18
“I’ll give you one chance to walk away from this,” the king said, his tone deadly.
Spencer’s punishment already made my life forfeit. Even if they let me walk away tonight, I’d be hunted until they killed me. Aside from being ready to claim my true power, I wanted to live.
That had been it my whole life. Everything I’d done, everything I’d survived, had been a battle to stay alive. I wasn’t about to lose now.
I was going to defeat this asshole.
I didn’t ask for it, but the burden fell on me.
“Choose forms,” I demanded.
He raised a brow. “You’re really going through with this?”
“You really wanted to fuck your niece, you sick asshole,” I said.
“I didn’t know you were my niece,” he said.
“You didn’t know anything about me yet you were ready to engage in sex with me? Men like you give all men a bad name,” I said.
“No, sweetheart. Men like me make the world go round. We get what we want when we want because that is our birthright.”
“Are you going to accept the challenge or are you surrendering now?” I locked my eyes on his, unblinking, unwilling to back down.
He tried to mask his surprise, but he wasn’t successful. I could feel his anger and confusion. There was something else there too that felt a little bit like fear.
I wasn’t certain it was coming from him, but I hoped it was. He should be afraid. I had a decade of being the punching bag in my pack to help me prepare for this. I kept myself fit and I tried to teach myself to fight. I fought back whenever I could, I had lots of practice. The difference was, I wasn’t a wolf then. I was weaker, slower, smaller.
Now, I had found my wolf. She was fired up. She was ready. And we were going to work together as a team to save my family.
“Choose. Your. Form.” I kept staring, daring him to back down.
“You’re from Wolf Creek, right?” he asked.
“I’m from nowhere special,” I said.
He smirked. “You just started to learn how to shift recently and I know your alpha keeps you all weak on purpose. You do this, I’m not holding back. You might not make it to surrender before your body gives out.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Alright. We shift. We fight as wolves,” he said.
My wolf practically leaped for joy. She wanted out now and she was ready. It was true that we hadn’t had training the way others had, but I was scrappy and she was strong. When we were in synch, there was no telling what we could do. I had faith that we’d come out of this alive.
“We’re taking this party outside,” the king called.
The audience cheered and flooded toward the doors out of the throne room.
One of the guards grabbed my arm. “This way.”
“Don’t touch me again.” I pulled my arm away.
He grinned, showing several missing teeth. “Next time I touch you it’ll be to drag your lifeless body away.”
I scowled. “I hope you’re prepared to go down with your asshole boss.”
He laughed and walked away. I glanced around. Everyone was distracted with the change of scenery. Guards still held on to my family, but even they were looking at the crowd rather than their charges.