Wolf Prince Page 22

  The darkness stirred.

  “Oh, yes. I remembered now,” he continued. “Apparently, the poor prince was forced to witness those cannibals eating the flesh off the humans they captured, and the sacrifices they performed on their own mothers to create shifters.”

  Every single muscle in my body jerked at the crude reminder, my jaw strained with his words, and I fought the memories that rushed me. Suddenly, I was finding it hard to breathe. The breaths left me, but it didn’t matter how hard I tried, they didn’t seem to return.

  “You have no idea what you are talking about,” I growled between gritted teeth. My body began to shake from the effort it took to keep it all away, and my claws burst from my fingertips, digging into my own palms. “Logan. Just. Stop.”

  “Or what?” he challenged, cramming his face in front of mine. “What are you going to do? Rock yourself in a corner because you watched them tear people apart? Grow a pair of balls, would you? Be a fucking man.”

  He chuckled, stepping away.

  “I bet you can’t even do that. You come here all high and mighty, with knights and a guardian because you are the prince, so we are just supposed to bow to you like you are some kind of god. Yet, you can’t even get over what happened to you. Look at yourself in the mirror, you dirty mutt. You are no prince. You aren’t even one of us. You are a disgrace to Moonchildren, and the ReinheitWölfe kingdom.”

  “Shut up!” I seethed, trying to contain myself… and failing.

  My hands connected with his chest, and although I was still blocking my full strength, I shoved him back several feet. He knocked against a few of his crime force guards.

  My heart thundered in my ears, as the memory his words triggered flared to life in my mind. His statement had almost matched Gunther’s, the RavenWolves’ Alpha, after he took me from the queen’s side when I was just a child.

  In that instant, my surroundings abruptly disappeared on me, and I was yanked from the present. Taken to a place I never again wanted to see.

  The ghostly trees of the Black Forest returned, engulfed in the mist of the eerie night, while the shaking of my body intensified. My wolf wrestled desperately inside me, begging for the shift at the sight of that horrid place, and panic gripped me. The wretched darkness became stronger, choking me as it pushed the air out of me, demanding to be free.

  Asking me to give in… urging me to kill him, and make everything stop.

  Frantically, I fought to push away the memory, but I was too late. I was inside it.

  The feeling of the fractured bones and bruises I endured that night became alive in my every cell, but the excruciating pain that arose this time was not physical.

  “How dare you escape from me, you ungrateful piece of shit!” Gunther’s words echoed in the forest. “You are a disgraced to your kind. You are no ReinheitWölfe, you are SchwarzWölfe, one of the RavenWolves. Get that through your head. I made you, and you belong to me. I will kill you like I did your father, before I ever let you go.”

  “You are a joke, you hear me!” Logan raged.

  My eyes sharpened and the Black Forest dissolved, showing Logan, Samuel, Nathan, and Kyle in front of me again. The garden was now empty, the few people there had rushed inside the house, after our shouting finally alerted them to the upcoming fight.

  I gasped for air, shuddering, and my alarmed eyes fell to my bloody hands, but they weren’t my hands anymore. They were Gunther’s, dripping with the crimson liquid after he killed my father. My wolf wildly pushed for the shift, and the horror spread through me like deadly poison.

  “You filthy black mutt!” Logan growled, unrelenting. “You can wear all the crowns, and fancy clothes you want, but you are still as nasty as the hole you clawed out of, Gustav SchwarzWölfe.”

  “Don’t call me that!” I roared, barely holding by a thread as the shadows edged my vision. The feeling of my blood dripping from my fingers onto the grass barely registered in my mind. Black fur rippled over my skin, and my chest and arms began to shift.

  “You are just like the monsters you swear to hate,” Logan spat, his eyes flaming with rage. “You sick, flesh-eating bast—”

  My mind snapped.

  The roar that erupted from my throat, became a menacing growl, and I lunged towards Logan, slamming him into the ground. My enhanced strength fully flared to life, and my left hand pinned him down, my right claws sliced through his chest, tearing flesh like it was paper.

