Chapter 2: The Beast Within

DEXTERA

No one needed to tell me what was coming. It was already painfully clear.

“You would do this to me?” I asked, forcing myself to hold Kestrel’s gaze despite the fear slowly crawling beneath my skin. “You actually want to chain me like some wild animal?”

“That’s exactly what you are. A beast.” He replied coldly. “A danger to my people.”

My heart withered into a hard, aching knot.

His people. Never ‘my people’. Never ‘our people’, as it was supposed to be. The betrayal sunk deep and I felt deep pain within me for what felt like the thousandth time.

I glanced at the guards standing rigidly around us, awaiting their Alpha’s command. They held on tight to their weapons, all watching me cautiously as their gazes darted between me and the chains in their hands.

A part of me still hoped Kestrel would change his mind; that he would realize how cruel this was and choose the other option instead. But he only looked at me with indifference.

“Seize her,” he ordered. “Quickly. The moon is already rising.”

The guards moved instantly.

I inhaled sharply as the silver restraints wrapped around my wrists and ankles. The newly constructed, reinforced pillar behind me was ice cold against my back while the chains tightened painfully around my body.

The wolfsbane spikes lining the restraints pierced into my skin immediately.

“Aaargh!” I cried out as burning pain shot through my veins.

But that was only the beginning. I lifted my watery eyes toward Kestrel.

“Please…” My voice cracked. “Don’t do this to me.”

He remained impassive.

“You should be grateful I’ve allowed you to live this long,” he said without hesitation. “Your father begged for your life, Dextera. That’s the only reason I didn’t kill you.”

A tear slid down my cheek. That was exactly why I never wanted to beg him. He never missed an opportunity to remind me of how broken and unwanted I truly was.

Soon after, the moon rose higher, and I felt it instantly.

The beast inside me stirred violently, unfurling from where it had been buried. A torrent of primal energy thrummed in my blood; the uncontrollable shift began. My breathing became uneven and my fingers twitched violently against the restraints.

No. Not yet.

I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting desperately to hold onto control, but the beast was already waking fully.

Unlike what most believed, I never truly became unconscious during my transformations. I remained trapped somewhere deep inside, connected to the beast through the same mind we shared, yet powerless against its overwhelming instincts.

And tonight, it was stronger than ever.

The guards stepped back nervously as the atmosphere grew more tense. They knew what was coming.

I felt pain explode all over my body as a strangled scream tore from my throat while my bones cracked violently. My muscles pulled and expanded beneath my skin while dark veins spread across my arms like poison.

The silver chains rattled aggressively as my body shook with force. The beast pushed harder, and my claws extended slowly. I tried to suppress it, tried to reason with it, but the beast only hungered. Its rage crashed into my mind like violent waves, drowning my thoughts beneath bloodlust and fury.

“Hold the restraints!” one of the guards shouted fearfully. They all sprang into action, pulling the chains more tightly across my body in order to keep my body flush against the pillar.

The silver burned me the more, as wolfsbane tore through my flesh. For one brief moment, the restraints worked, keeping the beast in check.

Then again, the beast overwhelmed me completely, suddenly roaring inside me as a surge of monstrous strength exploded through my limbs.

CLANK!

The silver restraints shattered apart instantly, and the sound echoed through the clearing like thunder.

Every guard stumbled backwards in horror.

A growl rumbled deep within my chest as I slowly straightened. I could still think, see, and feel, but the beast had taken control now.

Its instincts overshadowed mine completely, drowning me beneath an endless craving to hunt, destroy and tear apart everything nearby.

A terrifying howl ripped from my throat, shaking the trees around us.

“Alpha Kestrel!” one of the guards yelled frantically. “Do something!”

Kestrel didn’t move. His cold blue eyes remained locked on me even as others panicked.

The beast reveled in their fear, feeding on it greedily.

Freedom. Violence. Blood. That was all it wanted. Yet through the haze of rage, I noticed Kestrel’s countenance change. However, the new expression he wore vanished almost immediately.

Was it regret? No. It was fury.

“Stand down, Dextera,” Kestrel ordered.

The Alpha command wrapped around my mind in an instant and the beast snarled in resistance. I felt the order too, echoing painfully through our shared consciousness, but the beast was too powerful now.

It was too enraged and too unstable.

“I repeat, stand down!” Kestrel reiterated.

A low chuckle escaped my lips, though it no longer sounded fully human. “You stand down… Alpha.”

For the first time, Kestrel hesitated.

The beast lunged, and gasps erupted from the guards as my body shot forward with unnatural speed. Kestrel barely dodged the attack before I crashed violently into the ground, my claws digging deep into the earth.

