Chapter 15 Viol #3
“Tell him, Poppy,” Konrad ordered. He thrust his muzzle beside Poppy’s wounded face, eager for his reply. “Tell him you enjoy it.”
But Poppy was trembling violently and couldn’t speak. In a tiny act of defiance, he shook his head while silently mouthing my name on his swollen lips.
“Poppy,” Konrad growled. “Tell the dragon how much you love being my dog.”
The bars of my cage broke.
I lost my fucking mind.
With a terrible roar that lacerated the air, my dragon soul exploded free of my skin. The rope binding my wrists turned to dust, and the wooden post shattered into a thousand splinters. I landed with a thud on all fours, wings jutting out and tail thrashing.
I couldn’t think straight. Didn’t want to. Every cell in my body was on fire. It hurt. It burned.
Konrad barked out a bitter, expectant laugh. He didn’t run. He was raring for a fight.
“Kill the dragon,” he ordered his alphas.
Sheba and Knox hesitated. Their animal instincts warned them something about me was different this time. But they obeyed their clan alpha all the same.
I didn’t care. They were insects to me. Weak. Insignificant.
As the bears charged, I swatted them away with a vicious strike. Their heavy bodies collided in a heap a few yards away. They groaned in pain, but didn’t get back up.
Konrad’s expression steeled. The black eyes glaring at me belonged to an apex predator. His stance stiffened, hostile and serious. He shouldered Poppy aside as he stalked closer, and the force of it knocked Poppy to his knees in the snow.
That was Konrad’s final mistake.
By now, the commotion had pulled the omegas out of their hiding spots. Frightened bears and wolves gathered outside just in time to see me jab their clan alpha in the throat. My talons sliced through Konrad’s dense fur to wrap around his windpipe.
The bear’s eyes widened in real terror as he finally understood the depths of hell closing in on him. I was glad. I wanted him to experience it. I wanted him to be afraid.
I unfurled my leathery wings with a loud snap.
Pushing off the ground, I leapt high into the air, dragging the bear with me.
He let out a choked snarl, thrashing wildly in my grip.
His claws ravaged my forearms, but my scales and willpower were tougher than his weapons.
A little spilled blood meant nothing to me.
Nobody helped. Konrad’s alphas were down, and his omegas trained as fighters were all too shocked by the graphic scene to intervene.
Besides, what could they do? Their clan leader—a massive alpha polar bear—dangled helplessly in my grasp. He was power. He was everything.
And now, I was going to destroy him.
Flames kindled in my throat. My rage, white-hot and molten, sought escape.
I wanted to destroy this place.
All of it.
I twisted my head and exhaled a volatile column of fire. It spread like a disease from building to building, flames chewing hungrily through the wood. As Konrad writhed in my grip, he watched his home—and his clan—go up in smoke.
The omegas screamed as they scattered. Some were caught in buildings. I was in no state to help them. But their cries reminded me I had someone precious down there.
As I swooped low, my wings cast a dark shadow across the snow. Bears and wolves shrieked while darting out of my path. There was only a single animal that hadn’t run, and he was the only thing I cared about.
Sometime amid the chaos, Poppy shifted to wolf form. I was grateful. It made it easier to gather him. When he was safely in my grasp, I crushed his metal collar between my teeth. The pieces fell down to the earth, along with the chain. Poppy was free now.
I flew higher. Higher. The burning village below was already forgotten. I didn’t care when I was with Poppy.
In one hand, I tenderly held my fated mate, the man I loved more than anything in the world.
In the other, I gripped a creature I despised so violently that it had driven me to madness.
Don’t watch me do this.
But I was too far gone for language. I couldn’t voice my plea out loud to Poppy. I could only hope that he looked away as bloodthirst consumed me.
Konrad’s final roar was weak. My talons had already done their damage to his throat. I snapped his neck between my teeth and let his lifeless body crash back down to earth.
The next few seconds were awful and dreamlike. Screams and smoke from below. A deep rumbling from above.
On instinct, I lifted my gaze. The mountain that loomed over the clan was shifting. Sheets of snow cascaded down the slope in a white tidal wave, threatening to engulf everything in its path.
I pumped my wings, staying airborne as I watched the avalanche overwhelm the burning village. The onslaught of snow drowned out some of the distant cries. It went eerily quiet.
I didn’t feel present anymore. It all felt like it was happening to somebody else.
But I did feel Poppy’s warm breath against my scales. I felt his racing pulse, his trembling frame.
“Violet,” he whispered, small and broken. “I’m so sorry...”
