Limitless: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 1) Read online

  Addie wanted to talk, to have some kind of conversation, because trailing a pack of three wolves felt a little lonely, weirdly enough, but suddenly the air around them shifted. It changed from a sweet, slightly moldy earthy scent to something she couldn’t name. Though the guys probably wanted quiet, she had to ask, for they didn’t seem to notice it.

  “Do you smell that?” she asked, causing Forest to halt in his tracks and sharply turn to face her. She met the wolf’s eyes, and he turned away, raising his head, his snout sniffing the air, probably to make a big show of it that he didn’t smell anything.

  She wasn’t a wolf. Her sense of smell wasn’t good. What were the odds she noticed something they didn’t?

  Still, when Forest lowered his head and picked up the pace again, something sharp stabbed her in the gut. Not literally, but a jab of pain did course through her, making her stumble. A wave of nausea surged through her, and as she squeezed her eyes shut, she cried, “Stop!” Her skin was hot, beads of sweat forming above her brow. She fell to the ground, her knees weakening.

  What the heck was this feeling? Why did she feel so sick?

  Just like Addie was able to differentiate between Maze and Dylan, she knew she could go no further. Something instinctual, something primal. An innate inability to carry on, one she could not fight.

  The wolves didn’t have the same problem. As Forest studied her, Maze walked beside him, concern dotting his furry face. Dylan went on, nose to the ground, which was a mistake. A bright red light flashed below him, and in the next second, his right paw was on fire.

  Pure, red fire. Not orange or yellow.

  Dylan howled in pain, and Forest shifted, back in his human form to shout, “Shift, Dylan. Shift!”

  Maze moved between Addie and the wolf who caught fire, trying to protect her from an unknown enemy. Dylan turned in mid-roll, moving toward Forest as he did his best to stop, drop, and roll. Forest pulled him in, patting him down, rubbing dirt on him. The red fire flickered out, leaving Dylan’s skin a red, tender mess.

  Addie struggled to get to her feet, fighting the pain in her stomach as she stood, but she had no chance of fully reaching her feet, because in a swift instant, Forest was upon her, grabbing her by the collar of her jean jacket and swinging her around to where Dylan was. The poor wolf still grimaced in pain. Maze didn’t stop him, for he couldn’t; Forest was the alpha.

  “What did you do?” Forest was anything but calm, a complete switch from his previous demeanor. This was the dominant alpha. This was the leader of the pack, not the quiet, melancholic man who she’d met on the overlook. His blue eyes flashed a sheen of anger, his wolf trying to break through. His teeth were sharper than they should’ve been, almost like he was half-turned.

  “I…” Addie wanted to say she did nothing, because it was true, but the pain in her stomach grew tenfold. A thousand tiny needles, all jabbing at her inner organs. Her blood ran hot in her veins, and it felt like she was on fire, even though she knew she wasn’t. Not like Dylan. This was a different kind of pain. Internal, something she couldn’t fight. No more words escaped her lips.

  “Forest!” Maze called out to him, “Don’t scratch her!”

  Were Forest’s hands part-shifted, too? Addie was too delirious to notice. Her thoughts were incoherent, and all she could do was wince, sweat, and wish it was all over. Everything. Dread encased her, made her crave the blackness of death. It was not a feeling she would’ve had normally.

  This was something abnormal, unnatural.

  This was hell.

  “I’m not going to—” Whatever Forest said next, she didn’t hear. Whether her ears stopped working or she was too busy drowning in pure, undiluted agony, she couldn’t say.

  Addie’s vision blurred, and for a moment, she saw nothing but red. Her entire field of vision tinted like she was using rose-colored glasses, all pinks and reds and magentas. Every inch of her skin felt like it was burning, as if someone was taking a knife and slowing carving away at her, piece by piece, muscle by muscle. Tears formed in her eyes, falling down her cheeks. The red in her vision intensified, and the last thing she saw was Forest’s face.

  He was no longer a half-shifted alpha, no longer angry.

