The beta who pushed Legion looks at me with eyes of cornflower blue. The same colour eyes as Theo. He lifts a fist to his heart and bows slightly, disappearing into the crowd before I can even grasp what is going on here.
A brother?
I help lift Legion up, and we’re dragged to the stage and then up the steps. The High King stays away from us but leers at us as he continues to work the crowd.
I heave a sigh and look out on it all in sheer boredom.
“Are we not entertaining you?” the goddess asks.
“Not at all. I find this quite tedious.”
The crowd boos, but she holds up one jerking arm and grins.
“Do not be so hard on her; she is filled with false confidence. No one is going to save her this time, though.”
I roll my eyes. “Do you think I fear death?”
She simply smiles.
“Bring me my Dog.”
Okay, when I hear those words, I get a little bit of a flutter of fear, but the worst part is she sees it. She feels it in the air.
A horn calls, long and low, and then three deep beats of a drum.
We stand there waiting. Minutes pass, and I start to wonder if maybe he won’t come.
But he does, growling and snapping his teeth at the betas who won’t get out of his way. They spring apart, revealing him in all his fierce perversion.
“My wolf. Come and say hello.”
She talks about him like he’s a dog. Maybe he is. The wolf walks, and then the fur and scales fall off, and in their place is a beta I recognise.
“Walker?” I whisper. “No! What did you do to him?”
Legion inhales sharply, his hand finding mine and holding tight.
He walks through the crowd. They draw back in fear, but when he gets to the bottom of the stage, he looks up, but not at me. He looks at Legion.
After almost a full minute, he looks at me, and his face changes to something that almost looks like guilt.
“Come up here, Warden, you’re going to help us decide how to kill these vermin omegas.”
He hesitates, still staring at me.
He killed Mia.
His face shuts down almost like he can hear what I thought. He steps onto the first step and pauses, looking back over his shoulder as if someone has said something to him.
“I haven’t got all day!” the goddess snaps.
Walker trudges up the steps, and somewhere between there and here, he transforms back into the hard-ass Warden we all fear so much.
I can’t take my eyes off him.
“How is that possible?” I ask with lips that feel numb.
“You turn into a wolf, too, you tell me first,” the Beta Goddess sneers.
