Page 32 of Their Blood Rite

‘You were a fool to think you would get away with this.’

‘I didn’t do anything,’ I snarl, shaking violently.

He stretches out his hand and rests the edge of the blade between my legs. I attempt to move away from it, but tied up like this, I can’t.

‘You thought you could bewitch my only son and use a marriage to him to take my coven from me?’ He snorts in derision at me. ‘You thought you could make more of your kind with my son’s blood?’

I scream as he moves the tip of the blade towards my entrance and eases it inside of me.

Violated isn’t close to how it feels. Tears blur my vision as I swallow past a painfully tight throat.

‘The only thing you will fuck, Blood Witch, is this knife.’

There’s one hell of a roar. A tremendous white blur rushes past me, and I’m left looking at Cole’s father’s ashen face. Blood spurts from where his arm used to be, showering my face.

He screams. A blood-curdling and horrified scream before he crumples to his knees, clasping the bloody stump.

I blink, my eyes hot from his blood.

There’s a snarl so low and deep the ground trembles. Every instinct in my body screams at me not to look. That if I do, the same will happen to me.

Everyone starts to scream. Many run, scattering into the woods.

I force myself to look.

A great beast is standing at the edge of the clearing with Cole’s father’s arm still in its massive jaws.

A wolf, but larger than any wolf I have ever seen. Its fur is pure white but smeared with fresh blood. Its growl never ceases,going on and on in a constant warning. Its eyes take in everyone here before settling on me. It drops the stolen arm, which is tiny in its mouth.

Its claws dig into the earth, and it charges right for me.

There’s nothing I can do.

This is it. This is how I die, torn to shreds by a giant wolf.

Better than being fucked to death by my ex-father-in-law’s knife, I suppose.

A thought I never expected to have.

I scrunch my eyes shut and wait for its teeth to snap me like a twig. For my organs to rupture and my limbs to be ripped from my torso.

I feel it collide, and I go flying, showered in splinters of bark. Skidding in the dirt, I land in a heap at the base of the fire. The ropes around my wrist have broken, freeing me. With difficulty, I push myself up to watch this great beast slaughter those who try to fight it. The coven leaders attack. Those who came with the young witches use their magic. Our earth witches try sealing it inside a prison of rock and dirt. Their arms are outstretched. Their fingers are splayed, and sweat seeps from their brow.

But it’s no match. The great wolf crashes through and clamps its jaws down on an earth witch. His entire upper body disappears, and with a sharp snap, the wolf tosses his lower half across the clearing.

The others gather, all fighting back. They try to pull the beast down, turning the soil to quicksand. It struggles to keep itself out of the pit. More and more witches run to their aid, their hands outstretched and deep concentration creasing up their faces. The handful of fire-witches throw flames. The air witches try to pin it down in a gale, and the water witches have no water to draw their power from, so they stand useless at the side.

I stand and sway, watching them all work to defeat the blood-soaked monster.

Its legs are dragged down, and the more it struggles, the more it sinks.

It’s going to drown.

A scream rips from my throat, a piercing roar to match that of the wolf’s. One filled with wrath.

They’re my people. My kin.

And they tie me up, slice my body, and sentence me to die.

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