  But it wasn’t much of a consolation, with all she felt. Was this what dying was like? Were these her final moments? Pretty crappy ones, considering everything. If this was it, she wanted a redo, a do-over, a restart. Another chance. Maybe next time she’d know what to do, maybe next time her mother wouldn’t hide her shifter side.

  Maybe…maybe…maybe.

  Addie didn’t want to die. She had so much still left to do in her life, so many choices still to make. She was unfulfilled, unfinished, and she was not the type of person who liked to leave things undone. If ever there was a finisher, it was her. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t. This couldn’t be the end for her; her life had barely started. She’d just found out she was a shifter, a wolf, just met her inner wolf. She’d just found Maze and Dylan, Forest and his pack, an ass of a grandfather she hated. She didn’t want to lose any of it.

  She heard mumbling voices, but nothing was clear. Addie wasn’t sure if her eyes were opened or closed, whether she was on the ground or not. The pain was unimaginable, unbearable. If this didn’t turn out to be death’s vicious embrace, what the heck was it? What could cause such ungodly misery and agony?

  Something warm touched her, but it was hard to tell, given the state of her mind and her body. More mumbling in the background, but it sounded miles away. In that moment, Addie would’ve done anything to make the pain stop.

  And then, something of a miracle happened.

  The pain started to recede. Addie’s vision returned and the sensation of touch came back. She was able to hear frantic, worried voices, though she still couldn’t speak. The pain lingered, receding further, a tide returning to the ocean.

  “I’m fine,” Dylan spoke, his voice pained. “I’ll heal in a day or two. She needs to be our priority.”

  Addie realized he was talking about her, and she blinked, the unshed tears in her eyes tumbling over her cheeks, trailing down her skin slowly. Her body was no longer on the ground. She was in someone’s arms. Not Dylan’s, since he sounded far away. Maze?

  “I agree. We must go back,” a voice above her spoke. No, not Maze. Forest. Forest held her, cradling her like a baby against his chest. His bare, naked chest. It did not make for a nice pillow. It was too hard.

  “I’m sorry,” Addie slurred her words, trying to talk to Dylan, worried he was mad at her or thought she was the one who set him on fire. Which was ridiculous, because… “I—” She lifted her head, moving to stare at the others, but when she lifted her head off Forest’s chest, she saw blood smears. She reached for her face, wondering if she’d been hurt.

  Did Forest scratch her? Was she going to turn? Was that why she felt like she was going to die?

  As they started to move, heading back to town, Maze quickly said, “Don’t.”

  Don’t what? Don’t touch her own face? Seemed an odd thing to command, and it only made her want to know what he was talking about. Her stomach, no longer coiled in sheer pain, now twisted for a different reason. Did Forest scratch her? Would she not like what she touched? What—

  Her fingers touched her cheek, sliding along the wetness of her tears. Only it felt different, off. She’d cried before, and she knew what the salty liquid felt like. The liquid coating her cheeks was thicker, and when she pulled back, she saw it was the wrong color too. Instead of being clear and wet, it was dark and red.

  Blood.

  The blood on Forest’s chest, the blood on her fingers, it came from her eyes? Did she cry tears of blood?

  “I don’t…” Addie stumbled over her words, knowing it was the very opposite of good to bleed out of her eyeballs. Was she dying? Was her wolf dying? What in the world would cause her to bleed from her freaking eyeballs?

  Forest shushed her. “Just rest. We will get you safe and figure out what happ
ened.” He was back to the calm and collected man, the opposite of what he’d been minutes ago. He’d been almost scary.

  Beside him, Maze and Dylan watched her warily, as if Dylan wasn’t injured himself. His entire left arm was beet red, some of the skin puckered and raw from the fire. His wound looked like it hurt, but he only had concern for her between the roots and branches he tripped on because his glasses were back where they’d left their clothes.

  They were right, Addie knew. She should rest, close her eyes—for they’d apparently been through a lot just now. All bleeding and aching. Not to mention the sudden headache pounding in the back of her skull. Rest sounded like sweet relief.

