You Won't Refuse - Valeria's POV

You Won't Refuse - Valeria's POV
“You won’t refuse once you see what Kendric is really like.”

The world shifts again, and I stumble as the ground beneath my feet hardens into scorched earth.

The air is thick and oppressive. Smoke coils in the sky like angry spirits, blotting out the sun and turning everything into a dim twilight. The trees surrounding the clearing are half-burned, their trunks blackened, their leaves gone, branches reaching like skeletal fingers into the haze. The fire still clings to the roots in some places, flickering low and stubborn. There is no wind, only heat and silence broken by the occasional crackle of burning wood.

The smell is unbearable.

It’s the thick, coppery stench of blood mixed with the sweet, sickly odor of rotting flesh. It coats my tongue when I breathe, makes my stomach twist and threaten to revolt. Beneath my boots, the ground is soaked. Red. Sticky. And still warm.

I lift my gaze to the right and feel bile rise in my throat.

A pile of corpses, tangled together, limbs jutting at impossible angles. Burnt armor still clings to some of them. Arrows pierce others. One has his throat ripped out so violently his head dangles by a thread of sinew. A battlefield grave with no ceremony. Just carnage.

I look to the left, and it’s no better. Bodies lie where they fell, scattered across the deadened grass like broken dolls. Some are still smoking, others bear claw marks, as if something had torn straight through them without stopping.

A knot forms in my chest. My voice is barely a whisper. “Is this the war?”

Ramsey inhales deeply, as if he’s savoring the moment. A gleam of sadistic pleasure lights his eyes as he scans the battlefield. “Yes, one of them, and they each get worse from here,” he murmurs with sick delight. “And look on top of the pile of bodies. Look now, Valeria.”

Reluctantly, I turn my head back toward the gruesome mound. My breath catches. A chill skitters down my spine.

There, perched atop the bodies like a vengeful god, is an enormous white wolf.

His fur is matted with blood. No, drenched in it. Thick streaks along his chest, his snout, even soaking the fur beneath his eyes like war paint. His claws are blackened with gore, freshly ripped from some poor soul’s body.

But it’s the eyes that stop my heart.

They glow a brilliant, unnatural red, which means he’s feral and wild, burning with madness and unrelenting rage. The wolf stands alert, head high, tail rigid, scanning the smoke-heavy air. His lips peel back into a snarl, revealing long, curved fangs dripping with saliva and blood. Foam clings to the corners of his mouth, and thick drops of it fall onto the bodies below.

“That… that can’t be Kendric,” I breathe. I don’t want it to be.

Ramsey steps closer, his voice curling into my ear like poison. “Oh, but it is. That’s him, Valeria. That’s your noble prince. The one you mated with. The one you trusted. And as I said, he only gets worse in each lifetime.”

He gestures with a nod, his tone laced with triumph. “Now look closer, my dear. Look at all the blood on him.”

I do.

And this time, I can’t look away.

It’s not just blood from battle. It’s not just enemy blood.

Some of it glistens darker, thicker. Familiar.

There’s a piece of cloth caught in the claws of his left paw. A deep indigo, embroidered in silver. My clan’s crest.

I know that pattern. I wore it.

“No,” I whisper, stumbling backward. “No, no, no…”

The image is too vivid. Too real. My knees threaten to give.

Ramsey’s voice cuts into me, smooth and cruel.

“This is what your love turned him into, Valeria. A beast. A monster. And yet… you chose him again.”

Kendric shifts back into his human form, but I can tell his wolf is still in charge because of his blood red eyes. He heaves in a breath, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he continues to look around. His hand reaches up to wipe his mouth off with the back of his hand.

Blood covers every square inch of his bare skin. My breath hitches in my throat as I realize he did all this by himself and left no survivors.

“And this was just your second life. Can you imagine how brutal he has become over the years? It only gets worse over the years, and he’s had centuries of lives with it, so each time is worse than the last. Are you grasping that now?”

“Worse?” I choke on the word.

This was the third time he told me, but I didn’t believe it. Until now.

I can’t imagine things becoming worse than what I see before me. Right as I think I’m about to wake up from this walking nightmare, the scenes change again.

“Now where am I?” I look around once everything has settled.

After I’ve turned in a full circle, I don’t see Ramsey anywhere nearby.

“He left me?” I squeak.

How am I supposed to escape this horrid nightmare when he is the one who put me in it?

