Page 4

F aye

My body begins trembling, shaking so hard that my teeth chatter together, the sound audible in the silent woods around me. This can’t be happening. I survived the rapids. I can see the castle. I’m nearly safe.

And yet, the castle taunts me. It’s still too far away for anyone inside to see me or hear me.

He leans over me, and his sweat drips onto my hand.

I look up into his dark eyes and see that his pupils have spread, so that now the brown is washed out with black.

There’s something inhuman about his eyes, something that speaks of an evil force capable of the kind of things I’ve only ever seen in my nightmares.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” he asks, before driving a foot into my rib cage.

I cry out, sinking back, curling around my torso. It takes a minute to get the air back in my body, but when I do, I start to back away from him. I’m crawling on my hands and knees, knowing I can’t escape him but needing to try.

“I am going to kill you, Faye,” he tells me, his tone matter-of-fact. Almost emotionless. “Your men are going to find your body out here, and they’re not going to be able to do a thing about what I’ve done to you.”

My thoughts start working. “And what if they can, Kurt? What if this time it’s finally enough for the council to do something? They won’t just throw you out and make you a feral. After killing three people, they’re going to end your life.”

His eyes narrow. “That won’t happen.”

I keep going, desperate for anything that might stop him. “How can you be sure?” It’s hard to keep talking through the pain, but I grip my bloody side and push through. Desperate. “You left your scent all over Serra. You’re going to leave your scent all over me. They’re going to know you did it.”

“They won’t care! I’m Pack Fucking Obsidian! I’m untouchable!” he shouts, the veins in his neck bulging.

“Are you?” I challenge, crawling backwards. “They are still investigating Serra’s murder… I mean, maybe if you’d attacked me years later they wouldn’t put it all together, but you think they won’t connect the dots when two omegas you’re connected to die within a short time of each other?”

He shakes his head, his eyes wild. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no idea how powerful my father is. Hector, the ultima, is his best fucking friend.”

That figures. That’s why Hector has been rooting for me to let Kurt be my mate.

I keep crawling backwards, wanting as much distance between this dangerous man and myself as possible. “What do you think it’d be like to have your head chopped off in front of everyone? To bring that kind of disgrace to your father and your pack?”

He leaps out at me, capturing me around the throat. For a second, I can’t breathe, but then his grip loosens, and he drags me closer, so close our lips almost touch. “You can’t scare me, Faye. You can’t trick me. Today, you’re going to die.”

Then he shoves me back onto the ground.

“Is it worth the risk?” I pant, trying to shift so I’m not on my back and completely at his mercy.

He gives a smile that’s cruel. “To finally kill you slowly and painfully? Yes, it’s worth the risk.”

I’m breathing hard. Prepared for the worst.

“Unfortunately for you, you humiliated me. You insulted me so badly that there was no coming back from it. You could never be my omega. Never be mother to my children. All because of your damn ego, and those assholes. Assholes you stink like.”

I plant my hands firmly on the ground and prepare to run, even knowing that I might not be able to. My legs are shaking like leaves. But before I can try to make a run for it, he lunges at me, shifting in mid-air, growling as he lands on me with all four paws.

His teeth bury into my shoulder and a scream tears from my lips.

I’m crying and begging, hands fisting in his fur and pushing against him, trying to get him off, but he seems to not even feel my attempts to stop him.

Pain burns through my veins, and blackness dances in my vision.

I feel hot blood running over my shoulder and down the front of my chest.

But then Kurt releases me, jumping back. I stare at him, heart thumping wildly in my chest, wondering what he’s doing. And then I remember: he wants to make this slow. He’s going to tear me apart piece by piece.

The puncture points from where his teeth embedded in me throb, gushing blood, and I keep my face pointed up, afraid that if I look at the wound, I might faint.

Kurt pulls his lips back, showing me all his teeth, scarlet and eerie.

The sand is sticking to every part of me that’s coated in blood, grating on my skin.

“Please,” I whimper when he snarls and advances on me again.

