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I cried out. It hurt.
But I was made of hurt. I was made of hurt, and I was made of love. I wouldn’t hide from the pain. I slashed them away with my blade, clarity coming with every strike.
I was made of hurt, and I wouldn’t hide from the pain. Just like Ihadn’t with the dragon. I would feel it, because it was part of me. I couldn’t outrun my past. I would always have Moon-Ghost roots. I would always be the weak Omega they’d bullied. That was who I was, but that was only part of the story.
I would embraceeverypart of myself. Mate, queen, goddess, Alpha, Omega. They couldn’t be taken away from me. She had tried to cut up parts of me, to splinter my soul, but I still survived. And above all of them—I was a shifter.
I felt my wolf ripple under my skin. Not my wolf—just me. Because whether I was in my wolf form or my human form, I was still a single soul, just like Cole said. Our hearts beat together, one entity, perfectly in sync.
She thought she could control all shifters, including my own, suppressing it in her realm.
“Submit and perish with mercy, or perish for nothing.”
I growled. The sound was pure wolf.
“Eloquent.”
Her offer could’ve tempted me. It had, in another life. I’d taken the easy way out before. Made a deal, thinking it was possible I could trade my misery for everyone else’s happiness.
But that wasn’t how this worked. I’d never get the better end of a deal with one of these conniving creatures.
It was time I stopped making them.
My voice roughened. “What I’m saying is this—I’m not good with words.” My forearms turned red as fur erupted over my skin. “I’m better with claws.”
The change exploded out of me. As a wolf, I howled loudly and angrily. The wolves froze in their assault.
“How?” shesputtered. “No matter. You will go to the pits all the same.”
She twisted her magic around, trying to push the wolves at me.
The wolves didn’t move.
I still couldn’t access my magic, but seeing me among them was its own magic. I howled again, telling them without words that I saw their pain. It was real. It was unfair.
And I would end it.
The wolves parted. The star collars tightened, trying to force them forward.
None of the shifters took a step towards me. Instead, they began to part, clearing a path to the Moon Goddess, still clad in her silver armor.
She stood there, stupidly, challenging. “You cannot harm me like that.”
But I could. Because at last, I had found harmony with my entire being. I moved slowly down the empty pathway, my teeth flashing with the urge to rip her apart. Slowly, so slowly, while the shifters continued to part, I went forward until they all finally left.
I went from stalking to running.
Running to leaping.
While the Moon Goddess stood there, overconfident in her silver armor, I landed, jaws first.
Then I ripped clean through her throat with my jaws, the silver armor shattering like glass.
Chapter XXXIV
The Moon Goddess crumpledto the floor. Blood spewed from her throat. The taste of copper filled my mouth. However she had styled herself, she still bled like the rest of us. Her face was frozen in disbelief—the most human expression she’d managed. With her death, the all-powerful control she’d had on the realm slipped away. Magic flowed back into my veins. I shifted back, summoning my vines to clothe myself and my healing powers to close the wounds I’d received from the shifter ghosts.
The ground beneath us began to shake. I leaped back, getting as far from the Moon Goddess’s body as I could. The vibrations grew stronger and stronger. The marble columns that lined the arena fell, crashing down.
