Page 59 of Wolf Fated
Two more gunshots clapped through the air like thunder.
Heat prickled along my skin, and I bit the inside of my cheek so hard the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I wanted to shout, to blow up all of the hunters and Stephen into dust. An invisible wind rustled my hair.
Words of power, something I didn't even believe in, swelled in my throat. I felt the weight of them on my soul like a heaviness. An ancient poem that no one knew who wrote or how it started. How I couldn't lose my men, or I'd lose myself too. How we were bonded by more than humans could ever hope to have.
"Axel, Drake, Nathan... you three are mine." The wind picked up speed around me and the hunters were shouting something I couldn't make out. "And I am yours on this day and forever."
"Kill them," Stephen bellowed like he's a madman complete with foaming at the mouth, his hands slick with blood. "Kill them all before the binding ritual is finished."
Binding?
But I didn't have time to digest his words because every hunter including Stephen pointed their gun at Axel and my two other wolves' heads.They're going to murder them.
"No, stop," I cried, but my words fell on ears grown deaf from hardened hearts.
The young hunter, the one who stared at the ground when they came here glanced up briefly.
"Please." I stretched out my hand as far as I could to him.
With shame in his eyes, he turned away from my plea and my heart squeezed so hard in my chest I gasped out a cry.
I would not stay here and watch Stephen do this. Somehow, I had to stop this, I had to try. I rushed to the silver stake buried into the ground. With all my strength, I jerked and twisted at the spike in the ground. My hands sweating as I pulled.
"Die, freak," Stephen's voice whispered with an evil promise. The barrel pointed right at Axel's head.
"No!" My scream shattered through the air like millions of glass shards.
Time warped outward like a ripple of a stone thrown on a lake with ring upon ring growing from another.
I didn't even remember moving or even blinking. One second I was two feet from Stephen, and the next I was leaping through the air. The silver cuff on my ankle scrapping down my skin. My bones breaking simultaneously, my mouth elongated.
My furry body crashed into Stephen, and we fell. The gun fired and something hot buried into my shoulder, but I didn't care. I clamped my teeth onto Stephen's arm and bit down as hard as I could. Foul blood coated my mouth along with the crunch of bone.
His screams sounded high-pitched and keening. Like the coward he was. I wanted him to suffer. Wanted him to feel every ounce of agony and hurt he'd put me through since I met him. For him to know all the times I forgave him for a slight he did me which still left a wound, a mark on my heart. And I would never forgive him this. Never.
Stephen punched at my muzzle, and I growled, shaking my head back and forth vigorously to get him to stop. I kept his arm in my mouth even though his blood tasted awful like sewer water.
"Stop," a male voice shouted.
At first, I thought it was Stephen pleading for his life. But then I understood that it was one of my mates.Yes. I have mates now.I let go of Stephen's arm and snarled when he crawled on his back away from me.
I lowered my head, my hackles raised along my back. All of my enemies were either dead, dying, or whimpering on the ground like frightened children. The need to rip out all their throats surged through me. It would be so easy. Their flesh tearing beneath my sharp teeth. Payment for what they did to my father boiled in my veins. I wanted revenge. I wanted to make them pay. They killed him. And broke my mother in the process. Because of them, I felt as though I had lived a half-life all this time until now. How something always felt like it was missing. How I had thought getting married would alleviate that need. That I would find acceptance and love. Yet, I found neither with Stephen.
My ex sobbed as he laid on the ground, cradling his bloody arm to his chest. Dark circles lined his panicked, wide eyes as he looked from me to the others and back again.
"They said you couldn't change, yet. They said you couldn't—"
Drake, in his human form, stood a foot away with a gleam in his eyes. "Don't kill him, Brook. You'll regret it later once you've transformed back."
But all I saw was the world painted gray around me with patches of white and gray. Stephen was covered in a dull red color while Drake, Nathan, and Axel around me were the only colors around. They stood out vibrant and sharp against everything else. Axel was sitting up, holding his head with one hand, but he met my gaze and nodded once. Nathan held his stomach, but he limped toward me.
"You've got to turn back, Brook," Drake said, kneeling in front of me with his hand outstretched. "It's too soon. You've shifted into your wolf before it was time. If you don't change back now, you'll forever be locked as a wolf."
"Worse," Nathan added as he sat down next to Drake. "You'll lose who you are before the full moon rises. Your humanity will fade away until you no longer remember who you are."
And would that be so bad?I half wondered. The taste of Stephen was bitter on my tongue and reminded me of everything he put me through. Mild abuse that I brushed off because I wanted someone to love me. As a wolf, none of that mattered, I could go through the rest of my life free.
"It's a draw unlike any other," Axel grunted as he tried to stand, but fell back on his ass. "Every three days around the full moon we have to fight it. The lure of wildness is stronger than any human addiction. But it must be tempered. Control it. Let the wolf out at midnight like we do. Then bask in the full moon for three glorious days and nights before becoming fully human again until the next night."
