Seth was certain he’d gone mad when a door opened in the Fog. He stared for a long moment at the wooden rectangle that had folded out of absolutely nowhere, wondering if it would be wisest to pretend he couldn’t see it—or perhaps to close it and continue on his way. It had to be close to dawn, and he’d been stumbling around in the Fog for what felt like hours, shouting Lana’s name until he was half convinced he’d forgotten how to pronounce it. Only the distant voices of the rest of the search party kept him grounded, kept him in touch with reality.
He had to hand it to Acantha—she knew how to organize a search party. After Lana had stormed out, he’d resisted the urge to follow her, instead irritably scanning the page of the book she’d left open to see what had gotten her so excited. Then his stomach dropped to his feet. He knew where she was… and when he went to find Acantha, she nodded once… then rallied the troops.
And now he was staring at a door to nowhere, wondering if it meant he’d lost his mind. The Fog played tricks on you, he knew that… but he’d never heard of anything quite like this. And then, just when he was beginning to think about approaching the doorway, someone stepped through it, stumbling a little as their feet hit solid ground.
“Alpha Seth,” the young wolf said blankly, looking up at him. “What are you doing here?”
“Ewan,” Seth breathed. Was this a dream? He didn’t care. He hurled his arms around the young man, squeezed the air out of him—then broke away, shouting at the top of his voice for the search party to come quickly, he’d found something.
It was like a miracle. One by one, his missing wolves came stumbling through the doorway—all disoriented, all pleased to see him, all seeming to have trouble walking on level ground for some reason. Elza was almost on top of the portal when Morten came through—the poor wolf barely had a chance to set foot on solid ground before she had him in a stranglehold, clutching him so tightly she seemed determined never to let go. After Morten, a young woman with a familiar pair of green eyes stepped through—and he heard a shriek from behind him, saw none other than Acantha barreling through the trees at top speed. She hit the young woman hard enough to send them both flying, and the two of them hit the forest floor, locked in a tight hug and laughing fit to burst.
Seth hadn’t even realized that the Captainhada sister, let alone that she’d numbered among the missing.
And so the lost shifters returned, the little group in the forest growing bigger and bigger by the minute. Seth’s eyes were fixed, now, not on the people coming through, but on the doorway that was admitting them. There was something about it that was worrying him… the way it seemed to flicker and pulse, the way that each time a person stepped through, it seemed to fade a little. He scanned the group quickly, trying to get a count—thirty-five, thirty-six? That was nearly all of the missing accounted for, save for Conrad.
And for Lana.
A gasp went up when the Prince finally stepped through. He looked exhausted, but intact. The doorway shivered, and Seth caught Conrad’s arm as he stumbled. But Conrad quickly shrugged him off.
“Lana,” he said quickly, his voice hoarse. “She’s keeping it open—I don’t know how much longer—”
“Lana’s inside that thing?”
“She found us. I don’t know how, but she found us.” Conrad stared around at the trees as though they were the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “She brought us home.”
But Seth wasn’t listening. The lost shifters were no longer his concern—they were back, they were safe, and Conrad was here to guide them home. Seth was staring at the flickering doorway, the whirling surface of gray and black, remembering the way the Fog had curled around Conrad and ripped him out of reality. A shudder ran through him. But the doorway was closing, and Lana was still in there… and Seth knew in his bones which side of the door he wanted to be on. Just as the doorway began to collapse, Seth closed his eyes and stepped right through it.
There was an incomprehensible jumble of sound and noise, and Seth found himself whirling through a kaleidoscopic frenzy of images he couldn’t understand. Wind whipping at his clothing, sun beating down on his shoulders, snow soaking through one shoe while rain pelted his chest… he closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, shouted Lana’s name into a vortex that snatched his voice away as soon as it left his lips. He shouted anyway, reached out, felt a thousand different things brush against his outstretched hands… and then clenched them shut as he felt, just for a second, a familiar warmth…
He opened his eyes. Darkness, all around him. And then there, almost imperceptible, the shine of her pale blue eyes. Seth wrapped his arms around his soulmate, then squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could, thinking of home.
The next thing he knew, he was on his hands and knees, gasping for breath as someone rubbed his shoulders worriedly. He looked around wildly, recognizing the forest, recognizing the worried faces of his pack and the dragons who’d become his friends, staring at him. And there, unconscious on the ground with her silver crown a little crooked but still perched atop her head… Lana. His heart stopped, the world froze. And then he saw her chest rise and fall.
She was alive.
He didn’t care who saw them, didn’t care what anyone thought. Seth was well beyond the political ramifications of the situation right now. He gathered Lana in his arms—so light, for someone with so much strength—and set off walking. He knew where he was going. Behind him, he heard Conrad call his name, then heard Acantha cut him off, her tone respectful but warning.
He knew exactly where they were. The forest had been his home all his life… he knew how to find his way along the ancient trails. Besides, this one was his favorite now. It was where he’d walked with Lana, the first night they’d met. He only regretted not staying with her in the waystation that night. He could have had a whole extra night with her, talking to her, listening to her ridiculous accent. He’d wasted so much time pretending she wasn’t his soulmate.
And if she woke up, he promised himself, he wasn’t going to waste another second.
There was Fog around the waystation still, but it hadn’t permeated the walls. He lay Lana down carefully on the bunk bed she’d slept on that first night, then kicked his boots off, exhaustion beginning to set in. It was nearly dawn, again. He’d wait up as long as he could, just in case she came around.
“Seth?”
He almost threw his boot across the room. He rushed to her side, half convinced he’d dreamed it, but her blue eyes were open and she was frowning prettily, propping herself on her elbows as she blinked in the gloom of the waystation. “What are we doing here?”
The relief almost knocked him out. He wanted to throw his arms around her, wanted to kiss her, wanted to hold her so tightly that he forgot where he ended and she began… but he’d made a promise, hadn’t he? “Lana,” he said, his voice hoarse. “You’re my soulmate.”
Lana looked at him cautiously. “Say that again?”
“I know it doesn’t make sense. I know I’m a wolf, and you’re a dragon, and that can’t be possible. But somehow, it’s true. There’s no way it’s not. And if you don’t feel that, I understand, but I just—I thought I’d lost you, tonight, and the thought of not telling you how I felt—”
“Wait,” she said, reaching out to brush her soft fingertips wonderingly along his jaw. “Seth, do you think wolves and dragons can’t be soulmates?”
He blinked. Of all the answers he’d expected, this wasn’t one. “It’s never—”
“Seth, I’ve met…” She paused to count under her breath. “Twelve couples, at least. One dragon, one wolf. Not to mention the wolves and bears, the bears and dragons, coyotes and wolves, panthers and dragons—”