Chapter 66
Fiona
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Horror floods my body as Ethan fights. His fist slams into another man’s face, knocking that man to the ground, but then another man jumps in. And another. They come in waves, and he’s lucky they aren’t all attacking at the same time.
It seems to be a pattern, with three men from each side jumping in at a time. Its almost like they want to keep him disoriented with no time to rest.
Another man jumps on Ethan, sending both of them to the ground. Ethan shouts out, kicks the man off of him, and gets back up, shoving against the other two men that come at him.
Every time someone hits Ethan, I cry out as if the pain echoes in me. Seeing him so weak and in pain makes … ache. There has to be something I can do to help. Some way to distract the enemy so Ethan could at least get away, but I’m helpless. Bound and gagged like a pig ready to be slaughtered.
“He won’t make it out, no matter how much you wish it,” my captor says with an excited lilt to his tone. I throw my head back, trying to hit him, but he’s faster, catching my hair and forcing my eyes back to the fight just as Ethan takes a particularly rough kick to the chest. He staggers and then his knees hit the concrete floor.
His palms hit the floor next, and I watch as Ethan hunches over, gasping for air as men pound on him
Not wanting to see any more, I close my eyes. I can’t watch this. I won’t watch this. Ethan’s pain is not some spectacle to be enjoyed as if it were a movie.
“You will want to watch what comes next, girlie. You won’t want miss it.”
The strange words and his teasing tone cause me to open my eyes again. When I do, Ethan is still hunched over the ground. He’s right there, not even twenty feet away from me, and he has no idea. I can’t get to him. He can’t get to me. It’s like a cruel joke that neither of us understands
However, when I look closer, something is different. His arms bend odd angles, bowing and then snapping. I cry out. hearing them crack even from here. My heart races as Ethan’s body contorts, bending this way and that, more bones cracking and an alarming amount of hair sprouting from his entire body.
Then, within the blink of an eye, a beautiful wolf stands in the middle of the chaos. He’s huge, and I know if I stood beside it, the animal’s head would almost reach my shoulder. The brown and black fur contrasts against bright green eyes. His jaws open, showing off sharp fangs at the front of his muzzle.
I shiver. Those massive teeth could easily tear into someone, and for a moment, I feel bad for the men around the wolf
One second the wolf’s eyes are green and the next, they’re a bright, glowing yellow,
r to me or further from me. He’s gone.
And Ethan is nowhere to be found. Not on the ground. Not standing. He isn’t closer to
On instinct, my body jerks forward. I have to find him. We have to get out of here.
“Where is he?!” I try to scream, my head whipping from side to side. My head spins, and I refuse to accept what I just saw Ethan did not just turn into a wolf.
The fear that pounds through my body sends my heart into a million miles a minute run. A sweat breaks out across my forehead as I watch the wolf swipe its wicked sharp claws at the men around him.
The loudest, most hair–raising snarl I’ve ever heard rings through the warehouse. Goosebumps pop up along my arms and a shiver claws its way down my back. If I never hear it again, itil be too soon.
“You won’t get out of this, Ethan,” the blonde man who seems to be in charge taunts the wolf. Is he crazy?
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Chapter 6
vill your mate” he adds
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The wolf lunges, slicing into two men who try to hold him back. They fall to the side, blood spurting across the floor and making my stomach roll with nausea. He naps his powerful jaws into another man’s arm, coating his muzzle with blood.
“What’s so good about a mate, anyway?” The blonde man asks, dodging and jumping behind some of his men and weaving through the group, always staying just out of reach. “The mating bond is such a hassle. It’s the highest and most ridiculous form of slavery that the Goddess has saddled us with.”
The wolf snarls at the blonde man again.
“Do you hear that? My kidnapper whispers. I ignore him, straining to hear the blonde man as he begins speaking again.
“What right does the Goddess have to force us to have feelings for someone? What you feel for that woman is eal, Ethan,” he shouts then laughs. “Nothing you feel comes from you. It’s all a fake projection from the Goddess. She controls you and you accept it,”
The wolf spins, keeping his eyes on the man in charge.
“Luckily, I rejected my mate, so I am not subjected to the worthless bond forced upon us,” he announces.
The wolf freezes before another growl falls from his snout
“That’s right, I was stronger than you and rejected my mate, I will not be held down by the chains of a mate bond. I will make my own decisions”
“My Alpha is stronger than yours,” my captor mutters in my ear. I shake my head, wanting to get away from him. “After this. it won’t matter that you’re mates Neither of you will have to worry about whether your emotions are real or if the Goddess forced you to feel a connection
Forced
He said Ethan was my soulmate, but now they’re saying the emotions we feel the thread I thought was connecting us weren’t something we’ve cultivated. It’s something this Goddess lady put between us to make us think we like or even love rach other
It’s fake
And the thought of that terrifies me. The cold hand of fear clamps around my heart and
–
There’s someone out there who might be able to control the way I feel about Ethan. If these men are right, then nothing between Ethan and I was real. What if we haven’t had any control over our relationship?
I do not like the idea of some unknown Goddess messing with me, and I feel like Ethan wouldn’t either, but then again, what
do I know!
He didn’t tell me any of this, which is awful because we’ve been together many times, and he should’ve had the decency to tell me I was sleeping with an animal. He’s been lying since we got together, and the cold way he treated me was that how he really feels about me?
Did this mate bond force him to become the softer, kinder version of Ethan that I’ve been falling for?
I can easily remember the blank gazes, the glares he sent me, and the distance he used to keep between us at first. I thought
I was real. The passion, the relationship between us, and the sincerity, but now now, I don’t know.
My chest aches as I realize, Ethan might not feel the same way about me as I did about him.
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Chapter 66
The soft, airy female voice jolts me from my doubting thoughts, but when I look around, I don’t find another woman anywhere near me.
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A tingling pulse spreads through my body as a light begins to glow from the necklace Ethan gave me. The soft white light shines from the wolf pendant, growing brighter and brighter, but when I turn my head, the man holding me doesn’t seem to
notice.
His eyes are still on the fight.
Slowly, I lift my tied hands to the pendant, touching it
Warmth extends from the necklace and into me, a white haze covering my vision and sending me into an expanse of nothingness
