by T. F. Walsh
I wiped at the blood oozing down my chest, feeling a sharp ache.
Footfalls to my left.
I flinched around.
Guards followed Father and the sultan from the back doors of the castle. Vincent and several of my wulfkin joined. As did Aisha, who ran ahead of them. Her glassy eyes fastened on Grit, and then the woods. My chest tightened into a knot. I had to return to rescue Selena.
Father reached me. His chest pumped out like a cocky rooster and the smile on his lips wider than I’d ever seen. The notion of him believing this win was for him, that he’d somehow won anything, had bile burning in my stomach. The tricky part hadn’t been tackling the dracwulf, but dealing with the real monster—my father.
Behind him, the sultan wore a grim expression, the kind that cut through me. It sliced deeper as I imagined Selena waking up alone. Maybe I could return before sunrise.
Father blocked my view of the sultan.
He clapped a hand to the wound on my arm as I stumbled to my feet. I cringed on the inside. “Son, today you have made me proud.”
Close to losing my footing from the first compliment he’d ever given, I reminded myself it had fuck all to do with me. In his mind, everything revolved around the boon.
He grabbed my wrist with his frozen grip and lifted my arm into the air, his voice booming. “We have a champion. My son, Marcin Ulf.”
Instead of warmth, coldness seeped through my veins, and I ripped my hand from Father. “I’m going back to help Selena.”
His face morphed into a horrendous beast, and for a split second, I swore he was transforming into his wolf side. Despite the shakes claiming his arms, he held it together. “Then you forfeit your claim to prove Enre innocent.”
My hands curled into fists until someone set a hand on my good shoulder.
“Come. Get your antiserum first.” Vincent dragged me by an elbow.
Rage burned my insides, but I followed Vincent to Barka, the medic who was stood near a tree stump. Fuck Father and everything he stood for. Nothing he could do would stop me from going after Selena. Vincent was right. It made perfect sense to first resurrect my wolf side.
Barka pushed loose silver hair into her bun and picked up a syringe, twice as long as the one I’d received to deaden my wolf side. Needles didn’t normally worry me, but this one appeared as if it might pierce all the way through my arm.
“Roll up your sleeve.” Her words were strangled, and she kept glancing over to Father who was talking to his guards. Vincent had retreated behind us, so it was just the two of us, yet her demeanor seemed strange.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
Barka wiped a spot on my arm with an antiseptic wipe and leaned in closer, her voice lowered to a soft whisper. “I sure hope that poor Turkish girl arrives back today.” She removed the lid from the injection and flicked her finger against the barrel filled with red liquid.
“Why’s that?”
She pressed the needle into my flesh, and I gritted my teeth.
Her voice lowered. “There was poison in the serum.” Her gaze wavered to Father and back before she jabbed deeper. “He made me do it, which is why you need the antiserum by the end of today. Otherwise, you’ll die.” She withdrew the needle from my arm.
“That’s only two days into the challenge. He said three days to return the dracwulves.”
The world beneath me swayed. Father had gambled with our lives, ready for us to die, for a goddamn chance to claim whatever fucked up scheme he’d made up in his head. And Selena was still out there. I was going to rip him to pieces.
Rage blurred my vision. Lava scorched my insides. I hurled myself toward my father, my fists striking his head and chest. Nothing would stop me.
He fell backward, but I fisted his coat tight and heaved him so close I could smell his pungent breath. “You fuckin’ piece of shit.” My insides shook uncontrollably, and before he responded, I head-butted him. He stumbled backward, his face bloody and his hands flaying outward as he collapsed onto his back.
Behind me, a cacophony. I glanced back to find Vincent with our pack in a semicircle around us, keeping Father’s guards at bay. Several had transformed into wolf form, drooling like savage animals. “This is between father and son. Give them space,” Vincent spat out.
My father lifted himself and broke into a chuckle. He wiped the blood from his mouth. “About time you manned up and acted like a real alpha.”
