Something speeds past us and slams into him. It hits him with so much force that it lifts him off his feet before slamming him back into the forest floor.We start barking furiously and then we rush forward at this thing that is attacking him. We lunge at its leg with sharp teeth, but can’t make a clean purchase. It lashes us and kicks us away.This thing is not like any animal in these woods. It doesn’t smell like a living thing should. We are afraid of it, but we won’t back down. It turns away from him, annoyed at us for our attack.It turns toward us and walks forward. It is the worst thing we have ever seen. Our tail goes limp looking at this monster. Its skin is whiter than our fur, much more pale than anything we have ever seen.Its eyes are red and very old, and its canines extend far longer than they have any right to. It looks like a human, but we have never seen a human that looks like that. Its long, white hair is tattered, sweeping in a tangled mess below its thin waist.E
He drove into the villa and rushed Emilia into the house. He found the healer waiting on the front porch for him as he climbed the stairs, and the healer’s eyes widened in shock.“What happened to her?” the healer asked after King had set Emilia on the couch.“She was in a vision. She started to scream, and I shook her out of the vision. Now she’s like this. I have no idea what happened.”The healer scratched his jaw, tugging at his beard thoughtfully. He leaned toward Emilia, wanting to examine her closely. King hovered behind him, impatience and nervousness clashing together in his mind.Suddenly, Emilia’s eyes flew open. She shrugged off the startled healer, then rushed toward King. He watched her approach him with confusion, frozen in place. To his great surprise, she reached for his shirt and ripped it down the middle.King had been so shocked and confused, he had just watched it happen. She wrapped her arms around him, ripping the clothes off his back. He noticed that her eyes w
King had been so shocked and confused, he had just watched it happen. She wrapped her arms around him, ripping the clothes off his back. He noticed that her eyes were both completely black, and that she was not herself.He shook out of his shock and held Emilia. She was stronger than she looked, but not nearly half as strong as he was. Calmly, as if he was asking for the time, Emilia asked the healer who watched with wonder, “Care to tell me what’s going on, and why she attacked me?”“Amazing!” he exclaimed. “She’s not attacking you. Well, not in the sense that you think. She’s completely out of mana, and is feeling the withdrawal.”“In English?” King asked calmly, stifling his irritation.“It’s dangerous for mana users to be out of mana. It’s part of their biology and their makeup. When I saydangerous, I mean lethal. They die when they run out. She’s out of mana, and I’d dare say she doesn’t have much time left.”King watched him with irritation. “What the hell are you talking about?
He could feel his cock straining against her walls, but she threw herself at him without reluctance. When he felt his orgasm approaching, he placed a hairy arm against her back, pulling her forward into him until their chests touched.He twisted his hip for balance and, satisfied, started to slam upward into her. Emilia had been so silent that when she started moaning, the sound startled and confused him.The sound rolled into his ears, filling his insides like sweet music. Gripping her tight like a vise, he slammed into her with unbelievable force, reveling in the sweetness of it all.Emilia’s moans turned into cries as her back arced upward. She shuddered violently, spasming uncontrollably like a fish out of water. King willed himself to continue and chased after his own elusive orgasm.He found it and embraced it like an old friend. He let out a loud moan as he released into Emilia, thrusting deep into her with each release. He breathed deeply as he finished, enjoying the sensation
On one hand, she was grateful to King for saving her life. As the healer had said, death was a sure thing if King had chosen not to indulge her. She wouldn’t have blamed him, given how she had treated him the last time they were together.On the other hand, she felt ashamed for being so needy with someone who she was supposed to be angry at. King had not gloated, nor rubbed her face in it, but still it chafed at her.She needed to get out of here. Maybe if she snuck out quietly and ignored King again, they could both pretend like the previous night had never happened.She sat up as carefully as she could, gathering the sheet around her torso, and scanned around for her clothes. She found them in a heap by the bed and bore another wave of embarrassment.She could not take the sheets as they covered King as well, and she had no desire to wake him. She got out of the bed naked and tiptoed quickly toward her pile of clothes.She wondered how awkward it would be if King woke up now, while
When she closed her eyes, she saw King. He was underneath her, eyes a bright, reddish gold. His tongue and jaw were more wolf than human, with sharp, scary teeth showing every time he growled with pleasure.She had watched everything happen like a guest in her own body. She had felt both pleasure and fear as King took her. He had the power to devour her, to rip out her throat in the throes of passion, as a female arachnid might devour her mate after a particularly satisfying climax.Her heart had been in her mouth for hours as he fucked her. She had no words to describe the experience, but she could think of nothing more profane and vile.He had taken her just as much as she had taken him, and as her vision finally turned black and she passed out, she could hear a wild, scary laugh coming from him. A laugh of utter satisfaction.She shivered from remembrance and grabbed the wall for balance. She wondered how much of it King would remember, but one thing was certain it was going to be
