MAGIC CAGED
In this savage why choose romantasy, fated mates, dark obsession, and pack devotion ensnare one broken heroine in a ruthless game of survival, longing, and revenge with three lethal griffon shifters.
A blind mage.
An unknown land.
Mates who can never bond.
My lack of sight has made me invisible. I’m nothing. Unworthy. Until I’m thrust into the unknown land of Faerie and the arms of two powerful Griffin shifters. They say I’m their mate, but a missing bond brother and a frozen wasteland stand between us and our bond.
I can’t let them claim me. A woman who will never complete them.
They think I’m one of the true Chosen. The key to saving Faerie and all who reside here, but I’m not who they think I am. If I had the grimoire inside me, surely I'd know?
I’m not magical. I’m not a shifter. Their trust in me is misplaced. But as our enemy hunts us down they do the unthinkable and bond me to them. They see my soul and their greatest mistake.
Read if you like:
🐺 Why-choose/reverse harem romance with three protective alpha wolves who each bring something different to the relationship
🔥 Enemies-to-lovers tension where suspicion and mistrust slowly burn into devotion
⚡ Hidden magical powers and ancient Fae magic that could reshape the world
💔 Trauma recovery romance where love becomes the key to healing deep wounds
🌙 Shifter world-building with soul bonds, mate connections, and pack dynamics
✨ Magical systems featuring ley-lines, golden magic, and power that responds to emotion
👑 Enslaved heroine breaking free from her chains and discovering her true strength
🗡️ High fantasy stakes where personal choices affect the fate of entire worlds
💫 Found family themes and the healing power of belonging after a lifetime of isolation
🔥 Steamy romance balanced with deep emotional connection and character growth
⚔️ Political intrigue and dangerous spy games with deadly consequences
🌟 Strong heroine who refuses to be saved and insists on saving herself
Content notes: This book contains mature themes, steamy romance scenes, references to past trauma, and fantasy violence. Intended for adult readers. Check trigger warning on the authors web site.
CHAPTER ONE
Wind whispered through the forest as though warrior elves hadn't trampled through wolf territory atop horrifying bugs. As though Serafine and her mates hadn't Changed into wolves and charged away. As though Anise hadn't climbed aboard her draugr and ridden after them, her alpha dragon mates at her side.
Sedric had described the scene to me in hushed, harried whispers as events unfolded, the acrid smell of fear clinging to his words. Thunder merged from the forest into the peaceful clearing around the wolves' cabin. The thumps of powerful, heavy beings driven into earth, strange dry rustling resembling autumn leaves crushed underfoot, and the deep voice that filled the forest churned in the center of my chest.
Hot pressure weighed me down while unseen beings spoke. Someone was watching me. Studying me. Knowing they had free rein because there was nothing I could do about it.
The familiar sensation was the same pressure before someone tripped me or shoved me into a wall. The pause as someone took my measure and found me lacking because my disability was a hindrance. I couldn't see the pathway that needed sweeping or the patch on the floor that needed scrubbing. My disability meant extra work for them, though Esoti owned us all as slaves with no choice over anything in our lives.
I waited for an annoyed huff or the deprecating chuckle that accompanied the pressure, but only wind wound through the leaves in the wolves' forest with a whispered susurrus that carried the green scent of oak and pine. Perhaps the magical dome Serafine had created was putting everyone out of sorts.
I couldn't see it, of course, but she'd described it to me. Transparent gold filled with magical glitter that sparkled in sunshine. Born from the magic of the ancient grimoire that had been hidden inside her and freed when she'd bonded with her wolf-shifter alphas.
The color gold meant nothing to me, but I knew how sunshine heated my skin and thought it might describe it well. Glitter was foreign too, but it sounded like the effervescent bubbles when water ran across rocks in the brook.
Tension hardened my shoulders when thunder split the air above my head, the sound sharp enough to taste like copper pennies on my tongue. Crackling broken ice followed. Screams pierced my ears, ahead of panicked voices that rose over the cacophony. I ducked, arms flying over my head as my heart hammered against my ribs like a caged bird. I couldn't see to run to safety, so I made myself as small a target as possible. It was all I could do to protect myself.
Sedric's strong fingers dug into my elbow as he hurried me across the grass, blades swishing across my boots like whispered secrets. "Quick. Get inside."
"What's happening?" I asked as he placed my hand on the banister so I could orient myself. I spun toward him, not taking another step.
"The dome is cracking." His voice was low. Urgent.
"What!" How was that possible?
