Chapter 8: 8: Bad Blood

The kiss keeps growing hotter, deeper, until I can hardly breathe.

He pulls me tighter against him. Our wolves are straining at the surface, desperate to claim what our bodies already know.

And then—my new phone buzzes violently in my pocket, cutting through the haze, followed by the sharp blare of an alarm.

He pulls away. His chest rises and falls with every heavy breath, his whole body shaking from the effort of holding back.

Then Alex snaps back to reality. His phone is going off too, and he pulls it from his pocket.

I look at my screen.

PACK ALERT

This is an automated message to all members of the Royal Pack

PACK ALERT

Rogues have been spotted at the border. All citizens are advised to remain inside or get to the nearest safe house.

PACK ALERT

Pack Warriors are ordered to report to the West Border immediately.

I look up at Alex and he shakes his head “no.”

“I know what you’re thinking, Ariel. But you need to stay here, where it’s safe. You haven’t completed your warrior training yet.”

“I can help. I ~need~ to help. I can’t just stand by and do nothing.”

“Ariel, it’s too—”

“Alex, please. Let me prove myself to my new pack.”

“Fine, but stay close to me,” he says in a low growl.

We rush to the marketplace, the sound of panic echoing through the streets. Merchants abandon their stalls, families scramble to get to safety.

We finally spot Dom through the crowd, his expression grim and focused.

Alex barks orders to a group of warriors, his voice cutting through the noise as he runs off to organize the others.

Dom glances at me, his jaw set. “Fight’s coming. We should shift,” he says.

Dom’s bones crack and his clothes rip as he shifts into a large gray wolf.

I follow his lead and start shifting, but—

“AHHHHHHH!”

I scream in agony as I fall to my knees. An intense pain grips my entire body from within. I can barely breathe. It feels like I’m being choked from the inside out. The same icy feeling from before, but amplified tenfold.

~Goddess, what’s happening?~

~I can’t bring out my wolf…~

Dom’s wolf looks at me with fear in his eyes as I collapse to the ground, practically convulsing.

My body feels like it’s shutting down, and I have no idea why or what I’m supposed to do.

~Come on, dammit! Shift!~

The alarm on my phone begins wailing again.

Dom’s ears perk up, and I can tell he’s already received the message.

When we’re fully in wolf form, we can communicate through mind-links.

Still doubled over in pain, I manage to pull my phone out.

PACK ALERT

There has been a border breach.

PACK ALERT

All pack citizens must get to safety immediately.

PACK ALERT

Rogues are inside the city walls.

Shit, this is bad.

I’m completely vulnerable in this position.

People are running all over the busy marketplace, trying to get to safety, but it’s absolute chaos and I can’t even move.

As a crowd of frightened pack members start stampeding toward me, I’m sure I’m going to be trampled, but Dom’s wolf jumps in front of me and shields me.

“Thanks, Dom,” I say, grabbing onto his fur to keep myself upright.

~ARRR-ROOOO-OOO!~

Piercing howls reverberate through the marketplace.

~They’re here.~

Six mangy-looking wolves suddenly surround Dom and me, their patchy fur and rank stench making it clear that they’re rogues.

Dom snarls and gnashes his teeth at the rogues, but they aren’t intimidated.

It’s six against one.

Three of the wolves lunge at Dom and start biting and clawing at him, but he’s the bigger wolf.

He body-slams one and rips into another with his fangs.

He’s putting up a hell of a fight.

Two of the other wolves break off to try and subdue Dom, while the remaining wolf moves toward me, drool flecking from its wagging tongue.

The wolf places its heavy paws on my chest, and I feel its hot, wet breath on my face.

Summoning every iota of my willpower, I manage to extract my claws from my fingernails, and I dig them into the wolf’s side.

It whimpers in pain, giving me a chance to start crawling away, but that brief moment of pain very quickly turns to rage.

The wolf growls maliciously and bounds toward me, leaping through the air.

I’m sure I’m a dead woman, until—

A huge, striking golden-brown wolf soars over me and clamps its jaws around the rogue in midair.

The rogue is a crumpled, bloody mess in a matter of seconds.

The golden wolf turns to look at me, as if to make sure I’m okay, then returns to the battle, knocking the other rogues down like bowling pins.

Moments later, the entire squadron has descended on the marketplace.

A few sharp yelps pierce the air, followed by silence.

The rogues are all dead.

I feel the chill taking over, and I collapse to the ground.

As I start to fade in and out of consciousness, the golden wolf stands over me.

His form starts to change, and moments later, I’m staring at the man who came to my rescue…

“Alex…” I murmur before passing out.

***

I wake up in the pack hospital. Alex is sitting next to my bed, snoring.

I throw a pillow at him, and he stirs awake.

“Huh, what? Are the rogues back?” he says frantically, as his head whips around the room.

I try to muffle my laughter. “It’s all clear, alpha.”

