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 theotherplace.
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?
13
If it wasn’t for my newly enhanced senses, I’d have thought they were all dead. It was so still, an eerie silence my only companion as I crept forward. The pack lands were almost never without some sort of revelry, whether in human or wolf form, but outside of the slow rise and fall of chests, there were no other signs of life.
My bare feet padded through the soft grass as I stepped over the wolves around me, careful not to disturb them. All I could think was a second perfect opportunity to escape had been handed to me, and I would not waste it this time.
I had to break this bond to the Torma pack.
To Torin. That fucking bastard.
Now that I was back in human form, I wished there was time to stab him again, followed by a swift decapitation. No coming back from that, even for a shifter. But for now, I’d just have to be satisfied with leaving my joke of a true mate—and never looking back.
By this time, the early morning light had really found its feet, and there was a bite to the sun that suggested today would be one of those “hot” winter days. Generally, those days were followed by a massive freeze, and we’d all wake up to patches of ice and snow.
Not that I’d be here to see it. My very naked ass was on its way out.
My wolf whined gently in my chest, a sad, mournful sound. She’d had such high hopes for the one who would share her soul, and maybe if Torin’s wolf had been in control, it would have been different. Wolves were honorable in ways humans were not.
