Chapter 7 #2
Her voice drops even quieter, and she strokes a little higher on my face, moving her fingers to that sweet spot right between my eyes, and I can’t help but purr.
I feel her magic swirling and filling this mental space I share with my beast. Her presence pushes, pulls, and digs as Leonora croons, “That’s not what you really want, pet.
You might think so now, but eventually, you would grow to resent me for giving up on Bodi and Rian.
You want them back as much as I do. I know you do, and I wouldn’t do that to you.
I’ll bring them home where they belong.” Reaching out, she caresses the side of my face, running her nails through my fur.
Her magic hugs me, offering comfort. “Please. Just tell me where they are.”
I keep my voice calm and even as I say in her mind, “I don’t know.”
And that’s the truth. Askari wouldn’t tell me where he was sending my brothers and their mates. I suspect he sent them to one of our homes, but I’m not sure, and that was Askari’s point. Leonora can’t extract information I don’t have .
Damn that loyal beta.
“We love him.” My beast’s words bolster me with a little bit of strength, because yes, I do love Askari. He has become family to me, and while I wish he would sever himself from me and the danger I pose to him, I’m eternally thankful that he hasn’t.
“Hmm.” Leonora presses harder between my eyes.
I don’t know if she’s trying to hurt me, but the added pressure just feels good as it eases the beginnings of a headache.
She slides her fingers up my head, between my ears, and down my neck, and I find myself pushing into her petting touch, wanting more.
Leaning forward, her breath tickles the fur of my ear as she whispers, “You saw what I did to Rian, to his memories. I could so easily dip into your head, pet. I could bend and twist your memories to my will. I could scramble you up so thoroughly, you’d jump at the opportunity to hunt down your brothers, kill their mates, and bring Bodi and Rian home. ”
She sits back, frowning at me as she cups my face.
“But honestly, I’m tired, Malik. I don’t want to play such games with you.
” She rubs the side of her face against mine, and I yearn for her words to hold even a crumb of truth.
I long for her offered touch of comfort to be genuine. But I know better.
Leonora pulls back, once more looking at me with that shallow stare.
Her right hand travels up my face until her fingers play with the earrings glinting through my black fur.
She tilts her head, and her gaze goes distant.
Her voice pitches a little higher as if she’s talking more to herself than to me.
“Maybe I’ll just send pieces of you to the witches until your brothers return.
It’s a bit extreme, but … How ma ny parts will I have to hack off before they come to save what’s left? ”
Her expression remains distant, almost blank, as she hooks her finger through one of my tiny hoop earrings and yanks.
I don’t give her the satisfaction of reacting to the sharp pain as she holds up the red-stained gold circle and stares at it with empty eyes.
She hums, twisting the earring so it catches the light. “I wonder how many pieces …”
My earring slips from her fingers as if they suddenly went numb. Her eyes slowly focus back on me, and my heart races as her gaze travels over my fur as if assessing which part of me to rip off first.
I can’t help it. I shrink into my beast’s mind.
It’s not the threat of pain that has me cowering inside my beast’s mind.
Pain I can endure. Pain is easy. It’s the lack of hope.
I’m tired. I know there are Leos depending on me.
And the witches. And my brothers. And Askari.
But right now, despair has me in its clutches, and I can’t breathe because this might work.
This will work. My brothers will come, and I don’t think it will take that many of my severed body parts either.
I … I just … I can’t. I slip deeper into the dark recesses of my beast’s consciousness.
He rumbles, the sound a little too self-satisfied. “Go. Let me deal with this.”
I try to resist, but I’m already falling. It’s quiet here.
Deeper.
Nothing can touch me here.
Deeper.
MALIK’S BEAS T
T he voice in my head that rationalizes, that balances my true animal nature with humanity, slips away, and I’m left with … instinct.
Pain shoots across my head as the female in front of me slices her claw into my ear and yanks.
The searing agony of tearing skin and cartilage propels me into action.
I lunge, sinking my teeth into her thigh, and blood fills my mouth.
The female grunts, but her noises mean nothing.
I shake my head and muscles tear until I meet bone. I clamp down harder.
Crack!
“Argh!” The female shouts and grabs the fur at the top of my head, pulling and yanking, but I don’t let go. We are both predators, but I will not be the one to back down. That voice might have pushed doubts into my mind, but he’s no longer here. I am a beast. I am an animal. I am Alpha.
I growl and lean onto my haunches, tugging the female’s legs out from under her. She falls, and I’m on her in an instant, claws shredding, fangs sinking deeper, tail thrashing.
Snap!
Another bone in her leg breaks, and she screams as blood fills my mouth then drips from my jaws.
I gnash, shaking my head again, determined to rip the female’s leg off.
I’m not hungry. This kill isn’t for food, it’s for survival.
I dig my claws into her anywhere I can reach, curling and hooking them inside her flesh to give me better leverage to maim.
“Enough!”
The female’s shout registers, but her protests don’t stop me.
Her touch does that. Her hand lands on my back, grabbing fur, and my hackles rise as a liquid sensation spills down my spine.
Magic. It sinks into me, pulling him out of the darkness, forcing my humanity to come back out.
I growl, trying to shake that presence off.
I don’t need him to muddle my mind. I know what needs to be done.
I clamp down harder on the female’s leg, and teeth meet teeth as I bite all the way through.
Before I’m able to finish tearing her apart, the female shoves more magic into me, and I’m thrown into the mind of my human side, yowling and barking in protest.