Page 80 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

Screams and yells rose over the music. I looked around to find the source of the sound, only to see that everyone was fine.

Battle cries and a fierce howl echoed in the ballroom and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

“What?” I questioned, my head snapping in the direction of the east wall. A line of windows stood near the roof of the ballroom. The night air and the sounds of battle crept in through the cracked window.

“Don’t worry, Sasha Darling,” Morus said as he spun me away from the sounds. “My guards are just taking care of some intruders. People who wish to steal you away. But we will protect you.”

I felt the voice in my head ram into the barrier between us. My headache returning even as Morus spun me around the ballroom. Even as everyone clapped and bowed or curtsied in my direction.

Something wasn’t right.

“Just relax,” Morus said, the word no longer holding the comforting tone it had before. “It will all be over soon.”

‘Sasha!’the voice echoed in my mind. Was this really the voice that had haunted me for weeks?

Morus spun us in another direction. The motion sent my gown flowing through the air, each gem embedded into the fabric, catching the light like little stars from the sky.

My head continued to pound, the movement only making the ache worse as the sounds of those around us rose to drown out the chaos outside. The orchestra’s instruments rose in volume, as if somehow amplifying their sound. Everything and everyone in the ballroom was doing their best to hide the sounds outside of this room.

“I’m getting dizzy,” I said as I tried to pull away from Morus.

“Shh,” he hushed. He tightened his hold on me as he continued to guide me around and around. “Just relax.”

But I couldn’t relax. Not like this. Not when my head kept pounding and my nerves prickled at every touch of his hand and movement in this never-ending dance.

I looked around us, the faces that had been blurred, flashing to images of creatures I’d only imagined in my nightmares. I flinched as they blurred back into the unidentifiable silhouettes right before my eyes. Again, my head pounded.

Had I really seen that? Or was it all in my head?

‘No! Sasha! Keep fighting it! Don’t let him fool you!’the voice in my head yelled.

It was a female voice. A familiar voice. So familiar it may as well have been my own voice speaking to me. And she sounded scared. Terrified even. Worried about me.

“I need to sit down,” I said, and again I tried to pull away from him.

“The song isn’t over, Sasha Darling,” he whispered into my ear. “And everyone is watching. Don’t let them see how weak you are.”

The hairs on the back of my neck bristled at the comment as my eyes narrowed up at him.

Who the hell was he calling weak? I wasn’t weak. I had never been weak in my life. I was strong and fierce. I was a woman who no one dared to challenge. No one but one person, that is.

Flashes of moon lit eyes flickered in my mind then. The same eyes I had expected to see when I had first turned to look at Morus in the room. The eyes I associated with love.

Who was it? Who did those eyes belong to? Who was the only person who ever challenged me while never leading me to think less of myself?

The headache pounded harder. A fissure ripped through the veil that had separated me from the voice in my head. I could hear her more clearly now. Feel her as she pushed against that weakness in the shield around my mind.

‘That’s it, Sasha! Keep fighting! Don’t give in!’

Images of a beautiful brown wolf appeared in my mind. Her eyes were as blue as mine, sparkling with fire and power as she looked back at me with determination.

I pulled back, breaking the contact between Morus and me. I pressed my hand to my temples as the pain pounded and flashes of white-hot pain blinded me.

I felt Morus’s touch again on my shoulders as he tried to pull me back to my feet.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed, the pain erasing any concern for how I looked. I didn’t care what those around us would think. I didn’t even care if they would see me as weak as Morus had implied they would.

Let them think that. It would only make it that much sweeter when I showed them all what I truly was.

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