The Luna Trials by Marissa Gilbert

11. In The Shadows

Savannah steadied her feet in a defensive stance, ready for battle. Athena has never let her down, but now, she seemed tenser than ever, which could only mean that their opponent was extremely dangerous.

The glowing red eye didn’t move, and neither did she, baring her canines as a warning to the intruder. Her paws let out their claws, digging into the ground underneath her. If the creature attacked her, she would be ready to behead it. She wasn’t in the mood for jokes.

However, when it took a step toward her, leaving the thick, suffocating darkness of the woods it had used to hide itself in, a chill snaked down Savannah’s spine.

Massive, with a fierce-looking scowl, a white bear was slowly moving in her direction, not taking his eyes off her. He looked like a majestic ancient warrior god, and Savvy would have been in awe if she didn’t know any better.

Unfortunately, bears were bad news.

She growled. It was the last warning that she was ready to give. Although she knew the chances of him backing off were slim. The werebears that she knew were assholes. Thanks to their impressive size, they were the only other species capable of competing with lycans. Because there was no way that foxes would go into this if they didn’t have such strong allies. The upcoming war was on them.

What worried her the most was the knowledge she had knowing no bear should be present this far north as they weren’t on friendly terms with the Northern Kingdom. Another reason she was agitated was the fact that the bear had one eye. This sight triggered unpleasant memories from the past, although the only person she knew with a similar injury was a fox. Moreover, he was long dead, and she had seen his body with her own eyes.

The bear took another step toward her, and she let Athena take control. The wolf chose not to waste any time, first charging at the white beast. One sharp, nimble move and she managed to slice her claws through his side hoping that it would be enough to make him give up on whatever idea he had in his head. However, when she turned back to face him, she was looking at a tall man with a smirk on his lips.

She froze, not knowing what it meant. Shifters were vulnerable in their human forms. So, what did he want to tell her by shifting after she attacked him?

The most reasonable explanation she could think of was he wanted to demonstrate to her that he was harmless, despite that she didn’t want to make assumptions. Looking at him, she quickly realised that even as a human, he was dangerous. Not to her though. She was a royal Lycan, after all. He would be a threat to someone with a much less impressive lineage. The man was unbelievably tall and built like a mountain, with sharply carved muscles that testified to his extensive training and old scars that … were proving he had been through a lot. It was extremely hard to scar a shifter.

Almost impossible. Almost … One had to go at lengths to achieve that.

The stranger had silver hair that covered half his face and reached his shoulders. Savannah realised that he was trying to disguise the missing eye.

Other than that, he seemed confident and not embarrassed by his nakedness at all.

“Are you just going to watch, not that I mind, or can we talk?” His lips curved into a smirk. ” see you are not from here.”

Savvy snorted. What if he was one of Brigit’s people? The best course of action would be to run back to the castle and pretend that this encounter never happened, but natural curiosity was her curse.

little wolf,” he ordered suddenly, adding his Alpha tone to it, which only

Lycan King of The Western Kingdom. She wasn’t about to take

rolled her eyes. The slight motion did not escape him. One sharp jump, and he was beside her. Neither she nor Athena expected this,

them

he was in his human form. Bear or no bear, he had to be weaker

was,

there was a long deep scar crossing the area of his left eye, and Savannah

noticed her interested gaze, and he wasn’t

her wildly, and this time she did as she was told, shocked that his Alpha

her face, and she quickly

and now he was the one confused out of the

confusion, however, quickly changed to a smug smile.

said you wanted to talk,” Savvy snapped defiantly, lifting her chin. “So, get off me and

was a long shot, still, surprisingly it worked. The werebear stared at her for a few seconds and then slowly stood up, eyes greedily

hair to the front of her body to

not from here.” He repeated the words

a nearby bush to hide behind. However, the observant

a step back, but he closed the distance between them in a blink of an eye, backing her into a huge ancient tree. The man lowered his head to the column of her neck and took

hands at

Kai’s new toys,” he stated with a grunt, and this made her anger boil in

him a warning, letting Athena closer to the surface so that their eyes glowed blue light, manifesting their royal power. It was just a glimpse of her strength,

this time, though. He seems amused, but

teeth, and that earned her a

his chest to push him away, meeting resistance that proved to her once again that she wasn’t wrong about his strength.

a loud resounding growl emerged from the forest, and the grin on the bear’s face widened. “I’ll see you another time, Princess,” he teased, winking at her and making her

known from the beginning? Or

for sure. It didn’t mean anything good to