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"Stop!" I watch in horror, picking myself up from the floor with a wince. The tansies are crumpled beneath me on the ground.
"Tristan, stop. It's not what you think!" I shout, but neither one of them so much as glances in my direction. Everything is a blur of fangs and claws, and my stomach is twisted into a knot of terror.
They're going to tear each other into pieces. I'm shaking,
But then, Tristan sees his chance. My father hesitates for just a moment, but it's enough. My mate pounces. He slams into the Night King with the full force of his massive body, knocking him to the ground, his teeth lingering over his throat.
Everything inside me is shaking, and there's a ringing in my ears as the final tether holding me back snaps. My skin feels like it's on fire, my bones aching as everything inside me rearranges.
Enough.
I transform then and there, shifting into a wolf with glistening white fur and glowing violet eyes.
Chapter Eighteen
And just like that, the girl is gone.
I'm a nightwalker. I am a wolf. I am not just something in between but something more altogether.
It's like nothing I've ever experienced before. My senses are even more heightened than before, my instincts razor-sharp. I can smell the earth and the trees of the forest on the mountains, and sense the others hesitating on the edge of the bridge. I can hear the rustling of the leaves and the distant sounds of the nightwalker's citadel behind me. I can feel the cool breeze on my fur, the hard stone ground beneath my paws.
I look down at myself, and I'm amazed by what I see. My body has become lean and graceful, and my coat is thick and luxurious, rippling with every movement I make. My fur is pure white, glistening in the moonlight. My paws are massive, with sharp claws that could tear through anyone who might harm me. My ears are pointed, and my tail is thick and bushy.
I can feel the strength and power of my wolf form coursing through my veins. I'm faster, stronger, more agile than I've ever been before. It's like nothing can hold me back anymore.
Even more intense than the physical change is this sense that this power... this spirit has been inside me all along.
All it took to let it out was accepting my vampire heritage enough to feed on my ancestor's blood and then watching my mate and my father locked in a deadly battle that threatened to destroy them both.
Go figure.
I lunge forward, shoving Tristan off Marco as my father rolls to the side out of the way. We tumble over each other, entangled in one another. My mate locks eyes with me, and we are violet and gold. I feel it then like I never felt it before, the bond between us, our minds at long last linked. When I speak to him through my thoughts, I know he can hear me.
'You can't kill him, Tristan. He's my father.'
We stagger apart only to circle each other for a moment, his gaze trained on mine. My words seem to take a moment to register, and Tristan shakes his head, a shiver running over his fur as he glances over at the Night King behind me and then back at me.
'Your father?' he repeats, his voice a dazed rumble that reverberates through me.
Even after he was defeated, one blow away from death, my father manages to hold himself with a degree of grace. He rises to his feet in a single, swift motion, dusting off his suit as he watches us intently to see what happens next.
'Are you a wolf or a vampire?' my mate asks, and I'm surprised by the genuine curiosity behind the question. Some of the anger seems to have drained out of him, replaced by astonishment and sheer confusion.
'I-I think... I'm both.'
He stops circling me then, watching me then for a moment and drinking in the sight of this new form.
'You're beautiful.'
My heartbeat quickens, a hunger building within me. Wolves, I realize, have even less restraint than humans. Adrenaline mixes with desire, and I cannot tell whether he is going to tear me apart or make me whole.
Marco takes a step forward in my direction, and my mate lets out a deep, warning growl.
'Tristan,' I plead.
'I don't want to fight you,' he replies slowly, his voice low as he returns his attention to me.
'Then why did you declare war?'
