Wolfe touched his fingers to my neck, a pulsating energy shooting into my body and making me shiver. He was right, it didn"t hurt, a tingling sensation blooming wherever he touched. The ink itself was a cool caress, like a whisper from the moon itself.

Magic burrowed into my skin, and I gasped as he took his fingers away, but the sensation continued to expand, spreading in eccentric circles down my neck and into the top of my shoulder. The tattoo seemed to sync with my heartbeat, a steady thrum of sensation bursting in tune with the beat, surging with a finality that left me feeling empty when it was over.

Wolfe"s hand returned, not with more ink but instead with his hand aglow with his dominating alpha power. He tapped the artwork, and warmth blossomed through my chest, the strength of the pack ripping through me. Their energies, their presence burst through me like wildfire, setting me ablaze from the inside out. My eyes closed against the rush of sensations threatening to consume me, but after a few moments, they settled into a comforting , radiating warmth.

"Welcome to the Clover Pack," Wolfe said as he took a step back from me, giving my tattoo an appraising look. I tried to crane my neck to see, but all I could make out were thin, glittering lines at the top of my shoulder.

Lily and Callan stepped closer, and a wave of pleasured approval soared through our bond. We hadn"t yet managed to communicate words directly through it, if that was even possible. Most history had been lost when my mother, Queen Tantaii, destroyed the portals between worlds, and true mate bonds like Callan and I had were completely obsolete.

Our eyes met, and the heat in his gaze caused a completely new shiver to run down my spine.

"That"s so cool!" Lily exclaimed with excitement, looping her arm in mine. "Mine"s just a wolf and some trees. Pretty sparkly green trees, but still... trees. And it"s tiny." She swished her long hair to the side, leaning over so I could see the beautiful miniature forest she had hidden on the back of her neck, a howling wolf stepping out from between the trunks.

"That"s stunning, Lily." And it was. She"d sold herself short, the tattoo a perfect representation of Lily and what she stood for. I"d still yet to meet a shifter quite like Lily, who bought into the entire culture with her entire heart. She was the embodiment of what a shifter should be, through and through, and her tattoo depicted that. "What does mine look like?"

Wolfe thumbed his phone from his pocket and held it above me for a moment before showing me the screen. "Not the best quality, but it should do for now."

I'd recently found out that he was one of those people. You know the type, the ones that refuse to upgrade their technology because it "works just fine". All that resulted in was a blurry, pixelated video but still I was amazed as I watched the ten-second clip. Despite the poor lighting, it was beautiful.

The design extended from my ear to my shoulder, with delicate swirls and loops adorning the space. At the tattoo"s center, a storm cloud took shape, its edges crackling with silver-sheened lightning bolts. Each lightning strand branched out from the center, carrying a subtle, luminescent glow. They almost seemed alive, pulsating softly in a steady rhythm. Woven around the lightning bolts were thin lines that almost looked like vines, wrapping around the electricity and blooming sporadic four-leaf clovers. The clover leaves shimmered with a midnight blue hue, seamlessly blending with the rest of the design.

"It"s stunning," Callan said softly, and my blood rose as a blush heated my cheeks.

"Your turn," Wolfe said pointedly to Callan. At his words, a lance of conflict spoke through the bond as Callan stepped up to the dais where the stone bowl stood empty, as if the ink had never been there in the first place.

It didn"t take a genius to understand his feelings.

He"d been the alpha of the Clover pack once. He"d probably even done this ceremony before, on himself and to all the members of his pack. And now here he was, name finally cleared of any wrongdoing and being let back in by his replacement, someone who had been below him in dominance.

I analyzed him with a calculating gaze as they began the ceremony, going through the same motions I had just minutes before. Would he want the alpha position back? We hadn"t really talked about it yet, still getting used to each other and our newfound bond. After I"d told him I wanted to take it slow, he"d begrudgingly agreed to keep living separately for the time being. Just because we were true mates didn"t mean I wanted to jump straight to marriage and kids. Or if I ever wanted to.

Baby steps.

No, I didn"t think he"d try to take the alpha title from Wolfe. He was dominant, but he wasn"t a conqueror. Plus, they were best friends. Well, they had been at some point. That had to count for something, right?

"Look." Lily"s elbow nudged into my side, snapping me back to the present. Callan pulled off his shirt in one swift move, but I frowned as I looked at him. "What happened to his old tattoo? When he –" I trailed off, not knowing what I wanted to call it.

When he what? Had his mate gone crazy and murdered his entire pack? Got shunned and kicked out from shifter society, barely avoiding execution?

"The skin is cut off and removed."

I flinched; that was much more violent than I expected. The pain he must have gone through. "The skin heals eventually, but it"s a rough couple of weeks. The Supreme Alpha is the one who has to do it."

A slight trickle of fear flowed from Callan, and I did my best to project calm and positivity to him, as he had done for me. I wasn"t sure if it was even working. My heart ached for what he must have gone through during that time - ostracized from everyone, judged and ridiculed for something he didn"t do, yet was held responsible for. I was surprised he had even decided to stay, living just on the fringes of the packlands.

His eyes met mine as Wolfe approached him with his dark, coated fingers, aiming for Callan"s abdomen. I sent another wave of reassurance through the bond, and I could have sworn Callan"s eyes softened slightly.

"Woah," Lily"s awed voice chimed in my ear as the tattoo spread across him. It started on his left shoulder, ink so dark it almost looked black. A dynamic pattern traced down his arm, weaving a sleek trail all the way to his wrist. On the backside of his shoulder, a cloverleaf stood, angry, tangling vines weaving a hectic pattern over the rest of his arm. They finally came to a stop as they stretched over his fingers, weaving all the way to the tips. Tiny pinpricks of silver sparkled in the vines nearest his hand, identical in color to mine.

"Is that--?" Lily leaned forward, narrowing her eyes to see better. Her mouth mumbled something I couldn"t make out.

"What?"

"Twenty-three." Her eyes widened in shock, a sorrowful look spreading across her face.

"Twenty-three what?" A shot of amazement burst through the mate bond and my head darted up, eyes locked on Callan as he admired his new tattoo. The more he took it in, the more his shock faded, morphing into something I never wanted to see on his face again.

"That"s how many shifters Lexi killed when she attacked the pack."