\[Maverick’s POV\]
The world around me begins to turn red, and everything in me screams to kill as the scent of Forrest’s blood overwhelms me.
Fuck. What was this? What was this feeling? What was happening to me?
Hissing in shock, I stumble backward even though everything in me screams to continue to attack, and this move alone causes a laugh to escape Forrest.
“Look at you,” he huffs, sitting up and wiping blood from his lip. “Just the slightest smell of my blood has you struggling so much.”
“Shut up,” I growl, trying to shake off what I’m feeling. “Just shut the fuck up.”
As I speak, I move to attack again but once again stagger as that need for blood hits me.
“What is this?” I whisper, causing a bark of laughter to escape Forrest.
“She isn’t the only one with special blood.” He says, getting up from the ground and beginning to move toward me. “I too have special blood, but mine doesn’t turn wolves into humans.”
“What?” I hiss, fixing my gaze on the man in front of me so I can see him beginning to run a claw along his skin. “What do you…”
“You see,” he continues, holding out his arm so I can see the blood that is beginning to flow from the wound he created. “My blood makes my enemy go mad with need. Look at you, you’re barely hanging on.”
“I’m not,” I counter as my wolf howls with desire. “That’s a load…”
“Is it?” Forrest laughs, moving so fast I barely see him until he’s standing right in front of me. “Try to say that now.”
I open my mouth to counter, but I stop as the blood lust I felt earlier intensifies, shaking me to my very core and making my wolf go crazy with the need to devour the man in front of us.
‘No,’ I hiss, knowing that if we did that, we could never return to how we once were. ‘We can’t.’
‘But we can.’ My wolf counters, taking me by surprise and terrifying me. ‘It’s so simple. We just attack, and then that’s it.’
That’s it. How could he say something like that so easily? We knew what happened to wolves that devoured the bodies of others. Once that happened, you began to turn into a terrifying beast with no sense of morality.
Shivering, I try to shake off the need that I’m feeling, but with Forrest’s blood right there in front of me, it was making it harder.
“I underestimated you,” he murmurs, grabbing my jaw and squeezing. “I guess I’m going to have to take more extreme methods.”
Letting a slow smile spread across his face, he begins to pull while I try to get my body to listen to me, and with each pull, my mouth is opening more and more until there’s enough of an opening for Forrest to let his blood flow down onto my tongue.
“Make sure to swallow every drop.” He chuckles, slamming my jaw shut and holding it while I try to not swallow. “Oh, look,” he continues, whirling me around so that I can watch Serenity in her wolf form begin to make her way toward us. “She’s just in time for your awakening.”
No! I hiss inwardly as the sweet blood in my mouth begins to go down my throat. Serenity, get out of here, before…
The rest of my thoughts are erased as the need that I’ve been fighting takes over, consuming me completely until I’m seeing red and everything in me screams to attack. It’s thrilling, and I can’t quite understand why I was fighting against it before, but now that I’ve given in, all I want to do is devour the wolf in front of me completely.
Letting out a howl, I begin to shift until I’m standing on all fours, and a great power rushes through me, urging me forward so that I’m slamming myself into the wolf that has come to attack me, and when its delicious scent erupts around me, all I can think about is eating its flesh, muscle, and bone.
‘Maverick.’
The voice is so far away as it appears in my head that I ignore it completely and start to bite and slash, desperately trying to rip my opponent apart so that it will stop fighting me.
‘Ours,’ my wolf sings, urging me on until my mouth is around the wolf’s shoulder and its blood is erupting around my teeth.
It’s delicious. It’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted, and I want more. I have to have more, but before I get the chance to get what I want, I’m being kicked and sent flying.
My body slams into the ground, knocking the wind out of me, but before my opponent can attack, I’m up and moving again, but when I slam into the wolf in front of me this time, I feel something in me shift, and it’s like my power is disappearing completely until I’m left staggering backwards in confusion.
‘Maverick,’ I hear again as the wolf stares at me with pleading eyes. ‘What’s wrong with you?’
What's wrong with me? There’s nothing wrong with me. I’ve never felt so alive in my life, and it’s all because I got to taste the sweet taste of blood, but now that I’ve tasted it, I want more.
More. I think, trying to move forward, but crashing to the ground while my body begins to give out on me.
‘No!’ I howl, realizing that I won’t be able to get what I want. ‘What is this?’
‘What has happened to you?’ The voice asks as the wolf moves toward me but stops as I snarl and bare my teeth. ‘Who…’
It doesn’t finish before the one who made me like this heads toward us, and when its eyes meet that person, it lets out a snarl of rage and rushes toward him, and when they meet, he is sent flying backward into a tree.
As I watch on, everything in me screams to help, to stop the wolf from attacking that person, but I can’t as the world around me begins to fade and then disappears entirely so that I’m left floating in warm darkness.
‘Maverick.’ A voice whispers. ‘Maverick.’
Maverick.
Maverick.
Maverick.
It repeats the name again and again as light starts to swell around me, and then I’m staring at the most beautiful being. A woman with long, dark hair and glowing eyes that trap me and leave me stunned and in awe.
When she smiles, my very soul comes to life, and then I’m moving, embracing her and letting her warmth seep into me, comforting me and making the terrifying feelings that had been consuming me disappear so I’m left with nothing but peace.