Page 41 of Trapped By Vengeance

“I know what you are,” she whispers.

There is a pair of oars from one of the dinghies set in the center of the raft. I grab one of them. “An abducted baroness with some skill with the blade?”

Eloise raises an accusatory finger at me. “No— more than that. You’re anestrie.”

Konrad:

I’m a werwölfe. One would think that would dissuade people from acting against me.

Apparently not.

I cast off as many garments as I can before I fully transform, turning taller and twisting into a terrifying monster.

A monster that smells the sour stench of their fear.

I snarl and then howl at the sun to express my extreme annoyance that they have chosen this path. That I had to rip my breeches for the likes ofthem.

The men surrounding me glance at one another, as though willing the others to surrender first so they could fall back without shame. But no one acts.

Until I do.

Snarling, I charge at them. They break their line immediately.

I swipe my forefront paw and make contact. A man falls to his knees, screaming. The scent of copper mingled with his abject terror unlocks the deeper animal locked within me.

Growling, I snap, latching on with my teeth. But just that movement reminds me of something locked deeper than my instincts.

The memory of the last time I let them take control. When the blood that matted my coat of fur covered my skin when I transformed back. When I could not lose the taste of my victims’ fear for weeks. Their screams still echo in my mind . . .

“You were made to be a werwölfe, but you were not meant to be a monster.”

“See!” One of the twins points at me while his brother hangs back. “He hesitates to kill. This is our chance to end him and do as we please with the prisoner!”

Snarling, I charge forward and headbutt him. He clearly wasn’t expecting that and goes flying backward, plummeting into the pond below.

Then I turn. That’s when I see a raft slowly drifting away, two forms perched upon it.

Those are my girls.

Howling with victory, I turn back to the other men. I don’t need to slaughter them. I only need to ensure they will be in no shape to pursue us.

I lunge at a cluster, my claws out.

These pirates will be maimed before Valda is.

Chapter Nineteen

Valda

“Yes,” I begin slowly, trying to think of how to salvage this situation. “I am an estrie.”

Eloise slides farther away from me on our raft, one hand reaching as if to shield Sir Pigeon from me. “Why are you here?”

I raise an eyebrow as I continue to oar— alone. My gloves at least offer me some protection from the manual labour. “You and your father abducted me, remember?”

“No— why did youletus abduct you? Since you’re a vampiric estrie, you should have been able to fend us off and escape whenever you wanted.”

Sighing, I try to lose my body to the rhythm of oaring. Unfortunately, with the awkward shape of the raft too large for me to sit in the middle with the oars, it is difficult to do. Especially with no help from a wary elfling. “Because it served my purpose.”

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