Chapter Forty-Six

N I C C O L O

Right now, the only thing that matters is getting to my destination as fast as I can, with as few delays as possible. I know I should be careful, but I find myself running like a sprinter who just heard the starting gun.

I have to admit that my mind is not at all present anymore. The only thoughts I have are of Florence, getting home, and ambushing this place to get her back.

And maybe that is my mistake, because I don’t manage to hear the footsteps all around the forest until I see figures emerging from the big trees. I stop in my tracks, looking around me and seeing that there are masked men in the trees as well. My first thought is that they’re Rogues, especially since I’m well away from the Blood Moon Pack at this point, but then it occurs to me how perfectly they’re positioned, like they’re waiting for me.

They’re not Rogues.

I walked into a trap, and these men are all working for Alpha Isaac, which means that Florence’s father led me to this.

Subtly, I prepare myself to fight, seeing their eyes glimmering maliciously in the distance and thinking about how I can leave, how I can move forward and get to the place I need to be. They approach me, getting closer and closer—I sense movement behind me.

One of the men throws a punch at me, but I catch his hand midair and break his knuckles in one go. The man yells and tries to kick me, but I grab his leg, break it too, and toss him over my shoulder.

But before I can gather my wits and get fully prepared, more men lunge at me and pin me to the ground.

Then, as if this isn’t enough, I feel two of them hold my arms and legs down on the forest floor, another one holding the back of my neck. I buck and struggle against them, wanting to push them away, but their collective weight is much too heavy for me to deflect. Groaning, I start to shift.

It doesn’t matter what happened the last time. It doesn’t matter what will happen this time.

No matter what, I’m going to get home and get back to Florence.

Some of them fall off me as my body begins to grow, but I can hear others urging each other to prepare. They won’t let me go. They just pin me down and keep me there, until I feel something sharp and long being inserted into my neck. A cold liquid spills from it and into my bloodstream.

A needle. They’re injecting me with something.

Instantly, my body begins to shrink. The power that just surged through me starts to waver and disappear. My breath becomes ragged, and my vision starts to spin.

I know what this is—wolfsbane, a poison so dangerous it’s been banned for centuries and deemed inaccessible.

Of course Alpha Isaac managed to find a way to keep my wolf at bay.

Waves of repulsion overcome my body. I shudder, squirming to get away from them, but they hold tight and keep me pinned against them. One of them leans into peer at my face, and it takes all of my willpower not to gag. The poison is making its way all over my body, and bit by bit I just feel like I would expire.

I can’t shift. I can’t move. I don’t think I can even breathe properly. My chest is tight and the world is tilting on its axis.

“You’re the strong Alpha everyone is talking about,” the man says slowly, as though relishing his words, spinning the syringe in his fingers to show me. “Not so strong with good old wolfsbane, are you?”

They all laugh, and anger flares up inside me, melting all my fears away. But my body is not cooperating with the anger I feel. I glare at him. “Get out of my way.”

He scoffs and turns to his friends. “Looks like the weak, pretentious Alpha has some words to say to all of us! I wonder what he would say now that his girl is set off to—”

SMACK.

The rest of his words get drowned when I deliver the strongest punch I can muster. My knuckles and my fingers are stinging as soon as I’m done, and the force of it makes me twist in my spot, but his and his friends’ faces are the most satisfying things I've ever seen. The shock on their faces is priceless, and I could bask in it all day.

“Goodbye,” I tell him sweetly, shoving them out of my way.

I barely make it two steps away from them when they yank me back and spin me around to face them.

Then, one of them delivers a punch in my gut.

I sink to my knees, the pain making me gasp. I clutch my stomach in pain, crying out, but another one pulls me up by yanking the back of my collar, holding me by the neck and making me look at him as he smirks. “Not so brave now, are you?”

Their shock is gone. The only thing on their faces now is rage. I spit at the one who’s grabbing my face, and he kicks my side. Black spots dance in my vision, but I elbow his face and kick one of them. I manage to hit them and they drop me on the ground. I try to crawl away and get to my feet to fight them, but one comes behind my back and lifts me into the air.

“Fucking asshole,” the one I elbowed spits out, slapping me. The coppery taste of blood fills my mouth, but he doesn’t stop there. He squeezes my jaw, his fingers digging into my muscles and making me wince in pain. For some reason the poison is making my body extra sensitive to pain. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Fuck you,” I murmur, and that’s the breaking point for him.

He winds his arm around my waist and carries me, but I flail my limbs around so he’ll release me, even if it means getting dropped to the ground. Then the other men simultaneously grab my wrists and my ankles, keeping me in place. Another one of them clamps a hand over my mouth.

My rage is through the roof. I bite at his hand, hoping I can still summon some of my power and tear it off, but I can’t anymore. The longer this goes on, the more I start to feel my consciousness slipping away. I can feel them hitting me, crashing every nerve and sparking all the pain receptors in my body until my brain feels like it will explode.

I let out a scream so loud that it feels like my soul is leaving with it.

The man who I just had the personal spat with, and who I assume is their leader, pushes me down on my knees and directs his men to hold out my limbs. With that, he stabs the syringe in my neck again and again, expelling the wolfsbane deeper into my nerves.

I take deep breaths, my skin now on fire. I look up to the sky as blood erupts from my lips, watching the stars blur and swish right before me. With one last stab, they all push me down to the ground, and there’s no energy left inside me. No power.

I try to shift again, but my body doesn’t respond.

Right then I realize that the wolfsbane did what it’s supposed to— expel and kill my wolf form.

Now, I’m only human.