Serafine's magic was strong. Strong enough to defeat one of The Six. The dome would only break with the magic of another of equal power...
"Go into the kitchen with Cook and the staff. I'm going to round up who I can. When I return, we'll hide in the basement. If anything happens, that'll be the safest place for us all."
Sedric's footsteps hurried away. For an old wolf shifter, he moved with speed, but that was the way of the wolves. Not only was I blind, I was also human. I was nothing like them and had no hope of matching their pace.
I gripped the smooth wood and found my way up, counting each step by the familiar creak of the third board, the slight give of the fifth. Six steps to the top. Another six would take me to the front door.
I found the door handle, felt the warm brass that held the heat of the afternoon sun, and stepped inside. Males called through the woods, their voices rough with fear, and their wolves' howls followed me into the alphas' cabin like mournful echoes. My hand shook as I trailed fingers along the plaster, the texture cool and rough beneath my palm. A ball of barbed wire formed in my stomach as I made my way to the kitchen.
I lacked a wolf's preternatural abilities. Or any of the shifters' abilities. Magic eluded me entirely. Esoti had purchased me from my mother when I was a young child, making me the lowest of the low. Barely useful because of my eyes. I may never have seen my mother, but I never heard from her after she abandoned me, either. The stronghold had been my entire life.
Truth be told, I didn't know why he’d purchased a blind slave, or how I'd survived.
Serafine had gotten me out of that place after Esoti's death. I could barely wrap my head around the fact that she had killed Esoti and that she had a piece of the all-powerful grimoire inside her. And then a few weeks later, Anise, the dragon shifters' mate, arrived in wolf territory with another piece of the grimoire and the news that Drisella was dead.
Now Haera was here with the panther alphas and elves begging for help. The wolves and dragons had known who she was, and not one of them had been welcoming. And the dome was cracking. I didn't have to see to understand the tension in the air.
Haera and the elves brought destruction with them. Only four beings were powerful enough to wield the magic of the grimoire. And one motivated to assert his control over panther territory: Titan. And now he was here. If he got through the dome, he would raze the ground we walked on and leave a wasteland behind. Of that, I had no doubt.
Barbs gouged my insides as I stepped into the kitchen, palm settling on the wall nearest the door. The acrid scent of fear seared the back of my throat. Sharp and metallic, like blood mixed with sweat. Scared, raised voices replaced the kitchen's usual cheerful clatter and peace. Too many bodies filled the room, their collective body heat crushing the air from my lungs and making it taste stale and thick.
A rough, warm hand took mine with callused fingertips that spoke of years kneading bread and chopping vegetables. "Gilda, come with me, girl."
I recognized Cook's rasping voice, confident but now tinged with nerves that made it crack on the low notes. Another crack boomed loud enough to shake the foundations beneath my feet and rattle the pots hanging above us. Children whimpered and adults hushed.
"Get out of the way," Cook demanded as she pushed her way through the crowd, dragging me behind her.
"Why's she going first? She's a human," a young male spat.
"She'll slow us all down if we're forced to wait for her to stumble along," another unknown voice hissed.
My skin heated with the flush of shame. The word "human" dripped with disdain, sounding like a curse spat between clenched teeth. And it was. I couldn't blame any shifter for the sentiment. The Six ruled them with iron fists while humans treated them with cruelty. As a slave, others regarded me as only one station higher than they.
Now, though...
I wasn't sure what Esoti and Drisella's deaths meant to both shifters and humans. A war had started with the most cruel and dangerous beings this world had ever seen, and no one was safe.
"A blind human at that," someone else muttered.
I didn't miss the scoffs or the elbow jabbed in my lower back.
"Shut up, the lot of you. Gilda is Serafine's best friend, and Serafine is your alphas' mate. Show some respect," Cook growled. She was formidable when she got started.
I'm lucky she took me under her wing, though I don't know why. She didn't need to treat me any different to another. I'd never told a soul about the way other humans treated me at Esoti's stronghold. Not even Serafine. She had enough to contend with. Compared to hers, my life was charmed, but Cook must have seen something in me, and that had earned her my gratitude.
She guided me to a stop and pressed me against the wall. Cooler air slipped over my face, carrying the green scent of moss and rain-dampened earth, and I realized she'd brought me to the back door. "Stay here, girl. I'll come and get you and take you to the basement when Sedric comes back."
I nodded, though I wasn't sure she saw the action before her presence moved away. There wasn't much else I could do. I hunkered against the wall as more people filtered into the room. The stink of fear grew more pungent the longer we waited.
