Formidable: Shifters Forever Worlds (Ever After Dark Book 1) by Elle Thorne Page A

told me to come.”
    “I thought you and Esmerelda had bad blood? Why is she… I don’t understand.”
    “I am making things right with my sister by coming here. It’s for her and her unborn child.”
    “What?” Isabel hadn’t picked up the scent or pulse of an unborn child in Esmerelda. “Why couldn’t I tell she was carrying a baby?”
    “Witches have ways of hiding, just as shifters do. Esmerelda wanted me to come here and make sure her traps didn’t create problems.”
    “Why does she have traps set?”
    “That’s a question for her. I agreed to come and make sure no Tiero came to any harm.”
    “Desi, you can trust me. Whose baby is it?”
    After a long pause, so long that Isabel wondered if Desideria had left, Isabel heard Desideria’s sigh.
    “It’s a shifter’s baby. That’s all I will say.”
    “So why was Esmerelda so concerned about a Tiero coming to harm? Why would she care what happens to a shifter?” Especially now that Esmerelda was being held captive by shifters.
    “That’s complicated.”
    Isabel held her growl of frustration back. She was getting virtually no answers from Desideria.
    “Okay, then how was it I managed to save Giovanni? Why am I not unconscious?”
    “I intervened. Too late to stop your sight from being taken, but not permanently.”
    “Will he be blind? What will happen to Esmerelda?”
    “No, he won’t. As for Esme, she can take care of herself. And her baby. I need you to keep my visit here a secret from everyone. Even Ana.”
    “What you ask isn’t easy. She’s not only my sister. She’s my best friend.”
    “Sure, it’s easy. She kept her stonebound lover Cristiano from you for months.”
    Damn it, Desi was right, but Isabel still didn’t like this. “True. She did,” she admitted reluctantly. “ Will you be around?”
    “No, it’s best for a witch not to be on Tiero territory. Your formidable friend Giovanni does not take kindly to other types.”
    “He’s not my friend.”
    “True. He’s fated to be far more than that. And between your children and his, you’ll be witnessing battles within the family, and with others.”
    “What?” Isabel was confused by Desi’s words, they almost seemed prophetic. “Where did you come by this information? What is this about?”
    A groan came from Giovanni.
    “I must go. Now,” Desi announced in their sync, “before he finds me here.”
    And with that, she felt Desi’s presence leave, and she was once more alone, in the dark still, and with an awakening Giovanni.
    Desi’s words faded to the background as she felt Giovanni stirring and closed her eyes, feigning sleep.

14
    G io stirred , half-asleep, half-awake. The crickets were louder than usual tonight. Maybe he’d left his windows open.
    He stretched, feeling drained, and yet for some reason, feeling more complete than he ever had. His fingers were nestled in warm thick fur.
    Fur?
    He opened his eyes, and with his keen shifter vision, saw Isabel’s tigress next to him, curled around him.
    They were in the forest and—
    The memories flooded back: Isabel running away. Finding her. Walking with her while they hunted for…
    Then it returned, a white tigress, she said she’d seen a white tigress. How could that be?
    Then they’d been walking through the forest and he’d hit a trap.
    A witch’s trap.
    Esmerelda. He cursed the witch in his mind. This had to be her trap.
    Why? Was she trying to hurt the Tiero family? He’d been more than fair with the trespassing, rule-breaking witch.
    He remembered a blinding blue light, losing strength while he lost his tiger.
    Definitely a trap designed to take a shifter’s animal away and weaken a shifter.
    He’d come close to death, of that he was sure.
    He studied Isabel’s tigress profile. Majestic, even while she slept. She’d stood guard over him. A sensation of emotions flared within him. She’d taken him out of the force field. Somehow, she’d done it. And risked her own life, clearly.
    They