Moon Claimed (Werewolf Dens #2) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,33
the manor and unpacked my things in the small drawers and wardrobe.
I’d done it.
The first part of remain in Deception Valley as a werewolf.
Time for phase two.
Dragging out my phone, I texted Cameron.
Hey, everything at the cabin is good. Just cleaned stuff up and it’s looking cosy.
I want you to see it, but I won’t lie, tonight I’m chilling out.
This girl needs a few hours to herself.
I clicked Send and messaged Rhona.
How did you get on? Notice anything?
Cameron replied.
You deserve it.
Rest up. I’ll come see the place tomorrow!
This felt so much like a goodbye.
Did everyone survive the transformation? With so much else to organise, it struck me that I may not even be alive tomorrow.
This could kill me.
The only alternative was to get Sascha involved… but I just couldn’t give him more power over me. His presence wouldn’t change the outcome.
This would be my dirty secret for as long as I could manage it.
I read Rhona’s reply.
Yeah, SG noticed straightaway. Smelt it maybe? All of them did.
He was pissed.
They didn’t say anything though.
Part of me expected Sascha to, well, cry wolf to the head team. I’d relied on the guilt Sascha still held about Herc’s death and his desperation for me to view him as worthy. Looked like it worked.
I typed back.
Thank you. Love you.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
She replied.
Please be careful or I’ll never forgive you.
My single wish would be for Rhona to know everything and still love me the same. If there wasn’t a slim chance of that, I couldn’t say whether or not I’d still be in the valley.
A pain stabbed me in the stomach, and I gasped, phone tumbling from my fingers.
Another followed, and I sank down, clutching my torso.
Eyes streaming, I peered up to the full moon peeking between the thick trees.
Fuck.
Stumbling inside, I grabbed my prepared pack. It contained a change of clothes, soap, a towel, a first aid kit, food, water, and spare shoes.
Snatching up my keys, I tried to remain upright and casual on the way to Ella F in case Heather was watching.
I had to get far enough away so no one could see or hear me.
I gunned the engine as a fresh bout of agony ricocheted through me.
This is it.
A cold dread settled over me, and I just knew.
It was happening.
Wrenching at the wheel, I barrelled down the road.
Past the heat detector.
Past the cameras and frequency generators.
Out of tribe territory.
Away.
I had to get away.
11
I screamed as my leg bowed under the brutal and invisible force.
Snap.
Thigh bone.
My toes followed suit in a wave of snaps that stole sanity from me.
My vision ebbed. This had happened before. The breaking and the blacking out. Many times. One of the other times, twilight was here. Now, it was pitch-black. No birds sang. Maybe I just couldn’t hear them over the weak shrieks ripping from my raw throat.
Time had passed and I couldn’t remember being here before.
Tears fell from my scratchy eyes as I panted, noting the pressure of fangs either side of my chin.
Was it still my chin?
I felt like paper mâché. Like pulp. Like someone had added water to me and let a toddler do their worst.
My body was broken and still breaking.
Arching, my feet slid through the sandy shore of Lake Thana. My cry turned guttural and deep, animalistic. Breaths chuffed from a chest that didn’t feel the same shape.
As my ribs popped and squelched again, I couldn’t care.
This had to end and take me with it.
The invisible force flung my thighs to my chest, and I shrieked again as my knee reversed in a splitting of ligament and bone.
I tried to move my limbs. It worked. A little.
A whining filled my chest as I was thrown forward, but I didn’t sprawl in the sand. My lower body supported me.
In horror, I stared at my human hands bunched in the sand, then to the hairy legs folded beneath me.
I was half wolf.
More than half.
Coarse hair covered my naked, bleeding, pulpy torso, spreading down my arms. I stopped breathing as my fingers shattered and pulsed, reforming into paws.
Mostly wolf, I sank into lying. But long, auburn hair waved in my peripherals. Was my face still human?
No more.
Please.
The pained moans from my lips turned to high-pitched whines as the pressure in my face mounted. Mounted until my human shape could no longer contain the bulging shape pushing to escape. My cheekbones cracked, chin dissolving away as my mouth pushed forward, shoving aside my skin to lengthen to a snout.