Page 99 of Locke

Locke’s lips curled up into a snarl as he lunged forward, positioning himself in front of her. The sharp clicking sound of his claws unsheathing makes the fur on my body stand. Locke’s arm raised, ready to slash at her, but before he could make contact Bear swiftly yanked Nadia back.

“Nadia!” Bear roared at her. “Never approach the alpha and luna! Especially, when one is down.”

Nadia whimpered and hid her face in Bear’s neck. I wanted to comfort Nadia. She’d been nothing but a good friend, but the pain had me shaking, and trembling. I didn’t know if I could keep going on like this. My body was breaking all over again, but the pain was ten times worse.

Bram was right. I wanted to die.

Locke stared down at me and back to Switch, who didn’t know how to approach the situation.

Help me or help the pack?

“Phone,”I linked him.“Look, phone.”

I’ve been on my own for years. I’ve taken care of myself. If the Goddess said I had to go through a pain like this, be equal to Locke, in order for a pack to be formed, then I knew there was an end of this. I just had to take the journey to get there.

Locke reluctantly took the phone from Switch. Locke’s eyes glazed over with fury, his grip tightening over the phone. “Shit,” he hissed, handing it back to Switch. “Got a problem,” he announced.

I curled my body in on itself, keeping myself in the fetal position. Tajah was concentrating heavily on the book that was floating in front of her. Whisps of blue and purple light surrounded her while she held a cream-colored candle, drawing a pattern in the air with the light.

My stomach rolled, and my tongue lolled out of my maw. My teeth wept, I didn't know if it was saliva or stomach acid but it burned as it left my mouth.

“It’s your venom,”a deep voice entered my head.Fenrir.

Locke was barking out orders, yelling on the phone to get the Iron Fang members here and have weapons loaded.

“Pay attention to me, my luna. Don’t worry about Locke. He can handle himself.”

I whined when I felt my rib cage crack and lengthen.

“You’re strong, but to become stronger, one must break into a thousand pieces. The bones become tougher than they ever were in the beginning.”

My mouth continued to leak venom, soaking the ground in front of me. I felt the fur on my face sizzle and the venom land on my bare skin.

“Your skin and fur will be impenetrable by any human bullets, not even silver will burn you in your lycan form.”

I concentrated on his voice, holding onto him like an anchor through the pain.

“You are gaining your own wolf. She will teach you the ways of your forms. Tonight, you will have to concentrate without her, follow your instincts.”

“Why?” I screamed out loud, unable to concentrate to link back.

Locke’s eyes darted to me but quickly but masked his concern when he yelled at Bones and Sizzle to get guns from the bunker.

“I said follow your instincts, female. You know how to fight,”Fenrir growled back at me and my body shuddered in response.

My heart pounded relentlessly within my chest, its rhythmic thuds reverberating in my ears, as if echoing through a cavern. In that moment, an overwhelming wave of anguish washed over me, gripping my being like iron. A searing pain ripped through my back, as if every bone was snapping one by one, causing me to emit a guttural roar that boomed through the air, silencing the clamor of voices around the crackling fire.

The next thing I heard were trucks entering the clearing, surrounding us, all while my body continued to break into a thousand pieces, shifting into the lycan I needed to be to make this club into a pack.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Locke

As if things weren’t stressful enough, we had to add another problem to the equation. My mate was dealing with an unbearable amount of pain. It was unfair to her, morphing from human to wolf to Lycan, and having to deal with it alone.

Now we deal with Idris. A threat that I’ve only briefly discussed with her because the problem felt so far away. Except it wasn’t. It had followed us here to the Iron Fang.

Idris, the banished fae necromancer from the Elysian realm, and his followers had entered the territory right from under our noses.