Veiled Spirits

My hand tingles.

Un-fucking-believable.

Why does the universe hate me so much?

“It was nice to meet you,” I lie between gritted teeth before grabbing Bishop’s hand and tugging him toward the door.

“Wait!” Luca calls.

I ignore him and focus on getting to the door. When I hear footsteps behind me, I turn to Bishop and yell, “Time to go!”

Breaking out into a sprint, I drag Bishop behind me as we burst through the doors to the gym I’m never coming back to.

His wide eyes meet mine after he looks over his shoulder at the three pissed-off wolves trying to follow us. “Izzy—” he starts.

“There’s no time! I’ll explain later. We need to fucking run. Now!” I scream.

CHAPTER 3

IZZY

“Izzy! What the fuck is going on?” Bishop asks breathlessly as we sprint toward the alley we always use to portal to and from here. That’s one thing I appreciate about Bishop. He is always there for whatever I want to do, including running away from three wolves.

Man, I’m really going to miss this gym. It has some of the nicest facilities of any MMA gym we’ve gone to.

Really? The gym is what I’m going to focus on right now? Instead of the three massive problems chasing us down?

I guess so.

Sighing, I debate how to answer Bishop. The truth is probably the best. “All three of them are my mates.”

Mates are fate’s gift to supernaturals. Fate chooses the person or people who are a perfect match for your soul. Men typically have one mate, and women have multiple. There aren’t as many women as there are men, so women generally end up with several mates.

Bishop turns wide eyes on me before slowing as we hit the alley. I throw up a portal and continue heading toward it until Bishop tugs me to a stop. “Izzy. You can’t run from your mates like this.”

“Like fuck I can’t.” Running away from my problems is my favorite form of exercise.

Letting out a deep sigh, Bishop informs me, “Luca’s the alpha of Pack Nightshade. Archer and Cain are his betas. They’ll just find you if you run.”

Goddamn it. No! I refuse to believe that the universe hates me this much.

How the fuck did I end up with one of the scariest alphas in the country and his two terrifying betas as my mates?

I’m a twenty-one-year-old mage, fumbling my way through life. There’s no way I’m fit to be a fucking alpha mate.

And the Nightshade Pack has a reputation for being especially brutal. Wolf shifters tend to be violent by nature. But the Nightshades are bloodthirsty, even by wolf standards. They are not people to fuck with.

“You don’t know that,” I try to protest as I watch the three enraged wolves round the corner to the alley.

They don’t look pleased to see us. I can’t imagine why. It’s not like their mate just ran off on them.

“I do know that. You do, too, Izzy. Do you want to talk to them now or have them find you when you’re at school?” Bishop turns to look at me while still keeping an eye on the wolves slowly making their way to us. Though they’re pretending like they’re not listening, I know they can hear every word we say.

“Fucking fine,” I grit out while avoiding Bishop’s gaze. I don’t need him seeing just how messed up I am over all of this. This is the absolute last thing I need on top of the dumpster fire my life is already.

Letting go of the thread of magic keeping the portal open, I hear it snap closed.

“You ran,” Luca rumbles out as he reaches us. He crosses his muscular arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge. My eyes briefly dip to the impressive display before I yank them back up to meet his burning aquamarine eyes.