Page 19 of Isabel and the Werewolf Beast

His head tilted to the side. His eyes glowed with a ring of red bloodlust. It was too late to talk any sense into him. He couldn’t touch me in the castle, could he? What if he could? What if he killed me? I didn’t want to die. I wanted out of this curse. Not stuck here with a werewolf who couldn’t control himself.

He kept walking as I scurried backward. His top lip curled, showing his fangs lengthening. I doubt I’d be able to touch him in here to stop him. To snap some sense into the werewolf. There was only one place I’d incapacitate him and that was outside in the gardens where I could touch things. Which meant I’d have to beat him outside. I should be able to do that, but as Dante said, my body was even more translucent, and I sensed deep inside a lessening of my power.

Dante’s top lip curled and a deep growl rolled out of his lungs.

The hairs on my arms stood on end.

I turned and ran from the library, down the stairs, across the hallway to the front door. It didn’t open. I spun around, dress and hair tangling with my hurried pace. Dante paused at the bottom of the staircase. Eyes glazed. Lost to his werewolf urges. His hand tightened on the banister and broke a piece of the timber off in his enormous hand. He flung the piece of timber at my head.I ducked in time and dove across the floor. The door opened on a sudden swing of the hinges. I scrambled to my feet and launched myself across the doorway, stumbling in my haste as my body once again became corporeal. Dante’s hand curled around my ankle, palm warm against my flesh. I kicked him in the face with my other foot. He howled in pain and let go. I lunged to my feet and ran when I should have stopped and fought him, but I’d never incapacitated a werewolf before, just killed them. How would I even stop him without killing him?

Maybe I’d just wear him out until the werewolf rage wore out?

I raced toward the labyrinth. A place in which I’d confuse him because I knew it so well, but ever since the curse, I hadn’t ventured inside. The hedges seemed to shift as though alive. What choice did I have? Try to stop Dante and risk killing him instead.

Right now, I wished I’d killed his brother on sight, then I wouldn’t be in this predicament.

I ducked into the entrance to the labyrinth and turned left. Dante howled behind me. He was close, but then the hedges repositioned sealing me off in a section that had no entrance or exit. Trapped. Curse this damn maze. There was a reason I’d avoided it. I forced both hands into the hedge to part the branches. I’d make my way out with brute strength except the plant exploded to life slithering up my arms and tangling me in their grasp. I wrenched my arms with all my muscles, but the plants held tight. Thorns burst from the branches and pierced my skin. I bit my lip to stop myself from cursing aloud at the pain so I wouldn’t alert Dante to my position. It stung so much that I had to sit on the ground.

Tears welled in my eyes as I watched crimson droplets run down my arms pinned over my head and drip onto my white gown. Each droplet spread across the fabric sealing my doom with every stain. If a vampire was bleeddry, they’d die. With no one to help me but a werewolf in a hunting rage, I didn’t like my chances. I tugged on my arms again tearing the flesh on my forearms in my panic to get free.

The plants shot out more limbs and even more thorns. Before too long the pain and blood loss grew too much. My eyelids grew heavy. Each blink was like lead that weighed my eyelashes down. Silas’s curse kept on making my life miserable and now he might have killed me.

If vampires appeared back as ghosts in the real world instead of this cursed existence, then I’d haunt him for eternity. Make his life as miserable as he’d made mine.

Chapter ten

Dante

My vision had a red ring around it, but Isabel’s form was my target. Her scent too. Sweet. Floral. Feminine. The part of me that was a beast now wanted her with a mind-controlling authority of lust. Hunt. Claim. Mine. I let out another howl. Her running incited my need to pin her to the ground and rut into her until I’d left my scent all over and inside her.

The maze changed once again. Every time I caught a whiff of her scent, I’d lose my path. This was a game. One I intended to win. The vampire woman wouldn’t get away from me. My feet dug up clumps of dirt as I raced around the next corner before it shifted on me. I skiddedto a stop. Lifted my nose in the air, then dropped to the ground on my hands and knees.

Blood.

The metallic scent triggered another hunting instinct, but hunger didn’t factor into what I longed for today.

Female.

I’d take her any way I’d have her.

My body twisted. Pain exploded in my limbs as though they were trying to morph into another animal. I fought back the pressure and launched off the ground, leaping over the hedge to get to my prize.

I landed in a crouch ready to spring again, but before me lay the woman I so desperately desired.

Her eyelids were closed. Blood pooled around her body. I lowered my head and sniffed at her wounds. An inherent need to tend to her wounds overrode the lust for a split second and I wrestled a fraction of control back from the animal. I licked her bloody arm. A thorn shot out and poked me in the lip. Pain exploded so brutally that I scooted backward away from the menace, but Isabel had multiple thorns in her limbs. How dare something hurt the female I wanted?

I growled and advanced on the plants holding her hostage. My claws grew, lengthened, and sharpened. I didn’t realize I could do that. I sliced at the leaves like Edward Scissorhands. Leaves and twigs flew all around me and littered Isabel’s immobile body. I kept slashing until the hedges retreated in surrender. Satisfied they wouldn’t test me again so soon, I bent and scooped Isabel into my arms. Her head lolled to the side. A blueish tinge to her eyelids and around her lips. I was no expert on vampires, but she didn’t look good.

To go left or right through the maze? I turned left. Each step bounced her in my arms and rubbed her soft skin against my fur. This wasn’t how I wanted the night to end. I jogged through the labyrinth until manytwists and turns later, I burst through the outer ring and glimpsed the castle ahead. I sprinted across the open space, cradling her head against my chest. Right now, she was a fragile creature, and I was her protector.

That filled me with a sense of purpose.

I hadn’t had one of those for a long time. Asher had grown into a man. Into a werewolf. He no longer needed me to protect him.

Little by little, the raging hormonal needs of the beast fell to the back of my mind as concern for the supine form Isabel took precedence. The castle door opened on my approach and I raced up the stairs. The second I crossed the threshold, Isabel’s body shimmered into a translucent form and fell through my arms.

What in the ever-living hell?

I stared, appalled I’d dropped a helpless woman. What was wrong with me? No that wasn’t right. What was wrong with her? I squatted and tried to scoop her up in my arms, but my hands swept through her body like she didn’t exist. She damn well did. I’d just held her in my arms. Again and again, I tried to lift her, but nothing I did would make my hands touch her body. I sat back on my haunches and tried to think.

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