POV (Th
ed like frightened rabbits. Another day of border disputes, tribute demands, and
he curse stirring under my skin like molten iron. The be
ors of the palace. Servants and guards pressed themselves against the wa
ng on the walls. Only darkness and stone. Even my most trusted Betas refused to enter this place.
nd bound with ancient spells. I wrapped them around my wrists and ankles myself, then snapped the final lock int
cold floor
ugh it. Some full moons I wondered if it would be easier to end it all. One clean strike with the sacred dagger and the cur
My vision bled red. The beast roared inside my skull, demand
I hea
cre
palace walls, deep in the Shadow Wil
wards blocked everything. Yet the scream cut straight thr
sped. The pain in my body faded to nothing
to h
hey held. Of course they held.
tore throug
ave her.
d into my thoughts. Not
ssib
through gritte
eaked. Then t
apnel. I stared at my freed wrists in shock.
t took c
rouch, already shifting. Fur exploded across my body. Claws tore into the earth. The palace fell behind m
ided me. Loude
ues circling a small figure on the ground. The
g I had felt in cen
oar
rd me. Their eyes wi
Beast!" on
ried t
nd died with my jaws around his throat. The third I slammed into a tree so hard his spine cracked.
sound of dripping blood a
urn
tree trunk, leg bl
es locked somethin
t it shifted into something else. Recognition. A strange calm. As
look at me
anym
ely a whisper. "Wha
me harder than an
e chains that had once bound my wrists now hung loose and broken. I rose
hing grew shallow. He
Whatever this pul
as she collapsed. Her body was
nt. No trace of black magic. She smelled like mo
oon still burned bright overhead, but I had shifted back to human
as playing another
man
ard the palace. The beast remained strangely calm inside me, as if her p
t unders
thing with abso
as, she was no
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