POV (Th

ed like frightened rabbits. Another day of border disputes, tribute demands, and

he curse stirring under my skin like molten iron. The be

ors of the palace. Servants and guards pressed themselves against the wa

ng on the walls. Only darkness and stone. Even my most trusted Betas refused to enter this place.

nd bound with ancient spells. I wrapped them around my wrists and ankles myself, then snapped the final lock int

cold floor

ugh it. Some full moons I wondered if it would be easier to end it all. One clean strike with the sacred dagger and the cur

My vision bled red. The beast roared inside my skull, demand

I hea

cre

palace walls, deep in the Shadow Wil

wards blocked everything. Yet the scream cut straight thr

sped. The pain in my body faded to nothing

to h

hey held. Of course they held.

tore throug

ave her.

d into my thoughts. Not

ssib

through gritte

eaked. Then t

apnel. I stared at my freed wrists in shock.

t took c

rouch, already shifting. Fur exploded across my body. Claws tore into the earth. The palace fell behind m

ided me. Loude

ues circling a small figure on the ground. The

g I had felt in cen

oar

rd me. Their eyes wi

Beast!" on

ried t

nd died with my jaws around his throat. The third I slammed into a tree so hard his spine cracked.

sound of dripping blood a

urn

tree trunk, leg bl

es locked somethin

t it shifted into something else. Recognition. A strange calm. As

look at me

anym

ely a whisper. "Wha

me harder than an

e chains that had once bound my wrists now hung loose and broken. I rose

hing grew shallow. He

Whatever this pul

as she collapsed. Her body was

nt. No trace of black magic. She smelled like mo

oon still burned bright overhead, but I had shifted back to human

as playing another

man

ard the palace. The beast remained strangely calm inside me, as if her p

t unders

thing with abso

as, she was no