Dark Lies (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 3)
Dark Lies: Previously in Book 2, Untamed Fate…

At the beginning of Untamed Fate, our heroine Savannah Caine was being hunted by the faceless man—the vile blood sorcerer who had her abducted in Wolf Marked. Jaxson discovered that the faceless man was actually Ulan Kahanov, a dangerous murderer who’d escaped from Bentham prison (see Cursed Angel). What Jaxson didn’t tell Savannah was that Kahanov had given him an ultimatum: hand over Savannah or the pack will pay.

Kahanov also had a new trick up his sleeve—he’d stolen a magic book called the Grimoire of Nightmares and was using it to enter people’s dreams. He put several members of Jaxson’s pack into comas and made Savannah sleepwalk into the clutches of a monstrous Noctith Demon that was lurking outside her aunt’s home. Unable to resist, Savy was almost captured, but at the last moment she looked into the sky and saw a mysterious image of a dark wolf in the clouds. An unfamiliar voice in her head said, I will free you, if you free me. Suddenly in control of her body again, she evaded the demon with her magic, but knew something about her had changed forever.

To make matters worse, the next day, Savannah began to turn into a werewolf at a bonfire in the park, and fled. Jaxson found her clinging to life, half-shifted in the woods, and helped her finish the transformation. Savy was horrified at the new state of affairs, and they looked for answers to why it had happened.

Meanwhile, they discovered that Kahanov was after a dangerous weapon called the Soul Knife. With Amal’s help (see Dark Storm), they tracked him to a mage’s tower in Italy. Savy was wounded in the battle, but she drove him off and recovered the magic blade. He retaliated by putting twenty-one more members of the pack to sleep. Their desperate search for a way to stop him led them into a magical realm known as the Dreamlands, where they enlisted the help of a powerful maenad, Cavra. In return, they had to join her in a hedonistic revel.

Fighting the rising lust fueled by the revel, they slipped out to cool off in a starlit pool—but things only heated up. Drunk with the revel and Jaxson’s warm embrace, Savy fell asleep—the one thing they had been warned not to do.

The magic of the Dreamlands transported her into a mysterious cave. Exploring the dark tunnels, she discovered the chamber where Kahanov had imprisoned the sleeping wolves. Before she could release them, he attacked and stole the Soul Knife. Wounded by the cursed blade, she escaped through a portal that exited from beneath the Tree of Life, in Forks, Washington. She hitchhiked into Forks, called Jaxson, and led him, Sam, and Neve (see Wicked Wish) back to the cave to free the sleeping wolves.

During the ensuing battle, Kahanov trapped her deep in the caverns and tried to steal her soul with the Soul Knife. But at the last second, she summoned the blade and cut out his soul. Rather than killing him, it released the ghost of Victor Dragan—an evil sorcerer who Savy’s aunt had killed years ago—who’d been in control of Kahanov all along. Freed from possession, Kahanov was bloodthirsty and looking for revenge, and tortured Savannah with his blood magic. She and her wolf joined their strength to kill him, but she was grievously wounded in the battle and couldn’t escape the cavern.

Driven mad with anger, Jaxson fought his way to her and carried her unconscious body out of the caves. He healed her through the power of their mate bond. Intoxicated with euphoria from the magic, they kissed. Jaxson then revealed a truth that he’d hidden from Savannah since she’d first transformed: they were fated mates, destined to be together.

Savy was horrified and grew furious after she discovered that both Jax and Sam had known about the mate bond, but didn’t tell her. She vowed to resist and make her fate her own.

Savannah returned to Magic Side a hero of the pack, but the words of Dragan’s departing ghost still echoed in her mind—I will have my vengeance! Deep down, she knew that the battle wasn’t over yet.

To make matters worse, she still had no idea why she’d turned into a werewolf, or how to reconcile with the new wolfish voice that had become a part of her soul. She couldn’t risk telling her aunt and cousin the truth of what she’d become, though she suspected that aunt Laurel might have the answers she needed…