Chapter 41

Aurora

Seeing Xander’s wolf is something even more daunting than his normal form. He’s huge, and I knew that, but I’ve never had to face him down like this. He was already larger than me, but his teeth look sharper, and his eyes seem focused as ever on my throat.

I maintain my stance over Luke’s body, beaten and subdued into unconsciousness. I haven’t learned how to fight still, and the only thing I can do is probably outrun Xander, but there’s no way I can leave Luke behind. He will kill him just for the trouble I’ve caused for challenging him like I am right now.

I try to keep my head up, snarling back at him through my locked jaw, but even in his light brown, dirty blond, wolf, I can almost make out a hint of amusement cross his face and snout. He enjoys when I fight but when I release control and give up into him, he enjoys that too. I’m worried over his words.

He called me a consort.

I could have linked to Jaxson by now and warned him what is going on. I could give him the right into my mind, to see the surrounding areas and make his chances greater to bring an army. No army is coming to save me. Luke tried, but he took a beating so fast.

If my best friend, the future warrior of our pack growing up couldn’t beat his handful of ex-rogue wolves, there is no chance I will have to win this fight. It’s not even a fight, it’s a standoff, and I wait for Xander to pounce so he can kill me fast but for some reason, he doesn’t

He stands still, watching me, waiting for me to make a move.

I can’t wait forever. I take my first shot, leaping forward, and trying to keep low, knowing he is much taller than myself I have no chance going for his neck. Instead, I aim for his legs, managing a bite into his front ankle but it gives him the perfect angle to wrap his teeth into the back of my shoulder, feeling each large, sharp tooth puncture my skin one by own until he has me in his grasp. My wolf whines and my body shudders, ready to give up and give in, but I force myself to stay shifted.

If I go back into my mortal state, he could very well snap my neck off, and I won’t be able to heal from that at all. I can’t die, I can’t let him have the opportunity to kill Luke without at least a little fight from me.

I suck up the agony and ignore it, bolting off to the side and feeling his teeth drag marks across my shoulder blade before they finally release. My breathing is rough, blood pooling under my tongue but I swallow it. He can’t know that he’s damaged me enough to make me give up.

I can’t give up. I pounce over his lunge toward me, dancing back and forth with footwork to make up for the fact I can’t attack him without being attacked back, and worse. I watch as it frustrates him by the second, each time I duck and weave out of range of his muzzle only pissing him off more.

But still, he doesn’t call for his rogue friends to help. They watch, standing near Luke like he may wake up and join the fight, but I can tell by his depleted state that he doesn’t stand a chance to waking up any time soon.

I steal a glance for too long at Luke, my heart hurting at the sight, and Xander strikes again in that moment, his teeth biting down hard but releasing quick while I stumble, feeling my back leg bleed to the whim of his teeth marks.

My leg has to be held up, the pain too sharp when I pressure my weight on it. I am not as quick now, Xander growling out a howl, trying to signal for me to give up but I can’t. I may not be able to fight well, or at all, but it’s only right that I do so instead of giving him what he wants.

If I submit to him now, I’ll never be able to undo that damage.

I keep my footwork light, trying to back up, sidestep, and duck every blow he wants to make with his teeth, but it’s not quick enough. I’m exhausted. Distracted by my overwhelming pain, I stop for a second too long, his front paws reaching forward and slamming into my side. I tumble sideways, shifting in the process, and feeling every hole in my surface bleed profusely.

The stench is unbearable, and I gag, coughing up a bit of iron crimson.

“Luke,” I breathe, the only word I can say, looking over my bloody, ripped shoulder to see him still knocked out. “Luke!’

“No, no, no,” Xander snickers, standing over me in pale form, breathless in exhaustion but not bleeding at all. Even his ankle that I snapped a bite onto has already seemed to heal, a slim line of a scar sitting on his pale joint as if he has had that mark for weeks. “Don’t focus on him, focus on me, princess,” he snickers that humiliating nickname again.

I scoff at the word, the title that isn’t even mine anymore, nor was it ever going to be. I was never accepted by Jaxson’s pack, by royals just like Xander, and I thought I made the right choice just being a commoner and not a future Luna, but it backfired. I need the future Alpha to swoop in, chase off his brother and rescue me again.

Something in Xander’s eyes tell me this is nothing like the last time.

I’m not going home to Jaxson because I rejected him; I have nowhere to go now.

He cocks his head, enjoy the sight of me squirming, trembling in my own blood. “Common wolves are so strange,” he mumbles, speaking to his subordinates but looking straight at me. “Can’t heal from marks so easy for wolves like me to bounce back from. It really does prove the truth I’ve been saying all along,” he says, shaking his head at the sight of me. “Wolves like her are good for one thing, and one thing only.”

“What’s that, Alpha?”

“To be ruled over by wolves like us.”