Page 103 of Shifters Awakening

Relief flooded me, and my shoulders drooped.Logan!Oh, thank god.

The words nearly escaped me as I climbed to my feet, wobbling, yet shadows danced behind the gaze I’d come to relish, and malice draped him like a cloak. I studied the edges of him, squinting as the truth became clear.

This person wasn’t Logan. At first glance, the shell around him resembled Logan, but this creature wasn’t safe. This…being… wasn’t my mate. This mage was a threat to my life, to all our lives. Ironic that he showed himself as the shifter he hated, but the one I already loved.

When the stranger blinked, I could almost make out a different man beneath the first, but he smiled sweetly. Clearly, he didn’t know I knew.

I sniffed at him and crossed my arms, straightening my shoulders to hide my desire to curl into a ball and avoid everything. “Why are you hiding behind someone else’s face?”

He raised on eyebrow. “Hiding? Whatever could you mean?”

“That’s not what you look like, is it?” It came out like an accusation, and my pulse pounded in my ears, fighting the urge to cower away.But I’m not fragile or frail.“Why are you hiding who you are?” I repeated, stronger this time. “What a miserable existence… You can’t be real, can you? You have to hide who you are in other people’s bodies.”

“Perhaps you prefer this?” He waved his hand, and suddenly, almost-Marcus stood in the same place where almost-Logan had been. Almost-Olivia appeared, garbed in a suggestive, low-cut dress. “Or this?”

I winced at the sound of Olivia’s voice in the mouth of a stranger, but I lifted my chin and glared at the asshole outside my cage. “You’re not very good at that. Poor approximations.”

“Oh, I can get better. I’ve not delved your mind deeply enough to match your mental images of them, but I will.” His hand slid through an invisible wall which surrounded me. The border seemed similar to the warding which had been around the amphitheater. “We just have to link. Come now. Lnk with me, love.”

Love?Revulsion rolled through me. I didn’t answer, willing my stomach to calm and my heartbeat to slow. It was like being lured into a windowless van by a known murderer. What kind of fool did he take me for?

His gaze bored into mine, pulling me into a trance, and long spindly fingers reached for me. The blackened fingertips nearly touched my upper arm.

But I slapped his hand away, and I spat. The droplets hit the warding, sliding down as if in slow motion. Neither of us broke eye contact.

“A staring contest? That’s the best you’ve got?” I sneered without blinking. “How juvenile. Is that what your witch of a mother taught you?”

“You’ll pay for that.” His lips parted to reveal pointedteeth in Almost-Olivia’s face, and I shuddered. “Are you cold… or afraid?”

It was creepy as hell, but weakness wasn’t an option for the multimorph.

“Neither,” I said. “It doesn’t make much difference whose form you try to hide behind. You’re disgusting enough to get a face full of upchuck. That’s all.”

“Hmm, I had expected this to be easier.” He paused and tipped his head to the side, Olivia’s long blond hair falling over his shoulder. “No matter.” He waved his hand and the walls around me slammed inward, crushing me until I couldn’t take a breath.

Fan-fricking-tastic.

Logan! Where are you? Find me.

I dropped to my knees, reaching for the place in my head where Logan should’ve been. Acheron had shoved me into a magical cage of torture. The vise didn’t loosen. Tighter and tighter, it squeezed until dark spots danced in my vision. Boiling water surged over me, and it felt like my fingernails were being peeled back from their nail beds. If I could have breathed, I would have screamed.

Tiny whimpering grunts worked their way out while he transformed back into Logan. This time, hate filled his eyes. Despite all the pain, that look plastered onto fake-Logan’s face was the worst torture of all. My brain knew it wasn’t him, but my heart threatened to break as my torturer wore the face of my mate.

His gaze narrowed for a long moment. Then he cackled gleefully, knowing he’d chosen the correct façade to exact the most damage. A moment later, the clamp fellaway, and I sucked at the oxygen in the air, trying to get as big a lungful as I could.

“Fuck you,” I groaned.

“You’ll come around. They always do.” His laughter cut through the room as he marched out, and the torches in the room winked out, leaving me in the inky darkness.

Why hadn’t he consumed me like he had all the others? Why was I still alive? He’d managed to kidnap me and drag me here, wherever here was.

But this wasn’t about me.

It was about saving Olivia.

And Jasper…

And Riley…

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