Ryder scooped him up and raced to the exit. I had to sprint to keep up with them. We couldn’t let Maddox shift in the middle of town. I was close to Lakesedge, but not completely within its protected boundaries. Not to mention the fact that Maddox was about to become something completely new and unheard of. We had to find somewhere that no one would see him.
There was a stretch of woods at the edge of the neighborhood. It was thin and barren from the recent winter, but it was enough to hide us from immediate sight. We dove into it just as Maddox began to thrash in Ryder’s arms.
“What have you done to me?” Maddox howled.
His voice was filled with pain. The cool breath of death lingered around us. It swirled close to Maddox. I stopped in my tracks and watched the power follow him.
WhathadI done to him?
He kicked off Ryder’s chest and landed on all fours, still in a mostly human form. His muscles were changing, though. They roiled, trying to find new form for the first time. It was a horrid sight to behold as his body undid itself right before my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I said over and over.
Ryder stayed quiet. He was tense, his arms spread wide, and his feet planted firmly on the ground. Before my eyes, claws burst from Ryder’s fingertips. They sky overhead opened, and thunder boomed.
I launched myself at Ryder and grabbed at his shirt. “Don’t hurt him! This isn’t his fault.”
Ryder didn’t throw me off, but the force of his glare was enough to shove me back. I staggered away from him. My heart raced. When a ragged growl reached us, my gaze slid towards the source.
Maddox had become a ghostly white wolf, larger than Alvin had ever been. He shook out his fur and it went flying in every direction like snow. His form wasn’t stable yet. Patches of fur fell away only to reform a heartbeat later. He stared down at the fallen fur before turning his attention on me.
Though his lips curled into a furious snarl, I wasn’t afraid. The cool power of death still flowed around him. I could feel it washing around his feet like water in a shallow pool. It rippled with every step he took. It made him beautiful. This ethereal wolf wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t alive either.
He was somewhere between the two states of being.
Maddox
Her.
The reason for my pain.
Beautiful. Dangerous. Liar.
I howled in confusion. Hand outstretched, she approached me. I snapped at the air, so she would flinch back. Stupid woman barely reacted. Her eyes stayed on me. Those eyes were filled with sorrow and regret.
I wanted none of it. She’d lied. This was her fault. I wasn’t me. I wasn’t right.
This hurt. My body wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t settle. My fur sloughed off and washed away in the wind. My skin shuddered every time. It made my breath rattle out of me.
Not. Right.
Another howl caught in my throat. There, it became a mangled snarl. Still, that damn woman kept moving towards me. I could have killed her. I could have made her pay for what she’d done to me.
No. Damn beast. We’re not murderers.
I crushed the human voice. There was no need for it anymore. As far as I was concerned, the human part of me had died in her bedroom when that beast bit me. It hadn’t been right. That beast wasn’t normal. It’d turned me into something wrong.
I’m not dead! And I won’t let you hurt her!
As angry as I was, I had no real desire to kill the woman. I wanted her to feel my pain, but I wouldn’t inflict it physically. Instead, I spun and ran.
The man shouted for me to stop. I owed him nothing. Even if he was a great beast of the sky, he was no master of mine. I would be a free wolf with allegiance to no one.
Or so I thought. Before I knew it, a set of massive claws shoved me into the earth. I snarled and twisted to bite at the dragon’s claws. My teeth were useless against talons. No matter how I thrashed, I could not escape the dragon’s grasp. Panic rose and filled my body with cold adrenaline.
Before I knew it, I was free. I staggered, confused.
There was no time to waste, however. I couldn’t stay and try to figure out what’d happened. I had to use this time to run. If I wound between the trees, then the dragon would struggle to catch me.