Page 136 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

“All the better to see you with,my dear,” she replied, her teeth elongating and her nose growing.

“What sharp teeth you have, Grandmother,” I replied.

She chuckled, snapping those teeth as her arms shortened and her bones popped in the longest shift I’d ever seen. “All the better to eat you with,my dear,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

I threw my blade. She caught it between her teeth, snapping it into metal slivers. I attacked, sweeping her feet out from under her before she could fully form and stabbing with a second blade. She growled and snapped at my throat, but I jumped back, chest heaving, two blades in my hands.

“If my son cannot do what needs to be done, I will do it myself!” Her words ended in a sharp growl, her shift complete.She was a pure-white werewolf with amethyst eyes. Drool dropped between her teeth, pooling on the floor.

“Where’s my grandmother?” I hissed.

She leapt.

I ducked.

Shen

My paws boundedbeyond the town’s borders and into the woods. There, black mages gathered with snarling half-wolf, half-man creatures.

Rogues,Lycus whispered.

That was almost us. Would have been if not for Alia.

I growled and shifted, my bones snapping and popping as I emerged a man. “Who is in charge here?” I asked, the words a demand threaded with all the authority I held as an Alpha.

A Red stepped forward.

“I am,” he said, pushing back his hood. It was the man who betrayed Alia.

“You,” I growled, feeling Lycus push forward.

The rogues growled back.

“Me. Are you going to chase me again, little wolf? Or shall this be a fair fight?”

“Fair would be you leaving.”

“Oh, you don’t understand, do you?”

A few things clicked into place. The way this army showed up, just close enough to get a reaction from us. The way there had been calculated attacks to drive Alia’s people away from her. How her grandmother had been silent all this time when awoman as stubborn as she would have fought to the death to get her power back.

Maybe she was. Not in the way we expected, but in a way that was much worse.

Graham cackled as he saw the dawning on my face. “Oh, now you get it. She won’t be under your thrall for much longer.”

I turned, shifting into my wolf mid-leap.

“Run, little wolf, run. And hope you aren’t too late.”

Alia

I drovea blade up as the white werewolf jumped over me. I adjusted my grip so it nicked the werewolf’s back leg. The werewolf let out a single howl that was filled with rage.

“Aurelia!”

I turned, seeing my grandmother at her throne, her crossbow trained on the white werewolf. She pulled the trigger, but the shot went wide, thunking into the wall. The werewolf snarled and leapt up the red runner toward Grandmother. I barreled into the werewolf and sent her skidding from the rug with a blade in her shoulder.

She tried to get up, but her claws slipped on the polished floor. It gave me the split second I needed to get ahead of her. I ran toward Grandmother, the werewolf snapping at my heels. I arrived at the throne half a second before the werewolf.

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