Claiming His Fire (24 page)

As I ran past the final curve before the river, the site of the carnival came into view. An old church camp with shabby white buildings and a pool at the front sat at the bottom of a small hill. The rides were scattered about the property—Ferris wheel, Zipper, mini-roller coaster, lots of spinny things for little kids to play on, and a huge, sparkling carousel. Not yet surrounded by smoke. Had I been human, I would have sighed in relief.

Until I broke through the final line of trees and got a clear view of the midway.

There, just along the edge of the river, a line of at least ten wolves stalked toward the base of the swirling spout. Inside, past the whirling air and the dirt and the fire, five women stood in a circle. Hands joined, hair flying in the wind.

One covered in flames.

I leaped over the tall fence surrounding the camp and raced down the hill. My mate—my beautiful, strong, powerful mate—had set herself on fire to save her sisters and the other two women with them. I recognized one as Charlotte. My heart sank as the fifth turned and glanced my way. Lanie…sister-in-law to Kaija, the human mate of one of her brothers. Three witches and two humans standing against a dozen shifters. How the girls lasted to this point, I had no idea, but I’d make sure they stayed safe. All of them.

I leaped through the rotating wind around them, coming to stand beside Scarlett as soon as I landed. I growled and looked up at her through my animal eyes, not feeling pain through our bond but peace. Calmness. Magick.

“It’s about time you got here,” she said, her voice strong and filled with sarcasm even as her hair glowed and the fire flew from her fingers. “I was beginning to think we’d have to handle all these guys alone.”

I growled and rubbed my head against her thigh, singeing my whiskers. She bumped me with her hip, her hands still up and out, flames and heat radiating off her. But that was all the time I had. Two wolves rushed the funnel, making everyone inside take a step back. Zuri swung her arm in a circle, tossing what looked like a wave of water their way and knocking them backward into the mud.

“We can’t hold them back much longer,” Zuri said. Phoenix growled in wolf form at her side, staring at the line of wolves facing us. Head down, hackles up, he challenged every wolf out there to try him. To attempt it. To dare to come at him. Phoenix was a big wolf, bigger than almost all I’d ever seen, and right then, he looked positively unstoppable.

“What do we do?” Charlotte asked. Rebel circled her like a caged animal, ready to fight. Ready to defend. Which was a good thing. Because a full breach of the Fields and the number of wolves facing us down could only mean one thing.

War had come, and our mates were smack dab in the middle of it.

“We fight,” Scarlett said, looking into my eyes with a fierceness that rivaled my own. “We fight until we win.”

The Feral Breed Series consists of

Claiming His Fate
Claiming His Need
Claiming His Witch
Claiming His Beauty
Claiming Their Forever: A Collection of Feral Breed Short Stories
Claiming His Fire

And these upcoming titles

Claiming His Desire
Claiming Her Heart

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If you enjoyed this book, you’ll love
The Gathering
series from Ellis Leigh.

You are cordially invited to the event of the season…

Please be our guest as the National Association of the Lycan Brotherhood hosts the seventy-eighth annual Gathering. The biggest event of the social season, the Gathering has become the favorite method of networking among packs and bringing together fated mates. At the Gathering, shifters from across the country show up to show off and to see who’s the true leader of the pack.

THE GATHERING: KILLIAN & LYRA

The black-tie welcoming dinner will be the perfect chance to meet Killian O’Shea, Alpha of the Appalachia pack. Killian’s rough, tough, and built for fighting, which is a good thing as he’s got a road-blocking Alpha standing between him and his destiny. Lyra, Killian’s newfound mate, likes the way he disregards the rules keeping them apart. She’s ready to risk it all for the bigger-than-life Alpha who makes her heart race.

THE GATHERING: GIDEON & KALIE

Day two of the Gathering is set aside for interpack business. Shewolf Kalie and her new mate find this truth out the hard way, as her Alpha demands she spend time with another male shifter in the hopes of an alliance. Gideon Kelly assumed finding his mate would be the hardest part of the Gathering, but watching Kalie be charmed by another man while he’s forced to stay on the outside tests the shifter’s control. When an innocent gesture is taken out of context, Gideon goes from respecting an Alpha’s rules to breaking them, while Kalie fights for her right to claim and be claimed.

THE GATHERING: BLASIUS, DANTE & MOIRA

The final party of the weekend is a time to relax and enjoy the company of your fellow shifters. As the Gathering draws to a close, NALB President Blasius and his long-time mate Dante finally find the woman destined to complete their triad. Moira O’Shea is thrilled that her brother and friends have found their mates, but jealousy has a way of undermining even the happiest of times. When the three fated lovers finally meet, Blasius and Dante have to convince an uncertain Moira of their desire to include her in every aspect of their relationship.

Come and enjoy tales from the biggest shifter event of the year as wolves from around the country fall in lust, in love, and in fate at the Gathering.

A storyteller from the time she could talk, Ellis grew up among family legends of hauntings, psychics, and love spanning decades. Those stories didn’t always have the happiest of endings, so they inspired her to write about real life, real love, and the difficulties therein. From farmers to werewolves, store clerks to witches—if there’s love to be found, she’ll write about it. Ellis lives in the Chicago area with her husband, daughters, and a giant dog who hogs the bed.

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As always, I have to say thank you to the readers of the Feral Breed. You keep me energized and on task. You also make me giggle and blush...especially you wild ones from the Feral Breed Reader Group.

To Lisa, who happens to be the greatest editor a gal could ask for.

To Caren, Esher, and Anna, who continually challenge me and my writing. They're my safety nets.

To Brighton, for holding my figurative hand through my first conference.

And to my husband, for sending me the best text messages and reminding me why I work so hard.

Claiming His Fire
Copyright © 2015 by Ellis Leigh
Edited by Silently Correcting Your Grammar, LLC
Cover Art by Cormar Covers

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

The author acknowledges the copyrighted or trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Zippo.