Page 42 of There's No Place Like Oz

I’d never run faster than I had in that moment. The thunder struck, and I increased my pace until it hurt. Until my immortal muscles strained, wind whipped in my eyes, and the sting made them water. Talos and I had split up, hoping one of us would make the better guess on the fastest route. If we were lucky, being lone targets might attract those flying beasts again, and I could use them as unwitting transport.

A stray Kalidah popped up in between me and the castle, and I didn’t waste more than twelve seconds ripping open his ribcage with my bare hands to create a pathway straight through him.

Gwen may be a mad scientist, but magic like this was nowhere near as black as Hildy’s. Hybrid beast men with beating hearts were a comedy compared to the demons her sister once manifested. She’d created me, after all.

Thoughmystrength wasn’t the problem.Dorothywas the problem. She was mortal, frail, and easily extinguished. Though she’d murdered a witch, it was by lucky accident that she skewered Grunhilda, and the more time I spent tolerating our little traveler, the more obvious it was that she would never intentionally kill anything.

It didn’t matter. So long as Dorothy was alive and wearingmywitch’s shoes, I could find her. If it cost me my own undying soul, I’d make a murderer out of her yet. And if Gwen were to kill her before I arrived, I’d change my request to the Wizard and find a way to make Dorothy like me. I wouldn’t lose her like this.

I shook my head, not even wanting to entertain such a thought any further than that. My curse didn’t need to be anyone else’s.

The base of the mountain came up quickly, and I scaled a tree to launch myself up the first high ledge. The rock walls were built of sharp crags that cut at my palms and tore into my flesh as I propelled myself upwards with high impact leaps. Pain had stopped slowing me down a long, long time ago.

As I bounded upward and that fortress came into reachable view, a piercing scream shot straight through my gut, and the sheer terror of it nearly knocked me off my rhythm. I was much too far still to hear any such thing, but something told me it was a telepathic cry for help that had hit me. It was the kind of anguish that resonated through your entire soul.

Fuck!

Stay alive just a little longer for me, Dorothy.

Chapter 33

“When I gut her and make you eat her fucking heart, you can live with the warm and fuzzy knowledge that your ‘mate’ will always and forever be a part of you.”

Gwen used that large blue marker to start drawing on Dorothy’s skin. She made dotted lines around the small part of her breast that I’d marked, then she drew a straight line vertically over her heart. Her next target was the apex of her thighs where Tobias had placed his bond. She drew a targeted circle, then she put the cap back on her pen.

I dug my fangs into my ball gag when she touched the cold plastic head of the marker to Dorothy’s vagina and started pushing it in as far as it would go. The way Dorothy squirmed, I could tell how much that friction hurt as Gwen forced the tool through dryness until she hit her cervix with a merciless thrust. “Keep that handy for me, won’t you?” She grinned, while Dorothy made an obvious effort not to cry out.

I extended my claws as far as they would go in pure rage, and I shifted in my restraints in an attempt to reach the binding on my wrists. It was tight, but I managed to just barely graze the surface. Just enough that I could make it through if I kept working at it.

It’s going to be okay. Don’t be scared. I did my best to communicate confidence and fighting spirit down the bond, but I couldn’t say if it gave her much comfort. Her shaking and nervousness was still echoing back to me loud and clear.

Gwen’s next target was Tobias. She paced over to the dog, and she indicated to her guards to grab him by the chin. They lifted his head and moved it about so she could inspect his face.

“Her other mate is pretty too.” She ruffled his hair. “And so silky. I think I’ll enjoy your company in my bed, puppy dog. My Leon could learn a thing or two about loyalty after all, and where better to find that than with the brain,” she began as she tightened her grip in his hair, “of an Alpha dog shifter.”

She jerked his head back roughly, and he growled through his gag. As always, that only amused the bitch.

“Oh, but would you look at this…” She circled his ear with her fingertips, then she pulled the lobe forward to reveal a small mark. “My cousin already branded you as hers. That’s unfortunate.” Her lips pursed in disappointment.

Gwen frowned then stood up straight. “I suppose if I just take your brain and discard the rest, she won’t ever know I have you, but you can never be too careful around Eloise, you know.” The wicked witch giggled. “Actually, you probablydon’tknow. I’m sure your memories were delicious.”

She manifested a new marking pen then started drawing a line across his forehead. “I used to cut up my men free hand, but I mixed up a few of my experiments and ended up with one too many legs and one too few cocks the last time, so I do want to make sure I do right by you.” She touched her lips to the ink on his face, and his eyes flashed with a viciousness I was only vaguely familiar with. She drank in his hate lovingly. “You’re so handsome after all.”

With a dismissive wave of her hand, her guards responded by shoving Tobias face down on the ground. A heavy foot on his back and another on his head forced his cheek into the pentagram.

If I knewanythingabout her magic, I knew that these symbols could keep someone alive no matter what was done to them, and so long as we stayed within their confines, we would have to be awake to witness her fucked up slicing, dicing, and restructuring of our bodies from beginning to end. I had no idea that she had gotten this deep into chimera magic, but I’d seen her use these pentagrams to test out her sharpest and most painful toys in her early days of alchemy. Most of those experiments being a part of my own Pride, and none of them survived once she withdrew the circles. I didn’t want to think about how many shifters had to die before she figured out how to make viable hybrids.

So fucking close.Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm, Dorothy. I did my best to communicate that hope through the bond again. I needed her to know I was going to save her, no matter how bleak it may have felt. All I could do for her now was to ease her worry the slightest bit.

“Do you remember when you used to partially shift just so you could share that rough kitten tongue with me, Leon?” She returned to my side and caressed my cheek like I was still her docile slave. Like I was still the coward who ran away without ripping her heart out. The man who had nothing left to live for but himself, who didn’t care where I ended up as long as I was away from here, even if my friends were left behind to die. Her guards held me as she straddled my lap and placed her arms on my shoulders.

“How jealous would she be if she saw you buried inside me, Pussy Cat?” She rubbed her cold cunt against my lap. “Why don’t you show her who you really are? Show her the fierce lion who turned into a house cat for his master.”

I tensed at the reminder, and I resented the deep pang of humiliation that near paralyzed me. When she and her minions captured my entire Pride, I’d been much too weak to fight back. I’d done everything she said when she’d threatened their lives. I’d rolled over when I thought all was lost, and I’d disgraced myself, time and again, just so I could live another worthless day. Pathetic. I was so pathetic then. Selfish, empty, and weak.

I would not be that man anymore.

I kept grazing those restraints, scraping across the fibers as they tore under each pass of my nail.

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