“Oh, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” he asks, his attention suddenly fully on me.

“Much better,” I reply.

~Like, so much better that it’s weird. Just hours ago, I felt like death.~

“You scared me out there. Why couldn’t you shift?” Alex asks, concerned.

I flick my fingers, just to test my shifting, and my claws extract with ease.

~What the hell? It took everything I had to even slightly draw my claws before.~

“Honestly, Alex, there’s weird things going on with my body that I don’t even understand myself,” I say seriously.

“I wish I could give you a better answer.”

“Do you think it has something to do with the hunters?” he asks cautiously.

“What exactly did they do to you during all that time?”

My heart sinks at Alex’s question.

It’s bad enough that I have my own fears that the hunters have somehow turned me into some kind of science project, but the insinuation coming from Alex is absolutely gutting.

“I…I’d rather not talk about it,” I say quietly.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. You just seem…”

“Broken?” I say, unable to mask the insecurity in my voice.

“Because that’s how I feel. Like I’m just a shadow of who I used to be. Like I’m not in control of my own body.”

Tears well up in my eyes, and I can’t stop them from streaming down my face.

“Ariel, they didn’t break you. You’re ~here~. You survived everything they did to you,” Alex says, grasping my hand.

“You might be the strongest person I’ve ever met.”

“I was completely powerless in the marketplace when the rogues attacked. If you hadn’t been there…”

Alex is suddenly sitting on the edge of my bed, and I feel his body press into mine as he puts his arm around me.

“Whatever is going on with you, we’ll figure it out together,” he says.

I find myself leaning into Alex’s chest, and I feel his fingers in my hair.

I don’t know why, but I feel drawn to Alex, like we have some sort of connection.

I feel safe in his arms, but I also want to protect him.

“You feel that too, don’t you?” he says. “Whenever we touch…”

“Yes, Alex, I... I feel like—”

A knock on the door interrupts me, and Alex quickly stands up as a doctor enters.

“Alpha Alex, if it’s alright, I’d like to run some blood tests,” he says.

“Of course, Doctor. I’ll leave you to it.” Alex turns to me and gives me an affectionate smile.

“I hope you feel better soon, Ariel.”

ALEX

When I get back to my office, Dom is sitting on my desk, waiting for me with a six-pack of beer.

He’s covered in a number of cuts and bruises that he sustained in wolf form when he was fighting with the rogues, but he came out surprisingly unscathed.

“You’re a lucky bastard,” I say, taking a beer from him and opening it with my teeth.

“Taking on those rogues, six against one. You should be a fucking fur rug right now.”

“Who are you calling lucky?” Dom asks, clinking his bottle against mine. “Those scrawny excuses for wolves didn’t have a chance against the Dom-inator.”

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“Please don’t ~ever~ call yourself that again,” I say, laughing.

“What? I think it will catch on,” he says without a trace of sarcasm. “The girls at ~Full Moon~ liked it.”

“That’s because you’re ~paying~ them to give you compliments,” I say, grinning. “Goddess, what the hell am I going to do with you?”

“Speaking of girls...” Dom says with a sly smile. “You spent the night with Ariel, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t spend the night ~with~ her, I spent it ~next~ to her,” I say defensively.

“Semantics,” Dom says, waving away my defense. “You like this girl. I know you better than anyone. And you have a total hard—”

“DOM!” I shout, getting flustered. “Just drop it, okay.”

He continues smirking, clearly having no intention of dropping it.

“Look, I’m just saying that I haven’t seen you show interest in a girl like this in a long time. It’s nice, that’s all.”

“We’re just friends,” I say definitively, staring out the window and nursing my beer.

Despite how annoying Dom is being, he’s not wrong about me being interested in Ariel.

I’m just not sure where that interest comes from or what it means.

Something about her feels... special. I feel like she understands me in a way that no one else does.

At least since...

When I turn back around, Dom is giving me a concerned look.

“It’s okay for you to have feelings, Alex. She wouldn’t have wanted you to close yourself off forever.”

I know he’s right, but I’m still not over her. Olivia meant the world to me, and she still does.

I can’t help but feel that having an interest in anyone else is a betrayal to what we had.

“She was my destined mate,” I say sadly. “I gave her all my love. I don’t think I can ever do that again.”

ARIEL

Steve and Louisa brought me cookies and flowers, thoughtful as always, but as the hours pass, I’m getting more and more restless.

I feel a thousand times better, and sitting around in a hospital bed waiting for test results is a real snooze fest.

I don’t understand this hot and cold healing process, but I need to get out of here before I lose my mind.

Just as I’m contemplating making an escape, the doctor returns. He closes the door behind him and gives me a troubled look.

“Do you have the results?” I ask nervously.

“Yes, Ms. Thomas. I ran several blood tests and frankly... they’re quite alarming. I don’t know how to say this, but…”

He pauses, as if he’s unsure how to break the bad news to me.

“Ariel... you should be dead.”

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