Book 15: Shattered

Blake

Moonlight plays over Marianna’s naked skin. She’s like a painting–flawless, almost airbrushed. Ethereal and all-consuming even at rest. The moon is full and high in the sky as I trace my fingertips over the curve of her breasts and down to her navel, then lower, where I flatten my hand between her hips, closing my eyes against the anguish soaring through my body, through my wolf. Even the stars go silent, giving me space to grieve the life I tried and failed to give her–them. Marianna, Skye, and… the two boys currently nestled deep in her womb. Boys she won’t know about for weeks still.

Maybe this knowledge is a gift from the Goddess, a little snippet of the lives that will move on without me if I fail. I’ve made promises I’m not sure I can keep. I’ve sworn vows in silence, betting my life on an outcome that I already know is out of reach, but I have no choice but to try to save my family and my kingdom from a war we would never recover from.