wolves of prey

Amara Eldwood

“Get ready. Wear one of your nice dresses tonight. We’re going to scrub up a barn that needs renovating in the upside of the pack,” She spat coldly. 

I could tell that I had offended her with my suspicion then, but I never felt as close to Ma as I did now.

“I wish I could go back Ma, things would have been different—” I sputtered, wringing my hands furtively and resisting the urge to shout for help when I drew nearer to the door.

“Come on, come on,” I breathed, poking my head carefully into the hallway, relieved when I saw that a few of the fire torches had been relit, flickering in the slow breeze that rattled through the small overhead windows.

Empty. I had to make a run for it…NOW!

“There you are,” Something hissed in the darkness and my lips widened into a horrified scream when I glanced up to see it crouched on the ceiling, watching me from the darkness.

On the ceiling…it…it was on the ceiling!

Hives burst all over my skin immediately before it fell before me with a meaty splat, straining to stand as harsh gray eyes stared back at me from a face disfigured by watery-looking warts.

Its pupils had been split in two, an ominous red one linking with the gray so there was no doubt in my mind it had once been human.

“No… help me!” I screamed, backing away and feeling my eyes bulge out of my head when its hard claws caught my throat, trapping the scream as my feet rose from the floor. 

It had waited! 

This whole time I thought it was gone but it had been waiting for me!

My mind raced wildly as it shoved me through the door back into the room and tears streamed from my cheeks to pool in my ears at the burning pain zapping through my throat.

There was something familiar about his gray eyes but the malice hidden in its depths made me screw my eyes shut.

My fists pounded uselessly against his hard shoulders until they were sore and throbbing and I felt my nipples harden until I could have poked them at him like knives.

Caius? 

The clarity hit me like a lightning bolt when his tongue darted out to lick the sweat from my neck and I let out another throaty scream, just as the light from the overhead chandelier shattered.

“You’re hurting me, Please—” I tried to say, but it only came out as a warbled moan that sounded obscene and dirty even to my ears.

His fangs flashed, bouncing off the orange from the fireplace before he nuzzled me almost lovingly.

 I could feel the bumpy scrape of his skin on my neck making a disgusted shiver ripple through my body.

“No…don’t,” I squeaked tearfully, but a sharp prick of pain stabbed at me when I felt his razor-sharp fangs sink into my neck.

Something inside me blew wide open and a flood of light mingled with the darkness crowding in my head and at the corners of my eyes.

My vision had taken on a red haze as I felt the beast drain the blood from me, its metallic tang hooking in the back of my throat.

Harsh slurping sounds came from it and I was horrified to feel the large weight of its cock pressing against my calves…humping me.

The stampede of footsteps in the hallway sounded like it was coming from a distance and the hands I’d splayed on the beast’s chest fluttered…weakening.

Pleasure tugged through my sex and I felt my eyes roll back into my head as my jaw fell open.

So good…how did dying feel so good?

Tiny bursts of explosions tickled in my brain when Caius’ wolf wrapped large claws completely around the small of my waist and I felt my feet being lifted cleanly off the ground as his fangs sank deeper.

So close…the footsteps were so close that it sounded like they were only seconds away.

My view of the door blurred and the singular overhead bulb that remained from the chandelier looked almost too bright in my eyes.

The sudden crash of the door bursting open sharpened my focus just long enough for Laziel’s stunning face to morph into a horrified mask.

“What the fuck?” 

It was the first time I had ever heard Ronan curse, and the harsh sound made a twinge of alarm are briefly in the back of my mind.

They were worried about something…but what?

And did they really have to be so loud?

My consciousness fluttered briefly when I realized I couldn't move. I couldn't remember anything…couldn’t speak.

“Winters! Stop…You’re killing her!” Laziel’s venomous roaring faded in and out of my ears as he rushed at us, revealing Ronan’s furious glare.

I realized my lips had curved into a big goofy grin, almost as if I was drunk as each of my limbs felt weaker and number.

Pain vibrated through my body when I saw a flash of Laziel’s claws as he tore through the blond wolf’s back, making him drop me with a pained roar.

The hard edge of his table cut into my back before I rolled away from it, heaving as the room whirled around me.

“Get…out of here, for fucks sake! We need absinthe! Knock him out will you? Keep him quiet…going to need a muzzle!” 

The disjointed rap of their voices mixed with the large beast’s possessive snarls, and when I glanced up again, Ronan’s intimidating wolf had him in a choke hold, with Caius’ large yellow-rimmed eyes sweeping back to me.

In pain…he was in so much pain, and yet, the pain in my own body was fizzling…disappearing.

