5

Chapter 5

Ella's perspective

The blood on my hands wasn't his.

I stared at my own fingers. My fingernails had vanished. In their place were long, silvery-white claws that caught the moonlight from the window and shone. My whole body vibrated as if electrified. My heart beat twice—my own and something else, something older and wilder, hammering directly beneath it.

The leader of the shadow pack lay on the ground, his hands pressed to his face. Four deep cuts ran from his cheekbone to his jaw; I had injured him there without even thinking about it.

“What… what have you done to me?” he growled, his eyes glowing amber with rage.

I didn't know. I didn't know anything at all.

"Ella!" Sebastian's voice cut through the ringing in my ears. He was still kneeling there, trapped in that silver net. Smoke rose where the silver touched his bare skin. The smell of burnt flesh filled the room. "Look at me. Just me. Breathe."

I tried. But now I could hear everything. Too much. The howling outside wasn't just noise anymore—I could count them. Seven. No, nine wolves circling the property. I could hear Victor shouting orders downstairs. I could hear the wind rustling in the pine trees outside.

And I could feel Sebastian. His pain pierced my own chest, as if it were my own pain.

The second intruder saw his chance. While I stood frozen, he lunged at me.

He never reached me.

Sebastian moved with superhuman speed, even though he was half-burned and trapped. He grabbed the man's ankle and yanked him to the ground with a powerful thud. The man hit the ground with a resounding crash.

"Don't. Touch. Her," Sebastian growled. His voice was no longer human. It was the voice of an alpha. The voice that even the intruders recoiled from.

That snapped me out of my daze.

I dropped to my knees beside Sebastian. The net was made of braided silver threads that glowed with a kind of dark magic. It was designed to prevent an Alpha from shapeshifting.

"It burns," I whispered, my claws hovering over it. "Don't touch it, it will burn your new blood," Sebastian warned through gritted teeth.

"I'm not letting you in there."

I grabbed it anyway.

Pain—white-hot pain—shot up my arms. But something else happened too. Where my glowing claws touched the silver, it turned black and cracked. My Luna blood melted it.

I screamed through clenched teeth and tugged at it. One thread. Two threads. The net shattered like glass.

Sebastian jumped to his feet the moment he was free; he pulled me up with him and pushed me behind him. His body was covered in ugly, red burns, his chest rose and fell heavily, but his silver eyes were fixed firmly on the intruders.

The leader hurriedly retreated towards the broken window. He was bleeding heavily from his face.

"You have no idea what you are, girl," he spat at me, his gaze passing Sebastian. "Your mother was a monster. She killed our Luna and our puppies in the last war. 'Luna Blood' they called her. But we called her the White Death."

My heart sank.

My mother? My dear, gentle mother, who used to sing me songs until I fell asleep? A murderer?

"She died as a human being," I said in a trembling but louder voice than I had expected. "She was a human being."

The leader laughed bitterly. "No human transforms. No human does what you just did. Victor didn't marry her to save you. He married her to use you. To breed a new line of Alphas. Ask him."

Before Sebastian could attack again, the bedroom door flew open.

Victor stood there, surrounded by four of his most powerful enforcers—all dressed in black, armed with firearms loaded with silver bullets and blades of wolfsbane steel. Instantly, the room filled with the scent of Alpha presence and raging fury.

Victor glanced at me – my shining eyes, my claws, the broken silver net at my feet, and Sebastian protecting me – and his face turned deathly pale.

“Oh God,” he whispered. “It has happened. The first awakening. After twenty years…”

"Seal off the property," Sebastian ordered. And for the first time, Victor didn't object. Sebastian didn't speak like his son. He spoke like the next Alpha. "They've brought a hunting party. Nine outside. I can smell them."

Victor nodded to his men. "You heard him. Secure the perimeter—immediately. No one enters Blackthorn territory."

The enforcers took off running. The leader of the shadows used this moment of distraction to leap from the window. We heard him hit the ground two stories below and continue running; his howl called his pack back.

Then there were only three of us left. Silence, apart from the wind and my panting breath.

I looked down at my hands. The claws slowly retracted, the light in my eyes faded. My legs buckled. Sebastian caught me before I fell to the ground and carried me to the bed, pressing me tightly against his chest.

His skin was still hot from the burns, but that didn't seem to bother him.

"Ella, hey, look at me," he murmured, placing his hands on my face. His thumb wiped some blood from my cheek—but not mine. "You're safe. You're safe with me."

"Is it true?" I whispered, staring over Sebastian's shoulder at Victor. "What he said about my mother? Did you only marry her to... to have me?"

Victor's shoulders slumped. For the first time since I'd known him, ...