The basement wasn't under the house. It was an underground bunker, hidden in the forest and used for emergencies. I knew of its existence, but not where it was because I'd never been taken there. I hoped it was large enough to keep everyone safe. Well, as safe as we could be beneath the power of one of The Six.
An amount of time passed before Sedric's voice rose above the harried whispers. "I've rounded everyone up. Let's go."
I pressed against the wall to wait for Cook to help me, but the swell of bodies was too great. Someone pushed into me and I was pulled into the flow of bodies that swept me along with them.
"Cook!" I shouted.
"Get going." Rough hands propelled me outside and down the stairs. My feet caught in long, damp grass as I stumbled with the blades wet with dew and slippery beneath my boots. The sharp scent of pine resin filled my lungs as the group swept me into the forest. Someone brushed past me, and I clutched their shirt so I wouldn't fall over.
"Waddaya think you're doing?" The male whose shirt I'd grabbed tore my grip away before shoving me. I tripped backward, bracken scraping my calves with tiny thorns, as another thunderous crack exploded around us. Echoes rippled across the sky from horizon to horizon.
"The dome is cracking apart. Change! Run!" a male yelled. The air filled with ozone, that sharp, electric scent that made my nose tingle, and footfalls turned into the click of claws on stone and earth. I reached around me, hands scraping against rough bark and brittle twigs, finding empty space.
"Cook?" I yelled, but the wolves had disappeared into the forest, much quicker on four feet than two.
My chest squeezed as something sucked oxygen from the air. My hair lifted with an unseen force, strands tickling my cheeks like spider silk, before a shockwave pounded into me, vibrations shattering my bones and liquefying my insides. The unknown force lifted me off the ground and threw me backward into the silence of a vacuum. Numbing air surrounded me, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing before throwing me free.
The back of my head slammed into cold, stone that bit into my skull like teeth, and white-hot pain ricocheted through every nerve. My chest constricted, lungs refusing to drag in the oxygen I needed, but there was nothing to breathe. No oxygen. No air.
Blood pounded behind my eyes, building pressure inside my skull that throbbed in time with my frantic heartbeat. Numbness crept through me, stealing sensation from my hands first, then my legs. The certainty that this was my death settled over me like a shroud.
A startled shout sounded close by. A male voice. Heavy footfalls pounded the earth beside me before someone fell next to me with a thud that vibrated through the ground. Something soft and cold sprayed over me as he landed, droplets that tasted of metal and salt when they hit my lips.
"Do not die, female!" a male voice demanded, as though I had a choice.
I didn't want to die, but then a tiny flutter of life rose from a place from deep within me. Sparks filled my blood, imbuing my veins with unknown energy that fizzed through my body. Shadows morphed within the impenetrable darkness of my vision, forming into blurred, meaningless shapes. I didn't understand what they were. What they meant. They overloaded my brain before they hit a wall of pure shock. And then... understanding.
I.
Saw?
My eyes. My eyes! The one sense I'd yearned to have, now stuttering awake.
The thought seemed impossible. Yet the blurred shapes became moving blobs, then sharpened into something recognizable. Somehow, some way, meaning formed through my panicked brain.
I saw... a face.
A handsome, masculine face. Tension pulled his handsome face taut, carving harsh lines where softness had been only moments before. A hook pulled behind my breastbone, wrenching me toward him.
My blind eyes... saw on the brink of my body shutting down. A wish gifted and paid for with the ultimate price as my heart gave a final lurching pound before falling still
"You must live, dammit!" the male shouted, gripping my shoulder to shake me. His silhouette towered over me from one moment to the next, no longer a male but a terrifying creature I had no name for, made from sharp angles and blurred shadows my mind had no meaning to understand. It lifted its head, and a terrible screech tore from its mouth, shattering around me as an empty void swept me away.
TRIGGER WARNING
This book contains content that may be triggering or distressing for some readers. Please be advised that the story features:
Graphic violence and battle scenes
Scenes of captivity, physical and emotional abuse
Explicit sexual content, including high-heat scenes and multiple partners
References to past trauma, slavery, and torture
Depictions of forced and involuntary magical transformations
Strong language and dark emotional themes
Descriptions of PTSD symptoms, body horror, and threat of death
Power imbalances and manipulative magic
Moments of dubious consent due to magical influence and mate bonds
Please use caution as needed. If any of the above themes or content are distressing, you may wish to prepare yourself or skip sections. Your wellbeing comes first.