THE ROGUE QUEEN

to move in

raight for my chest, its silver tip shining and for

Left to die in the

s how it was

y refused

nly, darkness appeared between me and the arrow. Not just a sh

uck it and cr

hing s

his crossbow, eyes w

like they had a mind of their own. They pulsed with heat, not pain, famili

aid, his voice trembling as h

d, though his voice shook too. "S

pulsed, alive, and somethi

. Wild.

led in the back of my min

art f

I'd heard the night my mother died. The

speak, but the words

I alre

s my

gone. She hadn

een loc

the one I'd buried years ago, terrified of what it me

e was nothing

command

elled, lifting his cr

dn't

o the forest. Arrows whistled past my ears, cutti

ows ran

faster than I'd ever moved. Trees blurred past, the ground vanis

n't r

s fl

the border!" Jace y

ck enforcers were calling for backup, and I could h

going to

. Every sin

owled again, fighting

't kno

king and

ugh my sweater and slicing into my skin. I scream

hot and sha

e wound, feeling blood

arrow fl

t to my head, so close

!" Marcus shouted

and realized

surrounded me on three sides, too high to cl

armed hunters

trees with his crossbow aimed straight at my heart. The rest

k hit

was

e

us asked, his finger r

of them and I felt somet

my s

ho

estr

ery cruel word and mocking laugh and

back in a wave of

idn't sound like my own anymore. It w

frowned

being yo

ows burs

ough force to send them flying backward. Marcus hit a tree with a sickening cr

ing, my entire body burn

n the p

nd. Not the bruis

sh

rying to shift into new places. Then the pain spread to my ribs, my shoulders,

cre

please

inside me, soft and almost sorry. We've

-I can't

t have a

. My jaw stretched, bones cracking as my face elongated into something else. Fur e

was indes

g and being rebor

out. I wanted it

y, it w

looked d

and shimmering golds. I could hear everything: the panicked breathing of the hunters trying to craw

The thick scent of blood. The bitter trace of silver i

own at myse

as

swallow the moonlight, and shadows slid through it like smoke coming alive. My paws were enor

ad and saw my reflecti

ed back at me. M

e silver darkened, swirling with black until my eyes

oice filled with pride. Now do

I

less like eve

unted to extinction. The kind of creature from legends, whispered

s real. And for the first

, his face white with terror. "Monster,"

face him, an

o

m be a

m all b

ent on the forest floor despite my size. The

ed, his voice shaking

. He hurt us. They all

nted

I wan

man who'd tormented me for years, who ha

wouldn't cha

on. It wouldn't undo the pain or

right that I was the mons

my muzzle was inches fr

if he ever comes after me again..." My voice came out deeper,

turned

packhouse. Not

he forest, into the

for

hadows wrapping around me and the forest openin

ion caught up with

had drained everything I had

and collapsed, my massive b

blurred

an form but I didn't know how. My wolf wa

er voice softer now.

are we?" I man

m the pack. We crossed

bo

forest between pack territories where rogue

ger

ous than the pack

closed, too he

p claimed me, I

tst

foot

-male, roug

. is that a