The sultan appeared by our sides, clearly perplexed by the scene. “Tell him, Father.” I shoved a hand into Father’s chest. “Tell the sultan how the serum you gave us to restrain our wolf side was deadly. How it will kill Selena if she doesn’t get the antiserum by the end of today. You gambled with our lives.”
The sultan’s face reddened. Four of his guards closed in behind him. When the sultan finally spoke, his voice trembled. “Is this true?”
Father’s laugh died abruptly, and he dusted the snow from his long coat. “Sultan, you of all people can appreciate the importance of putting pressure on the contestants. This isn’t a free-for-all, or we might as well turn this into a zoo and start selling popcorn. Last time I looked, we are wulfkin, not fucking pussies.”
“My daughter is still out there. You have no right to play God. I would never endanger anyone in my pack in this manner. You’re unfit to lead anyone.”
The sultan came out and voiced what I’d been unable to say this whole time. I glanced around but saw no sign of Tibor or the council. Of course not.
“Watch your tongue, dear Sultan, because you are on my land. You’re still subject to my rules.”
The sultan shook his head, his mouth contorted into an angry line. He stepped closer. “You have no standing to impose your rules over me, a fellow Varlac alpha, after you’ve demonstrated what a wretched emperor you have become.”
Father hardened his shoulders, standing his ground. “Enough of this bullshit. If you intend to keep your head, then shut your mouth. Anyone who dares to go help Selena will be punished by death. Along with those they hold dear. Now get the fuck out of my face. Marcin, meet me in my quarters.”
I refused to budge from his path, not caring for the threat in his eyes. He would no longer impose his made-up barbarian bullshit. Especially after putting Selena and me in mortal danger.
“Father,” I called out, loud enough for everyone to hear. “I’d like to claim my boon now.”
He stared at me as a vulture might do when it spotted fresh road kill. Darkness skated across his face, and his eyes narrowed. “Be very careful, son.”
“First, Enre is declared innocent and safe because I completed my challenge. The same applies to Daciana as Selena will arrive in time. My pack will release Enre and Daciana, then escort them to their home in Transylvania.”
Father’s posture shook, and his lips thinned, but before he could respond, I continued. “And under the very rules you imposed on every wulfkin in Europe, I call the council to hold you accountable for breaking the gravest of rules.” I had no idea if Tibor would support me, but it didn’t matter because I was going through with this now. And if he didn’t back me, then I was taking him down too.
“What are you talking about?” His fake amusement didn’t fool me. “You sound like a girl, making up stories.”
I opened my mouth, but Tibor’s voice echoed across the crowd. “Emperor Levin, for releasing two dracwulves into the wild where humans could’ve been endangered, for exposing these animals to humans, who could return to our land and search for the dracwulves, revealing our kind, you are charged and will be summarily punished.”
Father’s mouth gaped open, and for the first time, he was short of a comeback.
“Until then,” Tibor continued, “the council no longer sees you fit in your role and has appointed Marcin to the position of Emperor, the Varlac alpha of Europe.”
“This is preposterous. No one can touch me. No one!” He stormed past me, his shoulder knocking mine, aiming for Tibor.
Vi
ncent stepped in front of Tibor.
Father’s guards threaded toward him. Why the hell was Sanyi there? He was the same scum who preyed on young girls and guarded our dungeons. The wulfkin sidled up to Father and whispered in his ear as if they were best buddies.
And like a thunderstorm, the truth struck—the poison Barka mentioned in the serum, the poison on the stolen Turkish dagger with me being targeted. I’d never seen Father and Sanyi in the same room before, so who better to carry out evil deeds without it coming back to him.
My accusation surged loud and clear, claiming Father. “You had Sanyi steal the sultan’s daggers, didn’t you?” Father retreated, and Sanyi stepped in front of him. “And you tried to have me assassinated so the sultan could be blamed, giving you a reason to kill him.”
His voice quivered. “Trust me, Marcin. You don’t want to do this.”
My mind whirred with hatred, the kind I’d never experienced for anyone. At that moment, my father deserved so much worse.
