Chapter 35


    “Do you love him?” Taskesi.


    She fell silent, staring at me with a mix of resentment and confusion in her eyes. “More than anything


    she whispered. “He’s like a brother to me.”


    1 nodded gently, holding her gaze with the intensity of my own.


    “So you thought joining ties with him would be the best way forward for your pack. You’re both from


    powerful families and you both care for one another as well as your people. It only makes sense that


    you would join forces. You’re jealous of my position, not of his love for me”


    I seemed to be spotting revtions to Angie that even she herself had not entirely understood until


    now. She was at a for words, all malice drained from her b*dy as she stood listlessly staring at me.


    loss


    “You thought getting rid of me would eventually drive Ignatius back to you. Did you honestly believe


    that he wouldn’t find out it was you? That he wouldn’t suspert you! You’re the one who has damaged


    the rtionship between the two of you. Not


    me.”


    Angie sighed and awkwardly angled herself to sit down on the gravel. “I try to kill you and youe to


    me with counseling. Your mate almost murders me and you stop him just to talk. It’s a kind of mercy we


    don’t do here in this pack. It’s humiliating


    I sat down next to her, and the two of us stared at the white gravel at our feet. “The only thing


    humiliating about it is the fact that you thought killing me would do anything more than satiate your own


    feelings of jealousy”


    Angie tossed a pebble along the ground, her cuffs clinking together as she did so. “It was worth a shot,”


    she mumbled sardonically


    It was an odd sight to behold I was sure, two shifters in fancy dresses – one in handcuffs and the other


    with a knife at her hip


    sitting together in the dust.


    I inspected my nails absently. Angie’s scent was bing more apparent now that the masking leaves


    were wearing off. It had the same him of the S** as Ignatius’s did, only hers was lighter the smell of lc


    and a summer breeze


    “Do you think maybe you could stop trying to kill me now?”


    Angieughed h o a rsely, her throat still scratched and aching 1 can try


    That’s good enough. And maybe no more death threats”


    That I can manage.”


    Thumped my knee against hers, shushing Ignatius who was trying to pry into my mind that very


    moment. I reassured him that things were going fine.


    “How about a truce?”


    “I suppose that could work.


    I turned my head slightly to look at her. She seemed a lot softer, kinder when she wasn’t wearing her


    usual abrasive expression. “And hove about friends?”


    “Careful runt, now you’re pushing it.” But I had caught the ghost of a smile that yed on her lips.


    I chuckled quietly to myself, “I suppose that was too much to ask


    Angie propped her chin on her knees. “Give it some time. You’re not what I expected you to be


    Dorothy.”


    “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.”


    “I didn’t say it


    it was a good thing”


    2/4


    Fri, Jan 26


    I shrugged. “Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to let you back into the party- our guests need to


    think you’re being tortured in a cell somewhere currently, but I think we can get those cuffs off of you.


    Angie feigned disappointment, “Ah well, it was a sh it party anyway.”


    I was in the process of helping Angie to her feet when Ignatius broke through into my mind. “Dorothy.


    Geranium has picked up a strange scent nearby. We are investigating it now. Are you okay there?”


    I recalled the odd scent from earlier and immediately went on high alert. Angle sensed my sudden


    unease and she too scanned the grounds around us.


    I answered Ignatius, “We’re fine here. I thought I sensed something earlier. Where are you now?”


    A low growl from Angie had me losing Igantius’s answer. I looked up to see the target of her throaty


    growl in time to see a fully formed wolf stalking out of the shadows towards us.


    The creature was massive, thick dark fur over rippling muscles. It bared its fangs at us, yellow eyes


    glowing like spotlights in


    the dark


    “Ignatius,” I said memally. “It’s a shifter. The scent, it’s a shifter. And he’s right here.”


    1 had barely managed to open my mouth to speak when the wolfunched himself directly at Angie,


    jaws ripping into her chest as he descended upon her. The scream that erupted from me was guttural.


    I was useless, a small girl with no shifting abilities watching a massive wolf shifter tear into the


    handcuffed girl beneath him. Angie howled, frightened and enraged as she tried to shift into her own


    wolf form


    The silver of the cuffs prevented a full transformation, however, and the best she could do was


    elongate her fangs to snarl and snap at the attacker.


