Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Too bad for her I had connections to more powerful faeries and demons than she did. There wasn’t a door I couldn’t get through, and when Granny’s people came after us, I’d steal their will and render them immobile. She had no idea the caliber of enemy she’d made, and I wasn’t even talking about the dragons.
I’d been blindsided just now, but soon it would be them who’d get a helluva shock. I’d make sure of it.
“We will not engage with that woman again,” I told my wolf, restless within me. “She is the enemy. She has done terrible things and she must stand in judgment for her sins, as must we all. Do you understand?”
He did the equivalent of pacing. “You won’t be able to ignore her.”
“We can and we must. Promise me before I give you back control.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. In the past, he would’ve outright refused. He would’ve thought that he knew best. It was just such a judgment that had landed us in a demon dungeon, separated from each other for countless years. He’d been absent for the misery and degradation I’d endured in that place, only knowing the devastation and pain second-hand when we’d reconnected and he’d been privy to my memories. I’d thought I’d die there, the demon magic drugging me to accept the abuse. To like it, most times. But the magic did nothing to stop me from retching when I remembered it all the next day. I’d been powerless. Used for pleasure against my will.
Bile rose in the back of my throat and my hands shook as I fought to shove those memories down, locking them away and harnessing the misery to sharpen my resolve.
It had been a sort of drug to make all that possible—demon-made and administered through magic. It hadn’t been my choice, just like the drugs being slipped into people’s drinks and food now weren’t their choice, nor the ones sold to them under false pretenses. Granny had no boundaries. She had no reservations. The faster she could get people hooked, the better. She didn’t care what happened to people along the way.
I’d wasted no time in signing up for this detail. I hated everything these people stood for.
Now, thankfully, my wolf was a bit more cautious. Or maybe I was just that much harder, having grown brittle in that dungeon. Having lost my humor and sometimes my will to keep going.
Knowing my head space, he relented.
“For now,” he said, a good enough compromise. I had no doubt he’d soon see that I was right. This whole place was vile. The things they did were beyond excuse.
I gave up control and my wolf instigated the shift. His four paws touched down onto the ground and he started forward.
We could feel everyone’s location through the pack bond as they scouted the area undetected. Granny’s cottage wasn’t much to look at, just a small dwelling with a curling trail of smoke winding from the chimney. It was nothing like her huge estate near the castle where she made her connections and paid off guards and royals. The village was equally humble, showing none of the extravagance she was known for outside of this rural place. She clearly hadn’t distributed the gold these people had helped her accrue.
I worked with my wolf to feed emotions, scents, and various other information through those bonds to the pack while willing them instructions, indicating which direction they needed to go or where they should stop. It was a complex magical system that I naturally excelled at, my alpha magic stronger than any other I’d yet met. It would ensure Granny’s people were rendered ineffective when they realized our presence. It meant she would be snared by me the moment she shifted into her wolf form.
It was why it was so important for me to walk in the light. To stay on the side of steadfast morality. I had the power to enslave people to my will. If I veered or wavered, I had the power to be the biggest tyrant any wolf shifter had ever known, something the royals in this kingdom had once hoped to use to their advantage. Had used, actually, for too many years, by capturing people and tethering them to the crown.
“I would rather never have met her than to meet her and have to give her away,” my wolf whined. “Especially if we have to deliver her directly into danger.”
“She delivered herself into danger,” I said, hardening myself to the idea. I knew well I’d need to do it over and over again. I couldn’t let desire win; for this insatiable need for her to win.
“Our duty is to protect her.”
“Our duty is to protect our kingdom. She, unfortunately, chose to put our people in danger.”
“She is also incredibly rare. They say most people never meet theirs. Ever. And here she is, stashed away for safe keeping, waiting for us to find her. And we did find her, against all odds. Why would it happen if it wasn’t meant to be?”