Chapter 49
FORTY-NINE
VIVIENNE
The Alphas dumped us into the middle of the Moon Glade and scurried back to the shelter of the trees.
First, though, they unwound the yards of silver chain they’d draped around Kor and pulled it off him.
They were wearing thick gloves to keep from touching it themselves, I saw—silver weakens a Were, even a strong one like Kor.
Speaking of Kor, there was a haunted look on his face—a look like a man who sees his own death coming and can’t get away.
“Vivienne, listen to me,” he said hoarsely, as he lay on his side. “Turn around and let me see if I can get your hands free. Then you can untie your ankles and run.”
“I don’t see how we can do that before the moonlight hits us,” I said. I was feeling numb by now—I was more than half convinced this was just a very vivid nightmare.
“Don’t talk, just do it!” he snapped. “Get over here, now!”
His hands were bound in front of him but mine were behind my back. I did my best to scoot towards him and then turned over, pressing my hands to his. I felt him working, the rough, abrasive fibers scratching my wrists. And as he worked, he talked.
“Listen to me,” he said in a low voice, his breath hot on my ear. “When you get free of all these ropes, walk away into the woods. Walk, don’t run—do you understand? Running will only attract my Beast’s attention. You need to move slowly to get away from him. ”
“But I can’t just leave you here,” I protested. “If I get away, they’ll kill you for sure!”
“I don’t care about that—do you hear me?” he demanded. “I’d rather let them kill me than hurt you—than let my Beast have you!”
My hands were free by this time. I felt the ropes part and turned quickly to try and work on the much thicker ones tying Kor’s wrists. But he twisted away from me.
“No!” he snapped. “Leave them—at least they might slow him down a little.”
I realized he was talking about his Beast—the massive half man/half wolf creature that lived inside him instead of a regular wolf. I wondered numbly if it would look like the creature I’d seen in my dreams.
“I don’t want to leave you here,” I said again and this time my eyes were stinging with tears.
“Forget about me and get your feet untied!” Kor ordered me. “Please, baby—hurry!” he added urgently.
“Hey, lookit—they’re untying each other!” I heard someone shout from the shadow of the trees.
“Never mind about that,” Harris said and there was a dark, gloating expression on his ugly face. “Look—the moon’s rising.”
I looked up and saw that he was right. The moon was climbing in the sky and already the trees and branches were silver with her light.
I bent to my task of untying the ropes around my ankles. They had been tied hastily when Harris ordered me to be bound, so it didn’t take much to get them off—only a minute or two.
But it turned out to be a minute too long.
When I looked at Kor again, he was already changing. His back was arching and there was a pained expression on his face—the look of a man who is fighting a losing battle with all his might.
“Vivienne…run!” he grated out. “Get…away…before it’s too…late.”
And then his face elongated—his mouth turning into a muzzle as his body began to twist and change.
I’d seen plenty of males Shift in my lifetime, but I’d never seen anything like this. Kor wasn’t turning into the familiar lupine shape I was used to—he mostly retained his human form but he was growing—growing to immense proportions.
I stared, unable to move as his already big, strong body became bigger and stronger. His chest—always broad—got twice as big and his body was suddenly covered in black fur. His eyes turned from chocolate brown to wolf-gold and his ears became pointed and moved to the top of his head.
His arms and legs grew huge and muscular and then the thick ropes around his wrists and ankles snapped like twine.
“He’s free!” I heard someone from the trees shout. “Look—the cursed wolf is free!”
And that’s when I realized I was just sitting there in the grass like an idiot, staring at the transformation happening right in front of me.
The trance I’d been in broke, and I remembered Kor’s words to me.
“Walk—don’t run,” he’d told me. “You need to move slowly to get away from him.”
Slowly, slowly, I got to my feet and began to walk away. I felt more than ever like I was in a nightmare—moving in slow motion while the thing that was chasing me was gaining on me.
But the Beast wasn’t chasing me—was he? I didn’t dare look back to find out.
I just kept moving towards the edge of the tree line, where the Glade ended and the forest began.
If I could just get there, I could hide myself away until it was safe to go home.
I knew the way to Wolverton Manor from here—it was only half a mile—a mile at most. Surely I could make it. Surely…
And that was when a huge, hairy hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me back to the center of the Glade.