Savannah
I gnashed my teeth together as I felt his cold presence sinking into my body, more strongly than it had ever before. Had I somehow stepped out of the circle of protection? I gasped for air, but the weight of the shadows crushed against my chest.
Everything was a dark fog.
Panic gripped my heart, and I forgot the spell. I called every ounce of magic I could still summon and desperately pushed against the presence of the Dark God.
You cannot have me.
In the distance, I swore I heard Sam’s and Jaxson’s voices. I sensed their agitation. Anger.
“I don’t know,” my aunt said.
What didn’t she know? But I couldn’t open my eyes. It took every ounce of strength I had to fight the press of the Dark God’s magic.
Let me in. The words echoed in my mind until I couldn’t tell who they belonged to anymore—my aunt or the god.
Then the dam broke, and my magic crumbled all around me.
A force slammed into my torso, and I gasped as a dark, electric power spread through my body. I’d felt the same thing moments before I’d attacked Sam in the Dreamlands.
I raged against the Dark God’s control, but my fangs and claws slipped out, and the beast inside of me surged toward the surface.
Darkness wrapped around my heart, and an overwhelming power settled within me—no words could quite describe it. All-consuming. Immense. Divine.
He was magnificent. I wanted to lose myself in his power, like an addict giving in to the rush of dopamine coursing through their system. I was spinning in it, a shooting star soaring through the cosmos, unaware of the world below…until my consciousness returned in a rush.
Fight!
A piercing scream deafened my ears, and I realized it was mine. I struggled, but my arms and legs were pinned. Agony rocked through me as my bones snapped and my sinews stretched, preparing for a shift. But into what?
This didn’t feel right. In fact, everything about this felt…wrong.
Wolfie, where are you? I howled.
Submit, the dark voice commanded.
Rage bubbled up my throat, and I thrashed under my captor’s grip, but it was iron.
Jaxson’s voice broke through the mind-numbing pain that had seized my body. “Savy, come back to me.”
How? I was trapped. The Dark God had sunk his claws into me, and though I was fighting the shift with everything I had, I knew in my heart that it was a losing battle.
How could you win against a god?
Because you’re a badass bitch! Wolfie’s voice broke through the recesses of my mind.
Elation and a burst of energy surged through me, and I reached for her. You’re back!
I felt her strength rise as Jaxson’s power poured into me through his hands.
I seized their strength. They must have been giving me everything, because even though my insides were torn and fractured, I was indestructible. Luminous. Filled with power like I’d never had before.
Get out! I roared.
Together, my wolf and I threw our strength against the Dark God. My wolf howled, and then something tore as we ejected him from our body.
His snarl of rage echoed through my mind, but that horrible weight was gone from my soul. Well, almost gone. My wound still burned as if he still had a claw in me, one I couldn’t tear free. I collapsed back onto the hard floor, gasping. The stone burned, but I barely had the strength to move.
“Savannah!”
I forced my eyes open. Jaxson looked down at me, his features stricken with pain and fear. He wrapped his strong arms around me and cradled my head in his hands.
“She must stay in the circle!” my aunt yelled. “She must bind her wolf now!”
Bind my wolf? My mind wheeled like a top until I remembered where I was.
What are we doing here? Wolfie asked.
She was back. And oh, my God…
“She is mine!” The Dark Wolf God’s voice shook the floor beneath me.
He’s here! Right here!
With a gasp, I raised myself onto my elbows. Shadows and flaming embers spun through the air outside of the circle of protection, and inside the swirling vortex was the Dark Wolf God, like a prince of darkness in human form.
His beauty was staggering, a mix of shadow and flame and power. All-consuming. He stalked around the circle like a predator, testing its strength, looking for weaknesses.
Terror filled my body as his divine gaze locked on me.
Wolfie surged against my ribs. Let me out. I’ll tear his throat out.
I struggled to hold her back.
The Dark God paused and cocked his head to the side and his face darkened with sinister fury. “Your wolf does not know that you are planning to bind her? I thought you, of all your kind, would be different.”
Shame hit me like a slap to my face.
Bind me? He’s lying, right? Wolfie whimpered. What’s going on?
I rolled onto my hands and knees. I have to, Wolfie. Just for a little while. He’s using you against me. I promise I’ll let you out once we find a way to defeat this fucker.
Her pain and betrayal tore through my heart like a dagger. You can’t lock me away again! I don’t understand!
Tears streamed down my cheeks, wetting the etched runes in the stone below. I have no other choice! I can’t give him control. It’s the only way to keep the pack safe.
Don’t do this, Savy! Wolfie pleaded.
Wolfie… I was sobbing now. The black stone slick beneath me. A crash ricocheted through the room, followed by a heart-wrenching roar.
“Uh, Ma…” Casey said. “Let’s get this show on the road. That fucker is breaking through the magic barrier.”
The Dark God howled again and banged against the protective circle. The air between him and us pulsed and shimmered as the spells weakened.
Laurel knelt beside me, shouting over the wind in the room. “Savannah. Listen to me—you must finish the spell. I can’t keep him at bay for long.”
Panic and fear and regret tore through me.
“No! I don’t want to do this!” I cried. “You said this was my choice.”
She reached for me. “Trust—”
The Dark God’s magic poured back into me. I lashed out with a clawed hand and snarled in a voice that wasn’t my own, “I am his!”
Laurel jerked away just in time, and before I could fight off the possession, the transformation took me again. My spine cracked, and my mouth turned into snapping jaws.
Jaxson pinned me and held my wrists against the ground. Sadness cut his features, but his resolve was like iron. “Come back to me, Savannah.”
His alpha presence slammed into that of the Dark God’s, and I was crushed between them. Their magic fought and churned, until suddenly I was free. I stopped the shift.
Laurel reappeared beside Jaxson and looked down at me with anguish in her eyes. “I’m sorry, honey. We must act now. Finish the spell. Bind your wolf.”
Sam dropped beside me. “It’s going to be okay.”
It wouldn’t be okay until Wolfie and I were free of the Dark God’s power.
My head rolled to the side. Casey stood at the boundary, arms raised, pouring flame and power into the circle of protection that held the Dark God at bay. Laurel was inches away, though I’d nearly just killed her. Sam, the friend I trusted more than anyone, was crouched beside me. She extended her claws and looked beyond the barrier as if somehow, she could fight the Dark God herself.
And Jaxson. My heart…
This really was the only way I could protect myself and the people I cared about.
Tears brimmed as I squeezed my eyes shut and began to chant the spell with all my strength and power. Seconds later, Laurel began chanting along with me.
Wolfie’s howls sliced through my mind as I lay there on the hard floor, Jaxson holding my limbs like I was a sacrifice. And in a sick kind of way, I sort of was. Or at least, Wolfie was.
Please forgive me.
“You call yourselves wolves?” the Dark God roared. “How dare you do this? Without your wolves, there is nothing worth saving.”
His magic raged against me, but with Jaxson’s strength, I held him at bay.
My body shook with anger, but I wove our magic around me, forging bonds of fire and light and shadow. Iron bonds wrapped around the beautiful part of my soul that I had come to love—my twin, my wolf.
A weight clamped down on me, and my eyes sprang open. I gasped in pain and horror at the sudden hollowness inside.
The light from the glowing runes around us faded. The Dark God was gone, and so was my wolf.
In her place was a fury at Dragan, who had cut me. At the Dark God, who’d forced this on me. And at myself, for not being able to find another way.
I would free her. And I would have my vengeance, no matter the cost.
Though I wanted to scream until my lungs bled, it was all I could manage just to roll to my side and whisper, “I’ll release you, Wolfie. I promise.”
But there was no response.
