AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dumb bitch.” Richard.
“Should’ve killed you in the womb.” Maddox.
“My worthless mate.” Jett.
If I thought all the mantle had for me were taunts, I was wildly underestimating the trials. The figures peeled off the portraits.
We collided.
Sabine was the first to land a blow. Across my stomach.
Phantom pain leaked into me.Just like that night.The night of the Choosing, when she’d ripped my organs apart. I’d begged that night. Pleaded. It hadn’t been enough. They hated me, even though I’d never given them a single reason to, and delighted in their own cruelty.
I tried to summon my magic to shove her away.
It was gone.
It wasn’t as if I’d expended it all in the past trial. I’d used a lot, but I should still be able to fight back. Instead, it was as if it was sealed behind a glass wall, visible to my mind but out of my reach.
Panic slipped into me, freezing me in place. I’d gotten used to having my magic at my back, strengthening my deficits.
Richard bit into my side, holding me in place while Maddox landed a vicious kick. Pain ripped through me as he loomed over me. It was like when I was a pup, hiding from his scrutiny, yet now, in my worst nightmare, he’d found me. There was no escape.
My wolf was silent. I couldn’t shift, couldn’t access my strongerform and slash at them the way they had me.
Just like every time they’d ganged up on me.
A hundred memories danced across my vision. Every time they’d bullied me, tormented me. They’d hated me, and they’d enjoyed letting me know it with every single cruel act. Sabine slammed me again, sending me falling to the ground.
I tried to fight, tried to pick myself up, but my limbs were sluggish.
I’d lived this scene over and over. It had never gotten better. The fear seeped into every part of me. I shook.
Jett emerged. He was larger than life. His hand snapped out around my neck, squeezing as he lifted me high in the air. Sabine and Richard flanked him, hurling taunts spiced with hateful laughter, but I couldn’t look away from my fated mate.
“Let… go…” I gasped.
His sadistic grin widened, teeth sharp like a shark’s. “Or what, mate? You belong to me. I can do anything I please.”
“Don’t… belong…”to you, I tried to say but couldn’t get the last of the words out.
“You’re too weak to do anything to stop me,mate. You always have been and you always will be.”
There was nothing I could do. I had no magic, no wolf, no shifter strength to stop him as he squeezed my neck.
But he would never own me. I forced my eyes open, even as the pressure grew and grew. I looked at him, and even though I couldn’t speak, I thought my words.
You will never own me. I am not yours. You cannot win respect or submission through bullying, and I’ll be damned if I let you try. I died to get away from you, and one day, I’ll murder you myself.
Jett’s smile slipped off his face. For one moment, he appeared furious, an avatar of wrath itself.
Then he and all my other tormentors shattered as though they were no more than panes of glass and fell to the floor.
My wounds healed the moment they disappeared into the ether, but the oppressive magic didn’t leave the air.
When I saw him, a new wave of fear flooded me.
“Cole!”
