Page 99 of Untamed

Willa

A splash of water on my face wakes me up. Startled, I open my eyes, gasping in shock. I close my lips tight when more water, icy cold, shoots into my mouth, choking me. I try to scramble away, but my limbs aren't listening to me. Something heavy is on my wrists, and my fingers feel leaden and incapable of even twitching. I scramble away from the water using my elbows and knees, scraping along on the rough floor. The water follows me, and I keep trying to escape from the stinging prickle on my skin, but something catches me.

A moment later, I am being dragged to my feet. There are wolves all around me. Eyes of the Weasel family and their...pack...stare out of snide, cruel faces. I imagine I must look the same. My she-wolf is just under the surface of my skin, battling to emerge and rip these attackers to pieces with teeth sharpened from fury.

"Hold her," I hear a voice snap.

I feel a tug on my hands and blink blearily into the pale, angry face of Ant. Teeth bared in a snarl, canines shining white. She lifts my hand to her mouth.

Snarling wildly, I lunge at her, snapping my canines at her face, trying to find purchase on the rough ground. My knees scrape open, bleeding on the floor, but Ant releases my hand and shrieks in surprise.

"Give her another dose!" she screams.

"No, leave her be."

I growl, whirling around to see Rooster holding a thick, dark silver chain in his hands.

"She's caught. I told you not to bite her. If I have to fuck her, I at least want her whole."

"She deserves it! What she did to me-"

"Diego is right, Glory. Let the wild little bitch be. Bad enough that Diego will sully himself with her. At least if she's... intact... he can stomach touching her."

Goddess. I don't like this female. Every hair on my body raises when she speaks. Oh, there's nothing wrong with her voice. Smooth and light, almost amused, it is a pleasant sound. Dulcet; sweet, lilting, melodic. But underneath the friendly tone is a hollow note. This female is mean andempty; vacant, desolate, void.

"Jessie," Ant begins, her voice whiny.

"No, let Diego take care of her. We have to make sure that my sweet mate gets the message that his replacement is Challenged." The empty female smirks cruelly. I keep my eyes on her. My she-wolf recognizes her as the most dangerous wolf in the room. Her shiny blonde hair swings just past her shoulders, not a single hair out-of-place. Her skin is lightly tanned but still much paler than mine. She is wearing an odd dress, with legs instead of a skirt. It's a pretty pink color with a wide white belt and matching white shoes with long, terrible-looking sticks on the heels.

She approaches me, her shoes click-clacking on the hard, grey stone floor. Her face is covered in... make-up. I only know about that stuff that females slather on their faces because Purple and Coffee told me. This female knows all about make-up; it's very carefully coated on her face, making her seem unreal, like a painting of a female instead of real flesh and blood.

Grabbing my hair with a hand covered in long nails painted a violent shade of red, she wrenches my head to the side. "So, this is the little female that is meant to be my replacement? Disgusting. I knew Jax was letting my pack go to hell, but this is ridiculous."

She drops my head, and I feel nothing but relief when she moves away from me. Her scent is all wrong. She smells of lies and deceit. Of a moon that has beentwisted; perverted, warped, corrupted.

She smells false. I want her away from me. Her goddess is not my goddess. We do not belong in the same room, breathing the same air. I know it. My she-wolf knows it. Only one of us can live.

I push myself up on my arms despite the scorching agony in my wrists. The breath I take burns my lungs with the stench of these wolves. My she-wolf is angry. These areenemies; foes, combatants, adversaries.

Rooster grumbles at me as I rise, a warning to stay put, but I don't need him telling me anything. Haltingly, with my knees swollen and stiff and my headache pounding away, I manage to make it to my feet in a crouch.

I don't like this place. It feels like a tomb, with its rigid, rough grey walls and stained floor. I want to feel the dirt and moss of the forest squelch between my toes. I want the breath of the wind on my burning cheeks. I want the feel of bark under my palms. I want the scent of life in my nose, not this. Not this place with these wolves.

I miss the pack. Mactiir's pack. But, mostly, I want my Mactiir. Want his arms to wrap around me and make me feel safe. Want his dumb babble to soothe the loneliness in my heart. I want my male.

I lick my dry, cracked lips. My gaze stays steady on the hollow female, our eyes clashing, enemies even without this show of stealing me from my male.

"MyMactiir... willslaughteryou."I let my words, the first in weeks, drop in the air between us. Her eyes widen. Is she shocked that the dumbwildcan speak?

"He will kill you, destroy you, ruin, ravage, and devastate you, show you no mercy while you die at his feet. He will skin the fur from your flesh with his claws and disembowel your innards. He will string them from the trees and let your foul rot drip back into the dirt. He will let the crows pick at your bones until they're white and clean, and then he'll grind them into dust. Nothing will be left of you but food for the maggots."

The female stumbles back when I snap my canines at her. It's a warning from my she-wolf.

"Diosa," Rooster softly curses. "Still think taking Tarkik's luna was a smart idea?"

"She is a worthless female. She is not the luna of the RustClaw. I am the only luna!" The hollow female looks at me, and I think she may be the crazy one, judging by the look in her eyes.

"We are not afraid of you, Hollow Moon. You have followed your greed into the fickle moon. And the forest swallows fickle things." I offer her my warning. I will let my Mactiir stamp out Ant and wring Rooster's scrawny neck. This Hollow Moon is my kill.

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