Because I’m in my human form and he’s not, he can’t speak to me, but he can hear me and understand what I’m saying, so I try.

I try one last desperate thing to save my life, no matter how pathetic it makes me feel. “Please, I’ll take it all back.”

He circles me, and I flinch every time his muscles tense. But he doesn’t jump out at me. He just keeps circling me until one of his paws reaches out, and he slashes my arm with his claws. I whimper and scoot back, trying to ignore this new injury. It’s just one of many after all.

“Please. We can figure this out. Things don’t have to end like this.”

He growls again and leaps forward, slamming me back onto the ground.

I hold painfully still as he steps back and runs his maw over my stomach, his drool dripping down onto my bare skin.

I realize the top of my dress was torn at some point when I was in the rapids, and now my entire stomach is exposed.

Kurt buries his nose in what’s left of my shirt, smelling, and the sensation is so horrific I want to crawl outside of my body.

“I’ll take everything back,” I sob, still digging for purchase in the sand, inching my way up the beach and away from him as he watches me, as if that’s going to accomplish anything.

Every bone in my body aches, but still, I try to crawl away from him.

“I’ll tell the council I was lying about everything—about my brother, about that girl.

You’ll never hear another peep from me about it. Please.”

Kurt growls and follows me up the beach slowly, his head tipped down, his pupils almost overtaking his eyes, but still menacing and cold. He’s watching me. He knows what I’m doing, but he doesn’t care, because he knows I can’t escape.

“I’ll do whatever you want,” I say, the last word coming out on a broken breath, severed into two syllables. “Whatever you want, Kurt, please?—”

With one last, lethal growl, Kurt lurches forward, and I cower down into the sand, putting my hands up over my face and screaming as loudly as I can. I feel his teeth graze against my hands, but suddenly, it’s like he’s been deleted from thin air.

When I look up, there’s a flurry of movement, and a large, white wolf is tumbling through the sand with Kurt, who now looks tiny in comparison. I’m still gasping for breath, but my hands flutter up around my throat, as though it’s possible I died and didn’t notice.

But I’m alive.

How?

Whimpers, growls, and the sounds of a fight seem to rise up all around me.

My gaze darts to the two wolves, my head spinning.

Kurt is… being ripped to shreds just feet away, yipping and whining, trying to get away from the white wolf, who isn’t relenting.

Even when Kurt starts to stagger and fall, the white wolf snaps at him and takes out chunks of his flesh, doing everything short of ripping his throat out.

I’ve never seen wolves act like this before. Kurt had set out to slowly torture me, but it’s like this wolf wants to quickly and violently shred the bastard to pieces. And he can do it. Because he’s huge. He’s three or four times the size of any wolf I’ve ever seen before.

I realize I’m backing up, the sand pushing against my heels, my hands grappling for purchase.

When I hit the grass, I cry at the soft feeling of it under my hands and haul myself up onto the soil, just wanting to be on solid ground.

But it’s not enough. I have to keep going.

I have to get away from the two fighting wolves, because when they’re done, I have no idea what the white wolf will do to me.

The white wolf suddenly takes Kurt by the neck and begins to shake him around. Blood oozes from his throat as Kurt flails about. Then the white wolf throws him, before leaping on him once more.

Kurt stops fighting. Stops moving. But pieces of Kurt continue to be thrown around as the white wolf rips him to pieces.

I try to keep crawling away, but my shoulder pulls, and I cry out.

This is when the massive white wolf turns, blood dripping from his maw as he looks at me, his eyes studying me intently.

My body folds in on itself, recognizing the ultima even before my mind does.

It’s something I would have known already in any other state, given the size of the wolf.

The movement has me crying out in pain, but I’m unable to resist the urge to cower in front of the powerful wolf in front of me.

He moves toward me, and I watch, even with my head lowered, my heart racing.

Unsure of what this unknown ultima’s intentions are.

Unsure if he might just not want to deal with two unimportant wolves fighting at all.

