“I can’t,” she whimpers. “The pups…”
“The pups that are draining you? The pups that tie you to them forever? Is that really what you want?”
I feel her wavering. Feel the doubt, the fear, the desperate need to be something other than this raw… thing.
“Let me help you, my queen. Let me make you strong again. Let me give you back your power.”
She’s close. Soclose.
Just a little more.
“You don’t have to be weak anymore. You don’t have to need them. You can be who you were meant to be.”
“Who was I meant to be?” Her voice is so small.
“MINE.”
And Istrike.
Not through whisper or suggestion anymore.
I pour myself into that hollow space inside her. Into the void where her walls used to be. Into every crack the heat left behind.
She gasps, tries to fight, but she’s too weak. Too open.
The wolves stir beside her but it’s too late.
I’min.
Her body goes rigid as I take hold, wrap myself around her consciousness andsqueeze.
She screams…but only in her mind. Her body doesn’t move. It can’t.
Because it’sminenow. Again. Finally.
“There we are,”I purr, settling into her like a comfortable cloak.“Just like old times, my love.”
I feel her struggling, trapped inside herself, helpless.
The wolves are waking now, sensing something wrong.
But they’re too late.
I open Hilda’s eyes…myeyes now…and smile.
Time to remind this kingdom who theirrealqueen is.
Time to destroy everything these wolves think they’ve built.
Time to show them you can’t save someone from themselves.
Not when I’m the darkness that’s been living inside her all along.
Welcome back, my queen.
We have work to do.
Thirteen
