46

The trees blurred past us as we ran, well he because I’m just on his back. I try to picture what the palace looked like, but since it is almost impossible, I stop trying, but I don’t understand why Cocci has stopped running.
He did say he was not going to stop.
I pat his fur. “Hey, why did you stop?”
He lets out a growl, taking a step back and that’s when I see them.
The masked men from before. But this time, they are not wearing masks. Remembering that these ugly men want me, I let out a shudder.
“Oh if it isn’t the she-wolf from the night before.”
I can hear Cocci’s voice in my head. How he did that, I would never know. “Don’t answer him, just go and hide behind that tree over there. I would try and fight them off.”
I should close my mouth and just hide as he told me to, but where’s the fun in doing that?
“Is your brain so small that you can’t remember basic things like date and time? If I remember correctly, it has been exactly eight days since we last met.”
“Damn it Crinka. I told you to shut up.”
Their leader or I think he is, smiles openly, revealing his razor-sharp teeth.
What exactly are these people?
“If I had a brain, I do not remember for I am afraid I might have eaten it.”
It took a minute for what he said to register and when it did, I jump off Cocci’s back, taking two steps back.
My face drained of color. “You… you eat brains.”
The man smiled again revealing those ugly teeth of his.
“And bones too. But I won’t eat yours if you would willingly come with me.”
Then I felt it. The tug in my mind. asking me to go to him. It’s like an order I can’t refuse. Even though I have the power to refuse because Ruarc’s father had done the same. What was it again? Oh yes, compulsion. But this man or beast wasn’t compelling me. He was persuading me.
I took a step forward.
“Crinka, no! Don’t listen to him. Get him out of your head. Turn around now!”
Cocci’s voice is a faint whisper in the back of my mind. The beast’s voice is sharper and clearer in my head.
Come.
Another step forward.
Cocci growls and charges at this man. I watch horrified as he bites his arm off. The man only grins, his arm is growing back. Cocci growled again and attacks again, the man flees, and Cocci is left to defend himself against the beasts that surrounded him.
My eyes find the leader. He is smiling once he knows that he has my full attention. And then I do it.
I put the invisible wall in my head, slamming him out. His eyes widen, and before he can get over his shock, I remove the wall, to let my voice, not his, flow through.
Come to me.
I almost shout for joy when I see him take an involuntary step towards me. I don’t even know how I’m doing this, but I don’t care. His body is trembling and I know he’s trying so hard to fight the persuasion. I turn to see how Cocci’s doing. He is holding up pretty well, with only a few cuts that are already healing. I divert my gaze back to my puppet. He’s frozen, waiting for my next command. I say it and he obeys.
Take a few steps forward and don’t stagger.
He is only a few feet away and I slowly reach for the dagger I had strapped to my thigh. It’s a good thing I brought this along.
Then I unblocked the mind link between Cocci and me, and his words of warning come tumbling down my mind.
“Crinka go! He’s nearing you! Go and…”
I cut him off. “How do I kill this man?”
“Wait what?”
“Their leader. How do I kill him? Somehow I am able to control him and now I want to kill him. How do I do that?”
“Behead him.”
I block him out again and focus on my prey.
Kneel before me.
He does and I raise the knife, bringing it down, severing the head from his neck. His head rolls away, his body still on his knees before me. His skin has turned an awful shade of grey and I look away. Cocci is now in skin, wearing only shorts. Most of them are dead, and he is trying to take down the three that remain. His right arm hangs limply at his side and I’m guessing it is broken. He is covered in blood, and I nearly scream when razor-sharp teeth dig into his flesh. He lets out a cry of pain, and he rips the man who bit him away from him, sending him flying back, and hitting his other comrades.
Before I could say, Jack, they burst into flames.
“About damn time!”, he yells, gripping his side as he walks over ot his brothers. When did they get here?
Sia is in the same clothes I had seen him in. Massa stood beside Ruarc lazily plucking at a loose thread on his jeans. He’s wearing a blue vest. And Ruarc? I think he has a thing for beach shorts and white tees. His icy blue eyes sweep over me, but he doesn’t ask me how I am. Sia does it instead.
“Crinka, how are you?”
“I don’t know. I… I killed him. I don’t know how it happened but I did. He was… I could feel him persuading me and whiplash I’m persuading him. Lord I sound crazy don’t I?”
Sia chuckles, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You’re not crazy Crinka.”
I let out a relieved sigh. “You left me.”
“Massa was running late, and it was the only way to stop myself from raping you.”
“Which brings us to the next question”, Ruarc says angrily as he pushed himself off the tree he was leaning against, his icy gaze pinned on me. “Who helped you with your heat?”
The arsehole.
“Are you kidding me?”, I yell as I stepped away from the decaying body. “I wandered the forest after you guys abandoned me, and the first thing you want to know is who the fuck I spent my heat with? Fuck you Ruarc.”
He only rolls his eyes, unbothered by my outburst. Arsehole.
“You didn’t answer my question querida.”
“You want to know who I spent my heat with? Then fine! I spent it with a male. There I said it. Are you happy now?”
His gaze hardens as he takes a step closer to me. “What did you just say?”
“What you wanted to hear.”
His jaw clenches as there’s a bulging vein in his neck.
“Who was he?”
I roll my eyes. I’m not afraid of him. I don’t think I would ever be.
“I don’t see how that is any of your business.”
The anger in him exploded and I couldn’t bear the full brunt of it. My knees are sinking into the snow and a sob escapes me as pain I have never experienced before, courses through me.
“Ruarc stop! You’re hurting her!”. Someone screamed. It’s Sia.
Ruarc glares at him. “Stay out of this.”
Blood streamed down my nostrils, and I blink back tears. My insides are twisting in pain and I fear that my brain would soon burst.
“Ruarc stop!”
It’s Massa. I hear a crackling. It’s the whip. Massa has whipped his own brother. The pain disappears and so does the blood.
Ruarc is putting on a new shirt that Massa hands to him and in the process of changing, I see a thick red line on his back.
Sia crouches before me, cupping my cheeks. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
He pulls me to my feet and my eyes find Ruarc. He’s seated on the snow, eyes on the ground. I take a step forward in his direction. Sia pulls me back. “Don’t. He’s not stable.”
Pfft. Like I’m any better.
I push Sia away and continue my short walk to Ruarc. I can feel their eyes on me, watching, waiting to see what I’ll do. I stand before Ruarc and he raises his head, eyes meeting mine.
“I didn’t sleep with anyone. I spent my heat asleep, cuffed to a bed that belonged to a female human. Maybe you should learn to trust your mate a lot better, and keep your anger in check,” I say to him, before walking to Cocci. I hug him once I’m certain his arm is healed, crying silently into his bloodied shoulder.