What was happening to me?

Was this what dying felt like?

My knees were weak, knocking together like trees in a storm before I braced myself against the wall, trying to keep my heart from exploding out of my chest.

“No…something else,” I rasped to myself, straining to my feet when a shadow darkened the doorway and ice settled in my spine.

“What the hell is going on here?” It was Dante’s bark in the doorway that made the tension in the room plunge until it was freezing.

I could see even the monster pause out of the corner of my eye, as if some part of Caius that remained deep down inside it recognized authority.

He could have killed me, but he didn't. He tried to protect me by masking the pain.

My disjointed thoughts didn't make any sense.

Dante’s dark hair was wild around his face and his deep blue eyes seemed almost luminescent.

Plumes of white-hot rage wafted from his body in waves and it was all I could do to stop myself from shrinking back...away from him.

Right now, he seemed even more terrifying than Caius’ deranged wolf as he scanned our faces, giving the distressed blond a single withering look before his gaze locked on mine.

“Out.” He snapped, face as tumultuous as a storm cloud as he pushed into the room, crossing over to me in two strides.

The fog was lifting from my head but the corners of my vision remained dark, the ringing in my ears pounding through my skull with a vengeful ache.

I felt the Alpha’s strong hands circle my arm but my feet dug in despite myself before his curse vibrated along the side of my neck.

So horny. I was hornier than I had been in years and my feet tingled when Dante’s hard chest brushed up against mine.

It felt like the void in my chest where my wolf should have been was slowly filling with something else. A dark kind of power the monster’s poison must have released into my body.

I could help Caius…but how? 

I turned to see that the dark veins bulging from his skin the moment before he attacked me were nowhere to be found.

My blood…could that be the answer?

I shouldn't have cared about either of them now, but the vulnerable loneliness I’d felt when he bit me…I couldn't just forget that, could I?

Not when it was a mirror of my own desperate longing to be a part of something. To have something in this big hopeless world that was only mine.

“I-I don't understand…why is he like this… what’s happening to him?” I panted, staining against the Alpha and slipping from his hold when Caius’ pained guttural groan distracted him.

Until the blond shifter suddenly flew at me, twisting out of the other wolf’s restraints like it was nothing.

“No!” I shrieked, feeling the snap of his large fangs slice through the air an inch from my face before Dante’s bigger wolf sent him flying back.

The crack of wood splintering roared in my ears just as a man’s powerful arms circled me and I glanced up to see Dante pressing me into his chest.

“Get out, Amara! Get out now!” Ronan bellowed, glancing over his shoulder with what I realized was fear for me, but I hesitated, frightened by Caius’ state.

The bite on my neck from his fangs still throbbed almost sweetly, but the writhing of his wolf felt like a dozen needles were stabbing right into the soft sap of my spine.

I couldn't physically move, no matter how much weight I tried to throw into my legs…it was like our bond was holding me captive…frozen.

“I-I can help…If I have his blood—” I tried, raising my voice above the growl of snarling wolves as their bodies moved in a flash, colliding with the walls and ceiling until the room looked like it had been torn through by a tornado.

“He’s trying to kill you, you stupid little bitch! Don’t you get it? Out! Get the fuck out before I change my mind and have you thrown out myself!” Dante’s booming bellow made something bitter hook in my throat and I jumped back in shock before watching his face morph back into his wolf.

My breathing came in short, harsh bursts as I staggered out, groping along the walls and blinking back the tears streaming down my cheeks.

“What’s wrong with her? Is she crying? Goodness, there’s been one thing or another in this fortress since she came—” a string of maids rasped when I scrambled past, their snobbish snickers making the hurt deep in my core ache even more.

Of everything that had happened, it was the Alpha’s coldness that hurt me the most.

How could he speak to me like that in front of everyone? Even after knowing the bond we shared?

After seeing that I’d been bitten?

“Ungh, what are you doing, Mara? These men are never going to love you,” I coughed, sniffling when I shut the door to my quarters behind me.

“Miss? Did you see her leave?” the confused muttering of the guards at the door made me roll my eyes before I caught a woman’s jaded reflection in the vanity facing me.

The familiar dark wood walls that gave me comfort before now brought on an alienness that reminded me I didn't belong here.

I didn't belong anywhere. 

And I knew damned well I couldn't live the rest of my life begging for acceptance.

Living on the edge like my mother did in Shadow Pack.

Like I did.

My eyes moved to the tall black dresser in the corner of my room and I marched toward it with determination, raking up as many reasonable clothes I could find.

My mind has been made up. I was leaving Infinity Fortress, whatever the cost.