  His jarred scream split the night.

  A body slammed into me, flinging me off him, and I turned to see three men attack, but I couldn’t see their faces any longer. I couldn’t see anything but red. The shadowy figures were unrecognizable. There was no rational thought in me anymore, just the deafening roaring of my heart, and the darkness running rampant through me.

  Finally set free.

  I jumped to my feet before they reached me, and spun, swiping my claws along one of their throats. His body awkwardly crumpled to the ground. Facing the next, I ducked, avoiding his fist, and gripped his neck from below, feeling the satisfying crunch of his bones under my fingers, until his limp body dropped from my grasp. The third man went flying back when my foot connected with his chest, braking his breastbone and sent him back flying, all within a few seconds.

  A familiar voice called my name, but it was too far behind the thunderous darkness to mean anything to me. The shouts continued, and it almost sounded like someone was barking orders.

  Several men appeared around us, but instead of attacking me, they stopped the others that were coming after me, while the rest seemed to form a wall of muscle between us and the house—as though to block the humans from seeing us, but I didn’t know who they were.

  A loud explosion reached me then, and a fierce burning sensation came from my arm. I looked down to see that during my distraction, someone had shot me with a silver bullet. My claws sliced into my half-shifted bicep, pulling the bullet out, and I jumped on the man who had the gun, taking him down as I shoved the bullet in his mouth, forcing him to swallow it.

  His screams filled the night, until a sword swirled before me, taking him out to end his suffering.

  “G, stop!” the familiar voice begged me, sounding like a female, but my gaze shifted from her shadowy form to the man who stood behind her.

  Logan.

  The darkness swirled in my eyes, and I jumped towards him at the same time that she lunged for me. We crashed mid-air, slamming against the ground.

  “Stop!” she sobbed, but I swiped at her with all my rage, sending her back flying, until her back connected with the cement wall that fenced the house.

  I lunged for Logan again, avoiding someone else’s grasp, and my body crashed against his, bringing him down with the impact. He threw a right hook at me, blood flying out of my mouth with the force, and immediately clawed me with his other hand, slicing my cheek open.

  My hands curled around Logan’s neck as though he hadn’t even touched me. I couldn’t even feel the pain anymore. Instead of squeezing his neck, the energy whirled to life inside me. My Moon Prince gift rushed through me, as it had done many times, and my power connected with his essence, making his eyes glow.

  Except this time, his eyes didn’t glow blue. They became a bright red.

  The shadows in me became stronger and all consuming, the more his energy rushed into me. I was pulling his essence out of him, not infusing my essence into him, and with every wave, with every pull, I became stronger.

  Logan writhed under me, horror painting his features and he frenziedly pulled at my hands, trying to get me off him. It was too late. The strength was already leaving him. His face became ashen, and his veins turned black, straining against his skin while they spread like cursed roots, alive over the dry earth.

  “What is he doing?” a man asked shocked.

  “Stop. This isn’t you!” the anguished female voice returned, and she ripped my hands from Logan’s neck, tossing me off him. Her strength rivaled mine. “Return to me, G… p
lease,” she sobbed.

  I crashed against the ground but righted myself immediately, ready for the fight, except she didn’t attack me. Instead, the pain in her became so raw, I felt it in my chest like it was my own. When my eyes connected with hers, I found her black irises glowing red too, and she shivered with cold as though the darkness runing through me affected her somehow.

  As though she and I were connected.

  Four slashes along her chest dripped with blood, but it was the injuries on her bicep and cheek—mirroring mine—that made my mind come out of the obscure fog that had consumed it.

  As though she and I were connected…

  My gaze dropped to my trembling hands with the thought, and I noticed my body had become icy cold. The innate heat shifters harbored, was all but gone from my being. The realization shattered the darkness overpowering me, and everything became clear.