    I had no other choice, I drew the small faerie de from its sheath andunched myself onto the


    shifters back. I remembered Rita’s warning. The de would do no real harm to a shifter – it was iron,


    not silver, But I could at least irritaté him enough to slow him down


    The wolf barely noticed me clinging to its fur. I held on tightly, trying desperately not to be thrown off the


    bucking ravenous creature as I edged my way closer to its head. Angie was weakening, and the sound


    of her whimpered cries blended with the sickening crunch of breaking bones and tearing skin.


    With every ounce of strength I could muster and a cry loud enough to scare away every bird in the


    nearby trees, I drove the tiny de directly into the creature’s eye.


    The shifter bowled in agony and I was tossed from its back as it raised itself up onto two massive hind


    legs. I kept my grip


    the knife and it was yanked from the creature’s socket as I was thrown through the air.


    I crashed a few feet away onto gravel and rocks andy there wheezing once again. I felt fresh blood


    congealing in my hair and knew I must have been injured in the fall


    The untethered wolf was still howling in pain and the whines turned to that of fear when two morerge


    wolves made an appearance. One ck as night and the other a sleek gray.


    Geranium and Ignatius. I had never seen Ignatius’s full wolf form firsthand before. I barely had time to


    take in his regal gray coat before he and Geranium were bolting after the now retreating shifter down


    into the forest and out of sight.


    Forcing myself upright, I scrambled over to Angie whose breathing was unnatural and strained.


    Her b*dy was covered in blood and her shoulder and ribcage were severely broken. Blood was pouring


    from a bit on her neck and her eyes were wide and terrified when she clutched at me.


    She opened her mouth but couldn’t speak..


    1 held her hand tightly, willing for her to be okay. Demanding it. She had to be.


    -Ignatius-


    Geranium and I chased down the imposter and he barreled through the forest. With only one eye


    thanks to Dorothy’s knife. he stumbled into trees and faltered enough for us to catch up with him easily


    enough.


    Thad been on high alert from the moment Dorothy told me of his presence. I had run faster than ever


    before when I heard her scream. I knew she’d be alright, I had seen her crumpled on the gravel but she


    had been moving


    She was alive. Geraniums had already alerted Gideon and Fae to go check on her and Angie alter we


    had left.


    The wounded shifter stumbled onest time before transforming back into his human proportions. He


    probably thought he would be able to hide from us better that way


    He was wrong. I sought him out soon enough and clenched my jaws on his shoulder, throwing him to


    the ground while Geranium pinned him dowis


    I shifted back to my own human form and inspected the imposter. He was a young man, probably mid-


    twenties like me. 1 didn’t recognize him, nor his strange scent. It was putrid and acrid like something


    toxic was boiling in his blood and seeping from his pores


    His eyes well one eye, the other was a bleeding ga shi now were wild and his oily ck hair was long


    and mutte/


    “Who are you?” I growled at the stranger. “What are you doing attacking Hielke territory?”


    Instead of answering my question the man spot at pressed into his chest, preventing him from


    escaping.


    blood and valiva, and snarled vicioudy. Geranium kept his front ws


    N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.


    Taimed a kick at the side of the shifters, mom savout of frustration than anything else. “Who are you!”


    The man hissed his difort and red at


    lus injured eye seeped blood down his face and over his bare chest.


    Tally,” he spat “And I know who you are. Ignatius Armount


    Ibareil my teeth. “If you know anything about me then you know you’re not making it out of here alive


    The manughed, yellowing teeth dripping blood-Angie’s blood-I barely refrained from kicking him


    again. “Threats like that have no effect on a dead man, I won’t tell you anything”


    I didn’t know what he meant by dead man. Was he already dying? Is that why he had been so bold with


    his attack?


    “Are there more of you here?”


    He wouldn’t respond and I was losing my patience. I knelt down next to him, driving a thumb into his


    ruined eye socket. The man screamed in agony, his b*dy shifting from half-wolf to half-human and back


    again in a gruesome disy of b*dy horror in his attempt to get away.


    “Answer me.”


    “No! No, there’s no one else! I swear!” he shrieked, more blood spewing from his mouth.


    It was dark and sticky. More ck than red. There was something very wrong with this shifter. His b*dy


    smelled of decay and poison and his remaining eye was a sickening yellow-his pupil small as a


    pinprick.


    I sn atched my hand away and he howled in agony. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked disparagingly.


    “Why does your scent reek like a man who’s already dead?”


    With this, the shifter began tough, haunting, spine-chillingughter like he hadpletely lost his


    mind. The sight of that gruesome engorged face, the man with one eye who smelled of death,ughing


    maniacally was burned into retina


    ???


    forever.


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