Wolf of Starlight

Wolf of Starlight The Shifter Rejected series, Volume 6 Amelia Shaw Published by Harley Romance Publishing, 2023. This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. WOLF OF STARLIGHT First edition. May 5, 2023. Copyright © 2023 Amelia Shaw. ISBN: 979-8215311387 Written by Amelia Shaw. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Thank you to my team! Lori Grundy for her amazing cover and Carolyn from Write Right Edits for her edits. Chapter One GALEN “Fuck.” My throat was raw, but that didn’t stop the agony of losing Talia from wrenching another howl of pain from me. My mate was gone. Taken right out from under my nose. Literally. I should have seen this coming. How had I not seen this coming? I’d brought Darius into the Long Claw pack and assigned him roles and responsibilities that I wouldn’t have under normal circumstances. But things were about as far from normal as you could get. Demons plagued our town, witches had taken up camp on Long Claw land and my pack was at war with the Northwood pack. I was in Alaska with Talia, chasing after a demon wolf pack, along with the truth about her family, and their wolves’ red eyes. We’d found them, and a hell of a lot more than we bargained for. It had been one emergency after another since I met Talia and Alaska was no exception. Captured, caged and beaten to near death, Talia’s clansmen did their best to tear us apart. They crowned her Princess of the Bone Clan and planned to offer her to their demon wolf god, forcing her to marry and mate with him. Except Darius beat them to it. They didn’t see him coming, either. Fate was not without a sense of irony. I’d brought Talia into my pack to keep her at my side and keep her safe. Instead, my pack ended up being her undoing. I lost her to another member of my pack—a traitor in our midst. It was a royal clusterfuck. Every decision I’d made as Alpha, before and after my father’s death, could and should be called into question. My short reign had been an unmitigated disaster. From the moment I concocted that stupid plan to kidnap Talia and use her as a bargaining chip against the Northwood pack, I’d put my own people at risk. And I’d do it again. If I hadn’t, I might never have found my mate. Cast out and on the run with Darius and a legion of demons haunting her every step, Talia wouldn’t have survived on her own. Not that she fared much better at my side. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing, not if it cost me one second with her. I never expected to fall in love with her, but the moment my wolf and I laid eyes on Talia, I was a goner. I had to find her. Mating mark or not, she was the other half of my heart, my soul, and I would never be complete without her. But I had to escape the Deofol pack first. Glass crunched underfoot as I padded barefoot out of the bathroom, leaving a path of bloody prints on the carpet in my wake. I’d destroyed it in a fit of blind rage when Darius pulled Talia into the shadows and disappeared. Bits of broken mirror, drywall and tile littered the floor and a geyser of water spewed from busted faucets. It didn’t get me any closer to finding Talia, but at least my mind was clear, and I could think. Because I needed a plan. “Princess?” Valerie’s thin voice wavered on the other side of the bedroom door. “Talia, is everything all right? I heard raised voices and sounds of a struggle. Open the door, please.” The high-ranking wolf from the Bone Clan knocked on the door. Each rap of her knuckles on the wood came closer and closer together until they blurred into one continuous sound. “She’s gone.” I ripped open the door, yanked the wide-eyed demon wolf inside Talia’s bedroom and shut it behind her. “And you’re going to help me find her.” “What? What do you mean, she’s gone?” The blood drained from Valerie’s face as she broke free of my grip on her wrist. “How is that possible?” “It seems your god got tired of waiting.” I moved about the room in search of anything I could use to escape the encampment and survive the frozen hellscape outside. “He sent Darius to come and get her.” “Darius? Who the hell is that?” She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze. “If she’s really gone, why are you still here? This could just be a clever ruse so the two of you can run off together. It won’t work. You should just accept the role of consort, the role you agreed to with Galen. It would be so much easier. Gods are fickle and bore easily. He won’t occupy all her time.” “I told you, she’s gone. So, spare me the sales pitch, all right?” I rounded on her, eyes wild and half shifted. My wolf was close to the surface, threatening to burst free of the man encasing it. “Gone?” She sensed the threat and backed up several steps. Her fingers clutched the Bone Clan medallion around her neck when the truth of my words hit her. “Why would he do that? We were so close. Everything was prepared.” “I guess close doesn’t cut it.” I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled a pair of thick wool socks over my scabbed feet. The cuts from the broken glass were all but healed. “Now, are you going to