  Alarmed eyes flew to Zelin, and I saw the red glow disappear from hers. She gasped for air, like the power in me had constrained her lungs, and hurriedly reached for me but the images of everything that I had just done slammed into me first.

  I leaned away from her touch, seeing the moment she’d tried to stop me, and I pushed her off me, replay before my eyes in disturbingly slow motion. My strike had sent her flying into the cement fence.

  Frantically looking at her chest once more, I found the four slashes I had left on her, and the blood drained from my being.

  I had done that to her.

  I had hurt Zelin.

  Something shattered inside me.

  Disturbed, I searched her eyes, desperately trying to find something that told me this was a lie. That I hadn’t done this… I found them filled fear.

  Fear.

  She was afraid of me.

  Stumbling to my feet, I moved away from her as my heart pounded against my chest, and ragged breaths fought their way through me. My stunned eyes fell all around me, to find Nathan, Samuel, and one of Logan’s guards dead on the grass. Samuel’s throat was slashed open as he lay on a pool of his own blood, while Nathan’s neck seemed to have been crunched into powder.

  The sight was so horrifying I was forced to look away, but it wasn’t their injuries that horrified me.

  I had done that. I snapped, letting the darkness control me… I had killed them.

  Once again, I fought for breath as chest pains gripped me, and my extremities became numb. Stumbling away from the corpses, I shook my head in disbelief while the panic attack took hold of me.

  How could I have possibly done this? My gaze fell on Logan’s lifeless body. He looked as though the life had been sucked right out of him.

  “Get away from me!” I shouted at Zelin when she moved towards me. My voice cracking as the tears burned my eyes, like acid. “I don’t want to hurt you…”

  She shook her head. “Gustav, please. This wasn’t you,” she begged with tears of her own. The knights stood all around us.

  I nodded as the shattered pieces in me began to fall. “Yes, it was. That is the real me. Logan was right. I’ll always be one of them. The RavenWolves. I’m a monster.”

  Whirling around I jumped, shifting mid-air, and heard a loud gasp. Kevin’s wide eyes followed me as I flew clear over the knights’ heads, landing a full black wolf on the other side of the fence.

  “Gustav!”

  Zelin’s broken scream reached me just as my paws hit the concrete, and I ran as hard and as fast as I could. I knew I had to disappear immediately, because she would never stop looking for me.

  “I’m sorry I hurt you… I love you, Zelin.” I sent into her mind, and tore our link to shreds, ending it for good.

  Increasing my speed, I shot towards the street, jumping in between the oncoming traffic. My massive wolf form weaved in and out of the speeding cars, jumping on top of one and over another, and hearing the blaring horns as they frantically tried to avoid me. Looking back, I saw Zelin’s wolf in the distance, running towards me, and desperation tore through me.

  Taking a sharp corner, I cut through an alley, jumping a couple of dumpsters as the images of what I had just done continued to slam into me, torturing me, over and over again. A sharp pain hit my chest as my panic attack persisted, and I came out on the other side of the alley, to the next street.

  The ground tilted for me abruptly, and a car slammed into my side, sending me flying towards the opposite lane. I bounced on the hood of a truck, crushing it like paper, and shattering its windshield while the world spun for me. The sounds of wheels screeching to a stop, and cars crashing around me reached my ears. Falling off the truck, I slammed onto the ground, but I jumped up again.

  A whine escaped me as I limped on my right paw, but I pushed through the pain, giving it all the speed I had, until the streets disappeared and I arrived at Lincoln Park.

  I soared through the air, plunging into the freezing waters of Lake Michigan, wishing for the first time to be back in the mountain, so I could disappear and never be seen again. My form transformed into a man again, and I used my enhanced speed to get me through the large lake, which resembled the sea I had once been so eager to see.

  The largest forest near me, though it didn’t come close to the mountain, was Huron-Manistee National Forests, in Michigan. So, If I could just cross the lake and get to the other side, I might lose her long enough to disappear.

