“Locke, no, you can’t! Let me go to him. Let this madness stop!”
Locke chuckled as he stood in front of me. My mouth elongated, rows of teeth sprouted, and I lost my ability to talk. I huffed like an animal in distress.
“Here’s the thing, sweetheart. The madness won’t stop.” Locke didn’t look behind to check on me.
Locke coughed, dropping one of his knives. He brought his hand to his mouth, and when he pulled it away, I saw blood staining his hands. He fell to his knees, his back breaking and fur sprouting over his body.
“Nadia, look what you have done. You have let another friend die,” Idris said, unamused. “And I didn’t even have to do anything to that one.” He walked past Locke, not even taking the time to look at him, and came toward me.
I gripped the cement with my clawed paws and let out a painful grunt of a roar.
Bear and Teddy roared relentlessly within me, their cries reverberating like thunder in a pitch-black abyss. The agony was tangible as if their struggle against the bindings of dark magic sent electric jolts through my soul.
“Nadia!” he screamed to me, trying to dislodge himself again.
It felt like time had stopped. I couldn’t tell if it was Duke Idris’s magical powers or if I had somehow slowed down the world around me. Just when I thought life would be looking up, I was so terribly wrong. Everything was coming to an end.
“Nadia, it isn’t over,” I heard the strain in Bear’s voice.
“We are going to be fine, I swear it,” Teddy soothed.
Idris curled two fingers to someone behind me. “Oh, it is most certainly over.”
I let out a whine, my body exhausted. My clothes were torn, and my body was covered in fur. I was a bear now, but I couldn’t take any time to see who I had become. The voice inside me had become silent as well. Wasn’t she supposed to walk me through this?
I groaned, trying to gain my footing on all fours, but it was far more difficult to manage.
A howl came from behind me. A wolf so feral, with red eyes and patches of fur missing from its body, ran into the battle on the street and beelined straight into the woods.
Locke… was gone.
Our president, our alpha and leader, just ran off!
“Now that you have shifted into your animal, you have become useless to me. I was hoping to arrive before that had happened.” He tsked, and guards dressed in all black came forward. Their faces were covered with the same cloak that Idris had held earlier, and with them were my biological parents.
I let out a groan, steam rising from my maw into the cold night air.
“Your half-human and fae genetics were the missing link I needed, but now that is wasted since your bear decided to shift. Congratulations, you get to watch your parents, as well as everyone else you hold dear, die instead.”
My father’s face was stoic and determined, his body straining to shield my mother. His eyes searched mine, speaking silently of a love that could outlast even death. Tears slipped from my eyes as the guards pulled their daggers, the glinting metal reflecting in his eyes. He smiled at me one last time before the blades slid into his throat. My mother screamed, still holding onto his hand until they ripped her away, taking her life as well.
My roar echoed through the air as I watched their bodies slump to the ground. Idris turned and looked at Bear and gave me an evil smirk. “Hmm, how slow do I want to kill the Teddy Bear? That way, you both can feel each other’s pain?” Idris grins wickedly.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Bear
“Somethingiswrong!”Igrowled and placed both my hands on the table.
Tajah and Bram placed their hands on my mate’s forehead. Where her skin used to be, now black and brown fur was sprouting. Her nails had become claws, and her bones were breaking and reforming, shifting underneath her fur.
“What the fuck is wrong!” I pulled on the hair at my scalp, turning to find my friends behind me in as much shock as me.
This session was taking far longer than any of the others. My mate was usually out for fifteen, twenty minutes at the most, and we had been going on for more than thirty minutes. On top of it all, my mate had been crying, twitching, shaking her head and calling my name in her sleep despite me holding on to her the entire time.
My touch was doing nothing to ease her pain, and even I could feel the heaviness of her soul weighing me down.
My ears pricked, and I noticed her clothing ripping and a bone breaking through the skin. Tajah and Bram had tears of blood streaming down their faces, but they pushed forward in their chants, determined not to give up on my mate or me. They knew how important it was for us to keep this transformation from happening too quickly or too painfully for my mate’s sake. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the change was nearly complete, and what remained standing before us was no longer human but half a bear.