When Sanyi charged, I didn’t hold back and threw a punch squarely on his nose. Someone else slammed into my back and grabbed my arms, pinning my shoulders.
Sanyi rolled his strikes into my gut and face. Each hit stung. I gasped. The sense of treachery consumed me, rage replacing any pain. Yes, my father was a leech, but to have him openly put me in harm’s way was too much. Fury won out within me.
I kicked Sanyi in the groin, sending him reeling to the ground. When my head snapped back, it hit the wulfkin’s nose behind me. My vision pulsed ... totally worth it. I swung around and laid a fist into the wulfkin at my back, then charged after Sanyi. Time to finish what we’d started.
Around us, Vincent and a handful of my pack were fighting Father’s other guards. Enormous Turkish wulfkin joined my side. Half were wolves as they brawled. But Father was being protected by a small ring of his handpicked wulfkin. Coward.
Sanyi stood between us, his dark eyes narrowing. “You’re a fool. We always had a cure for you from the daggers. But you spoiled everything.” He shook himself and released his wolf side, clothes and fur a jumbled mess as a dark beast streamed out. This scum didn’t deserve a pack, a family, or anything.
I crashed into Sanyi, knocking him over, and jumped on him, laying punches into his face. His back legs kicked me, pitching me aside. He rolled over and scrambled toward Father, who retreated with a circle of guards. They’d run away, hide, and not face charges.
Not under my watch.
Two of Father’s guards eased away as interference. I stomped in their direction, striking one in the gut while the other wulfkin punched me in the ribs. I winced but stood my ground. “Get the fuck out of my way, under the command of your new emperor.” Hell, those words sounded weird on my tongue.
They halted for an instant, but charged. I reeled out of the way before a third joined in, all three targeting me.
My head spun, and I gave just as good as I got, knocking one out with an elbow to the face. The others were relentless. Before I had another conscious thought, my wolf was there. Time to free him.
Behind his protection, Father was racing away. I shoved past a wulfkin, but someone tackled me, bringing me down. I reached a hand in Father’s direction. “Stop him.”
A wulfkin stomped on my hand, and I grimaced as the pain from bones cracking shot up my arm. Then my wolf steamed ahead, spilling past the dam of my human form. I welcomed the backup.
My wolf snarled, and I jabbed my jaws into the leg of the one holding my paw, tearing at the other hands on me. Before they could react, I raced past them. Just then, a blur whizzed from the side, a huge silver wolf going straight for Father—the sultan.
He pounced over a guard and lunged for Father, who turned around just as the assault collided into him.
Teeth wrapped around his jugular.
Father screamed.
By the time I reached Father’s side, his vein dangled from the wolf’s mouth. The sultan’s mouth.
Vincent dragged a kicking Sanyi away, but my sights remained fixed on the blood.
The sultan released a bone-chilling howl, echoed by his guards. I watched in wonder as his body shimmied into human form, fur vanishing. A stocky man stood in front of me with my father’s body sprawled at his feet.
Father was dead. His eyes were wide open, his mouth gaping with a horrified scream frozen on his expression. Goddess, it shouldn’t have had to come to this, but even after all the chaos he’d caused, I wasn’t sure I could have done it myself. He was my father and the only parent I had left. A small sting spread through my chest, and I prayed that the moon goddess take him to a place where love embraced him, eliminating hatred from his soul.
The sultan cleared his throat, and I glanced up. “Marcin, I hope you can forgive me for taking away your kill. I had a mistake to make up for in letting Levin use our dracwulves. After he poisoned you and Selena, enough was enough.”
Right then, rational thinking was out of the question. I didn’t have time to decide if it was from the sudden loss of my father, or Selena still out in the woods and in danger, or that the Varlac sultan, through killing Father, had just claimed the Hungarian land.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Selena
I kicked a pile of snow and pictured it as Marcin’s head. The bastard skipped out on me during the night. Wasn’t the first time he ditched me, but his backstabbing burned through me. He’d used me and stolen the boon from right under me. The dickhead tried to make me feel guilty about keeping secrets. On top of everything, he took his rope, and Grit was nowhere in sight. The tracks in the snow pointed to a scuffle that led up the hill toward the castle.
