Chapter 181 BLOOD LIES

Chapter 181 BLOOD LIES
MALIA’S POV:

My mind goes blank for a second.
It’s her… It’s really her!
Vaela!! I remember how cold her eyes looked as she took my life from me in the woods. But I’d been brought back and I remember what came after… Whore had torn through her mind like a wildfire through dry grass, burning all her memories away that night until there was nothing left of her but an empty shell. The last time I saw her she was screaming into the dark, running blindly through the trees and jumping at shadows that weren’t even there… She’d had no sense of self left.
And now is she standing right there, behind my father!!
None of this makes sense!!! My mind spins as I try to grab onto some kind of logical answer for Vaela’s sudden appearance, but there isn’t one… Just her face, watching me calmly with the same eyes that once looked at me with murder in them.
I don’t have time to make sense of it though because right behind her, My father takes a step towards me and relief crashes into me so hard it nearly knocks the breath from my lungs. After everything… after believing I’d lost them both… they’re here. They’re really here.
For one fragile second, everything else disappears… All I can see now is my father’s face and my brother standing beside him and for that one heartbeat I am just his little girl again… Just a sister… Everything has been so confusing with strange events happening literally every second, but with them here I’m hit with a sudden wave of relief. My Father would have the answers, he’ll fix everything as he always does…
Unfortunately, the entity doesn’t share that sentiment with me.
I feel it stir, hungry and furious, and horror floods through me as I realize what it’s about to do.
Oh No… No, no, no!!!
‘Don’t you dare!! They are not enemies!’ I scream into my own mind. ‘That’s my father! That’s my brother! They’re my family!! You can’t…’
‘They are no different…’ the entity snarls back, its voice curdled with unreasonable rage. ‘They will lock us away like the others tried… Everyone who comes near us just wants to control us. Destroy us… They ALL want to hurt us.’
‘NO! They love me! They would never… Stop this!! I told you to help me, not kill the people I care about!!!’
I always thought Whore was the mindless wild animal… But right now I’d give anything to have her back in place of whatever this thing is.
The entity seems to sense my thoughts because its anger boils even fiercer!! I feel my blood stained claws start to lengthen!!
Shit! Now I made it angry!
‘You told me you were ready…’ The entity snarls coldly. ‘There’s no going back now.’
Suddenly, My body rips away from Lila and lunges straight towards my father and brother, and I feel my claws curl, ready to close around them the same way they closed around every soldier I killed tonight! I’d turn them to ash!!
No!!! Please Stop!!!!!!
I try to stop myself… I throw everything I have into holding my body back, screaming inside my own mind until my throat feels raw even though no sound comes out. But it’s like trying to stop a landslide with my bare hands. Useless… My legs keep moving and my claws stay raised.
‘Please, Stop!!! Not them. Please!!!!’
But it doesn’t listen.
“Don’t let her get close enough to touch you!” my father yells out to Maddox as he jumps out of the way swiftly, and the familiar sound of his voice snaps something inside me even harder than before as I realise… He’s afraid of me too! My own father is afraid of me…
The thought guts me worse than any wound could.
Maddox drops back instantly, his blades are still raised but his body is angled away now, putting distance between us the way you’d back away from a wildfire. And from the corner of my eye I notice my father pull something from his belt… A weapon I don’t recognize at first until it’s angled straight at me! 
It’s a small sleek crossbow, loaded with a single glass dart, and inside that dart, a thick red liquid catches the light…
My stomach drops.
The Poison… Or should I say, my ‘childhood medicine’… 
Of course… My father knew all along! He knew all this time, that it was a poison made to weaken Lycans! He knew I was actually a Lycan and not a werewolf and he’d injected me with that stuff everyday… All those years of feeling left out and being mocked for not being able to shift like other werewolves and he’d had those damn needles pressed against my arm, telling me it was medicine. Telling me it would keep me healthy and would help me finally shift one day, when really…
It was freaking poison!! Poison He’d been feeding into my body since I was a child, so that I would never be able to shift into what I am right now. I was never even a freaking werewolf to begin with!!!
And he knew… All this time, He and Mother… They knew what I would become, and they were terrified of it.
