Chapter 174
RHEA
Click. The line goes dead after that. My breath races before I quickly drop the phone back onto the table. They haven’t left. The council hasn’t left the territory, they’re still here, still watching and still waiting.
Something inside me rattles, and I’m not sure what it is.
My restraint starts to think as his words repeat in my head. They want me unstable, they want me to snap, and somehow, they know that I’m going to.
No.
I’m not going to let it happen.
Without wasting another moment, I rush out of the room and back into mine before grabbing my coat from the closet and wearing it.
I don’t tell Aron. I don’t even stop to think. I shove my boots on, and leave. Not a word to anyone. I simply disappear into the night and start running toward the river that’s past the borders.
It’s far from the pack house, but close enough for them to monitor it and keep an eye on things.
Like they have been doing. I don’t know how we haven’t been able to realise it or sense them. How have they kept their presence so discreet?
The scent hits me first. It doesn’t belong to the council members. It belongs to the council wolves, their warriors. They surrounding the territory borders as the council has claimed.
Three of them, in human forms, step out from the shadows like they’ve been waiting. Two males, one female. All lean, quiet and tall. Their eyes glint in the dark as they stare at me.
“Where is he?” I demand.
“Not here.” The woman responds. “You can come with us and we can—”
“Tell him to come here,” I growl out.
“We cannot.”
“I won’t follow you anywhere. Don’t take me for a fool. Tell your council head to come here and look me in the eye as we speak.”
The warriors stare at me, silent, before one of the males nods and turns around. He disappears into the darkness ahead.
“Why are you still here?” I question one of them. “There’s nothing the council can do anymore, so why won’t you leave alone?”
The woman doesn’t flinch. “That’s for our council head to decide.”
I restrain myself from snapping, from tearing out her throat and the throats of everyone that’s breathing.
When the male returns, he brings the face I’ve seen before, the Council Head.
“Rhea,” He smiles and walks toward me. “I didn’t think you’d come so easily.”
I step forward, “What do you want?”
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Chapter 174
His gaze shifts from me to the wolves that surround me, “Leave.”
I watch them turn and leave us. Once they’re far away enough that they won’t hear our conversation, I step toward the council head.
“Why am I here?”
“You know why you’re here. I told you on the phone.”
“You want to talk? About what? What could you and I have in common?”
“Your condition–it’s only going to get worse.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I snap at him.
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“Do you think I’ve not seen this before? In all the years being in the council?” He cocks a brow, a concerning look on his face now. “You’re going to spiral out of control. The spell does that. The fact that you’re alive after you were gutted, does it. You’re going to become a danger that no one can control.”
“And it concerns you because you want to control it?” I cross my arms over my chest. “In the same manner as Aron was controlled? Even when his wolf was a natural occurrence?”
He smiles at me, out of all the things he could do. He smiles.
“Well, that worked out, didn’t it?”
Killing his wolf out–that’s what he means.
Only if he knew.
“And to the point, you’re not a natural occurrence. You’re solely made out of dark magic, a kind of magic that no one is meant to use and has only one outcome. Madness. So, yes, Rhea. It concerns me. You’re going to become an even bigger threat to us, and humans than any other wolf out there.”
“And what? You’re going to kill me?” I breathe out.
“There are other ways—”
“You want to kill me.”
“Wouldn’t you rather die than turn into a monster? Wouldn’t you prefer to leave a mark behind, something that everyone can remember you as?”
“Fuck you.”
“You can come with us now-”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“That isn’t your choice to make.”
As he finishes, the other three wolves step out of the darkness. But those aren’t the only few that I can sense. They are more, and the moment he signals them, they appear from everywhere. I can feel my heart beating in my ears, and my wolf, scratching to be let out. To let go of everything.
To attack and destroy.
They’re going to take you. And then, kill you.
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Chapter 174
I clench my teeth, and feel my claws extend, and the fangs in my mouth sharpen.
You have to do something, or else-
“Take her,” He orders his wolves, and one of them moves toward me.
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The first one lunges. A snarl escapes me, and my hand claws at the flesh of his throat. I can see his eyes widen before my claws go deeper and I tear at it. Blood spurts everywhere, and then everything in front of me darkens even more,
Everything after that, I can only feel. Not sec. There’s no control. I’m not in charge anymore.
I don’t think as my body moves on its own and I take on each one of the council warriors, feeling their flesh and bones breaking underneath me, their blood on my tongue, the taste of it. It’s exhilarating and at the same time, terrifying.
They thought I was a threat?
No.
I’m a reckoning.
And the council head sees that as I rip throats out of wolves that he sent after me.
He’s scared. He should be scared.
But before I can move to him, there’s something that hits me. Like an invisible force, I feel something pierce through my But before I can move to him, there’s something that hits m back and into the front. It’s sharp and painful and it’s stuck inside my chest, piercing through me. It forces my wolf back. My claws vanish. And my vision clears. I fall forward onto my knees.
More of those little needles pierce into my back, dozens of them and whatever is inside them sends me straight to a slumber.
“You’re welcome.” That’s the last thing I hear, and it doesn’t belong to anyone from the council.
