Loch

dimples appeared in his cheeks. She didn’t realize he had dimples at all until the other day. Holly looked away. She couldn’t look at his smile without thinking of the kiss they had shared shortly before she was kidnapped. She wasn’t expecting it at the time. She didn’t realize how much she’d wanted to kiss him until his lips touched hers.
She ran. That’s when Fang and his hulking, nameless sidekick knocked her out. After that, the details are foggy. They held her at a camp for a time, but she didn’t know how long. Less than a day, if she had to guess. Likely only a few hours, at the most. Loch was tied to a tree, which was a sight Holly would pay good money to see again.
Both were brought into the silver mine in chains. That was when Holly had heard the voice of the Maiden for the first time. The Maiden helped her figure out she was, in fact, in the silver mines in the northernmost part of Silver Spruce. If she managed to escape, she’d at least have some idea of where to go to get back to her grandmother’s house and the men who were waiting for her.
Yet, a tiny part of her was grateful for the time to herself. Mostly. There was still the issue of Loch’s pushing her buttons for entertainment, and, of course, she’d rather be anywhere but an abandoned silver mine. The only upside of this situation—if it could even be called that—was that she now had time to think.
As if discovering the existence of people who could shift into bears, the Prophecy of the Maiden, and Grandmother Pearl’s gift of foresight that allowed her to arrange everything before her death wasn’t enough, Holly had a dilemma.
The Prophecy of the Maiden was murky at best. The original Maiden, the one Holly believed spoke into her mind, came to the bear clans before documenting history was widely practiced. There wasn’t a how-to book Holly could read. One thing she did know was that she was going to bear the child with a specific bear shifter referred to only as the King. The title of the King wasn’t bestowed by birthright. The Maiden chose the King.
The good news was that Holly got to choose who she had a child with. The bad news was that she had developed feelings for Johnny, Keller, and Garret. All three of them were eligible to be the King. So was Loch, for that matter, as well as one other bear shifter. Holly cared little for either of them, despite the butterflies that exploded in her stomach whenever she thought about the kiss they had shared.
But the three shifters who’d been by her side through all of this? In the short time she’d known them, she’d grown to care deeply for all three of them. How would she ever pick one? She couldn’t bear the thought of causing any of them pain.
“If you aren’t careful, you’re going to bite right through your lip.” Loch’s voice forced Holly’s thoughts back to the here and now. Sure enough, she’d started chewing on her bottom lip without realizing it. The pain came half a second later. She brought her fingertips to her lip. Sure enough, there were little droplets of blood forming where her teeth dug in.
“You’re in a mood today,” he said when she didn’t say anything to him.
“Being imprisoned doesn’t bring out the best in me.” Holly faced him at last. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk to him or if she was just sick of sitting in her cell in silence. Instead, the smirk she expected to find on Loch’s face was replaced by a tight-lipped scowl.
“What?” she asked.
“We have company.”
Before Holly could ask what he meant, a man stepped through an archway carved into the cavern wall.
Holly had only seen him once, the day she was brought here. His name was Trevor. He was the fifth shifter eligible to be King. He was the one who had arranged her kidnapping.
“Hello, darling,” he purred. “It’s about time you and I got to know each other.”

CHAPTER TWO—Holly
“Touch her, and I’ll break your spine,” Loch snarled.
“How are you going to do that?” Trevor didn’t take his eyes off of Holly. “If you can get through the enchanted bars and the fairy-glass shackles, if you want to exhaust yourself trying, by all means. Go right ahead.”
Loch, knowing everything Trevor said was true, scowled as if he could shoot daggers from his eyes into Trevor’s chest. Holly appreciated the anger on her behalf. She wasn’t sure how she should react. She didn’t want to go with Trevor at all, but she didn’t want to risk angering him, either.
He wanted to wed her, the reincarnation of the Maiden, to solidify himself as the King of all of the bear clans. His background confused Holly. He was one of the firstborn sons of Silver Spruce, yet he had left the town some time ago. Holly wasn’t sure when. She only knew of Trevor’s existence because he was on one of the family trees Pearl had painted on the walls of her study.
Somehow, he became the leader of a faction of bear shifters who wanted to return to the dark ways. They wanted to shed their humanity and live only as bears. However, they did not wish to roam the woods, eating berries and searching for honey. Those of this faction believed they were above all other forms of life. In shedding their humanity, they would be free to take over human towns or whatever else they wanted.
Centuries ago, when this happened for the first time, the Maiden had appeared in the forest. She returned humanity to the shifters who had nearly lost themselves to the dark ways. She prevented a shifter war against humans.
“Come.” Trevor offered Holly his hand. When she refused