“You arenotlike us, Natasha.” Our Alpha seethed while he glared at me. “You are different, and always will be." The scolding I’d heard every time I tried and failed to shift thundered in my ears, and my gaze slowly lowered.
Dull white fur spread over my hands, instead of the beautiful and lustrous raven-black coat of our magical race.
My failing.
My curse.
Wanting to expand into powerful hind legs, my thighs and knees began to crack, bones shifting and rearranging roughly without magic. Yet, as my arms partially extended, my hands fully turning into thick paws, an excruciating surge of blazing agony burned through my being. It centered over my spine and back until it sucked the air right out of my lungs.
This was as far as I had ever been able to reach.
“Aaah!” The scream ripped from my throat when the oxygen returned, unable to be held back, ringing along the snow-covered peaks that watched me struggle, and force myself to keep going.“Don’t stop!”I begged my wolf, knowing the torture she was also going through right now.
Because that was all this was for us. Torture.
“Moon Goddess, please… Please, help me.”
Sadly, I knew my plea fell on deaf ears because even when we liked to imagine the great silver moon in the sky as our creator, the truth was she didn’t exist. We didn’t come from her, no matter how many tribal tales were written about us, or how badly we wished there was a powerful being watching over us and helping us.
It wasn’t real.
Witches had created us.
Humans had Wolf Shifters to look over them, but we were alone.
Ryker’s majestic raven-black wolf appeared before me then, his bright yellow eyes poised on me. Seeing his wolf there, supporting me like the breeders were—even after what he’d said—gave me some relief, and I used that as my strength. Although he was our Alpha’s Beta, I believed he would always be there for me.
“Aaah!” Another scream ripped from me as the intensity of the pain on my back became unbearable. It felt like my spine would pop out of my body. The agony stirred the emotion I kept buried deep within me to survive, and my throat constricted.
Why did I keep putting myself, my wolf, through this? Why was the need to be part of the human world so all-consuming for me? Was any of this worth it?
My wolf whined deeply, as though in a quietyes, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Maybe my uncle was right. Maybe I kept doing this to myself the more I tried to be part of a world they knew was not meant for me… Maybe I deserved this.
“That’s enough!” A feminine voice boomed with Alpha power of its own through the clearing, making me think that maybe the Moon Goddess existed after all, and she’d heard my desperate prayer.
I didn’t need to turn to know who my savior was, neither did any of the shifters who swiftly shuffled out of her way—even the Hunters, though they weren’t happy about it. A few growls rose from them as she approached, clearly hating her guts, yet I felt nothing but relief.
Our Alpha’s fiery gaze snapped from my face to my savior’s, his ire at the interruption matched only by his annoyance at who had interfered in his little show. When my eyes returned to his,pleading for him to order me to stop, a new wave of ire rushed over his expression, and his entire form tensed.
“Shut your eyes!” he ordered instead, and I swiftly complied.
I didn’t need to wonder why; I knew my eyes were glowing blue instead of the dark yellow our mystical race boasted.
My failing.
My curse…
He didn’t tell me to stop shifting, but in all honesty, it wasn’t a choice. I had no more strength left to keep trying even if I wanted.
“Isis!” our Alpha snarled as though pronouncing her name left venom on his tongue. “How dare you interfere?!”
“Well,my Alpha,” she began, harsh sarcasm dripping from her words while she walked toward the carved pathway. “I just thought that since you sentenced me to ‘eternal servitude’ to you, aka, taking care of your niece until I die or get eaten by Vampires—you know, after you tried to force me to mate with your old second in command, but I refused him, so he challenged me and then proceeded to lose the challenge? So embarrassing for him, by the way,” she rambled, forcing Ryker to move clear out of her way when she stopped in front of me. “Then you sentenced me to death for disobedience, as an Alpha does, but every wolf you sent my way lost the battle against me, until I actually became a self-made, she-wolf Alpha. Like, whaaa?! Crazy, right? I mean, that’s got to be a kick in the balls if I ever saw one.”
Our Alpha’s growl vibrated with both frustration and anger, but all I could do was work on steadying my breathing through the pain and exhaustion… and low-key try to stop myself from smirking.
“Sorry,my Alpha. I apologize for upsetting you. It just seemed like you needed a reminder of our history together. Just as you might also need to be reminded that you already putTasha through this little ‘exercise’ of yours a week ago. And that you put her through the agony of trying to shift without fire magic once a month, even though you knowvery wellthat only a handful ofShadow Bornshifters haveeverbeen able to shift without magic, and most of them are already dead.”