Kay stepped backward and her eyes darted down to Emilia’s hands. She held her hands out in front of her, and she looked terrified.Emilia followed her eyes and saw that her fists were glowing. Her entire body was glowing. She looked back at Kay, happy to show her what it felt like to be the terrified and scared one. To show her how she had been forced to live her entire life.***The visions assaulted Emilia, thick and heavy. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw a big, bad, scary wolf.In every vision, it was wreaking havoc, killing and destroying everything in its path. Its muzzle dripped with blood and its eyes were red with murder.She had been having the same dream for weeks and she had become afraid of going to bed. She had no idea what to do to make the dream go away, and she was too afraid to talk to anyone about the visions.Her family already despised her for being a witch. She didn’t think it would earn her favors to tell them that she had been seeing visions about a dead
“Shut up, you dirty thing, why are you yelling at me?”She ran back outside and dragged Selina into the house. Her mother emerged just as she pulled Selina through the door, and her eyes widened.“What are you doing?! What did you do to my daughter?” She rushed forward and grabbed Emilia by her shirt collar.Before Emilia could speak, her mother slapped her hard across the face, rocking her head. She tasted blood and her ears rang from the blow. She shook her head and tried to speak. “Dad….”“Who’s your daddy?” her mother challenged. “He’s not your dad. What did you do to Selina?”“He’s hurt,” Emilia said, ignoring her mother and holding her face. “A monster…a monster entered the pack. Dad, he’s hurt by the river.”Her mother seemed to piece it together that they were under attack. She dumped Juniper on the ground and ran off.A few moments later, Juniper heard the warning bells ringing loudly into the night. She shut her eyes, and tried to scrub out the image of her father clawing at
“I can’t stop thinking about Selina,” Emilia said wistfully.King turned to face her. “Truthfully, I had also not expected her to do that.”“I was moved by the fact that Selina apologized.”“That’s true,” King agreed. “To be honest, she was the last person I expected to apologize to you.”After Emilia had saved Selina’s life, she had come to apologize to her. It was quite a show of humility as she had gone down on her knees and bowed to the ground before Juniper. Juniper had pleaded with her to get up, but she’d refused to get up until she had said her piece.“I’m sorry for how I treated you growing up,” Selina had said, with teary eyes. “You were right. You never killed Dad. I was always so angry at you for that night, but I never thanked you for saving me that night. And that sucks.“So thank you, Selina. Thank you. Twice you saved my life, and all I ever did was hate you and bully you. I wish I could turn back time and do things differently, but I can’t. Do you think you can forgiv
He let out a sigh of relief, then collapsed on the bed again. His thighs burned something furious and he was afraid of moving too suddenly. He couldn’t deal with a cramp right now.Emilia’s breathing started to level out after five minutes. She had the energy of five people in bed, and no matter how tired King thought she was, she was always ready for another tumble.Her intensity and desire scared KIng, but it was still one of the things that he loved the most about her. She matched his energy in so many different ways and their time together always ended up looking like one of them had a point to prove to the other.She turned to look at him, beaming. “That was….”“Amazing?” King finished for her, chuckling.“I was going to say scary, but amazing works as well.” Emilia smiled. “Really, I thought I was going to burst an artery for a moment there.”“Lucky you,” King teased. “I think I heard a few pop.” Emilia laughed as he leaned forward to kiss her forehead, and then her lips.“Poor
With tears in her eyes, she admitted what she had been holding back from admitting for so long. “I love you too, King.”King smiled wider and put his arms around her waist. He pulled her close, gently, and kissed her softly. Juniper melted into his embrace and forgot all about her pain and fear and frustration. She wrapped her arms around King, happy that she could hold him again.She had been so afraid of losing him. She had been so afraid of dying. And yet…here they were. She gripped him tighter, wanting to make sure he was real, not another sliver of her creative mind, a figment of her imagination. Yes, he was real. This was real.She was startled to hear voices and broke the kiss abruptly. The entire pack approached them, whooping and cheering loudly. She blushed slightly with embarrassment. She had completely forgotten all about them, and with good reason.“Wow!” Articus said. “What you did? We have never seen anything like it before. Where did you learn that from?”Emilia blinke
