1- Killer Lena

Elena

If there was ever a crown for the unluckiest goddamned wolf in the world, it would have been shoved down my head, kicking and screaming.

Me. Elena Wolfe.

My heart thumped wildly inside me and the knot of anxiety in my gut tightened as a roll of thunder pealed through the sky.

I could see the wolves surrounding me from the corner of my eyes, their hard faces appearing gaunt in the yellow light of the fire torches that had been lit all around the square.

It was all I could do not to break out running as the elders murmured back and forth between themselves before the Alpha on the dias cleared his throat and my heart skipped another beat.

Alaric’s bright gray eyes pierced into me like poisoned spears as he towered above my petite frame from his silver throne.

He was the dreaded Alpha of Cove pack with a straight blunt chin and cold detached voice that matched his intimidating frame.

Some of the maidens in the pack would have called him sexy, but I knew better.

I had felt his claws on my skin before, the way his grey eyes shone with bloodlust as he inflicted pain on his followers. I still had scars on my back from the public lashings I had received for each fated mate that died, and it was a horror I never wanted to experience ever again.

I could feel the distrustful eyes of the other elders piercing through my body from all sides of the dimly lit field

and I shivered again.

Was I going to be executed today?

“Tell us again, Elena of Cove, what you did to your mate Federico.” Alpha Alaric’s voice boomed through the space like thunder and I felt goosebumps open on my skin.

Seven mates!

It was the

seventh

time my fated mate had died before we even mated! My heart felt like it was going to catch on fire before I pressed my cold fingers to my lips.

“Nothing!” I wanted to lash out, to scream in their pinched faces, but something else held me back. Killing another wolf was treason, an offense maidens like me got hanged for all the time.

I couldn't fuck this up!

“Nothing, Your Highness, I only met Federico on the night of the destined, I don't know what happened after that,” I said feverishly, risking a glance around me and feeling my heart squeeze tightly in my chest when I caught Bella and Georgina’s white faces in the crowd.

There was no love lost between Georgina and me.

No, I would much sooner watch the rich bitch drown than throw her an olive branch. She had hated me from the moment her sweetheart father Alpha Alaric showed his dark interest in me and I hated them both for making me the outcast I was in the pack.

Everyone hated Elena Wolfe.

“Oh look, everyone! It's Elena the killer mate with the face of an angel.” Georgina’s chirpy voice echoed in my head and I ground my teeth at the memory.

Fucking hell, I hated that name.

Bella was my best friend for reasons best known to her only. I had no idea why the blonde Barbie even cared about someone as cursed as I was. She had stuck by my side ever since my first mate Roger died.

That's right, I remembered all their names, stakes... each one of their deaths in my heart.

It had been a mauling the first time.

Roger

was out for a smoke in the woods and got mauled by the savage Rogues that roamed that area.

Everyone had mourned his death as an accident, nothing more than a misfortune, surely.

And then it happened again with the second mate. Fell from a tree and snapped his neck the whole way round. And then the third.

And the fourth, fifth and sixth.

And now there was Federico. I had hoped for him the most. Federico with the short dark hair and a face that could have been sculpted only by the gods.

The way his pale olive skin shone and the thick black lashes that fluttered when he stared down at me. It was too painful to remember. The handsome man looked nothing like the shell of a corpse that was now lying on the pier beside me, one shriveled black claw reaching up to the sky.

“Is that right?” Alpha Alaric rumbled, the harsh baritone of his voice bringing me back to the present and making me swallow painfully and snap my eyes away from Federico’s body.

I didn't know anything...right? What happened to Federico wasn't my fault. It couldn't be.

“For fucks sake! She's lying! Don't you see she's lying? I demand Elena hanged at the gallows Father! This witch has gotten away with enough murder already!” Georgina screamed suddenly from the crowd, and I whirled around in shock to see her furious face flying toward me.

The blood drained from my face as I watched Georgina’s white face morph into her wolf, her crystal blue eyes red-rimmed with rage.

I acted without thinking, shifting into my wolf and reaching out to catch her midair and slash at her face with my claws.

“Elena! Enough!” Bella’s voice seemed to come from far away but it was no use and I slashed at the princess like a maniac, taking blow after blow and unable to rein in the rage and resentment I had bottled inside me for so long.

“This is all your fault! You worthless piece of shit!” I screamed, kicking at the woman who had curled up into a ball at my feet before I felt Alpha Alaric’s familiar hands wrap around my body and shove me roughly to the side.

My breath came in short, ragged bursts as I slowly came to, and my eyes widened at the sight of the blood that had somehow pooled around us, soaking Georgina’s platinum-blonde hair almost eerily.

Oh my God! No no no! What had I done?

“She's not breathing Your Highness! Lady of the moon! The princess isn't breathing!” Bella’s croaky voice echoed dully in the silence that followed and I shook my head violently, refusing to believe her words.

“No, surely you can't be saying...I barely touched her-” I started, trying to move forward before the guards thrust their spears in my face and I reared back, stunned.

Bella’s bright yellow eyes glanced up from Georgina’s body for a split second, but it was enough that I could see the venom in it. The same one Alpha Alaric had in his own eyes. They hated me.

In only a few, careless seconds, killer Elena had sealed her fate.

“Get out of my sight Elena Wolfe. Before I kill you with my own hands.” Alpha Alaric hissed, his bright white fangs flashing in the darkness.

I stumbled away from all of them with my heart hammering inside me, toward the dark woods circling the field. It was a threat I did not need to hear twice.