  My arms and legs moved through the water in a blur. I couldn’t really escape from the monster that had awakened inside me, turning the Great Moon’s gift into a curse, but I could be as far as I could from Zelin, so I would never hurt her again.

  The image of her slamming against the fence after I pushed her off me, flashed in front of my eyes, and I thrust harder through the cold waters, swimming faster and faster each time it appeared.

  I doubted it would ever stop haunting me.

  I had been so stupid thinking the horror of my past was behind me. That I could love Zelin and be with her in this new life I’d been given, never realizing the terrors I wanted to forget lived in me.

  Now I knew, and the last piece inside me broke with the realization.

  Zelin could never be mine.

  Epilogue

  My body shook as I pulled myself out of the water with whatever strength I had left.

  Irritated eyes moved over the desolate beach as the sun rose above me, announcing the new day. I stood on wobbly legs, dragging sand as I jerkily moved, stumbling as I tried to at least get to the tree line to seek cover. Now that all fight had left me, I knew I would pass out from exhaustion at any moment.

  My knees failed me then, and I collapsed on my side on the beach, struggling to breath. Briefly, I considered giving up right then and there, but as my gaze scanned the area one more time, I noticed there were cabins scattered along the edge of the beach. No. Not cabins. Mansions, with built in docks that stretched to the water where large luxury boats floated, anchored there for their owners’ leisurely use.

  Shit. I had arrived at the wrong end of the lake. It didn’t matter. I just needed to get to the trees so I could shift again and seek a spot to lie in, away from prying eyes. Pushing myself up again, I felt the burning in my muscles but pushed forwards, walking towards the finish line that seemed farther and farther to reach.

  When my feet landed on a patch of grass, I let out a sigh of relief, pushing myself to the first tree I saw. My hands pressed against the rough trunk, and my temple rested against the bark while I held myself to it. I took several deep breaths, convincing myself I could travel the next thirty yards to where the closest part of the forest began.

  Energy suddenly rushed through my arm, and my palm turned even colder than what the chilled water had made it. My eyes flew to the trunk to see a red glow engulfing my fingers, and a splitting sound reverberated through the air. I watched in absolute shock as the red glow in my hand sucked the life out the tree in mere seconds, until its trunk crumbled to pieces, collapsing to the earth.

  I staggered backwards, heart racing in fear, and fell to
the ground, losing my footing. My hands landed on the grass, and my eyes widened once again as the blades of grass between my fingers turned to black straw. The pull of energy continued, its shadow spreading from my crimson hands, and killing it everything in its path.

  Wrenching my hands away from the grass, I stood, and began to run frantically towards the massive cluster of trees, but my legs failed me yet again. My ankle snapped with the fall, and I rolled onto the earth while exhaustion pulled at my consciousness.

  What was happening to me?

  “Are you okay, son?” a male voice called from the distance, and I turned to see an older man running towards me, leaving a white cart behind.

  Damn it. This was a freaking golf course.

  “No,” I croaked, trying to warn him not to come near me, and fisted my shaking hands against my chest.

  “Did someone mug you? Why are you naked?” the man asked concerned, as he knelt beside me, reaching for me.

  I shook my head adamantly, or I at least I thought I did, but I was losing the fight as the black hole pulled me under. “Don’t… don’t touch mm…”

  My voice faded as I finally passed out with only one thought in my mind.

  The gift of life the Great Moon gifted me, had turned into pure death because of me.

  To be continued…

  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Thank you so much for reading Wolf Prince, The Pureblood Legacy, Book 1. This series is the continuation of The Curse of the Lycan series, so I truly hope you love entering the new side of this world with me. A piece of my heart and my experiences went into it this story and i hope you received it in your heart just as it was meant.

  If you have enjoyed it, please show your support by leaving a review. It only takes few moments to show the author you appreciate their hard work. Just visit my Amazon Author Page:

  Stephany Wallace

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