Page 99 of Oath of Revenge

Battlefangs rocked from foot to foot. “I want to see her Growler form. Can she shift on command yet? That is so cool.”

“It’s not going to work. She doesn’t belong here,” Silentclaws said, stroking his beard. “She’ll never be accepted.”

Wulfric growled. “I remember the same being said of the turned, yet we are one people. It’s the same with my mate. We are one, joined together by the gods themselves. Where she goes, I go, and I will not tolerate disrespect like this. Am I the head alpha or not?”

Silence fell among them, and Wulfric stomped a foot, making Scarlet flinch beneath him. “I asked a question. Answer me.”

Duskkeepers was the first to speak, saying nervously, “Yes, that’s what we agreed to two years ago when Battlefangs got this new pup of an alpha.”

“Hey,” Battlefangs’ alpha said, punching Duskkeepers on the shoulder.

Wulfric growled. “Do any of you challenge me as head alpha? Do any of you have any better plans to save our people?”

Silence filled the edge of the camp. Tucked under the trees, they were barely within earshot of several who lived nearest the forest. None of them replied, and one by one, each alpha placed a fist to his heart and bowed his head.

Wulfric breathed a sigh of relief, but before he could say another word, magic gathered beneath him. He couldn’t see it the way she could, but the Elders jumped forward with hands outstretched.

“Back up,” Nomani gasped.

Chapter 31

Scarlet had to get out of there. Her nose twitched furiously, and she rubbed at the whiskers. The trees looked so tall and scary, and fear slithered up her spine as Wulfric’s wolf form surrounded her on all sides.

She remembered this feeling from before, from when she’d first been cursed. She hated the panic, the vulnerability. She paused, thinking about her father and what he’d said as Wulfric talked to the others. Was love worth letting down her guard for Wulfric?

She trusted him with her life. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have fallen asleep next to him so many times.

So why couldn’t she trust him with her heart? It was fear, plain and simple. A Hunter she might be, but how did she fight herself?

Besides that, she wasn’t welcomed and didn’t belong. She couldn’t stay, and the need to escape overshadowed the fear. Magic flooded her body, making her blood zing in her veins. Then pain tore through her, a pain she was slowly becoming all too familiar with.

She screamed, and Wulfric’s concerned gaze flashed through her vision before she squeezed her eyes shut. Each word they’d spoken had driven a stake through the gut. She’d begun to think this could be a new home where she would be accepted.

But she was just kidding herself. She’d never been accepted before. Why had she thought she would be now?

She screamed as her body transformed. It was a long and painful process, and she panted through it, focused on simply breathing.

When she blinked, she saw the world through fresh eyes. She was taller, no longer so close to the ground as she’d been as a rabbit. With her red furred hindquarters and little white and red tail, there was no doubt she was a deer.

Wulfric’s jaw dropped, and his eyes glowed as he licked his lips. That glint in his eye was a predatory gleam that drove her normal body wild with desire. In this form, though, she leaped into the woods, her small white and red tail swishing as she ran away from danger.

She had to escape. It was the only way she’d finally end her curses. She heard voices behind her, shouts, and then footsteps pounded on the frozen ground. She ran faster, the need to escape making her heart race.

There was no way she would last, not with already shifting to rabbit and then deer, and all too soon her energy waned. She’d escaped past the two perimeters of guards deep into the forest. She was almost as far north as where she’d killed the boar when she slowed.

Her chest ached and burned, and before she could find a hiding place, the footsteps behind her pounced. He slammed into her back, and they rolled in the snow. Ice scraped her shoulder and jaw, drawing blood. Pain tore through her, but his body laid on her back, heavy and nearly crushing her with his sheer size.

His hot breath at her ear made her shiver. “For fuck’s sake, Scarlet, stop running.”

Wulfric nuzzled the side of her deer’s neck, and she wiggled, trying to get away yet somehow pressing closer.

“You’re mine, bunny, whether you run to the ends of fucking Eoni or not. I will hunt you down and find you, so just fucking stop running.”

She panted, wiggling her ass to get her feet all under her. A distinct length thrust against her, and she froze with a gasp.

“That’s right, bunny. Keep wiggling that ass and find out what I’ll do to you in this form.”

She whimpered, her ear wiggling. Would it feel different like this? A part of her yearned to feel loved just one more time before she walked away. Logically she knew sex wasn’t love, but she wanted to feel close to him. She needed him, if only for this one last thing.

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