She walked slowly to the side, keeping herself on his blind side as she approached. She tried to levitate off the ground but couldn’t. All her powers had manifested physically into the spear in her hand.The only mana left in her was what powered her to move and function. She had to strike, and quickly, or she would be dead before she realized it.King had seen her get up, had seen the spear form in her hand. By some miracle, he had managed to keep his expression neutral and his eyes on the vampire.The vampire landed softly in front of him and pulled his blood spear out of the air. “So, this is how it ends.” He grinned wildly. “You fought well.”King held his gaze. “Don’t patronize me. Do what you have to do. Do you remember your promise? My life for theirs. No harm comes to my pack or my mate.”“Why the rush to die?” The vampire shook his head in mock sympathy. “Such a naive little boy. I made you no promises, fool. But I will promise you this. When I kill everyone you love and dest
The vampire threw his head back and laughed maniacally. He held the whole town hostage. He was judge, jury, and executioner, and he had all the power. Worst of all, he wasraving mad.He formed another spear in the air and it hovered beside his head. He shoved Emilia casually, ever so absentmindedly, to the ground. She crashed into the ground and bumped her knees as she fell.Pain lanced through her. Her palms felt like she wielded two balls of fire, and she couldn’t feel her legs. She stretched out on the ground, taking stock of her injuries. She never suffered any real damage from injuries, thanks to her powers, but she still felt pain.She watched the vampire as he floated toward King. Her chest squeezed with fear when she looked at the long, thin spear that moved before him. He had a look of pure evil on his face.King, on the other hand, looked resigned to his fate. He looked like someone who was waiting to die. He looked ready for it, like he had been waiting his entire life to d
He saw the vampire hovering high in the sky, watching the people. King had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched the still vampire.The vampire spread his arms to the side. At first, nothing happened. And then, the air around him shimmered. Thin, red objects appeared in the sky. Thousands of them, pointed like needles.King let out a wordless cry when he recognized the pointed objects floating in the sky. Blood spears. This was why the vampire had spent his time killing and discarding of so many animals.This was blood magic on an unprecedented scale. Cold realization washed over him. The vampire was going to wipe out the entire pack in one attack, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.King clambered up to his feet, feeling defeated. How many of those could he block? How many people could he have saved today? He arrived at one inevitable answer. Not enough.As he had feared, the spears were turned toward the pack. His mouth ran dry and he watched wordlessly, awai
His body trembled from pain and he could feel a few broken ribs. He got up shakily and the pain lacerated through him, even as his body started to slowly knit itself back together.Still disoriented, he looked up just in time to see a fist flashing toward his face. The vampire’s bony knuckle connected solidly with King’s jaw and sent his head reeling backward.The force of the blow caused a shock wave to spread out around King and the vampire. He went flying backward, crashing into the ground several times before he came to a stop several yards away.He got up slowly and felt a hot, white pain in his jaw and knew that it had been shattered. He limped, his front legs faltering as his shoulder had not fully healed. The vampire floated toward him slowly as he felt his jaw. The vampire grinned at him and licked his lips with a pale tongue. “My turn.”King had no idea how to escape the blows that rained down on him. He ducked as furiously as he could, but half the strikes connected, and he
Fannar drilled Selina about what she had seen, and asked for details about her fight with the vampire.Selina cackled drily. “Fight? That wasn’t a fight. That was a beating. I barely managed to get my hands up before it ripped into me with the force of a bear and the speed of a fox. I have never seen anything like that in my life before. I think we are in big trouble.”The room fell silent and the alphas exchanged glances with each other. Asher spoke up first. “Did he give any indications why he took your sister?”Selina gave him an incredulous look. “If he did, I didn’t notice. I was too busy picking pieces off my ass off the curb.” She sighed and slumped into her seat. “What do we do?”The question hung over the room like a thick cloud of black smoke. No one had an answer to Selina’s question. No one knew how to find the vampire in the woods with powers like she had just described.Worse, they had no idea if Juniper was still alive. King didn’t want to think about what could have ha
He frowned and narrowed his eyes at her. She shriveled under the scrutiny. He looked down at her stomach and she covered herself reflexively in horror. Knowing how he felt about the wolves, she was afraid of what he would do to her unborn child.A look of realization settled on his face. “You’re carrying a wolf child in your womb…” His voice sounded as soft as the wind rustling through leaves, barely a whisper.He let go of her wrist and took two steps back. He looked hurt and upset. “How could you? How could you allow your womb to be tainted by wolves?” And then, his eyes turned as cold as ice and his voice hardened. “I will wipe them all out. I will start with Moonwood, and then I will wipe every last one from the Starlight Valley and wider.”Emilia started to plead but he just walked backward, with a look of cold resolution on his face. Without another word, he turned around and sped off into the woods, heading toward the town.Without thinking, Emilia started running. From the den