Page 104 of Lord of the Lone Wolf
“You will not speak his name,” Nasume howled, slashing at Kitsuki with shadows that left trails of green light in their wake.
Kitsuki met the attack head-on to deflect it. “Maseo is a better man than you could ever hope to be. He deserves the love and affection you denied him in your selfish cruelty.”
With each mention of his son’s name, Nasume’s attacks grew wilder and more frenzied. The calculated seduction was gone, replaced by animalistic rage. Shadow claws raked across Kitsuki’s chest, scraping at his armor.
Kitsuki retaliated with a series of precise strikes, his sword cutting through Nasume’s defenses to leave a deep gash across the wolf king’s shoulder. Black blood, tainted by necromancy, oozed from the wound.
“Look at what you have become,” Kitsuki said, gesturing to the dripping ichor. “You have sacrificed your soul for power that was never meant to be wielded.”
Nasume snarled. “And it was worth it. I would do anything to make you feel something for me, even if it is hatred.”
The admission was so pathetic that Kitsuki almost pitied him. Almost. “You could have had my respect. My friendship, even. But you wanted possession instead of connection. Control instead of comfort.”
“I wanted all of you,” Nasume replied. “Not pieces. Not parts. Everything.”
“And in wanting everything, you ensured you would have nothing.”
Nasume’s face contorted with rage and pain. He thrust both hands forward, and a torrent of faces screaming in silent agony followed, their souls trapped by Nasume’s necromancy.
Kitsuki recognized some of the Valzernan soldiers who had fallen in yesterday’s battle. All of them weaponized against their will. Rage burned through Kitsuki, hotter and fiercer than before. It was the ultimate desecration.
His dragon came to the forefront, no longer content to lend power from within. “You dare to use the souls of the fallen as weapons?”
Nasume’s mad grin grew wider. “So beautiful. You are magnificent in your rage, Kitsuki. This is what I have always wanted.”
“Then see what you have awakened,” Kitsuki’s dragon snarled. He swung his blazing sword in a wide arc, cutting through the attack. His silver fire cleansed them, burning away the corruption and releasing the trapped souls in flashes of light.
Nasume howled in rage and pain as his power rebelled against him. “What are you doing? Stop it!”
“Freeing them.” He cut through the shadows, liberating the souls from Nasume’s grip. “I am restoring the peace you stole from them.”
The wolf king staggered back, his power diminishing with each soul released. The oppressive darkness receded, and the natural light of the room reasserted itself.
“You cannot do this,” Nasume gasped. Green veins stood out against his ashen skin, pulsing with each labored breath. “Their power is mine.”
“They were never yours to claim.”
Nasume’s expression twisted with hatred and desperation. “If I cannot have you, no one will. Especially not my bastard whelp.”
Cold hands wrapped around Kitsuki’s throat, shadow claws digging into his skin. Nasume’s face was inches from his own. “I have you now,” Nasume hissed, his breath smelling of death anddecay, as if he were rotting from the inside out. “If I cannot have you willingly, I will take you by force.”
The shadows surrounding them swirled into a cocoon that enveloped them both in darkness. Kitsuki could feel the necromantic energy pulsing from Nasume, reaching for him with hunger.
“You cannot force what we will never give,” Kitsuki’s dragon growled, struggling against Nasume’s grip. He raised his sword, but the shadows wrenched it from his hand.
“Watch me,” Nasume replied, his grip tightening as he forced Kitsuki backward toward the massive bed. “I have waited centuries for this moment. I refuse to be denied any longer.”
Kitsuki’s dragon channeled his fire to raise his body temperature, bringing dragon scales to his skin that glowed silver-white with heat.
Nasume hissed in pain as the heat burned his hand, but he refused to let go. “It will take more than that to drive me away. I have endured centuries of rejection. What is a little pain compared to that?”
The heat intensified, Kitsuki’s scales now glowing to illuminate the shadow cocoon from within. Nasume’s skin blistered where it touched Kitsuki, but the wolf king held on, his madness giving him strength beyond reason.
“I will never let you go,” Nasume declared, his voice a mixture of pain and perverse pleasure. “Never again.”
Nasume threw Kitsuki onto the bed hard enough that the ornate headboard cracked against the obsidian wall. Before Kitsukicould recover, Nasume was upon him, his knees digging into Kitsuki’s thighs as he straddled him.
“Get off us, you depraved animal,” Kitsuki’s dragon roared, his fist connecting with Nasume’s jaw. “I would rather die than let you touch me.”
