Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 4) - Page 61

In my mind, I saw the forest of my childhood overrun with bulldozers. It was replaced by visions of strip mines filled with toxic water. I shut my eyes, but the images of destruction and pollution came fast and furious, until revulsion knotted my stomach.

“You are all complicit,” the Dark God snarled. “You drive their cars and wear their clothes, but you are not one of them. You are better, something more—wolfborn. There is still a part of you that is pure. That is wild and beautiful and worth saving. But you are trapped in a prison of concrete and steel.”

The Dark God turned to the wolves beginning to cautiously approach. “I offer you freedom. Discard the shackles of your human life—the clothes, the phones, the masks you wear to hide your true form. Help me heal the land and cure the disease that infects it.”

The breeze picked up, becoming violent and turbulent. Plumes of flames and smoke billowed into the air as Chicago’s skyscrapers collapsed one after the other. People who’d escaped the buildings were incinerated by the violent windstorm of flame until there was nothing but desolation, and their ashes choked my lungs.

The Dark God’s voice boomed over the chaos. “Your world can be reborn, and you, my chosen people, will rule over it.”

Vines and trees sprang from the rubble, snaking over the concrete like writhing creatures, burying all traces of humanity. A pack of wolves raced through the trees that sprouted up, hunting fleeing deer.

For a second, every part of me wanted to chase after and to join the wild pack, but I braced my paws against the earth and bared my fangs in resistance.

I knew him for what he was.

With a guttural growl, I shifted into the form of a man and stood defiantly before him.

“You are not a god of wolves, but of death,” I snarled. “And you would remake the world in an image of death.”

The god turned on me, his eyes blazing. “Traitor! How dare you accuse me of anything!”

He descended the ancient steps, the scent of disgust and fury emanating off him as he addressed the gathered wolves. “You helped a coven of sorcerers bind the wolf of another werewolf! An alpha who would do that to one of his packmates no longer deserves the trust of his pack, but a man who could do that to his own mate—now he is a monster.”

Rage consumed my thoughts, even as guilt tore at my soul. But before I could lunge, Savannah’s voice cut through the clearing.

“You are the monster!”

I spun to see her emerge from the trees, naked and fully human.

“Look what the sorceress has done!” the Dark God shouted. “Just as humans destroy that which is wild, her coven took what was pure and good and tore it from her soul, leaving only corruption. If sorcerers could to this to their own blood, what makes you think they will hesitate to do it to all of you? They will tame you and imprison you.”

“You did this!” Savannah shouted at him, and strode forward, the shadows and trees quaking with her fury. “You left me no choice.”

“There is always a choice,” the Dark God hissed. “You were my chosen, a twin-soul born to wake me from my slumber and be my avatar. You were mine.”

“I am my own,” Savannah snarled, and leapt from the trees. The shadows whipped around her like a building storm. I felt her power and rage shaking the stones beneath our feet. “And I won’t let you take my city, my pack, or my wolf.”

The Dark God laughed. “But I will.”

His callous confidence sent rage pulsing through my veins. I knew I couldn’t kill a god, but I sure as hell was going to try. With a roar, I sprang forward, claws out.

Something shattered, and I stumbled to the ground amidst broken glass.

Everything was wrong. Where was the Dark God? The forest?

Where was my mate?

Tags: Veronica Douglas Magic Side: Wolf Bound Fantasy
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