“Stop her!”

“If she escapes, we’re finished!”

Fear saturated the air heavily now, and the beast absorbed it greedily.

Blood…The scent of blood… Blood coating my hands… A massive white wolf collapsing before me… Alpha Nelson… Suddenly, memory of that night struck me yet again.

My breath hitched violently. For one tiny second, my human consciousness pushed through the beast’s fury.

No…we can’t do this. We can’t go on a killing spree… I tried resisting its violent instinct, but it remained powerful against me as ever.

The beast roared furiously inside my head, fighting to bury me again.

“Alpha, we can’t let her leave. If things go wrong again, the elders won’t take it easy with you.”

“Do something before it’s too late, Alpha.”

The guards made sure to remind Kestrel of his predicament as the current Alpha.

The beast cackled out loud, driven by their heightened fear, before rumbling a terrifying howl into the sky.

“Kestrel, stop being stubborn!” a female voice shouted from somewhere behind him. “You know the way out.”

I stiffened briefly. The beast took a long sniff of the air, trying to figure out who the person was.

Then, the moonlight intensified overhead and the pull became unbearable. My vision blurred violently as the beast fought harder for complete control.

Before I knew it, I was slipping fast.

Kestrel cursed beneath his breath before turning sharply toward the guards. “All of you. Leave. Now.”

The guards hesitated. “But Alpha…”

“GO!”

They scattered immediately, leaving their Alpha with me and my beast, all alone in the dark.

My beast staggered forward, scraping its claws against the ground. It almost lunged at Kestrel, desperate to tear out his throat and escape, but Kestrel dodged just in time before stepping closer again. The beast growled at him, but he didn’t stop. He moved closer by every step.

Then, my beast snapped. It rushed at him, and Kestrel dodged the attack yet again.

“Behave!” Kestrel thundered. His Alpha aura slipped out, affecting the beast in a way, but such act rarely worked on my beast. If at all it does, the effect disappears in seconds.

Kestrel knew this and he made sure to catch my beast before it could fully strike him. His arms wrapped tightly around its body, pulling it hard against his chest as heat radiated intensely from his skin.

The beast thrashed violently in his hold and fought him viciously. Kestrel held on, making sure to slip more of his Alpha aura out to buy himself time for whatever he intended to do.

“Shift,” Kestrel murmured, more like he commanded. “Come back to me, Dextera.”

The Alpha aura was strong, yet I couldn’t obey the command. I wanted to, but my beast didn't want to. It howled again, so loud that Kestrel staggered backwards from the impact.

Kestrel didn’t give up with slipping out his Alpha aura and somehow, I was able to gain partial control.

Mate.

The beast faltered a bit. Though, Kestrel rejected me, I never accepted his rejection, still full of hopes that he will see things better someday and come back to me. Thus, the faint, incomplete mate bond still existed between us.

The tiny hesitation from the beast gave me room to breathe and I pushed desperately against the raging instincts flooding our mind.

The Alpha command slammed through our shared mind again. The beast still resisted fiercely, snarling and clawing for dominance, but Kestrel’s scent surrounded us completely now; powerful, familiar and dangerously comforting, as the fur along my upper body slowly receded, allowing my human form to partially return.

Kestrel moved closer once again and his lips brushed my temple, then my cheek, moving lower. “Come back to me.”

My human body needed to complete her shift, but the beast was also fighting for control.  A tremor rolled through me as my heartbeat pounded against his. Then his lips crashed against mine the very next minute.

Heat erupted between us, then a clash of teeth, tongues and desperation ensued. Kestrel’s arms wrapped around my torso, dragging me closer, anchoring me as I trembled on the edge of madness. I gasped against him, fire spreading from every place he touched, burning through the storm inside me.

I clung to him with everything in me.

My beast’s rage was now all channelled into intense burning desire.

Kestrel’s hands roamed lower, pressing, guiding and claiming every part of me. My body arched as instinct took over where reason had failed.

Soon, his clothes were discarded. Skin against skin, he consumed me and he tamed me. My claws retracted shakily and the transformation stalled halfway before finally beginning to reverse. A broken gasp escaped me as my body weakened against his after my shift completed.

Kestrel’s hands slid lower, grounding me firmly against him while the beast slowly retreated deeper into our shared consciousness.

I was sane and human again. Unlike I feared, he stayed with me for a little more, his body pressed against mine as my body reeled from the intense pain it experienced.

I remained too weak to even lift a finger, and my consciousness began to slip away due to exhaustion.

“What just happened here?” Adira’s sharp, ear-piercing, angry voice was the last thing I heard before darkness consumed me.