Page 90 of Moon Kissed

Before me, four wolves fell in line—growling, menacing, charging straight at me.

“Guys, stop,” Edric bellowed, wholly human. “Calm down!”

I turned to face them head-on, dragging my useless leg with me. I couldn’t run, but when they caught me, I’d fight. I’d bite, claw, rip, snap, and take as good as I got.

Paxton, Orion, Nyx, and Badr launched through the air—

—and were hit with a wave of fur and teeth.

Ten wolves took them down and out—seven tackling them and three standing guard in front of me.

My fates shifted fast, throwing off my defenders.

“Ava, what the fuck are you doing!” I don’t think I ever heard Badr angrier, and that was saying something.

The gorgeous ebony wolf disappeared, leaving the lithe, graceful human she was in her place. “What does it look like I’m doing?” Ava replied. “Protecting my high priestess.”

“Do you think you might be taking this judge-and-jury thing too far?” Nyx snapped. “It’s over, Ava, now stand aside!”

Ava just smirked.

Shifting, I stifled a scream as all the broken bones and slashed skin unleashed their pain on me at once.Agony. Everything was agony, and it still doesn’t hurt as much as losing Mom’s letters.

“Are you alright, High Priestess?” Elizabella asked. She was a short, curvy girl with long black and white hair—the perfect match to her wolf’s black and white fur.

“No, I’m not alright. Cut it a bit close there, don’t you think?”

“We weren’t sure if this was the right time.” Ava came over and helped me up, draping my arm over her shoulder. “And then we were.”

“Hold on.” Edric shoved through Paxton and Nyx. “What is this? Why are you two... doing that!” He gestured to us and the calm and casual way that we were touching and chatting.

“No, you hold on, Eddy-boy, because everything’s about to become real clear.” I snapped my fingers. “Do it.”

Chains burst out of the floors. Latching on to every omega, alpha, and beta, they wrapped their wrists, snaked their throats, gagged their screaming mouths, and secured them to the floor.

No one was going anywhere.

“Hmmph!” Orion bellowed through his gag, body setting alight.

“Nope, none of that.” Melisent summoned a wave and doused him like a candle flame. “Everyone is going to sit down,shut up, and not interrupt. If you do, you’ll feel those chains getting tighter.”

The metal restricted Orion’s throat, ending his muffled obscenities as his face flushed redder, and redder—

“That’s enough,” Melisent said, because I sure as fuck wasn’t going to. “He’s listening now.”

“You’re all listening now,” I continued, turning my back on my fates. I had to, because if I looked at Orion for another second, I’d finish the job. “But what you weren’t doing is asking the right questions.

“Did you kill Holly? Did you kill Hall?” I mimicked, high-pitched and whiny. “Blah, blah, blah. Who the fuck even cares about those pricks? But since you all want to pretend you do, the long answer is no I didn’t kill them.” I smiled wide. “I have people for that sort of thing now.”

I took no small amount of pleasure in the disbelief in dozens of widening eyes. “Yeah, that was the other question you should’ve been asking.What was I doing over the last year?And the answer to that is...” I stepped back, resting my hands on Ava’s and Melisent’s shoulders. “Recruiting.”

“Hmmph!” I didn’t know who that was sounding off behind me, and cared even less.

“You see, I realized something in my time away.” I paced before my rapt audience, naked as a carrot. “The way Wolf Nation is governed and run as a society is corrupt, diseased, and due for an overthrow.

“It makes no sense that we recognize that only the incorruptible should decide someone’s guilt or innocence, but it doesn’t occur to us that the same people should be law enforcement, our lawmakers, leaders, our council. Why is that?” I lofted as I passed by Kitty and patted her on the head. “Why is it I’m the first one to see Luame’s true purpose for the creationof epsilon wolves? It was never for us to waste away in dusty old temples, waiting for you all to decide when you have use for us.

“The epsilons were born... to rule.”

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