I’ve heard stories of ultimas who simply killed wolves out of annoyance.

Maybe this wolf is like that. Kurt may not be the one to kill me today, but I may still die.

Perhaps even in a worse way, if that’s possible.

“Please,” I murmur.

Slowly, I get my limbs to work again, and, still cowering, I try to crawl away, my shoulder and stomach protesting with every movement. My entire body screams with pain as I try not to look at the ultima. As I try to just get away from him.

“Little one,” someone says, and when I glance back, the white wolf is gone, and in his place is a tall, naked, strange man with white hair loose around his face.

What’s left of my breath whooshes out of my lungs.

Even in this state, hanging onto life by a thread, my body and mind must acknowledge that he’s one of the most gorgeous men I’ve ever seen in my life, his skin glowing with a stronger kind of life force than even the ultimas I’d met.

He’s covered in blood, most of it likely Kurt’s, but even as gory and disgusting as he is, his beauty shines through.

And yet, I don’t know what he wants with me.

“Please, I don’t want to cause any trouble,” I whimper, closing my eyes.

The world fades away for the briefest moment, and then there’s a feeling deep in my stomach tugging toward him, wanting me to turn and look at him, to continue to take him in.

But I fight the feeling. I just want to get out of here.

“I’m only trying to get to the castle,” I say, hoping maybe he’ll take pity on me and either let me go or help me get there.

He kneels down in front of me, studying me, and instantly I’m swimming in hazel eyes that are flecked with green and brown, a ring of gold around the outside.

They seem to stare into my soul and somewhere beyond.

His skin is beautifully tanned, and his beard is neatly trimmed.

There’s something about him that just screams that he’s put together, in a way I’ve never experienced before.

In a way I wouldn’t have expected from a man who had just torn Kurt to pieces.

“You’re safe now,” he whispers, reaching out and running a finger along my jaw.

Power sparks from his touch, and I stiffen, unsure what to do. The sensation mesmerizes me. It makes me feel strange, keeps me looking at him even when my instincts say to look away.

What is this I’m feeling? And why does it make me nervous?

“Who–?” I begin.

“I’m Eli,” he tells me gently.

Eli. For some reason, I’d thought he was older than me when I first spotted him, probably because of the strength of his power. But as my gaze slides over his smooth skin and his sharp cheekbones, I realize that he can’t be much older than me. An ultima. With this much power. Barely older than me.

“Oh my little mate,” he murmurs, his gaze moving over me. “My tiny mate,” he continues, as though the first statement warrants a correction.

“Mate?” I repeat, confused.

Moving, I wince as my body screams with pain. I don’t know what this man is talking about. I don’t know why he’s here or what he wants from me.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” I say, then a sob explodes from my lips.

He frowns. “Never, my tiny mate,” he says. Then, to my surprise, he reaches down, scoops me up, and hefts me into his arms.

I cry out as pain rips through my body.

He trembles, leaning down and kissing my forehead several times. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I should’ve been here quicker. I should’ve known.”

Tears roll down my face, and I sniff, but I don’t move. His arms are warm. Deceptively safe.

“No one will ever hurt you again,” he says, and there’s a note of anger to his voice. Of determination.

His scent rolls over me, that of sandalwood and musk. It’s a scent that’s powerful and subtle all at once. A scent that begs me to breathe it in and relax. It moves through me, lifting me up, and I suddenly feel as though I’ve had several glasses of champagne.

It could be the relief of not having to hold myself up any longer or the intoxicating way he smells, but I suddenly don’t feel the pain from my shoulder, or my back, or my stomach. Even the headache pulsing between my temples abates, leaving nothing but a pleasant, warm buzzing throughout my body.

He carries me away from the beach, but before we go, I catch a glimpse of Kurt’s mangled, bloodied body, lying on the sand like a wet towel, his blood and chunks of his fur and flesh littering the area, almost like he walked over a grenade.

“Oh, Gods,” I murmur, just before my head lolls back, and everything goes black.