The entity feels the danger radiating off the dart immediately, and its fury spikes into something sharper, more animalistic…
‘See? I told you… They are no different… They all want to hurt us!’ it snarls. ‘We must kill them first! It is the only way.’
‘No! Stop!!’
I fight against the entity with everything I have left, clawing at its control from somewhere deep inside my own mind, but it barely even notices my efforts… It’s already moving my body forward, faster, with my teeth bared and my claws stretched wide, ready to slash everything in our path!
But my father doesn’t run.
He raises the weapon, steadily despite the terror etched across his face, and he fires!!
But the entity sees it coming a heartbeat before it lands and twists my body sideways with terrifying speed, avoiding the dart completely!!!
Seriously??? What the hell is he thinking?!! Get out of the way Dad!!! I feel a flash of savage satisfaction ripple through the entity as it prepares to close the distance and finish what it started!!
Then I hear a sudden sound behind me… Quick, light familiar footsteps!!
Maddox!!!
He’d circled around me while Father drew my attention… Father's first shot was never meant to land. It was a mere distraction to throw me off… A decoy!!!
I don’t even have time to process it before I feel something sting deep into my side. Then again… And again!!
Three sharp points burying themselves into my flesh, one after another and the entity roars in fury, whipping around to snarl into Maddox’s pale face angrily, but it’s already too late.
At first nothing happens and for one terrifying second I think it didn’t work… that the poison isn’t strong enough and that the entity is about to tear my brother apart for daring to hurt me.
But then it finally hits!
I feel it first as a strange kind of cold, spreading out from where the darts struck, crawling slowly through my veins like ice water and my enormous clawed hands begin to tremble. My massive shoulders sag, just slightly, just enough that I feel it…
'NO!!!!!’ the entity growls and for the first time all night, I hear something in its voice that isn’t rage.
Fear.
I feel the horns first… A strange, aching pull as they begin shrinking back into my head before disappearing altogether. Then my vision flickers, the world around me starts swimming in and out of a deep violet haze before shifting back toward normal color, then violet again, then normal.
‘NO!!!!’ the entity roars inside my mind, and I feel it thrashing in confusion as my body starts to shut down, clawing for control… desperate to hold onto this body, onto this power, onto everything it’s built in the last few minutes of pure destruction. ‘NO! NOT YET! WE ARE NOT DONE!!!!’
‘It’s over’ I whisper back calmly with my voice shaking even inside my own head. ‘It’s over… Let go.’
‘NEVER! I WON’T…’
I don’t know where the strength comes from… Maybe it’s my father’s face, the fear and love tangled together in his eyes now. Maybe it’s Maddox, my brother, standing there with a weapon aimed at his own little sister because he had no other choice… Maybe it’s Lucien’s voice still echoing in my ears…
Or maybe it’s just that I refuse to let this thing wear my body like a puppet for one more second!
I push against it with everything I have, and for the first time tonight, I feel it slip…
Just slightly… Just enough. 
My enormous claws begin shrinking back into ordinary hands… The bloodied white fur starts retreating into my skin, patch by patch, revealing raw, blood-streaked flesh beneath and my vision blurs… the glowing purple fades from the edge of my vision, replaced by ordinary color until the world is dull and gray.
‘NO!!!!!’ the entity screams one final time, its voice cracking with something that almost sounds like grief. ‘WE ARE NOT FINISHED! THEY WILL HURT US AGAIN!!! THEY WILL….’
Then, silence.
My legs give out beneath me.
The world tilts completely with the grand hall spinning sideways as my body collapses under its own weight. I feel myself shrinking as the towering Lycan form crumbles away, taking the horns, the claws, the terrible violet glow with it. The sudden transformation drains whatever strength is left of my body, and from somewhere far away I hear someone shouting my name.
“Malia!!!!”
Lucien?!
Oh Goddess… Even his voice sounds so weak and strained now! Without his healing abilities and with the poison eating at him, he was going to bleed to death!!!
My father runs towards me and his face is the last thing I see clearly… Terror and worry is etched across every line of his face as he closes the distance between us.
I have so many questions….
I want to ask him why… Why the lies… My entire existence was one big lie!
But my eyes are already closing, and the last thing I feel before the darkness swallows me whole is my father’s arms catching me before I hit the ground.