The firestorm thumping through my veins hadn’t deflated as the afternoon sun sank behind the mountains. I’d discovered no signs of Klaus either. For the past hour, an ache continued through my limbs, slowing me, and it was joined by a banging inside my skull. Could be the lack of food or exhaustion. Each step grew heavier. I dragged myself to a boulder to rest.
Had Marcin claimed Klaus as well? Or had Klaus simply bolted? Maybe I misinterpreted his stare back at the castle as a threat when it could have been his farewell. He’d always been intelligent that way, detecting danger before I could. Sure, he had the drugs in him, but what if he simply used the angry energy to run as far from here as possible? The drugs would eventually leave his system.
The thing was, I wasn’t worried for him because I couldn’t see Marcin hurting Klaus if he had caught him. Though, I couldn’t say the same for Marcin. Or for that matter, for myself when I returned without a dracwulf.
If Klaus had bolted deeper into the woods and stayed there, I wished him the best life. He’d been neutered as a pup, so breeding wasn’t an issue. I just prayed he didn’t attack any humans.
I shouldn’t have fallen asleep last night. I shouldn’t have hunted with Marcin, and most importantly, I never should have trusted him. He made me believe he cared for me. Idiot.
With every cell in my body, I’d fight and make him pay. The pressure behind my rib cage intensified, but it was the same ache I’d lived with for years after he left me in Turkey. Here I was again in the same predicament. I wasn’t sure what hurt worse, the fact that Marcin used me or that I’d lost him forever.
I pushed myself up. Enough moping around. Time to take action.
Each step sent a twinge along my legs. Despite telling myself to move fast, my body wasn’t listening. What was going on with me?
The tapping of wolf pads against snow sounded from behind me. I scanned the area and retrieved the syringe I’d found near the cave. Hopefully, it would be worth the hour of sifting through the snow to find it. No sign of my knife, though.
My thoughts dissolved as Marcin emerged from behind a tree fifteen feet away. He wore a grin and ran toward me. What the hell was he so happy about?
I tensed, my hackles flared. I would tell him exactly where he could stick that smile.
But a gray blur sprinted from the woods to his side, rushing for him.
Marcin punched Klaus in the head, but the dracwulf wasn’t releasing his hold on his arm. He hit him in the head again and wrenched himself free before grabbing a blade from his boot.
“Don’t hurt him. I have the syringe to help him.” I took the injection out and popped off the lid. Unsure why I should cooperate with Marcin, I had to stop him from harming Klaus.
Marcin charged toward the animal, sidestepped him at the last minute, but Klaus was too fast and whipped around, ripping into his thigh. Marcin cried in pain. Klaus retreated toward me, blood dripping from his mouth. He snarled as he glanced back at Marcin, who stumbled, a hand clasped to his bleeding leg. Pain capturing his scrunched-up face.
Klaus was protecting me!
My hand shook as it tightened around the syringe. Goddess, I never wanted Marcin harmed. While every instinct told me to jump toward Klaus and jab him with the antidote, my body faltered and barely stood upright. A wave of lethargy lapped through me.
If Klaus wanted me dead, he would have attacked me instead of Marcin. Maybe his drug had worn off, or goddess knows, it might be my link that halted his aggression toward me, though it hadn’t worked with Grit.
I stared at Marcin, and each word came with a panted breath. “Why did you come back? To gloat?”
He swallowed past the obvious lump in his throat and dropped his gaze momentarily. “You have every right to be pissed at me.”
“You bet your ass.”
“Maybe first let’s deal with the dracwulf who’s staring at me as if I were a steak.”
“Is one dracwulf and a boon not enough for your ego?” A fog spread through my head. I stumbled a few steps away. Keep it together.
Klaus lunged for Marcin, but with the hilt end of the knife, he slammed it into Klaus’s head. The dracwulf shook his head and dropped.