Page 15 of Moon Cursed
My wolf gave me full access to her gifts. For now, we’d work together. This would be easier in human form than wolf, but she had no problem isolating the things I needed to break us free.
My jaw ached as my teeth sharpened and my bones solidified. I took the chains into my mouth and gnashed on them.
They crunched under my powerful bite.
It was… exhilarating.
Just when I was almost free, a powerful wave of fatigue draped over me.
I staggered, then fell to one knee.
This time, I turned to Nina to find her glowing with a magical aura.
My eyes went wide as the world around me darkened. My wolf’s gifts were diluted as she continued to push some sort of spell onto me.
“You’re… not just a wolf,” I realized.
She seemed too innocent, fragile, and timid.
But now her eyes had changed. I’d assumed that the gold band around her irises was just an illusion. It seemed a little thicker than the others, but now it had turned orange like a sunrise.
And encompassed her entire gaze.
“I’m sorry,” she said, raising one hand, showing her palm to me.
She took her other hand and extended one wolf’s claw, then drew a cut down the center of her palm.
She needed pain to work her magic.
I had no idea what she was… but it was something that struck fear in my wolf’s heart.
Kaitsja told me the name of Nina’s heritage with a sense of trepidation and panic.
She breathed one word, but the emotion of it spread goosebumps across my skin as everything continued to go black.
I was losing consciousness… but I heard my wolf clear as day before I pushed her out of my mind with a hard shove.
… Hunter.
“They’re all here,” Xenos informed me, making me frown as I tapped my sword against my belt.
“Isn’t that… unusual?” I asked as I swept my fingers through my dark hair.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, tilting his head. He glanced back and waved at one of the other Hunters.
I’d forgotten his name. He had more scars than the others, meaning that he was older and more experienced. The most noticeable scar was a series of three slashes that peeked from his shirt. “You know something of the wolves, don’t you, Ronin?” Xenos asked.
The Hunter named Ronin pulled down his collar, revealing the full extent of his old wound.
It wasn’t just any scar.
It was a claw mark.
“More intimately than I care to admit,” he said with a frown.
Xenos nodded. “What do you think about this?”
Ronin peered in the distance at the five massive wolf shifters. Their naked bodies flexed under the rising light as they lithely moved in tandem.
