The wielders are coming, and they're ready for violence.
With a cub in her arms, Arietta James, a dedicated vet technician in training, flees for her life and the life of the little shifter she's ready to die to protect. Her escape lands her right i...
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Gavriel's leopard quieted. All the noise, all the pacing, all the snarling he grew used to as a shifter just went silent. A sort of peace came over him, threading through his bones and resting gently under his skin.
The glow of awe warmed his chest.
What followed it was the icy fear.
He yanked his hand back from Arietta.
She was... "A magic wielder," he breathed.
On the bed, Arietta already had more color on her face. "You cannot tell a soul," she said. "If they find out what I can do—" she cut herself off.
She was exactly what she had said: both a weapon and a liability. Only a tickle of her power, the smallest brush, and it had been enough to quiet the leopard inside him.
His mind whirled a million miles, already coming up with possibilities.
"You can amplify it too?" he asked her.
She nodded.
Both a weapon and a liability indeed. She could calm even their most violent shifters. Or make them that much stronger.
It was a game-changing ability. A magic wielder. How had he not known of their existence?
"How many of you are there?"
Arietta shook her head, her expression almost entirely shut down. "I only know of one more wielder."
"Who?"
She shook her head, refusing to reply.
He knew, had already seen, she would not be a danger to his people. Which meant now he had to do everything he could to keep her safe and alive.
And keep his people from finding out.
"You can do the same for the wielders?"
She nodded.
Astounding.
There was still something else she was not telling him. He could tell by the way she would no longer meet his eyes.
He would find out what it was.
Until then... "You need to use your ability. Even just a little each day, so it does not overwhelm you."
Then he held out his hand again.
***
Arietta wanted to cry. How had she ended up here, in the shifter infirmary, being looked after by the leader of the territory? As if he had nowhere else he needed to be. Of all people, he was here, encouraging her to use her ability and talking her off the ledge.
Why had she let him talk her right off that ledge?
"I see it in you," Gavriel said, gaze meeting hers. Something in her soul shifted. "You have no desire to die. Each time you say you need to go, you do not meet my eyes."
