Page 44 of Veiled Fate
And then, suddenly, I burst upon him, surging forward, ripping a huge chunk of muscle from his hind leg. He fell to the side, almost immediately shifting back into his human form.
“Damn you,” he spat at me, looking at his leg.
We both knew it could never support his weight. He was mine.
I slowly advanced, jaws dripping with his blood. My eyes never left his face. I wanted him to understand, not just to see, but toknowthat it was all his fault. That he had done it, had set it all in motion, by treating me the way he had.
All it would have taken was for him to be kind, to have given me a second chance to touch the stone and find my mate. If he’d been a good leader, I would have fallen into line and never even heard of the rebellion, let alone joined it.Well, maybe not never, Clive was a member, after all, but I certainly wouldn’t be as driven.
No, it was Arcadus’ fault. He had set his doom into motion by throwing me in the dungeon, burning down my home, kidnapping my parents, and threatening to kill them. It’s all his own doing.
I shifted back as well, standing above him.
“Impertinent bitch. How dare you attack me?” he growled.
I spat his blood. “You continue to act so tough. But I notice your wound isn’t healing any faster than normal. I wonder, might there be a reason for that?”
“This will change nothing,” he said with icy coldness, trying to cover up his fear.
But I could smell it streaming from his pores. It filled the air, a noxious, cloying thing. I didn’t need my wolf’s nose to be able to all but taste it.
Arcadus was terrified.
“The other Alphas will rip her from your body,” he cackled. “They will take that power and bind it to another stone. You cannot hope to stop all of them. You will be nothing, your body consumed by her power.”
I stilled.
“Oh, yes,” he said, sneering. “Even now, you have no idea how to use it, to wield it. Do you? It’s tearing you apart, burning you up from the inside, and you can’t stop it. Cannot stand up to her or resist her. I know all about it. There’s no hiding it from me. She will take you, I can see it. Because you areweak.”
“I’m not the scared one,” I pointed out.
“Yes, you are,” he said with sudden calmness. “You’re terrified. There’s nothing you can do about it, though, because you’re a weak fool following an even weaker traitor. A liar. A Calli-cursed stain on the world.”
I hesitated. It was a typical curse, but there was something about how he said it. Like it was trying to get at something. To taunt me. But about what?
Arcadus’ eyes widened in mock surprise. “Oh, did he never tell you? What a shame you had to find out this way. Still, the next time you see him, tell him I—”
A Fate-driven punch connected with his face, smashing his nose flat, breaking his orbital bone, and dislocating his jaw.
“You talk too much,” I spat. “Kiel is one of the good guys. No matter how you try to twist that.”
In the distance, I could hear branches snapping. Arcadus’ troops were coming near.
Let’s finish this.
My wolf howled her agreement, storming her way back into my mind as I shifted, landing on all fours just as Arcadus stirred, moaning woozily through his mangled face.
His good eye flickered open just in time to see my jaws coming to tear his throat out. I made sure I was thorough, nearly decapitating the Alpha in my efforts to ensure he was dead.
You had better stay dead. Because if we’re wrong, then a whole lot of people died today for no good reason.
Then I spat on his corpse and leaped away before his guards could catch me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What happened?” Kiel asked as he stepped around a boulder he’d been using to conceal himself.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked, not slowing as I headed for the barely visible crack between two rocks that was our way back into Lycaon.
