Chapter 6

Layla

I didn’t know how I had reached the top of that mountain. All I knew was that the wolf who had always lived within me had finally revealed herself before my father’s tribe, the Lortur clan. She roared, yearning to join the battle unfolding before her. Fear no longer consumed me.

I sprinted forward, for the first time running on all fours, and I realized that in this form, I was the wolf, and the wolf was me. We became one. Unlike my human form, where the wolf speaks within my mind, she now controlled every function of this body. I felt more than fierce—I felt like my true self.

I was born to be this white wolf with three long tails, charging toward the beast that threatened my family. The alpha was the only one who hadn’t transformed. Why? Was it so difficult for him to allow us, the quadrupeds, to communicate with him? Or was the problem exclusively with me? But Lucien couldn’t possibly know that this wolf was, in fact, his wife... could he?

I reached the fray, noticing that my packmates were attacking the blue werewolf individually. The creature smiled diabolically, clawing and biting some members of our pack. He moved with terrifying speed, appearing and disappearing as if he were an apparition. It startled us but never enough to break our courage in the face of a creature never before seen in this land—or any other.

Lucien moved with more skill than any of us, being the oldest and the supreme alpha. But without his animal form, he wasn’t a match for this new enemy of our pack.

I growled fiercely, forcing the males in their animal forms to make way for the only female in the group. As I advanced, I could hear their thoughts and faint whispers from the werewolf vampire. The latter kept me on high alert.

Distracted by a punch from my leader, my husband, I managed to reach the creature. With a leap that felt like I was floating, I headbutted the beast’s forehead and returned to my starting point as if I had never left. I bared my fangs in a provocative display, yearning to tear him apart with my own teeth as the cries of my injured packmates filled the air.

Some of my kin lay on the ground, whimpering in their animal forms, unable to transform back due to pain or venom. One of them was my father. Rage surged through me, taking full control of this new body.

I stared at the strange creature, watching as he shifted forms while Lucien searched for another opening to strike the malicious being. But contrary to what we expected, the beast transformed into an ordinary man, one who looked wealthy and sophisticated.

He smiled, revealing a set of perfect, gleaming white teeth. There was no trace of his vampiric fangs, blue fur, or the sharp claws that had terrorized our pack.

"We’ll meet again, white wolf," he said with a strange sentimentality before vanishing like a flash of light.

Lucien lunged, grasping at nothing but air.

I gazed at him, trying to understand why he hadn’t transformed to aid those who had entrusted him with a mate, one they likely deemed defective. Perhaps the answer lay there; he didn’t care about anyone but himself. This painful realization struck me like lightning.

Amid the animalistic cries, a solitary tear rolled down my cheek as I watched my husband survey the devastation he had failed to prevent. He seemed unbothered, as though the massacre unfolding before him didn’t matter. My dear husband had witnessed so much in his long life that little could stir him anymore.

The wolf within me loved him for the man he was, while the human side of me questioned if I could ever truly love him. Despite this body’s desires, I was in control, and my choice would prevail.

Lucien approached me as I slid my paws away from the man who seemed so indifferent to the suffering of his kin.

"Lucien!" my mother cried, tending to my father in his animal form.

Everyone except Lucien and I turned their heads toward her. My brothers, especially the eldest, growled their grievances against their own bloodline’s leader.

I didn’t know how to handle the conflicting emotions welling up inside me. I wanted to stay and see how they would hold Lucien accountable for the casualties. But I was on the verge of transforming back and didn’t want to stand naked before my tribe.

Even though they had looked at me as I had always dreamed, with admiration, they could never fully know who I was. I had naturally raised a mental wall to shield my identity, wanting to see how they would accept me in the midst of battle.

Yet, I had to retreat, distancing myself from all of them, including Lucien.

Lucien, the white wolf’s Lucien.