Nikolai stepped back, his heart hammering at a brutal pace. She was human? How was that possible? He could hardly wrap his mind around what he was actually seeing. Then, in another moment, where her mate and two brothers stood within the circle, were now three very large men. Luca was a dark-skinned male equal to Nikolai in height. His unearthly blue eyes glinted star-bright in the dark. The brothers were both bronze-skinned and packed with muscle like Luca. Hugo was the tallest, with broad shoulders and rippling with lean muscle. As a wolf, his glare was the most ferocious. This was the same in his human form. Hugo and Kai had long hair falling down their backs, but Luca had short-cropped black hair to his scalp.
They bore jagged and swirling tattoos like Duchess, though they appeared more violent in their making. The men bore interlacing knots across their torsos and backs and down their arms and legs, similar but not the same. Whereas the ink Duchess wore looked as if the wind had smattered it prettily with a few sharp edges, the men's ink appeared as if a storm had cut it into their skin with beauty but also violence.
Nikolai pulled Sienna tighter in her arms, these beasts in men form seeming far more dangerous than they did as wolves. When he could find his speech all he could ask was, "How?" He continued to back slowly away out of the meadow, even as the rhythmic tempo vibrating out of the earth seemed to soothe him.
"Please." The woman stepped forward with a hand in the air, seemingly unaffected by her nude form. "Don't be afraid, Nikolai."
He scoffed, narrowing his gaze. "What are you?"
"We are hart wolves. As we've always been. I am Allora Godrick. This is my mate, Bron. And my brothers, Connell"-she gestured toward the smaller of the two, then toward the larger, severe one-"and Dane." She walked up to Nikolai, a subtle power humming on her skin, but not as strong as the constant throbbing pulse all around them.
He flinched away when she reached out with her hand. "Don't touch me," he warned. Though he sensed no fear, his instincts were to fight against what he couldn't understand.
"Please, lieutenant." She eased her hand forward and he kept still this time.
When she laid her hand upon his shoulder, a surge of calm and reassurance swept through him. She held magic in her touch, and perhaps it was trickery, but something told him it wasn't. There was no danger here, despite having never seen a hart wolf transform into a human before in his life. As far as he knew, no one knew this even possible.
"We will have time to talk afterward. But now you must bring Sienna forward."
The sensation of others hovering close drew his gaze to the surrounding shadows. Within the dark appeared one pair after another of glowing, gold eyes. Hart wolves, dozens of them, surrounded the ring wherein he stood holding Sienna. He turned in a slow circle, sensing their heavy presence, though not one growled or launched forward with aggression. They merely watched in a kind of reverence.
"Nikolai. Bring her forward."
"To where?" he asked her, seeing only a plot of strangely fertile grass in the round.
She touched his arm again. He flinched as the pulse swept through him, and immediately a large slab of smooth black stone appeared at the center of the clearing. Or perhaps it was already there, only he couldn't see it. He could also now observe a perimeter of standing monoliths made of the same shiny, smooth stone.
"The hartstone," he whispered.
"Yes. And she wants you to lay Sienna upon her."
"She wants-?"
"Time is running out." Allora clutched his wrist with a tight hold, gravity in her voice. "Put her on the stone. Now."
He felt no malevolence from the pulsing halo around the hartstone. Rather, he sensed something else. The same magic that murmured and sighed through these woods far and away pounded out a bone-rattling pulse this close to the hartstone. He didn't know why or how, but he felt a tug on his very soul, pulling him toward the stone, assuring him this was right.
He strode forward in five long steps and set Sienna gently upon the black slab, realizing on the surface it wasn't black at all, but iridescent. As he lay her body down, a ripple of luminescent light pinged outward. The liquid wave of light began to tremble, rippling faster. Nikolai's breath whooshed out of him as an unseen force dragged him a safe distance and released him on his feet. He stumbled to catch his bearings.
Allora and the others stood on either side of him, watching as the pulse intensified. Nikolai clasped his hands over his ears, as did the others, the throbbing beat increasing. The luminescent light waved off the stone, piercing the darkness and shining out on the black oaks, their sable trunks shining like silver beacons.