The Wolf She Kept (The Reaper Universe Mature Editions #1)

Prologue

Sable’s ashen fur bristles as another scream cuts the air, followed by a victorious howl.

The sharp gravel under her paws stabs small pains into her sensitive pads as she patrols the buildings that her clan members set ablaze.

Those in their two-legged form are to blame, while the wolven ones cull those who flee the flames.

She has always found herself above these acts of violence, but on the threat of being made clanless, she runs the remaining victims from their homes.

She’s disgusting for it, a vile creature, but she loves her family.

Even if they are all monsters… herself included.

She snarls and snaps at adults, grazing them with her teeth as they run from their homes.

None of them gets mercy. She has none she can afford to give.

Until she enters a hut and finds a small, cowering form.

Her six amber eyes narrow in on the small Fae child.

She’s crying in a corner, her blue, webbed fingers clasped over her finned ears.

Sable’s throat swells as the child weeps.

In her heart, she can’t bring herself to attack.

She can’t even growl to incite her to run.

Her mind racing, she goes to leave, hoping maybe the child will go unnoticed…

but her entire body freezes in fear as she spots her father’s snout sniffing at the doorway.

Then, with one sweep of his enormous paw, he takes out half the wall.

Straw showers down around him from the collapsing roof, and finally his huge frame can enter.

He looks from her to the child, then back to her, his own amber gaze missing nothing.

“Where do you think you’re going, Sable?

” he projects to her mentally, and all six of his gleaming eyes narrow at her. “There’s a kill here.”

Fear strums through her blood, but still, she lifts her wolven chin defiantly, not letting her confusion show. Normally, her father would look the other way from her refusal to kill these minor Fae, so long as she drove out the ones hiding. “You know I won’t kill a child, Father.”

He snarls, showing every long, yellowed tooth in his snout. “You will kill that cretin, or else.”

“No.” Sable stands her ground, even knowing how unstable that ground is right now. Her father creeps forward, the floorboards creaking under his heavy paws.

“You will, or you will wish you had,” he promises, drool dripping between those exposed fangs.

Still, she defies him. “No. I already told you—”

He lunges past her with a snarl and clamps his jaws—

Disgusted and heartbroken, she looks away, anticipating the incoming loud crunch. Her body shakes viscerally at the sound of the child’s body being crushed. Another young life snuffed out senselessly. The story of their world.

But what she does not anticipate are the two large Fae hands that grab her head and begin beating it into the floor.

She struggles, trying to squirm away or throw him off of her, but her father is simply too strong.

The hands hold her head firmly, even as the floorboards splinter around her skull.

The last thing she’s aware of is the taste of dirt and blood in her maw.

~§~

Sable comes to in her Fae form, stripped down to her underclothes and tied down onto her belly.

She struggles against her bindings, the ropes tearing into the flesh of her wrists and ankles.

Yet, to no avail: the stakes secure the ropes deep into the ground and her powers are collared by a spell.

She hears footsteps and can see in her peripheral vision people coming to crowd around her.

Then, two large, familiar feet step directly in front of her.

Her father’s booming voice announces, “Sable, you have dishonored clan Revestra for the last time. You have refused to help us annihilate the encroaching Fae threat closing in on our home—”

“Is that what you call the refusal to kill a child?” she asks, laughing bitterly.

She hears whispers, likely from her non-hunter clansmen, voicing discontent.

Questioning. She knows this will make her punishment worse, but what is the worst her father could plan for her?

He’s put her through worse than a simple whipping before.

“You will shut your filthy mouth!” The first crack of the whip hits her back, making her entire body seize. “I hereby condemn you to exile to the human realm.”

“Exile?! What—” Her words are cut off with a grunt as he cracks it again, sending searing pain up her spine. He does not give her the opportunity to speak again.