  The forest thinned out, trees becoming sparser and smaller the closer they got to the lake. The treetops broke apart, revealing a dusk-filled sky. A rainbow of colors, each pretty in their own right, illuminating everything with a dull hue.

  Addie closed her eyes with a sigh. While she wondered what happened, how the pain had taken her over completely and utterly, how Dylan’s arm had caught fire—that strange flash of red—her mind was slow to shut off. At least she wasn’t in so much pain it obliterated anything else she felt. She could hear again, could feel.

  Her mother would not be too happy with her being in Forest’s arms, nor with how Forest had acted, but she supposed she couldn’t blame him. She was a stranger, even if she was part shifter. Addie probably would’ve blamed herself too, if she’d been in his shoes. Maybe not so roughly, but maybe his cool and stolid exterior only hid a tumultuous range of emotions inside.

  She turned her face in towards the solid chest, trying to focus on the warmth seeping from his skin, doing her best to not overthink what just happened. Obviously the wolves had no idea what was going on, and she was even more clueless than…

  Blackness overtook her, calling to her, pulling Addie into the depths of unconsciousness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Addie’s eyes popped open, and as she sat up, she found she was on the floor of the forest, laying amongst the dried-up leaves and broken branches. The night air was crisp and cool, and luckily she still had her jacket on, so she wasn’t too chilly.

  Beside her, Addie spotted her wolf, whimpering and whining. The creature’s bright green eyes were dull, blood soaking the brown fur around its face, almost like she’d bled tears too. Her ears hung low, her body laying down. Her wolf didn’t even try to get up. The poor thing looked too tired, too worn, too exhausted.

  Addie felt the same way.

  “I’m sorry, girl,” she told the wolf, feeling saddened at the sight.

  A thick mist seeped around her, instantly chilling her to the bone. Her jacket no longer kept her warm; she was cold down to her very core. Addie went to rub her hands on her arms to keep in her warmth, but her ears heard something strange.

  A voice.

  Far away, but it was definitely a voice.

  It took her a few tries, mostly because her legs were cold and felt like unbendable iron, but Addie got to her feet, squinting in the darkness as she tried to see the origin of the sudden fog. Beside her, her wolf whined, a high-pitched sound that broke her heart. The wolf wanted her to stay, but Addie had to find the source.

  That fog shouldn’t have been there.

  Her feet stumbled along as she went, leaving behind her wolf. Addie swiped at her face, hoping she didn’t look as awful as the beast, because she wasn’t sure what she’d find. Where would this creepy mist lead her? She had no freaking clue.

  But she’d find out.

  After walking for a while, the voice spoke again. This time, she was able to discern what it said, and able to hear what it said.

  “There you are, girl.”

  And, Addie realized, it was a man’s voice. Eerie and calm, more chilling than the fog itself. Her legs stopped, a wave of anxiety sweeping through her, and she looked over her shoulder, back at her wolf. The beast’s green eyes glinted in the darkness, the fog nearly blocking her from Addie’s sight.

  “I want you,” the strange voice said, practically echoing in her mind. “Not the creature. You are what interests me, girl.”

  Addie was very tired of people calling her girl and pup. Still, she had the feeling she didn’t want this man, whoever he was, to know her name.

  To know a name was to have power.

  Where did that come from? She didn’t think that, did she? Addie wasn’t even certain what it meant. What did names have to do with any of this?

  “Come closer. Come into the light. I won’t bite…” The voice drifted off, unsettling in its open-ended statement, as if the man speaking really did wish to bite her. “Let me see you, girl, for what you truly are.”

  Addie knew she shouldn’t leave her wolf’s side, not with how bad she looked, but there was something about the eerie voice which called to her. Like she was on an invisible string, and each time he spoke, he pulled her closer, tugged her in. Reeled her toward him no matter how much she knew it was a bad idea.

  She started walking again, towards the voice even though it echoed around her in the forest, bouncing off the trees and rising from the mist now covering everything below her knees. Farther and farther away from her whimpering wolf she went, until she could no longer hear the wolf’s whines. The forest surrounding her thinned out, which she found odd, because she would’ve sworn the forest was endless.

