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The wolf gave me a toothy grin, and his lips pulled back into a chilling snarl.
Fuck.
I gripped my obsidian knife and slid back my right foot for balance. I’ve sparred with the pack in wolf form, but they always held back. Now I’m facing a ginger nightmare on all fours that outweighs me by a hundred pounds, and he’s not inclined to give me a pass.
The heart stone calls to me, while the eye makes the base of my skull ache. Tendrils of warmth encircled my throat and reached down to my shoulders, making me envision ivy taking over my body.
Shit.
I scramble back toward the altar for cover, too confused by what’s happening in my body to defend myself against a full-size werewolf.
Marvin followed, carefully picking his way through the battered and overturned pews as he stalked me. Outside, a wolf wailed a plaintive cry, and Marvin replied with a low, long howl. I’m about to get more company.
He snarled at me and leaped over the altar as I raised my knife to meet him.
Hurry, Thorn.
Marvin clears the altar and pushes me to the floor, my knife sunk to the hilt in his shoulder. We grapple, me using the knife to force him back, his muzzle snapping a whisper away from my face, his claws scrabbling at the floor beside my shoulders.
The stone in my pocket spilled to the ground in the scuffle, and I grabbed it. The scalding heat of the artifact hit my palm, then scorched my whole arm.
The room goes black, and when I open my eyes, I’m surrounded by wary wolves and the stench of burned fur.
“What have you done?” Kye stood over me, his hands raised to ward me off.
I scuttled back on my ass and crouched. “What the hell do you want? I haven’t done anything to you.”
“Haven’t done anything?” said Kye. “You burned him alive, you fucking witch. I’m going to tear out your heart and eat it you while you watch.”
“Jesus Christ, listen to yourself,” I choked. “I was here, alone. I was attacked, and now you’re threatening to eat me, and I’m the villain?” I cast about to find Marvin, but bile rose in my throat at the sight of the charred canine corpse. “Wait. I did that?”
Kye and I stared at each other, realization dawning in his eyes. “You have no idea what those stones do, do you?”
“Moira said they could make me powerful. I just want them far away from me.”
“Stupid girl,” he growled. “You should never have gotten involved in the first place.”
Rage fills my gut, molten hot and bubbling until it feels like I’ll drown them all if I open my mouth.
“I was doing my job, Kye. You were the one stealing from the Syndicate to gain power you have no right to. You were the one who stole from Thorn and dragged me into the middle of everything.”
His eyes go wolf first, as they always have, and I know he’s on the verge of losing control, which is bad for me. His breathing shallows to near-panicked panting, and his fingers crackle and elongate, bones snapping and re-knitting into horrifying claws.
“If you lose control, everyone will,” I reminded him. “You’re only Alpha by lineage, you don’t have the power to control them, and you never did.”
Even as I say it, it’s like the last piece falling into the puzzle, and I can see it for the truth it is.
Kye stood inches away from losing his position to a stronger wolf. For him, this was never about the Syndicate. It was about the strength and power he might gain.
“Oh, Kye.”
Despite everything, I lower my hands, holding my knife away from my side. “This doesn’t have to get worse.”
The final artifact is hidden from me, and the three inside me are quiet, waiting, it seems, for me to make a choice.
“It won’t get worse,” Kye growls, his lips thinning into a grotesque grin as his face elongates painfully into a canine muzzle. “Not for me.”
He bent and snarled, his spine reforming almost faster than I could see. As I staggered back three steps, he transformed into his half-form, a wolfman who easily stands six and a half feet tall. His shredded clothes hung loosely on his body as if he was a ghoul.
