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Chapter One

Eight days ago

Kieran twisted, avoiding thehis opponent to the hardwood floor

"Good, try!" Kieran said, holding his hand out to the roaned but nodded, shoving a sweaty lock of hair out of his eyes The gym, on the outskirts of Dublin, was unairconditioned and hot despite the late-spring te of sweat and hard work Inside, more than forty new recruits sparred

As the two roup, "Watch your opponent’s hands Always knohere they are Hands are a Mage’s e could enthrall a Therian with a single touch, rendering him a puppet to be turned on his fellows Or to be captured or killed The Therians had been at ith the Mage for millennia and his recruits knew it all too well

Fortunately, Therians had the advantage of e possessed Once they’d had far e than that At one time, all Therians had been shape-shifters, able to shift into their anio when, for a brief period of ti the bulk of their power to defeat the Dae the Earth They’d succeeded The Daemons had been locked in a mystical blade from which they’d never escaped But the power the two races had ed never returned When the dust had settled, only one Therian of each of the animal lines had retained the power of his or her aniether, the strongest and finest of the race, and become known as the Feral Warriors

The rest of the Therians, Kieran included, shifted only in their drea their enemies the human way With their fists and knives

His opponent leaped at hih, and Kieran easily flipped hiravity low, boyo Try it again"

The male looked thirty but could be anywhere from twenty-five to a thousand or rown Thehis breath "Any word on the new fox?"

The fox Feral Warrior had died last e attack of soht-lipped bunch, and the details had never been leaked to the greater Therian community But the death itself had not been kept a secret When one Feral died, the aniest Therian with that ani hi could take weeks, even months, but ultimately, another would be marked And the entire Therian world was abuzz with exciteht be the one

Kieran shook his head "No word" A flicker of hope danced in his chest because the truth was, it could be him Unlike most Therians, he knew he possessed fox-shifter DNA After five er knew their ancestral makeup But Kieran’s father was old, born only a few hundred years after the Sacrifice And his father’s mother had been born a fox shifter

Both had been talented intuitives, often knowing things before they happened Kieran had inherited that ability to a lesser degree To a fairly useless degree, unfortunately His own gut offered hiue as to be worse than nothing

He could be the one est and finest of those who possessed the fox-shifter DNA The thought filled hi chosen would be a tre able to shape-shift as his ancestors had? Incredible But being chosen to become a Feral Warrior was a life’s co back All Feral Warriors lived together with the Radiant, the one woies from the earth that empowered the Ferals The new fox would have to inia, and live at Feral House with the other shifters He would becoreater whole, one of the warriors on the front lines of the battle to protect the world from the threat of the Daemons’ return

Kieran looked up at the wooden rafters above, his s considered, would he choose to be the new fox shifter if the choice were his?

With a low chuckle, he nodded to himself Hell, yes

"Switch partners!" he called, and three female recruits rushed him at once, all with that look in their eyes that told him they’d be happy to partner with hirin that encompassed all three, he motioned one to approach hihed The one he’d chosen to ith gave hi smile that quickly turned to surprise as he swept her feet out from under her She slammed onto her back on the wood floor with a sharp cry of pain

He refused to train his recruits on ht break so in the fall, but they’d heal within a minute It was better if they learned to deal with the pain right from the start If they weren’t suited to the Therian Guard, he wanted to know it now

"Keep yourher up

She threw him a look that was part wary sood hed "Aye, I do But the only ht keep you alive if the Dae to circle her "Let’s see what you can do"

Fifteenone of his subordinates lead the training as he grabbed his towel and wiped the sweat from his brow and the back of his neck Jill, one of his lieutenants, joined hi pants, her s as an Irish pub on a cold winter’s night as she handed him a cup of water

"I’ve never seen so ht," she murmured "Most of theed "They want to learn how to defend themselves"

Jill snorted "What they want is a chance at your bed You’re a legend, you know"

Aye, he did, though he ell used to it

He glanced around the roo more attention to his movements than to their opponents’ No coincidence, two-thirds of the class was female He’d been blessed or cursed--he often couldn’t decide which--with the ability to draw females like bees to honey whether he wanted to or not They watched hi themselves freely

"When the call went out to the Therian enclaves to get their people in fighting shape, every feroup to train with I wonder why," Jill added dryly

Kieran took a long swig of the cool water and smiled "You jealous, pet?"

Her expression turned serious "I could be, Kieran If I thought I could ever truly win your heart"

Inside, he squirmed This was the discussion he loathed, for he truly hated the thought of hurting her Of hurting any of theive you, Jill," he said quietly, regretfully

"So you’ve toldheart in that finely hewn chest You just haven’t ht female, yet And as much as I wish otherwise, I’m not the one"

No, she wasn’t No woman was, as he tried to tell them all He’d watched one woman whom he’d loved more than his own life die It didn’t matter that she’d been his sister, not his lover Over the centuries, he’d watched good friends take mates in a ritual that bound one to the other body and soul, and watched as one died and the one left behind suffered untold agony, unable to fully live again Mating bonds between the immortals was far more than a simple promise to love and cherish They could not be severed No, he would never take ahis sister could hurt so o decided that love of any kind led to heartache and nothing more He was better off without it

He hooked his arm around Jill’s neck and placed a kiss on her cheek "You’re a fine thing, pet And I love you in my way, you know that"

"Aye, I know it, Kieran I know it"