Munro (Immortals After Dark #18) by Kresley Cole

            He slid her a pained grin. “Best honeymoon ever?”

            She returned a sad smile. “Without a doubt.” How could she have betrayed this man? In a low voice for him alone, she murmured, “There’s so much I wish I could say to you.”

            “And I to you.” He softly said, “Ren, I dreamed of more. I was going to try to talk you into leaving with me. Starting a family outside of the war. We could’ve taken Vanda and Puideleu with us to England.”

            So he had stayed for her. She cupped his face. “Oh, Jacob.” The end had come for them. They would never live out the night, much less find a haven elsewhere. He was just twenty-five, and she’d gotten him killed. She’d gotten everyone killed. The wolf had been right.

            Jacob kissed her palm. “I dreamed of more for my Ren. We would’ve had a cracking time of it, wouldn’t we?”

            Her eyes watered. “The best! We definitely could’ve improved on our wedding night.”

            He gave a laugh.

            More howls. Closer.

            He squared his shoulders. “The festivities continue. Shall we?”

            She unsheathed her blade with one hand and her sword with the other, slicing it through the air with a flourish she didn’t feel. She turned to the others and yelled, “We stop them here, hunters! Nonetheless, onward.”

            From the woods, a booming roar answered her: “Kereny!”

            Her heart leapt. Munro had already awakened!

            “Ren?” Jacob frowned. “You didn’t kill the wolf?”

            Her decision still confused her. “I stabbed him, but I didn’t behead him. He isn’t evil; just unbearable.” If Munro reached them before the newlings, she would beg him to fight.

            “Good. I’m glad he lives.” Jacob straightened. “I’m going to give you to him on a silver platter.”

            “What?”





FIFTEEN





            “Kereny!” Munro had heard her battle cry and knew what that meant. She was about to die.

            He increased his speed even more, following her trail through the steady pour of rain. Weakness lingered from her blade, and he blundered against trees, taking out anything in his path.

            His beast was in a fury to rise, just as it had in that cave. Munro beat it back once more. Must think and reason!

            Haphazard miles passed beneath his feet. But by using her shortcut, he’d been able to get out in front of some of the pack. He could save her. I still have time.

            He’d just had that thought when a bout of vertigo hit him, as if he had a mortal illness. Regeneration must be affecting him.

            He told himself that until he looked down. “Oh, bloody hell.” His hands and wrists wavered before returning to solid form. The fade had begun. Would he have hours or minutes?

            For the first time in his existence, he was . . . dying. His beast, sensing its own end, thrashed for freedom.

            Even if Munro reached Kereny before she fell in battle, he might not have enough time to get them back to the gateway. His Instinct screamed that he would fade in this past, never reaching his own time.

            No, he refused to fade. Not now. Not when he’d found his mate at last, and she was more than he’d ever dreamed of.

            Munro raced through the forest, outdistancing a number of newlings to reach the fairground clearing well ahead of them. He slowed at the sight of the gruesome battle scene. The mortals had taken out a surprising amount of Lykae. Headless corpses lay mangled in traps. Machine guns and grenades had dismembered more across the blood-soaked field. Bodies floated in that flaming trench.

            He swore under his breath. These creatures possessed the Instinct, which made them Munro’s brothers.

            Yet nothing mattered beyond Kereny.

            He spotted her in the clearing with the other hunters. Blood streaked her gown and legs. Her hair was a wild tangle, her vivid eyes even wilder. With her weapons drawn, she made a fearsome sight.