Zev clenched his fists, claws puncturing his palms. Why did it always have to resort to this?
“Lykos will never accept you as their Alpha,” Owyn snarled weakly. But the last fight went out of him and his eyes grew pleading. “Don’t harm them. Don’t you touch her. Tasnia was always kind to you.”
“I’ll not hurt your mate, Owyn.”
“Swear you won’t return.”
“I swear it.”
The Alpha nodded and slumped back in the bloody mud. His expression as broken as his body. He looked up at the sky as his thin breaths rattled in his lungs. “Kill me.”
Zev shook his head.
“Do it. You have ravaged me and mine. You owe me a quick death.”
Forgive me,Zev wanted to beg, but all he had a right to was completing the task asked of him. He carefully took the Alpha’s throat in his hands.
“You’re no wolf.” Owyn’s voice was but a faint whisper in the wind carrying the smell of death. “You’re a demon.”
“Aye … I believe you’re right,” Zev said, then he snapped Owyn’s neck.
Chapter 15
Dynalya
Dyna wrapped her arms tight around her knees, attempting to contain her trembling as much as it was for warmth. A chill had settled in her bones, and sitting close to the campfire did little to help. Cassiel stood guard across from her, arms crossed, silent and irate that she had insisted on building one. A fire would reveal their presence if any of the were-beasts came looking for them, he had said. But she couldn’t wait in the dark.
She looked around at the lakeshore he had brought her to. The water rippled in the wind, glistening white under the half-moon. A wall of pine trees surrounded them like quiet sentinels guarding them in the night.
Why did they come here? The Prince had flown with her for several miles without leaving their scent below. How would Zev find them?
She straightened. “We need to go back.”
Cassiel, who had been studying their surroundings, slid his eyes to her. He returned to surveying the dark.
“How do you know Zev meant us to come here?” she pressed.
“This is Lake Nayim,” he replied, as though it were enough explanation. At her confused frown, he sighed. “It is perfectly round. See the isle?”
At the center of the lake, there was a small isle with trees and shrubs. It had blended so well with the night she had not noticed it at first.
“On a clear day, the lake reflects the color of the sky. From above, it looks like a single blue eye.”
“Ah, like the eye of a Cyclops,” Dyna concluded. She rested her cheek over her knees, looking out at the lake again. Zev had not told her about this place. He didn’t tell her about many things but she didn’t care anymore. She only cared that he would survive.
“What is the Madness?” Cassiel asked after a while, surprising her with the hesitant question.
“At times, the wolf spirit can grow too strong and overcome the consciousness of a werewolf,” she said, watching the moon’s reflection ripple on the water. “That is the Madness. It reverts them to their wild instincts. They become increasingly more aggressive and more violent until they are nothing more than feral wolves. Who they once were vanishes.”
What she didn’t say was that the Madness came when a werewolf no longer wished to live. Zev had many reasons to give up. She feared one day he would. He had almost done so at the glade. As he had struggled to stay conscious, he had shifted between wolf and man, back and forth until he stopped fighting.
If she had not called his name …
Hours had passed since Cassiel took her away but her hands still shook. Fresh tears trickled down her nose. She couldn’t lose him too.
Cassiel tossed a waterskin by her feet, the contents sloshing inside. “Drink,” he ordered. Then added mildly, “You’ll feel better.”
As the cool water went down her throat, some of her anxiety eased. She wiped her cheeks with her dress sleeve and forced the brunt of her distress aside. It wouldn’t do to assume the worst yet.
