Page 42 of The Forbidden Wolf

“Father!” I skidded to a stop. “What are you doing! Release him!”

Father ignored me, lifting his head so that Mateo’s limp body dangled above the floor. My wolf couldn’t cry, but the girl now buried deep inside curled up in a ball with her arms over head, unable to watch this cold-blooded murder.

“Look away, Elyse,” Max warned me, clamping his jaws tighter around my father’s neck. “He’s left me no choice.”

“No!” I bounded forward and slammed my paws into Father’s shoulder, loosening Max’s hold. “Stop it, Father! Let him go! Right now!”

An ugly snarl bubble from Father’s throat as he whipped his head around to glare at me with eyes as empty and black as the mechanical shark in Jaws: The Revenge. He bit down harder, fangs sinking into Mateo’s shoulders, squirting blood all over me.

“Daddy, please!” I shrieked, loud enough for every mind in the room to hear.

My father paused. He blinked and shook his head as Kiana had done just moments before, and then his stormy eyes cleared to their usual sky blue. He dropped Mateo in a pile of wet fur and stared at me, blood dripping from his jaws. Max slid off of Father’s back and nuzzled Mateo’s neck.

“Why would you do that?” I whispered. “Why would you do any of this?”

Father looked around, his wolf brow crinkling with confusion. “I… um… well… terrible offense… Kiana… Sebastian must fulfill his obligations…”

“Under no circumstances!” Max barked. He stepped protectively over Mateo’s body. “You are lucky my friend’s heart is still beating. I suggest you leave now in case it stops.”

Father swiped his tongue nervously around his wet mouth. “You betrayed us first…” His eyes hardened, boring holes through my heart. “You betrayed us.”

“Daddy, no.” I sank to my belly and flattened my ears, tail sweeping the floor like an obedient pup. “I promise you. I would never conspire against my pack, much less my sister. This has all been a terrible misunderstanding, but we can still fix this.” I glanced toward the far end of the room where Kenzo still had Kiana and Damian cornered. “That very impressive male has made a claim on Kiana that could still join the packs, but Damian has denied it, which is not within his right. He says that Kiana mates with Sebastian or—”

“Not at all!” Father shoved his fangs at me. “Damian speaks for me in all things.”

I scooted backward on my belly. “Father, that makes no sense. If Kiana has no heir…”

“Sebastian will sire the heir!” Father roared, spattering my face with bloody saliva.

My hidden human self cringed away from his hate-filled eyes, but my wolf…

My wolf was done. If my father and sister would rather wage war than see me have even one nice thing, then so be it. I shot to my feet and pushed the wrinkled top of my snarling muzzle flat against my father’s, using surprise and momentum to nudge him backward several steps. “Then the heir will be whelped by me.”

Razor sharp claws stabbed between my ribs, shoving me off my feet as white hot pain flared through the left side of my body—and my brain. Lights flashed in the corners of my eyes when the floor slammed into my right side. Thrashing my head back, I caught a glimpse of slate gray fur before a pair of fangs crunched together in the soft part of my neck behind my ear and jaw.

I screamed, paws ripping at the carpet. Voices crowded my mind, some familiar, some not, all of them in shock—I was being slaughtered by a Beta.

“Enough,” Damian said. “You’ve gone too—”

His word broke off in a strangled outward cry—and so did an enormous chunk of my neck. Hot blood soaked my fur. I couldn’t lift my head. But I saw the dark gray wolf step over my body, felt his protective growl vibrating deep inside my core. Darkness and light danced in my vision, taking turns taking the lead. My pulse roared in my skull like a train leaving the station. My eyelids felt as heavy as my ribcage...

The last thing I heard was my sister releasing the howl of retreat.

Chapter Seventeen

I faded in and out of reality and dreams. My sister’s childish giggles echoed down a hallway. Father’s hands lifted me to his shoulders to see the ducklings at the park. Mother spread cool cloths to squelch the bonfire on my forehead, poured warm steamy liquids into my mouth. I opened my eyes in a sterile infirmary like the one the girl on TV seemed to wake up in every other episode. I opened them again in the gilded cage of the Tower Room, unsure if the other room had ever existed.

Once, Tom Hanks brought me a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils and tucked me in for a nap, but I couldn’t find them anywhere when I awoke, so I went back to sleep because what was the point of anything if not even Tom could be counted on. Ruby rolled me back and forth to change my bandages several times a day. We had no need of doctors with our rapid healing powers, but mine were moving very slow.

Sebastian came and stood in the doorway, wearing a white T-shirt and dark wash jeans, wringing his little tweed cap between his hands, but I blinked, and a strange blonde man had taken his place… the mind-bender from that show… they’d gotten that part scary close to right… He shifted into a slate gray wolf and jumped onto my bed, whispering over and over that I’d finally gone too far. Then he drove his muzzle into my neck and ripped the flesh away again…

I screamed and thrashed onto my side as a thousand little pricks of pain tore at my flesh. A soft hand settled on my arm as the crackling of plastic filled my left ear. “There now. Almost good as new,” a female voice crooned. “I don’t think you’ll need another bandage.”

When I blinked, the world came into focus at last. Raindrops slid down the window at the corner of the headboard, but the chandelier above the bed kept the gloom at bay. I rolled onto my back, finally fully aware of just how obscenely comfortable the mattress felt.

Yara smiled and brushed a lock of hair from my eyes. “The sunshine has returned.”

“How long?” I rasped. My mouth felt and tasted like a New York City sidewalk.

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