As Belle’s teeth sunk into my flesh, my field of vision was penetrated by a white light, so bright that my lids clamped shut.
But closing my eyes changed nothing.
The light was emanating from inside me.
Just then, something truly inexplicable began to happen.
I could feel my claws lengthening, my teeth sharpening, my muscles expanding.
Belle’s bite was still lodged inside of me. I tried to push her away, but she was fused to my neck.
For a brief, devastating moment, I wanted to rip her off of me and hurl her across the room.
And I wanted it to hurt.
I was suddenly scared of what I might do—what I might be capable of—if I couldn’t contain the overwhelming force that had erupted inside of me.
I clenched my fists and bit my jaw down so hard that my tongue started oozing thick red blood.
Suddenly, that bright white light morphed into a pure and impenetrable darkness.
When I’d marked Keith, it had felt as though my teeth had become bound to his flesh.
He’d started convulsing under me, crying out and flailing his arms wildly.
After an agonizing moment, I finally managed to release my jaw and pull away from his neck.
We locked eyes for an instant.
He shot me a terrifying, murderous gaze.
It was bone-chilling—the kind of expression that would give me nightmares. And now it was etched on the face of the person I trusted the most in the world.
As quickly as it came, it disappeared, and he went limp in my arms. Keith collapsed, sending us both crashing to the floor.
My knees banged against the tile.
I struggled to get out from underneath the hulking wolf and made my way to the bathroom.
I grabbed a glass and filled it with ice cold water. Then I sprinted back and splashed it onto his face.
His eyes started to blink open, slowly at first, as he shifted back to his human form.
When we made eye contact again, the expression on his face had completely changed: he was gripped by fear.
“Oh Moon Goddess!” I said. I couldn’t stand seeing him like this: shaking, covered in his own blood, on the verge of tears.
I knelt down and took him in my arms.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice quivering. “What happened to me?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I marked you, and you went crazy. It looked like you wanted to—”
“Yeah…” he said, turning away from me. “I felt like I wanted to do—I don’t know—something bad—”
“Why?” I asked him.
“I have no idea,” he said, and I believed him. “You know I would never do anything to hurt you. But when you marked me, this overwhelming, foreign force took over my body. I mean—look at me…”
Amid the chaos, I hadn’t really paused to take in his full appearance. When I finally did, I gasped.
So…I hadn’t imagined it.
It looked like I had taken a mega-dose of steroids. I was taller, leaner, and more muscular than ever.
“How did—what did I—?” Her mouth was agape as she sized me up. She tried to find her words, but none would come, until she mustered, “Is this normal?”
I had never heard of a mark creating any physical change beyond the desired scar.
I shook my head in disbelief; she buried hers in her hands.
As I eyed my distressed mate, something suddenly dawned on me—the answer to a question that had been plaguing me for quite some time.
I had always wondered why Belle was so important to Lasarus; why he would be willing to go to war for her. And now I knew.
Her mark was like a secret weapon. It made me more powerful. Lasarus had wanted that for himself.
I put my arm around my mate, and she turned to face me.
“Belle,” I whispered. “I think you’re stronger than any of us realize. You have the ability to enhance the powers of the people around you.
“Mating with you was like making love to a bolt of lightning. Absolutely electrifying.”
“And terrifying,” she said, turning away from me, her shoulders hunched. “You really scared me.”
I crawled around her body, forcing eye contact again.
“Again, I’m so sorry, Belle,” I said, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. “We knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but we will rise to the challenge like we did before.
“You need to learn the extent of your powers. And I—I need to learn how to control myself when I’m around you.”
“Well, don’t control yourself too much,” she said, and I saw the hint of a smirk touching her lips.
“My Belle…the daughter of a witch and a demon…I’m in trouble, huh?”
She nodded. “That’s right.”
“But when we understand your full capabilities, Lasarus will be in trouble too. We may just be able to defeat him after all.”
I considered bringing backup with me as I made the long journey to the Vampire Kingdom.
But I needed to be as discreet as possible if I was going to slip into the palace unnoticed.
Besides, it had been a while since I had had the distinct pleasure of running through the forest alone at night, the wind whipping my face as I bounded over every obstacle in my path.
It wasn’t hard to find the Vampire Kingdom—I could locate it using just my nose. The area above their underground city reeked of death, and I could smell it from miles away.
But I didn’t know what to expect when I got there.
I was hoping this would be an easy mission—that I could get in and out quickly with a few new pieces of information in tow.
But as I approached the perimeter of the palace, I could immediately tell that something was very wrong.
I had already been planning how to get around the inevitable lineup of guards, but there were none to be seen. The gate to the palace was completely unprotected.
I ducked down low, crawled through the iron bars, and—
First I spotted one. And then another. And then another.
I began to feel dizzy from the sights, the smells, and, mostly, the horrifying sounds of the demons, floating in mid-air, sucking the energy out of dead or dying vampires.
I stumbled backward into a hedge and vomited at my feet. Never in my life had I been in the presence of so much dark energy.
I had come here hoping to collect intel on an unlikely alliance. Instead, I was witnessing a full-blown massacre.
I wanted to scream—to try to save any of the vampires that might have life left in them—but I knew that it would mean my own swift and brutal demise. I was entirely outnumbered and unprepared.
I jumped. What the—
I turned. Peering at me through a tangle of leaves and vines was a round, pale white face, with big, dark eyes, bow-shaped lips, and sharp fangs.
“Please—” her eyes glistened with tears. “Get me out of here.”
“Okay,” I replied. “You can trust me.”
“What choice do I have?” she asked. And she was right.
The vampire staring back at me was basically out of options. I was her best hope.
But she looked terrified as, in a flash, I shifted into my wolf form.
I motioned for her to grab onto the fur on my back and started sprinting in the direction I had come from.
When we finally made it to the forest, I stopped in my tracks to catch my breath. But when she rolled off me, she took it away from me again.
In the moonlight, her skin practically looked translucent. She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
“Who are you?” I asked softly, after I shifted back to my human form. I was naked—exposed to her, but right now, that was the least of my concerns.
“Samuel?” I asked, remembering him well. How he wanted to be Belle’s mate. How he tried to kill her when she resisted.
Renee nodded.
“What happened with the demons?” I asked her. “If you don’t mind…”
“It’s all my fault,” she said gravely. “I tried to lead the people into an alliance, and now—and now they’re all—”
“I guess that’s what happens when you get in bed with demons,” I said without thinking.
She immediately dropped to the ground and started to cry. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I wanted to protect my people and now—”
I knelt down next to her, placing one hand on her shoulder to steady her shaking.
She spoke through tears: “The werewolves are next. They’re coming after all the powerful magical creatures in the world. Lasarus will stop at nothing short of total domination.”
“I’m just surprised they came for you guys first,” I said honestly.
“I’m not. Now that the demons have feasted on vampire energy, they’re stronger than ever. Taking down the werewolves will be easy.”
Lasarus’ sinister plan was starting to come to light. And because of him, this young woman was displaced—without a home, a family, or a people to call her own.
“Do you mind if I—” I held out my other arm toward her. She considered it for a moment and then nodded. I pulled her into a hug and rocked her as she cried into my shirt.
After what felt like hours, but was probably just a couple of minutes, I pulled away from her and whispered, “I’d like you to come back with me to the Werewolf Kingdom.
“We have the witches on our side, and we’re going to find a way to take down those demons once and for all.”
She wiped her face and looked me dead in the eyes.
“Thank you,” was all she said.
I could have sat there with Renee all night, but we had to get moving. Our lives depended on it.
