Wild Magic Three: The Shade of the Earth- a M/M fantasy shifter romance

Prologue 2: Chosen Favorite

SAMIRE, 16 YEARS AGO—

Deep breaths, I intoned deep inside, my small, frail human feet ripping open just a bit more with each step. Just keep breathing. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

My heaving pants were heavy, my tiny body lagging as Pa pushed me forward. We had left Ma behind an hour ago, and it had taken less than five minutes for us to hear her screams as she was torn apart by Master's hounds.

"Run, little one! Faster!" Pa hissed, his own body covered in sweat, his face red with exertion. My pa was young, I knew even then, far too young to have the lines of stress, overwork, and fear on his face. His body was bent with his hours, days, years in the coal mines of the Lirikian king, his skin stained permanently and his lungs scarred with the time spent in the deep mines.

I wished I could shift. If I could only take my cat form, I could outrun, outjump, outclimb any of those stupid dogs Master had sent after us when Pa and Ma decided to make a run for it, when Ma got chosen to warm Master's bed. But Pa had been firm in his words when warning me against using my shifting.

"If they see what ya are, they'll do worse than enslave ya, boy," he would say, going into rants about what was done to capture wild mages. Ma had tried to calm him during these rants, but nothing could draw him back once he fell into a passionate fervor.

Now though, I couldn't think of much worse than being captured by Master's dogs.

"Pa!" I screamed when my pa behind me faltered and tripped over a protruding tree root. "Pa! Ge'up, Pa!"

"Boy!" Pa gasped, his breath coming in deep, aching heaves. "All that stuff— stuff I told ya, about not shiftin'?"

"I remember, Pa. I won't—"

"—Shift!" he hissed, shoving me back roughly. "Shift and run! Don't look back, no matter what ya hear or see! Run!"

Shocked and terrified, I obeyed without question. Within seconds, I was scrambling up the nearest tree as a bobcat kit. Pa's screams of anguish chased me for miles, but I kept on running. Never looking back. Too terrified to even stop to take a breath or even drink from the many cool springs I passed, no matter how many leagues I put between myself and Master's dogs.

I was running so fast, I didn't even notice I was surrounded until I ran straight into a woman's ankles.

I mewled and fell back to the earth, righting myself as quickly as I could so I could run back the other way.

To no avail. All around me, men and women stood, staring down at me with mixed emotions. Some were amused, others confused. A handful were angry, including a man who towered above the others and sent terror straight into my heart.

I knew this man. He was a friend of Master's, a friend who brought him slaves and loot from the wars in the south. A man who had looked at Pa like he wanted to eat him before noticing me and scoffing.

An evil man with the face of an angel.

"What do we have here?" the woman I ran into whispered, her eyes sparkling with amusement and affection as she crouched until she was hovering above me. "How did you get here, little one?"

I moved closer to the woman, sensing her protection would extend to me. Sensing she was safe, whereas the man behind me would sooner step on me than let me run from him after seeing him here.

"He's one of yours, sister," the man muttered, rolling his eyes as the woman smiled and cooed at me gently. "You sure he's not here, to spy on your orders?"

"Of course not," the woman whispered, her voice soothing but somehow backed with steel. "He's just a kit. Aren't you, sweetheart?"

I could feel myself purring before I really knew what I was doing, and the woman's smile widened. She was a stunning human— though my nose told me she was the furthest from human I'd ever laid eyes on, she looked human enough. She had black hair that was shaved on her right side, but hung to her hips in the back and the left side. It hung in curls and was a thick, pure black. Her skin was dark like my pa's, darker even, something I had most definitely not inherited from him, her eyes black, and her limbs long and graceful.

"You are one of my Chosen, little one," the woman whispered, her voice deepening as she stared directly into my eyes. Her voice tightened, growing into something of a growl as the men and women around her stepped in, as if creating a protective circle around the two of us. "Your path will be long, and your beast will be stronger than most of your kind, your instincts honed by your time in only one form. But you will find him someday: the other half to your soul. The human created to accept and love you. The one you were created to protect and claim. Be patient with him, little one. You're not what he's expecting in a mate."

The woman's words had her chuckling a little before she rose up, turning from me, back to the man. Her face immediately closed off and froze in anger towards the man the moment she her eyes lighted on him.

"Leave my forest, Gaol," she growled, the words coming out like a bear, like a wild cat, like a feral tiger protecting its young. "Leave my guardians behind, and cease trying to turn them to your warmongering ways. We don't want you here. This is my domain, and you are not welcome here."

"Sister," the man began, but the woman took two steps forward, each step backed by the dozen creatures around her. For between blinks the men and women had disappeared, replaced by a dozen beasts of every shape and size. Wolves the size of horses, bears nearly double that, cougars and foxes, jaguars and hyenas. Some I didn't even know the names of.

"Leave. My. Home. Now, Gaol, and take your hatred and envy with you. I want nothing to do with it."

"Mother and Father will hear about your refusal to aid me, Ravin," the man hissed.

"Good," the woman answered, scoffing and rolling her eyes. "Maybe it will wake them up from their pathetic, neglectful slumber and I won't have to deal with you so much in their place."

With her parting words, the man was suddenly gone, leaving behind only empty air and a fear of him I could nearly taste.

"Worry not, little one," the woman cooed as the beasts around her began to disperse into the forest. "He will not harm you. He has bigger things to worry about than a little bobcat kitten. Isn't that right, Marlin?"

The only remaining beast was a huge black bear, staring me down with eyes like coals, his nose raised and pointed directly at me. Then it was gone, replaced by a man nearly as large as the bear. His pale blue eyes, dirty blonde hair that hung in dreadlocks down his back, and full beard complemented a stern but kind-looking face.

"Right, Mistress," the bear said, his voice deep and grumbly, as if pulled directly from within his great chest.

"Now, I know not how you got through the celestial barrier, little one, but it's time to go back. Take care of yourself. I'll be watching out for you, my child."

I mewled and the woman smiled and shook her head. "No, you can't stay. Marlin, take him back to the mortal forest. Keep an eye on him for a while, maybe, yeah?"

"Yes, Mistress," Marlin said with a deep bow. And then he was turning to me and gesturing for me to follow him, the woman suddenly no longer in the clearing. "Let's go, kit. We'll get ya back to your own realm."

*****I feel like this story is kind of a "meeting of the characters," or something, as I start to move into starting to introduce the Strange Magics Series. There are quite a few characters you meet in this one that will feature in Strange Magics. And I just want to point them out, so's you know. Idk. I'd want to know— So remember Marlin, ok? Like, not for this story, or the next, or the one after haha... just... remember him ;)*****