My head spun. Suddenly, I felt deeply, profoundly sick. But I couldn’t afford to lose my balance, not midair with Poppy in my arms.
I need him to be safe.
“Violet,” Poppy said weakly, staring at the wreckage. “Is Sorrel okay?”
I need to take him somewhere safe...
“Violet,” Poppy repeated. “Is my brother okay?”
As if being struck on the head, an abrupt clarity flooded over me.
Oh.
Oh, no. No, no, no...
I gasped for air. My lungs felt as raw as if I’d screamed for hours.
What the fuck have I done?
The haze in my mind began to clear, but being fully conscious was worse than feeling nothing.
The gravity of my actions bore down on me like a million pounds crushing my spine. The strength slowly seeped from my muscles. I no longer felt the surging, boundless energy I did moments earlier.
I’d succumbed to my feral blood lust and killed Konrad—but at what cost?
Frantic, I searched the scene below. Half the village was buried under snow, and the other half remained ablaze. I saw no movement besides the billowing smoke. The clan must’ve fled the grounds, if they weren’t lost to the avalanche.
I weighed the options, but came up empty. Smoke inhalation or risk of a second landslide. It was too dangerous to search for Sorrel now, not while holding Poppy in my weakening grasp. I couldn’t carry them both. The only thing my dwindling strength could manage was to get him to safety.
So I flew.
I flew far, far away from the tundra.
At one point, I noticed Poppy’s silence. When I glanced down at him, I saw he’d fallen asleep, or unconscious.
Deep dread yawned like a chasm within me.
I did this to him, I thought as I spiralled into a pit of self-loathing. I’ve ruined his life. He’s going to hate my guts when he wakes up.
Fields of snow turned to dark water turned to concrete and sprawling lights. My strength was depleted. I landed clumsily on a hill overlooking a small city, knocking a few branches off the trees on the way down. My breath came out in hoarse gasps as I shifted back to human form.
With shaky hands I placed Poppy gently on the ground. The climate was warmer here, wherever we were, but it was still cool outside, so his remaining in wolf form was a mercy.
Tears stung my eyes as I stared down at Poppy. It was deeply selfish of me, but if we never met again, I wanted him to have something to remember me by. With shaky hands, I reached into my satchel and pulled out Wolfy. I placed the plush toy against him, then forced myself to turn away.
Exhaustion hit me. My legs gave out. I collapsed, tumbling down the dirt slope until I crashed into a thicket. Once I was down, I was too weary to get back up. I passed out.
My bleary eyes snapped open at the quiet, unfamiliar sound of someone sucking in a breath of shock.
I didn’t move a muscle, but my gaze sharpened from my spot in the secluded thicket.
I saw the back of a figure in the watery dawn light.
Despite his youth, he was broad-shouldered, and his footsteps were suspiciously quiet.
He carried himself with grace and purpose, like he was wise beyond his years.
“An arctic wolf?” the teenager asked incredulously. He kneeled down, stroked Poppy’s fur.
Poppy let out a soft groan.
My stomach twisted into knots. He was alive, but when he became fully conscious, he wouldn’t be well.
I can’t stay here with Poppy, I thought as my heart split into two. I’m a fucking menace. I’ll only cause trouble for him.
The teen stiffened at the sound of Poppy’s voice, groaning softly as he roused.
“A shifter?” the young man murmured. “What are you doing here by yourself?”
My eyes widened in hope. The young man’s voice sounded kind. I recalled his silent footsteps, the ones I hadn’t heard until he was right on top of us. He must’ve been a shifter, too. Feline, maybe.
I didn’t know why, but I trusted this stranger. At least he wouldn’t burn down Poppy’s home and kill the people in it. But I needed him to know it in no uncertain terms.
“Please take care of him,” I rasped from the shadows.
The teen’s gaze whipped towards the sound of my voice, but I’d already slunk down the opposite slope. I didn’t want to be seen, or spoken to. I wanted to disappear.
I abandoned Poppy.
Before the sun rose on the city, I shifted and began the awful journey home.
“Violet, please tell us what’s wrong.”
Cobalt’s ever-calm voice was pitched halfway to panic when I stormed into the castle. I spoke to nobody. Didn’t look at them, either. I just wanted to go to my room and wallow in grief until I died.
Jade was uncharacteristically frazzled as he caught up with Cobalt. The pair hurried behind me, oblivious to the fact that their presence was unwanted.
“What happened?” Jade asked. “Violet, slow down, we only want to talk.”
The sound of my name grated like nails on a chalkboard. It was one of the last things Poppy had said to me, desperate and pleading and yet so full of love.