The scenery doesn’t look familiar and I don’t know where I am, but I can only assume it is my third life.

I can’t recall what it was exactly, either. Something about a bridge being nearby is the only thing I can remember.

Suddenly, the world swirls and I’m standing on that bridge with Kendric.

“I fell off the cliff and then ended up here. This was our third life, for sure.”

Kendric looks over at me with a confused expression. “Are you seeing this too?”

A ticking clock sounds from somewhere nearby and I look around to see where it’s coming from. “Do you hear that?”

A voice comes out of nowhere from somewhere above us. “Midnight is coming. Run while you can.”

It only takes me a second to realize it’s Ramsey’s voice. It’s the same as before in that dream we had.

“This isn’t funny anymore!” I scream at the sky.

Kendric is still looking at me like he’s confused. “Who are you talking to?”

“It’s Ramsey. Can’t you hear him inside your head too?”

Kendric leans over, both hands reaching up to cup my cheeks. “Don’t ever say that man’s name. He’s tried taking you from me more times than I can count. Never again.”

“But what if he’s the only way to find out what midnight means? I know it’s when the spell was cast, but what if it's also tied to how we break this?”

His eyes widen with understanding. “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

Though I thought this was a dream, now I realize we’re somehow connected. I wonder if Ramsey realizes.

“Oh, I already know. I brought you two together, so I can have a little chat with both of you at the same time.” He appears out of nowhere, startling us both. “Why do you look so frightened? We were just together, walking through your other lives, and now you act scared of me.”

Kendric lowers his arms and grips me around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He’s on guard, but I understand why. Not that it will do any good against Ramsey.

We are within our minds, so all he has to do is wretch us apart.

“How sweet. You always love taking her away from me, but I have waited too long for this moment. This time, I’m going to rise and be victorious. Not you.”

“You forget what I have gone through in preparation for this moment,” Kendric snaps.

“What preparations? Are you talking about why you became feral?” I turn my attention back to Kendric, who turns to look at me with wide eyes.

“How do you know about that?”

Ramsey bursts out laughing, amused by our conversation. “Because I told her. You made a deal with a descendant of the witch who granted me my immortality. They knew and worked for me, so your curse is more than you ever imagined it would be. Go ahead. Tell her what happens in this life.”

“What happens in this life?” I look between them, wondering what Ramsey is talking about. “What didn’t you tell me earlier, Ramsey?”

Ramsey appears nearby, shrugging. “I had to save something for him.”

“I lose myself.” Kendric’s voice is nothing but a mere whisper.

“What?”

Ramsey laughs loudly from a few feet away, clapping his hands as he enjoys himself. “Tell her a little louder this time, old friend. Tell her how you will never be a normal wolf again.”

“I’ve been feral since birth.”

“What does that mean?”

He chokes on his words. “It means I was supposed to die at birth by our laws, but someone stopped it. I have moments of sanity but it is getting harder to pull back from the edge.”

Before I can ask anything else, Ramsey interrupts me.

“It means that eventually he’ll be gone. Like I told you, the feral part of him gets worse with each life. I’m amazed he’s held on this long and not gone completely feral with rage. But here he is, keeping secrets from his fated mate. What kind of man does that?”

I reach up, my hands grasping his face as I force him to look down at me. “Don’t listen to him. You can fight it. You don’t have to be the monster he’s making you out to be.”

A faint smile spreads across his lips, but I know my words are not helping any. He’s not truly listening, only faking it.

“I’m already too far gone, Val. It’s only a matter of time before I turn on you as well. This time, I might kill you.”

Tears well in my eyes as I clutch at his face tighter. “No, you can’t do this to me. We can break this and not repeat this same life over and over. You won’t kill me.”

Suddenly, he’s gone. One minute I’m holding his face, yelling at him, and in the next, he has disappeared.

Ramsey laughs again, drawing my attention back to him. “How do you feel knowing your fated mate got himself cursed, knowing that eventually, if it wasn’t broken, you’d probably have to kill him yourself if he didn’t kill you first?”

“You’re wrong. He is going to fight it and win. Kendric would never harm me.”

He scoffs. “There is no winning with a witch’s spell. It is either broken or it’s not. If not, then you pay the price, which is, for him, becoming feral permanently. He will be a beast, a ferocious killing machine with no guilt. To end his tyranny, he will be killed. It’s only a matter of time before that side comes out and stays.”