Pack Ebon Red (The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf Book 1) Read online

  “I'm nervous about the Feed,” I blurt before thinking to check around us for eavesdroppers.

  “We are alone,” she replies in that confident way that I admire so much. I rely too much on sight, she often tells me. “But we won't be for long. Let's go.” Her tail flickers to the left, trying to compensate for what's missing. I bend down, push through the strong currents of the water and use the power in my thighs to launch myself after her.

  We swim up and through the ancient bones, picked clean long ago, decorated now with the colorful shells of sea snails and the crusty lumps of barnacles.

  Yanori guides me expertly through the city and sometimes she forgets that even with her disability that she is faster and more slippery than I am. There are times where I'm forced to grab the edges of houses, use bits of kelp and rock to propel myself forward, to follow after her. She takes me to an underground cave that's so dark she has to double back and steal a sispa from the outer wall of the farthest house so that I can see.

  “There,” she says as we swim to the bottom of the cave. It is more like a burrow, I realize. A vestige of something from the past. This is a place where the giant worm, Muoru, had once lived. It's been a long time since we've had such creatures in our ranks. I touch the smooth walls reverently. Even sea creatures do not dare to come here. Only the merighean would be so foolish as to disturb such an ancient site. My sister is so brave and foolhardy; she would've made an excellent Huntswoman. I sigh. But she is not. That is my job. I was born to my mother and a human man after her foray on land. Yanori is my merighean father's child, just a mer, with no legs to carry her ashore. “Now you can tell me what it is that's bothering you.”

  “I saw some humans today,” I tell her, confident that she won't betray me. She never has before. She doesn't even gasp at this, just floats there with her arms out, brushing the sides of the burrow.

  “You can feel the power here, can't you?” she asks, surprising me. Yanori does this a lot; she starts off on something that doesn't seem related and ties it back to the conversation. I love her for it. She teaches me more than any instructor. “It's so old, so powerful, so perfect. In here, we are one with the sea and the earth; they're interchangeable, Natalie. Only once we realize that, will we be whole again.”

  I float down to the bottom of the cave which is sandy and warmed by the underground vents that heat the city and spew boiling water and bits of hardened rock into the sea around us. Yanori doesn't mind me doing things like this. She often tells me to embrace my differences as she does hers. I reach forward and take her tail in my hands. She allows this and leans her back against the wall so I can pick algae from her scales.

  “When the Huntswomen go to Feed, they are taking the earth's power within them and delivering it to the sea.” I sigh and start to protest, but Yanori continues. She's on a path now and can't be swayed. This will end in something profound, I am sure, so I close my lips and continue cleaning. She doesn't do this as often as she should and now her pink tail is half green. She says it is because she cannot see the algae, but I believe that to be a lie. I think some part of her likes it there. Yanori often gets lonely. “But it has to be a back and forth trade. Something from the sea must be given to the earth, do you understand?” I nod, but I'm not sure I do. She can't see me, but she senses the motion in the disturbance of the water and continues. “When we have a queen that sits the throne, that realizes this, then we will be great again.” She looks down at me with her cloudy eyes, her pale hair twisting around her face like kelp. “Muoru will wake up and the sea dragons will come back.” I nod again and release her, but this time, I know I don't believe her.

  The creatures of myth are dead and dead things don't come back to life.

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  About the Author

  C.M. Stunich is a self-admitted bibliophile with a love for exotic teas and a whole host of characters who live full time inside the strange, swirling vortex of her thoughts. Some folks might call this crazy, but Caitlin Morgan doesn't mind - especially considering she has to write biographies in the third person. Oh, and half the host of characters in her head are searing hot bad boys with dirty mouths and skillful hands (among other things). If being crazy means hanging out with them everyday, C.M. has decided to have herself committed.

  She hates tapioca pudding, loves to binge on cheesy horror movies, and is a slave to many cats. When she's not vacuuming fur off of her couch, C.M. can be found with her nose buried in a book or her eyes glued to a computer screen. She's the author of over fifty novels - romance, new adult, fantasy, and young adult included. Please, come and join her inside her crazy. There's a heck of a lot to do there.

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  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Front Matter Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Signup for my Newsletter

  Author's Note

  Character List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Back Matter Author's Note

  Pack Violet Shadow Cover

  Beautiful Survivors Cover

>   Seven Wicked Creatures Cover

  Spirited Cover

  Under The Wild Waves Cover

  Under The Wild Waves Description

  Under The Wild Waves Prologue

  Under The Wild Waves Chapter 1

  Keep Up With The Fun

  More Books By C.M. Stunich

  About the Author