Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46314 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 232(@200wpm)___ 185(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Order thinks I’m going to obey him because the consequence for not obeying him is humiliating punishment. He’s wrong. I’ve decided to stand my ground. I…
“OW!” I shriek at the top of my lungs as the thing that I really thought was Connor bites me. Hard. I feel teeth pierce the flesh of my shoulder and hit bone. I shriek in shock and pain, unable to believe he just did that to me. He releases immediately, but I can feel that the wounds are deep and nasty. I am bleeding. I am hurt.
“Chief! It’s me!” I scream. “It’s me! Why would you hurt me!?”
“Sorry,” he growls in my ear before fleeing into the night. The others try to give chase, Justice taking to the air, and Stealth slithering full speed across the grassy fields. Neither of them is successful in recapturing Chief Connor I later learn.
For now, I buckle in shock, my weak leg giving way completely as I collapse, bitten and betrayed. Order is immediately atop me, trying to staunch the blood. He says nothing as he lays me down in the grass at the side of the road. Sally is there too now, with a first aid kit. They work on me with a calm yet frantic energy while I lay there confused and hurt and no longer understanding anything. Why? Why would he come all this way just to kill me?
With my wounds packed, I am lifted carefully into Order’s arms and carried back down into the vault. I am crying, out of betrayal and shock. I cannot believe Chief Connor would ever hurt me, but he did. He hurt me bad. I am trembling and shaking, going into physical and emotional shock at the same time.
Order has still not said a word. He is too busy working on me, administering the painkillers they have in the vault — which, it turns out, are heavy and very effective.
I’m going down. Darkness is coming. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
9
“We’ve got to get rid of her.”
I can hear them talking about me. They’re not in the room, but their voices are as clear as if they were, partially because their discussion is heated, and partially because my hearing seems to have been turned up to eleven.
“She is my pet, and my mate. I will never abandon her,” Order is saying.
“She was bitten, Order. She has to be put down. She’ll turn. Lycanthropy is incredibly contagious for humans. You know she has to be ended.” That’s Stealth. He never liked me.
“I am not going to harm a hair on her head.”
“Then you choose to harbor the enemy,” Stealth hisses.
“Shut the fuck up,” Justice snaps. “You don’t understand what these humans mean to us.”
“More than your brethren, apparently,” Stealth replies. “She’ll never be one of us. She was always human, and now she’ll never bear your spawn or lay your eggs. She’s useless. Don’t you understand? She has no purpose.”
“You are so very wrong,” Order replies. “She’s going to be a puppy. My good little puppy.”
“Don’t be so certain,” Justice says. “She’ll be a lot more than a puppy. She’ll be a ravenous she-wolf. She’ll have instincts you can’t control. And she might turn on you.”
“I’m not worried,” Order growls. I think he’s worried. I can feel his worry all the way through the wall.
“You should be,” Stealth says. “Why do you think the wolf bit her? He wanted to turn her. He stamped his claim on her soul. She’ll never truly be yours now.”
“She was mine from the moment I met her,” Order says. “I laid eyes on her and knew she was meant for me.”
He’s so sweet. I’d cry if I could, but I don’t want them to hear me and know that I can hear them. I want them to think that I am still passed out. There are a lot of conversations happening now revealing a great deal about this world and my place in it. Before being bitten, I was just another human amusement. Now, I am a potential enemy.
“Justice?” I hear Sally’s voice, somewhat distant, but easily audible to me. My senses have never been so keen before. She takes him into another room and begins to speak to him in lowered tones. What she says crushes me.
“I don’t think we should have her around the children. You, me, Stealth, we can protect ourselves. But the kids are vulnerable. The cocoon stage is just… we have to guard them.”
“You are such a good mother,” Justice praises her. “I’m so proud of you.”
“I would do anything for Tessie,” Sally says. “But the kids have to come first. If anything happened to them, I would never forgive myself.”
“Yes,” Justice says. “They do.”
I hear Stealth talking again, much closer. I prefer his voice to Sally’s. There’s less betrayal in it. He’s never owed me anything, so how can he disappoint me?