“That’s what I told Nico,” I said.
“They’re sick. This has to stop somehow. Maybe you’re the one to do it,” he said, pointing at me.
“Why me?” I asked, taking Nico’s hand for comfort.
“Because,” Kenneth explained, “your dad was a full-blooded shifter. I’m not sure that he ever brought his wolf out-the blood had diluted so much over the centuries, he’d probably need to meet his fated mate or drink Edemas’s blood to do it-but he was a full wolf by blood. You are an alpha, Maddy. You might be able to take the throne. The true throne. Not this…whatever the royals have been playing at for three centuries.” Kenneth sat back and sighed. “Well, I guess the term royals is just a name they use now. They don’t run a country, they don’t have a real throne. They just use the fortune they’ve amassed to fund an army of child butcherers. They have power because they have money. There are God knows how many politicians, authorities, and journalists in their pockets. It’s part of the reason why they’ve manage to stay hidden so long.” Kenneth pointed at me. “That fortune is one you have rights to.”
“I don’t want money, Kenneth. I want them to stop murdering people. Killing kids? Having this awful shadow government? It’s all got to come to an end. Until they’re stopped, no one with even a passing relation to Edemas will be safe.”
“That’s why we need to find that vault. Get the vial of blood. Force their hands,” Kenneth said. “It’s the one thing that will give us leverage. Make the royals back off.”
“Right,” Nico agreed. “Once we get that, we might have a shot.”
They both sounded so confident, but I had doubts. It couldn’t be that simple. Finding one simple thing wouldn’t be enough to make them throw up their hands and say, “You got us. All done. Enjoy your life.” If they’d held power for so many years, even having that secret weapon wouldn’t be enough to stop them.
I opened my mouth to mention my worries, but I froze. The words were already forming on my lips, but I couldn’t speak. My entire body was racked with sharp, shooting pains. I almost gagged because the pain was so bad. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and bent over, letting out a hiss of pain.
“Maddy?” Nico said, his voice laced with concern.
His hand was on my back, but I barely registered the touch. All I felt was pain. Finally, I managed to suck in a breath. Instead of telling them I was all right, a scream erupted from my throat. A scream of agony and torment. It was like my skin was trying to split apart, like I’d swallowed glass, like every cell in my body was trying to explode. I sank to my knees as a cold sweat broke out all over my body, dripping off my nose onto the floor.
“What’s happening?” Nico shouted.
“Christ, I don’t know!” Kenneth yelled.
I gritted my teeth and felt my wolf rising up inside me. She was right there. I could almost feel her breath on my neck. She was so close. As close as she was, it still felt like she was a thousand miles away. She was in pain-I could feel it. Her pain and mine were melding, making it even more agonizing. Something was pulling at us both. A magnetic tug that was trying to rip us in two.
“God,” Kenneth whispered. “Look. That’s got to be it. I didn’t even think about it.”
I managed to lift my eyes to see what he was talking about. Anything to figure out how to stop this pain.
Kenneth was gesturing toward a window. It looked out on the waterfall in the distance. It was the only opening in the entire forest canopy. The sky was already dark.
Sitting there in the sky, casting its glow down on us, was a milky white full moon.
NICO
Iheld her for hours. The pain she felt must have been intense. She alternated shivering and burning up. Screaming, then hissing breaths through gritted teeth. I carried her to the bathroom so she could vomit. I was starting to worry that we’d need to go to a hospital. I’d never seen anything like this.
I traced a finger gently over her cheek. “Maddy?”
“Ugh…ugh.” It was all she could say. Ligaments stood tautly on her neck as she clenched her jaws in pain.
I had an inkling of what was happening. I wanted to see if she felt it, too. “Are you trying to shift?”
Maddy jerked her head in a spastic nod. I sighed. This was not how this was supposed to go. The first shift was always a little uncomfortable, but it tended to happen so fast that whatever pain or discomfort there was vanished in a second or two.
But this had been going on forever. Her wolf wouldn’t come through for some reason.
“Maddy?” I asked again. “Is your wolf having trouble coming out? Is that the problem?
She looked at me, her eyes filled with desperation, sweat dribbling across her forehead and down her cheeks. “Stuck. I…feel…stuck.”
Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, Maddy fell into a fitful sleep. I settled her on the bed and put a cold, wet cloth on her head. Kenneth came in to check on her. He looked as worried as I felt.
“How is she?” he asked.
“Asleep. Sort of,” I said. She was unconscious, but she continued to twitch and convulse as wave after wave went through her body.
“I heard what you asked her,” Kenneth said. “Is this really what a first shift looks like?”
I shook my head. “No. This is awful. The moon is having an effect on her. It’s her first full moon since she got all that medicine completely out of her system. I wish I could make it better.”
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply