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“Run!” Kaito yells to me as he stumbles back with Weyland. Both of them still hold off the furry creatures. I cannot move despite their insistence, fear planting my feet on the ground like roots, and I shake, watching as it rips apart the creatures as if they are nothing. One of the last creatures spits on it with that venom that seems to eat away at the ground. With a pained yell, the black beast kicks it into the forest, hissing as the skin burns away from the spittle.
When there are no more creatures left, it turns to Weyland and Kaito, who both look at one another before racing toward it.
They are intent on killing it, I realize. For a moment, those red eyes meet mine, and I see intelligence and acceptance as it watches death come.
More than that, I see hope that it will finally be the end.
It’s a feeling I know all too well, and like Kaito saved me, I know I must save this beast. It’s almost a threatening whisper in the wind.
Hurrying on stumbling feet, I throw myself between them and stretch my arms wide before the creature. “No!” I yell, my voice echoing through the trees around us like a war cry.
Weyland and Kaito freeze, their eyes wide in panic. “Kai,” Kaito begs, glancing at the beast I feel stomping behind me. The hair on the back of my neck rises. “Slowly come toward me.”
“No, I will not let you kill it,” I tell them defiantly, and I see hurt in their eyes mixed with their worry as hot air blows across my scalp, making me shiver. Fear fills me, but so does determination. I won’t let death steal another tortured soul.
I turn to face the beast, meeting its red eyes. “I won’t let them kill you, but please don’t hurt us.” My voice is soft and shaky butthere, and the beast lowers its nose with a huff. It blows my hair back as it meets my eyes.
“I mean you no harm.” The words are spoken in a deep, throaty sound that runs across my skin and makes me tilt my head in confusion. The voice came from the creature, dark, smooth, and cold like death.
A male voice.
This is not just any beast. This is a monster.
A monster I just saved.
A monster that peers at me like he wants to eat me alive.
Chapter
Fifteen
DADE
Never in all my years has another been able to bring me from the madness of my shift. The warhorse they call death is a curse upon my soul, one that controls every part of me, but here I stand, free of that control. I am bred to fight, to steal life, and to die gloriously in battle. As the last of my kind, I patrol the hills, searching for one such event to join the others. Instead, the wind carried a message upon it for me—her. I found myself rushing toward the sound of battle, only to discover the beauty so bravely standing before me when even other monsters cower.
A human, one with haunted eyes.
Yet one so brave, braver than any other being.
I see the lycan and the water monster behind her shifting closer in panic, and I stomp my feet to send them backwards and keep them away from my warrior. Her eyes narrow on me.
“Behave. They mean you no harm. Thank you for helping us.” Her voice softens toward the end, a nervous smile curling her lips, and I feel the shift of magic under my skin, my form wanting to change back to that of a man. It is something I have not done in many years. After all, what is the point? I am noman, I am a beast, and I act as such. It is what I am, what I have always been, but for a moment, I ache to touch the softness of the being before me and feel the warmth of her skin and the strength within her brittle bones. There is pain in her eyes, pain I know all too well. It makes me want to roar in fury and demand to know how I can hunt down those responsible. She watches me like she sees into my soul and is witnessing the humiliation and grief of my past, like she is judging it, and when her hand drifts out, landing on my snout, I freeze. I scarcely even breathe, not wanting to scare her away.
“Thank you,” she says once more.
I stare into her bright eyes, and a very human emotion fills me—want. I want this little creature. I want to experience what that kind of passion would feel like across my body, but then her hand falls away and she steps back, and it is like she takes all the goodness and light with her, once again draping me in darkness. The farther she moves from me, the more the darkness, the madness, takes hold once more.
Furious drums beat in my heart, demanding blood and death.
Demanding retribution.
“Let’s go, Kai.” The lycan holds out his hand, and giving me an unsure look, the beauty, Kai, takes it. With their eyes still on me, they ease into the trees.
I find myself following without deciding to. She brought me from my madness. She brought me back to life. She has given me a reason, and I find I am unable to stop. I do not hide that I’m following them, but I stay back, not wanting to frighten them. I can see them eyeing me with unease, but she offers me a small wave as they break out into a clearing with a little cabin built in the middle.
Curiosity has me watching them from the tree line.
I saw the same pain I live with in her eyes, the same darkness that haunts me, and for a moment, I had hope.