  In fact, she would’ve put her life on it.

  “Yes, come to me, let me see you,” the voice urged her, an excitement growing in his creepy, singsong voice. It flooded through her, and even if Addie wanted to, she could not deny it. Could not deny him, whoever he was.

  The trees were now behind her, the forest where her wolf was completely out of her mind. A flat, fog-covered field sat before Addie, seemingly endless. The sky was pitch-black, save for the moon, its circle nearly full, its craters visible. The large rock in the sky looked closer than she remembered it being, almost triple the size. Its closeness and its size lent everything a silver hue, practically causing the mist to glow. Not a single star sat in the sky, an odd sight, because there were no clouds covering them. They just weren’t there.

  “A little bit farther,” the voice tempted her, and Addie was nearly a slave to it.

  She wasn’t being controlled, but it was like her will was not her own. She could not fight the voice; she didn’t want to. There was something about it Addie knew deep down was familiar. A sameness between her and him she did not understand.

  Addie moved further into the field, the forest now suddenly miles behind her, so far she could barely see the outline of the trees. Funny, because she didn’t remember walking that far. When she heard the voice whisper a rasping “Yes,” she turned her head forward, forgetting all about the forest and her wolf.

  This, she knew in her heart of hearts, was not a shifter matter. This was something far different…something worse.

  Addie took another step, but something caught on her feet, freezing her in place. Nothing coiled around her legs except the mist, but mist didn’t have a tangible hold; something else must have—

  The moon above flashed, its silver color morphing, changing into a deep red, a luscious, dark maroon. As a result, the glowing silver mist changed its color too, to the hue of dried blood. Addie felt colder, chills creeping up her arms and traveling down her back. What was this?

  “You are…” The voice spoke behind her, as if its owner stood only a few feet away. So close to her, and yet Addie could not turn around to look. She was frozen, immobile. “…a most welcome surprise, girl. I knew there was another, but I did not expect you quite like this.”

  Another? What in all of God’s green earth was he talking about? Addie tried to open her mouth to ask him, to demand answers from him, but she could not say a word. She could barely move her lips at all. This man, whoever, whatever he was, he had her trapped in an invisible, red cage.

  She felt a hand graze the back of her shoulders, fingers running through the lower lengths of her hair. Addi
e wanted to run, to pull herself away from him, but she couldn’t. Why? Who was this guy to have such control over her?

  “My master will be pleased with me when I tell him of your presence,” he went on. He must’ve stepped closer, for Addie could suddenly feel his breath on the back of her neck. It was cold. Wrong. Almost like…

  Well, almost like the man talking was already dead.

  “You, my girl,” he whispered, “will be my ticket out of this place.”

  That didn’t sound good.

  “I…” Addie managed to say one word, through lips that would not move, but it was all she could formulate. To have such control over her, it was almost like magic.

  Was that what this was—magic? Addie was a witness to a floating book, and then there was the whole fire appearing and catching on Dylan, not to mention the violent pain that took her over and made her cry tears of blood. All of it had to be connected, somehow.

  “You are a strong one, to speak even a word under my hex,” he spoke. “You have questions, as do I, but we will not converse here. When I am ready, I will call for you, and you will come. This time I will let you through my barrier.”

  Barrier? What the heck was he talking about?

  “Go, back to the world of the living. Enjoy your short time there, because my master will have you in his embrace soon.”

  Addie felt her eyelids flutter closed, and she was lost. Her mind gone. The eerie world of red mist disappeared, fading around her until there was nothing. No inner wolf. No creepy man behind her, touching her hair and breathing his cold, dead breath down her neck. But, still, somehow his voice lingered, and though her consciousness was practically gone, she knew. With every fiber of her being, she knew.

  The man’s master was death.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Addie struggled to open her eyes, praying she was not in the field, praying there was no red mist around her, no creepily and impossibly huge maroon moon above her. Something light and feathery sat beneath her head, her body lying on a mattress that was unfamiliar to her.