Page 102 of Untamed

"There are things you don't know yet, Tarkik. That female is not good for you."

"My name is Inuit," I say, my voice hoarse. "Get out of my way while I findmymate," I snarl. "Or I will slaughter you and every one of your wolves, Uncle." My words are flat, the truth, spoken as honestly as I can manage.

My uncle’s spine stiffens. His canines flash at me, a warning that I don’t bother to take heed of. “You were meant to be an alpha, Tarkik, but your pack is gone, and that is the way that the north works-“

I take a step forward, and his lies stop as he falls silent. My claws click together, a menacing sound, click, clack, click. The sound of bone on bone. My teeth drip, the saliva pooling at the thought of Mauja flesh on our tongue. I inhale, exhale, the promise of violence and vengeance in each puff of air.

"You killed my birth pack,Uncle," I tell him. "Destroyed your sister and her mate. I am going to kill you. If you keep getting between my mate and I may torture you first. Get out of my way, and you get a headstart on running from your death."

The wolves posture around my uncle, and I feel my composure crack. Puffed-up shoulders and snarling mouths won't save them.

Kill them. Find our female.

“I didn’t,” my uncle protests. Lies. I can smell his stink as he sweats nervously. “But, if you give up your female and swear allegiance to me, I can call off the Challenge against Blout and-“

I lunge for my uncle, but one of my cousins steps in the way. His challenging snarl ends with my claws. His throat is gone, blood spurting onto my face, my fur. Sinew and flesh cling to my claws as I turn to face my uncle's attack. I catch his snout but let his momentum carry his body slightly past mine so that I slice open his back foreleg. One, then the other, hobbling him. I rip off his left ear, but my other cousin flies at me before I can get to the right. My claws go right through his guts and find his spine. His scream echoes with the others, the sounds of wolves snarling, fighting for their lives, dying. I pull and hear the sickening sound of his body being torn apart.

I make sure my uncle can no longer fight before throwing myself at the other Mauja. The sense of my mate moving further and further away from this spot is driving the madness, the bloodlust.

Kill them all.

The ground is soaked with blood by the time the screams stop. My throat is coated in the blood of wolves. It drips from my face, my footsteps red with it.

I kneel next to my uncle and reach for his throat with a clawed hand soaked in the blood of his pack, his children. Ashen, the look in his eyes deranged, he chokes out curses in-between his babbled confession.

"My sister's bastard of amate. You'rehisspawn!" he spits out blood. "The alliance... Fucking Adlartok ! That motherfucker Kingson! Ulia knew she was... betrayed... Knew that female was coming back... Your father was a liar and a cheat, boy," he sneers. Madness dances in eyes just like my mother's. "Should have killed that little bitch... should have made certain...Ulia... safe."

I start to shake him, but the light in his eyes has gone out. I look at the claws curled around his neck. Too long, too dark, the hand of a beast.

I look up into worried blue eyes. "What ammm I?" I manage to hiss out from my misshapen jowls.

Rhet quietly responds, “a TrueBorn, In.”

I stand and look down at my own body. I'm half-shifted, my skin covered in coarse dark grey and black hair over mottled grey skin. My wolf is fucking white-grey, damnit. When I look at Rhet, I can tell that I'm about a foot taller than I should be. My clothes are shredded into nothing, and my... well... that shit can't be like that when I find my mate. Holy fuck, it'll scare her off forever.

"Will ssshe love me? A monsster?" I ask my brother. I can feel my heart racing, feel the urge to hunt my mate pressing on my soul.

A howl cuts through the air. Wolves come pouring into the confines of the street. War has begun.

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Willa

Stupid rocks hurt my feet. It's a relief to feel dirt and leaves under my soles again. It took hours to release enough of the crumbling rock to break free two of the bars in the window. I had to be careful as night turned to day, and the wolves here woke up and started to bother me again. I'm lucky that Ant and the Hollow Moon didn't return. Although, there was this male, a powerful, older male, who stared at me as if he'd seen a ghost.

The broken bars were just enough for me to wriggle through, but I scraped myself up pretty decently against the rough stone. Dusk fell an hour ago, bringing back the cold. I need to get warm, eat something, and somehow clean the blood from my body so that I don't leave a trail.

I feel better out of that prison, but now I'mcranky; irritable, tetchy, grumpy.

I feel my lower lip quiver as I examine where I am. My senses are slow to return. The sting of silver feels like it's coating the roof of my mouth. I inhale a few times, deeply, to try to chase away the grey room and figure out where I am.

The building I was captured in is a squat, ugly square thing nestled into the sloping hill. There are no other buildings I can see as I spin around cautiously. I can only scent other wolves faintly. They don't have a guard for my prison. Silly of them. A canopy of trees stretches out overhead, and the scent of water drifts my way. I follow the smell around the building and feel the breath whoosh from my body at the sight that unfurls before me.

Water stretches out, dark and fathomless in the night sky. I squint, but I can't see the other side. It just seems as though the water goes on forever until the sky and the water blend seamlessly at the very edge of the world. Endless dark looms, the stillness beautifully profound.

Is it the ocean? Biting my lip, I start to travel down to the edge of the water carefully. It takes time, the slope slippery and steep in places. As I get closer, I start to think that this isn't the ocean. The ocean is supposed to be very dangerous, with large... waves? And... the water has salt, which I can't even imagine. This water smells fresh, similar to my river. The image of the map in the cowhouse flits through my head. The lake. I can't remember the name, but it was huge. This must be the lake, which means I am very far from my male.

A sense of uneasiness rolls through me. It will be a long journey home, and these Weasels will hunt me. When I reach the edge of the water, I don't stop to think. I just plunge in.

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