Torin hadn’t quite shifted to his human form yet, and just as the magic was about to wash over him, he must have scented us. True mates only had to be shifted and near the other for their wolves to recognize the mate bond.
I had lost complete control of my beast now as we ran faster than the wind, our souls desperately searching for the one who would make us complete. The one who would right the wrongs this pack had bestowed upon us.
If I’d have been in my right mind, I’d have been disgusted at this sentiment. I was not the type to wait around for a white fucking knight. No way. But wolves did not think like humans, and mate bonds were sacred and revered… cherished.
It was the human side that screwed with the magic.
Victor seemed taken aback as we dashed toward him, and I saw his stance adjust as he prepared to be attacked. He thought we were just like our father, but he couldn’t be more wrong.
When I sidestepped him and headed for his still wolfed-out son, the expression on the alpha’s face was almost comical. Torin, meanwhile, had his hackles up, and that was my first indication this was not going to go well.
Not a huge surprise to me, even if my wolf held more faith.
My emotions were mixed, strongly leaning toward disbelief, disgust, and annoyance, but there was also the tiniest bit of hope. Hope that this might be the moment everything changed for me in this pack.
Torin would be the future alpha. He would control all the wolves, and if I was his true mate, they would have to learn to tolerate me. My father’s sins might finally not be mine to shoulder.
He straightened as I closed in, his wolf almost double the size of mine, and a grey so dark, it was near black. There were a few speckles of white on his right eye and two white socks on his back paws, but otherwise, he was a midnight beast.
A magnificent midnight beast who was showing no signs of ill effect from the blade I’d plunged into his chest.
Torin took a step toward me, but before we touched, another wolf jumped between us, snarling and howling. I didn’t know this one, but from the thick, mahogany pelt, it wasn’t too hard to guess. The fur color teamed with an aggressive possessiveness of Torin made it clear who faced me: Sisily.
And she was pissed.
Her wolf slammed into mine, and unlike Jaxson, this roll had nothing to do with play. It was pure violence, claws and teeth tearing into me with a ferocity that spoke of more than putting me in my place. This was purely designed to hurt… maybe even kill.
I had zero experience fighting in wolf form, but instinct kicked in, and we fought back. My jaws clamped down into her flesh and, since she wasn’t as accustomed to pain as I was, she let out a series of yelping howls. Blood filled my mouth, and I could taste her power as it drained from her body and into mine. It was the oddest sensation, but I was so caught up in the battle that I didn’t care.
“Enough!”
The alpha command froze us both in place, and I was wrenched away from her and dragged to sprawl in front of Victor. Getting back to my feet, I growled at the alpha before turning my attention to the human at his side: Torin.
“What do you want me to do, son?” Victor asked, staring me down, his alpha power locking me in place.
Torin’s jaw tensed, his lips twitching, and I couldn’t figure out what was happening. He was my mate. My true mate. The other half of my soul.
What was he actually considering right now?
“Banish her from the pack,” Torin said, sounding unsure, but he didn’t retract that statement. “I never want to see her face again.”
Pain like nothing I’d ever experienced before—and that was really saying something—crashed into me like a ton of bricks had been dropped on my body. Onto my heart. Destroying me in a way that fists and torment never had. My wolf, so newly released, dropped her head back and howled to the sky. Our soul was shattering into crystal shards of agony, the howl continuing on long past our ability to breathe.
“Banishing her won’t break the bond,” Victor warned his son, looking smug and satisfied with what was about to happen.
“I’ll expunge her from my soul if it’s the last fucking thing I do,” Torin spat, crouching down so that he was eye to eye with us.
For an extended moment, our eyes remained locked, his swimming with an unknown emotion, mine no doubt filled with pain. Although, anger was starting to make its way through the pain, and I clutched on to it like a life raft. The anger would get us through.
“You’re a disgrace to shifters everywhere,” he said slowly, like I might have trouble understanding. “You probably won’t remember this in the morning, but you’ll feel the tear of our bond as I start the rejection process.”
Standing in one rapid movement, he reached out and yanked a very naked Sisily into his arms. She had cuts and bruises littered across her human skin, but not nearly enough for my liking. “Sisily is to be the next alpha with me,” he said, really digging the knife in, “and if you set foot on this land again, we’ll take great pleasure in killing you.”
I hadn’t thought I could hurt more than when he’d told his father to banish me, but then he kissed her, hands roaming across her body, tongue stroking against a bitch who was not his mate. This time when my soul screamed, our howl was louder than I’d ever heard, and it wasn’t until Victor tried to kick me out of the way that I noticed it was hurting the other shifters in my vicinity. Pack members were hitting the ground, covering their ears against my lonely lament.
“Kill her!” Victor shouted. “Kill the demon bitch!”
Demon bitch? I’d fucking show him a demon bitch.
“No!” Torin burst out, but he was too late.
Dean Heathcliffe, family friend turned enemy, had my neck in his hands, and as he twisted sharply, I reached deep for the strength to get out of this. No fucking way would they take me down. Never again would I bend to the will of the Torma pack.
I knew I had untapped strength; I just had to find it.
My wolf showed me the way, her debilitating howl just the tip of the iceberg. Giving her all the freedom, her power shot out like a bullet into the universe, and we were aptly reminded that we were not born of a human spirit.
We were born of the Shadow Beast, and it was to him that she called.
Another howl burst free just as Dean attempted to snap our neck. But his hands slipped off.
He tried again and again, but each time, he was thwarted by the power within my beast.
The world turned from black, white, grey, and green into something that was shades of the deepest plum. This new vision stretched across the well-lit landscape, and a second sight descended over my normal view.
Suddenly, I could see objects that hadn’t been there before, as if a shadowy veil had descended over the real world. Dean’s hands slipped off me one last time and he fell to the ground, unable to touch me a moment longer.
Shaking our fur, we got to our feet, and as I leaned forward, my nose brushed across one of the new dark figures in my veiled vision. A shadowed being that was about six feet tall.
It reacted.
The shadow fucking reacted.
It spun before running away in a skittish manner.
My wolf was as shocked as me, both of us trying to work out what the freaking hell we’d done. She surged forward again, attempting to touch another shadow—this time, it looked like a tree, which was definitely not part of the pack lands. The fields just around the pack house were normally clear, so this was from the other place.
Tugging hard on the shadow tree, a small explosion of power sent a shockwave through me, and I was jerked away from the misty branch. When I hit the ground, my wolf whimpered, completely exhausted. As the change back to human kicked in, I braced myself.
I expected it would take me a long time and hurt like fuck to turn, but it was over in a few seconds, and I stood to find that every other member of the Torma pack remained on the ground.
Completely out cold.
Well, fuck. What in the actual shifter hell had I done?
