Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(90)

Not to mention waxing was going to be a super bitch with this much fur.

With that thought, a “Meraism,” as Angel would put it, my power eased, and a wash of heat slid across my body. As it faded into the soles of my bare feet, my reflection now showed me once again looking human. A human who was maybe a little taller, a little curvier, and with hair even more wild and out of control. The wings didn’t fade with my wolfier side, but I found I wasn’t unhappy about that.

The strange new appendages on my back flapped without effort or thought, lifting us even higher above The Depths and Nexus, which was starting to reform as the waters sloshed away from the red and gold lands.

If someone had told me I was going to grow wings overnight, I’d expect to be clumsy and weak using them for the first few times, but there was no transition period at all. They flapped when I wanted to move, and as I sailed smoothly over the water, I instinctively knew how to catch wind drifts and glide along.

It was as if I had inbuilt knowledge of wings, an evolution of those who were born of the Nexus.

Those of us who could never die, for we would always be reborn if we chose to enter the light.

This was another truth I knew, along with the fact that my rebirth had unlocked the final tendrils of my strength, an elemental power of creation that I hadn’t been able to access before now.

In the place my wolf once rumbled was a pit of energy, and it felt like Inky and Midnight. Which made sense since the true Nexus was the point where the leicher and ether mists collided and created life.

I was a product of that.

And this product was on her way to find her mate and save the goddamn day.





50





I felt him before I saw him, his raging energy so widespread and strong that it hit me before he did. This spurred me on faster, desperation to see him again filling me until I could barely breathe. We could have opened portals and moved between the layers of energy in this world, but instead, we chose to come at each other the old-fashioned way.

Like a goddamn romantic movie. All Shadow needed was a boombox over one shoulder and some unsent letters clutched in his hands, and we’d be our own Hallmark Channel special.

As his power grew stronger, I reached out to drag mine along it, wanting to feel the sparking flames. I barely got a second of touching in before his energy wrapped around me, caging and locking mine down, dragging me toward him.

I could have fought back, and I might have even won this time—okay, probably not, because Shadow’s level of badassery was unmatchable—but I didn’t even try. Powerful or not, my soul belonged to Shadow, and I wanted him to claim and possess it, exactly as he was currently doing.

When he came into sight, I found his eyes first, those twin pools of flames spilling from the irises and down his cheeks. There was fire everywhere, but since I’d been born of the same flames, it only made me feel at home.

He didn’t say a word as he continued to drag me into his orbit, his very naked orbit, which I only had a second to notice before his rage captured my full attention again.

Shadow was spilling pure, unadulterated power. He’d lost control, ready to destroy the worlds because I’d died. It was probably narcissistic to jump straight to that conclusion, but my mate had spent two thousand years not destroying shit, even when he’d suffered plenty of losses. I was the catalyst that had changed it all. The one who’d finally put a chink in his armor.

And I was owning that shit because I’d landed the freaking Shadow Beast. Take that, Sisily, you dumb bitch. You only got Torin.

Apparently, a metamorphosis-style rebirth didn’t make me less petty or more mature, but that was okay. My way of looking at life had gotten me this far, and for that, I’d never curse it again.

When Shadow’s hands finally landed on me, his grip unyielding in its desperation as he pulled me into his chest, I sank into him, not even caring if he crushed my new wings.

We were twenty feet in the air as he held on to me like I was the last anchor in this world, heat and rage spilling from him.

“Shadow,” I murmured against his chest, unable to lift my head from the strength of his hold. I loved it, though, the feel of being caged against him, his scent filling my nostrils until I could smell nothing else, our powers mingling strongly. “Shadow?” I repeated. “What happened?”

I knew what had happened in the moments before I’d died, but I had no idea what had gone on in the time since I’d returned to the Nexus.

“You left me,” he rumbled. Chills traced along my spine as sparks of electricity hit me in time to his thundering voice. “You left me, Sunshine, and the world went dark.”

His voice broke, and I fucking lost it, crying like a damn baby. One of Shadow’s hands came up to my face, and without saying a word, he wiped my tears away, still cradling me against him.

Comforting me even though he’d been the one suffering.

Hurting Shadow had never been my intention, and even though we were together again now, I knew in those moments he’d believed I’d been dead, it would have been truly devastating. As it would have been for me if the roles were reversed.

I tried to say something, to offer comfort or an apology, but before I could, his power eased up enough that we could pull back to see each other. “You were reborn,” he said. “I feel the change in your power, see the fire wings you sport, and yet, you’re still my Mera.”