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I wasn’t anyone’s toy. No one had any right to step on everything I held dear. I didn’t understand why Hel was so upset with Bianca for testing my power when the goddess turned around and did the same thing.
Using a bit of my own life force again, I yanked Bianca’s bone collar towards the door. She had no other choice than to stumble along with it. Maddox clutched the sides of his head and dropped to the ground right as Bianca vanished.
Hel took that opportunity to step into my personal space. She whispered in my ear, her voice somehow still louder than Maddox’s howls of pain.
“Watch him,” she commanded.
When I looked away, Hel grabbed my chin and forced me to pay attention.
“Can you feel it? He’s eating away at you.” Burning cold wafted off Hel’s form. “He takes and takes from you. If you let him continue, there will be nothing left of you to love him. Will you give this abomination everything you are?”
Her words swam in my mind. I didn’t have time to digest their meaning. I jerked out of her grasp and threw myself to my knees in front of Maddox.
His body rippled, the wolf trying to break free. I realized now that Hel had been throwing off a predatory aura. It’d set Maddox’s wolf on edge. She never came here to help. Her intention had been to stir trouble this whole time.
While I was tempted to give Maddox a command, both to keep him from losing control and to show Hel that he wasn’t a threat, I knew that would push Maddox over the edge. I needed him to trust me, which meant that we had to do this the hard way.
He slumped forward, his palms on the floor in front of him. I noticed the way his fingers dug into the carpet. His white knuckles trembled, and the floor in front of him creaked as the wood beneath splintered. I reached towards him, but his chest heaved, and the ripple of his spine made me flinch.
That shouldn’t bother me. I was used to blood and bone. My entire life had revolved around the visceral parts of life. I put my hand flat to his shoulder and tried not to recoil when the muscle beneath undulated.
“You’re safe here,” I told him with my voice low and even. “I will keep you safe.”
He groaned. It became a growl as he lifted his head to glare at Hel. She’d seated herself on the couch once more. One leg casually bent over the other, Hel watched with satisfaction. We were nothing more than her pawns. It didn’t matter that I was her flesh and blood. If I didn’t do what she wanted, then I would pay the price.
If Vi could buck the will of the gods, then I could, too. I wasn’t going to let anyone use Maddox as a lesson. He deserved better. My guilt over his new life as a shifter had been sitting in the pit of my stomach like a brick for weeks now. It steadied me now.
“He’s going to turn into exactly the kind of monster he hates,” Hel said calmly. “What will you do when his remorse twists his mind and tears him apart from the inside? When he discovers the blood on his own hands, and he cannot handle it, what then? Will you be there to put him down? Will you be able to do it?”
I ignored her. It was one thing to yell at a god. It was another to treat them like they weren’t even there.
“Threat,” Maddox growled. The light of his beast flashed bright in his eyes, never once leaving Hel.
I nearly laughed. “Yeah. But I think she’s mostly a pain in the ass. If she could really hurt you, she would have done it already. Hel needs me to do her dirty work, and I’m not going to do it.”
I put my hand over his. Though his nails had lengthened into claws, he was careful not to scratch me as he turned his hand over and threaded his fingers with mine.
I thought the worst was over, but my heart stopped when Maddox lurched forward. He tore his hand from mine and caught himself on all fours. Without warning, his beast surged out of his body. The sound of clothes tearing echoed in the room. Fur burst forth from his skin.
A panting beast sat in the middle of my living room.
“Oh, Maddox.” I clenched my fists to keep from throwing my arms around him.
I wanted nothing more than to pull the beast into my chest and hold him tight. That’s probably not what he wanted. With his beast unleashed, he likely wanted to run or hunt. If anything, I was sure that he would want to get away from Hel.
When he leaned into my chest and lowered his head to growl in Hel’s direction, I heard a soft snicker from the open door. I tried to ignore Vi’s laughter as I wrapped my arms around the growling wolf in my lap.
Hel’s brow furrowed. The shadows on the skeletal side of her face darkened ominously. Maddox moved to put more of himself between Hel and me. He didn’t have to worry about me, though. She didn’t want to hurt me. The one that Hel wanted dead was him.
That didn’t matter to the wolf, though.
I sank my fingers into his fur and held him tight. Though he’d lost control again, this was a sign that maybe things would be all right.
But when Hel’s mouth curled into a triumphant smile, I followed her gaze past me.
Ness and Ryder stood in the door. Ryder’s lips twisted as he sucked his teeth in thought. The shadows over his eyes set off alarms in my mind. That was not the look of someone proud or protective. Ryder was calculating everything he’d just seen.
“Don’t be a stick in the mud like your brother!” Vi cried out.
