Page 84 of Moon Cursed

Zarina went down screaming, clutching the ruined, burnt-out eye sockets where her eyes used to be.

—and I failed.

Chains rattled.

Snapping my head up, I got out a single shout in time for Orion to fall on my head—crashing down on top of me and pinning me to the floor.

“Look what we have here.”

“Get off of me!”

Orion laughed out loud as he hauled me to my feet, his grip like iron around my arm and neck.

“Get off!”

He spun me around as Badr hit the deck, falling gracefully on his shifted hindlegs, and not breaking a single bone in his rotten, worthless body.

“Bring her.”

Orion obeyed.

My fated mate, chosen by the goddess herself to be my soulmate, dragged me off the dais and through the baying mob. Every solid, unphasing inch of me.

They tore at me.

Ripped my braids off my head. Spit on me. Doused me in scalding hot coffee. Punched me in the face, stomach, nose, mouth. Burned me with flames. Blinded me with sun. Forced water down my throat. Stabbed sharpened bamboo shoots through my stomach. And laughed.

The worst part as they beat me so easily and so quickly... was how loud and vilely they laughed.

Deep down, I screamed at my wolf to come out, wake up, take over, protect us, FIGHT!

She didn’t even stir.

I was a bloody, broken doll by the time we closed the short distance to Badr. Orion long since stopped holding me up and just clamped my wrist, wrenching it as he dragged me across the floor—collecting vicious kicks.

“Lift her.”

Orion propped me on my knees, then grabbed me under the chin—holding me and my head up.

Because I couldn’t do either.

“Daciana Volana, queen of nothing and no one, you’ve escaped justice not once, not twice, but three times.”

A shadow fell over me, looming large through my blurry, swollen eyes.

Badr shifted into a magnificent, tawny alpha wolf, bearing both unique and pretty black markings between his eyes. Lifting his massive head high, it was Badr who looked the king right then—as naturally as if Luame herself came down and placed a crown on his head.

Badr grunted and barked. Wolf speak, but I knew it better than English.

“This is for my brother.”

I knew even before Orion tipped my head all the way back. Before Badr opened his maw and roared. So many times I threatened to rip a throat out, and one horrible day, I did so.

That day, I would find out what it felt like... before I joined Castor.

“Edric, Paxton,” I whispered through any bonds that remained. “Take care of her.”

Badr lunged, fangs sinking into my neck and—

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