Free The One We Answer To: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 3) by May Ellis Daniels

and distrust. Connor wary and calculating. Pimniq awed. Shiori resentful and suspicious. Even Trish looks at me differently now. Yet they wrote this future for me.  
    I sure as fuck didn’t want it.
    I stumble, nearly pulling Connor down. I remember Connor’s father August Lerrick ordering the robed Guardians to slit my packmate’s throats, then August leaning over his daughter, tearing her heart from her chest. A surge of bile rises in my throat. I remember Aaron, my bloodmate, stumbling backward as I burned him alive.
    And worst of all…I know this is only the beginning.
    The Age of Discord. The One War reborn on earth.  
    My brother Vuk is Becoming, and with him the Stricken armies—
    “Steady, Lil,” Connor says as I begin shaking.  
    “I can’t…I won’t…make it…” I whisper.
    “You have to.”
    Connor. A few weeks ago he was my rich-guy boyfriend.  
    On-again off-again.  
    I wonder what he is now.
    A fucking Stricken, for one thing.  
    “Connor?” I say, keeping my voice low and struggling with every word. “If it doesn’t…if something happens to me…will you promise me something?”
    “Anything,” Connor says. He’s sweating in the tunnel’s sweltering, stale heat, but his eyes are clear and his grip around my waist is strong and I’m suddenly very grateful he’s here.
    “Find Lachlan,” I say. “Find him and take him somewhere…safe?”
    My voice trails off as I realize how ridiculous my request sounds.  
    The moon rises red. Oceans are drowning the coastal cities. And the fires—  
    No where is safe.  
    “Of course, Lil,” Connor says, his face blank, his voice low and grim. “But we’ll find him now. Together. We’ll find him. I promise.”
    We make it a few paces when I realize Shiori, Anik and Pimniq aren’t following, and when I look back down the corridor I see them huddled under one of the purple skylights.
    “Anik!” I yell, hissing to keep my voice down. “Let’s go!”
    “Shiori…” Anik’s soft voice answers.
    “What’s the creepy bitch doing now?” Trish says, grabbing Wes by the shoulder to stop him.
    “Gotta keep moving, boss lady. Can’t stop here. Too many—”
    “Shiori!” I yell, desperate for her to keep moving but conscious of the many ears on the street above.  
    Inhuman, finely-tuned predator ears.
    “We need her,” Connor says in reluctant way that tells me if we didn’t he’d have dropped Shiori long ago. “She’s a Risen,” he says, as if he wishes it wasn’t true.
    So Trish and Connor are getting an off vibe from the Japanese chick as well. It’s not only her black, orb-like eyes and ghostly skin. It’s in everything she does. How she she looks at me when she thinks I’m not looking. How she walks, dragging her heels in an odd shuffle. It’s in her animal. Her swarm. A kind of…unnaturalness. Like something’s not quite right in her head, you know? I think…if I could…I’d cut her loose. Just tell her to fuck right off. That’s the kind of vibe I’m getting. Like we’d be better off without her. And when I look at Trish I know she’s thinking the same damn thing.
    Still. The girl’s my sister.  
    In some fucked up, ancient animal way. My packmate.  
    And although I don’t know her story, one look in her haunted eyes is enough to tell me she’s lived through a lot. So I’m willing to give her a chance. Not only that…but I know losing Shiori means losing Anik. The dude’s absolutely smitten with her, that much is obvious. And judging by how Shiori used her swarm to fight off those…fucking water Stricken-things…I’m guessing she’s sweet on him as well.  
    “C’mon,” I say, motioning to the group. “She’s tired too. We all are. Let’s wait a minute.”
    “Bad idea, boss lady,” Wes says, stuffing a handful of pills in his mouth. “Keep moving to live. Keep running never stop.”
    Shiori’s standing directly under the skylight, staring upward, her arms hanging limp at her sides, her