Filed To Story: Claimed by the Alpha I Hate Book Read Free
My body began to tire at an unnatural rate, even for a human.
Muscles began to seize, and joints ached, the pain turning my bones to lead until my body refused to respond. The ground rose up to meet me, invisible claws yanking me down as I fell. The impact knocked the air from my lungs, but as I lay on my back in this tiny clearing, I realized how beautiful it was.
It took all of my concentration to breathe, forcing air into my lungs and then out, pushing past the pain for a taste of oxygen. All the while, I stared up at the sky. The stars were bright, sparkling as if they were rivaling the moon itself for the spotlight.
“What a beautiful place to die.” A voice said, one that felt familiar in the same way a dream felt familiar.
A hint of milky skin appeared from the shadows, but not nearly enough to tell who was speaking. Their face was shrouded by a heavy cloak, the shadows masking their features.
The frustration that surfaced was purely my own. I thrashed in this new, unfamiliar body, angry when it refused to respond to me. The witch was so close-so unbelievably close that if I reached out, I could tear the cloak from her head without a second thought.
Cordelia did no such thing. Instead, we tilted our head up, soaking in the moonlight one last time.
“It is a beautiful place to die, isn’t it?” Cordelia said, somehow mustering the strength to push us to our feet. “I’d tell you to join me, but we both know it isn’t your time yet.”
The world shifted and swayed, but by pure will alone, we remained upright.
“No, it certainly isn’t.” The voice chuckled, silky and smooth like waves of velvet.
This wasn’t the sound of someone evil, it couldn’t be. Someone whose heart was black with darkness wouldn’t sound so kind-so understanding.
A second figure appeared, but they too remained hidden within the darkness, the hood of their cloak pulled tightly over their face.
“Get on with it already.” The second voice. hissed, once again familiar but in a dream- like sort of way.
“Your time is coming soon.” We said, Cordelia’s voice full of a resolution I could only dream of having.
Our eyes drifted to the second figure. “As is yours.”
“You’re insane. You can’t tell the future, old woman.” The second witch hissed, their form going rigid beneath their cloak.
I-Cordelia, let out a chilling laugh.
“No, I cannot. Yet I am closer to death than I have ever been before. I can hear it calling to me, whispering on the wind.” We paused, and as I stilled my own thoughts, a wave of melancholy filled my soul.
It was so faint that one might mistake it for the whistle of wind passing through the small gaps in between leaves, but there was a certain flow to it that felt…unnatural. I had no proof apart from what my soul was telling me, and it was saying that this distant sound was in fact death, and that
Cordelia was infinitely blessed to hear its call.
“You will hear it’s song yourself, and in your final moments you will think of me.” We said in a voice filled with peace.
The first witch, still hidden within the shroud of darkness, laughed softly.
Twinkling bells, that’s what it sounded like, or the soft sigh of a piano note fading into nothingness.
“You are so very wrong. I’ve evaded your grasp despite how valiantly you’ve searched for me. I’ll evade his grasp too. Do let him know that.” The witch purred, a glint of silver appearing in the form of a long blade.
“Believe me…” Cordelia whispered, our aching muscles coiling, poised to attack or run, I just wasn’t sure which. “…I will.”
I had no warning for what happened next.
My body-the one I was thrust into, surged forward. My withered hands met the coarse velvet of the first witch’s cloak and the second I made contact, I held on for dear life. It took no effort to fall back on my weight.
It forced the witch’s blade into my chest, and for a second, I was drowning in sharp, stinging waves of agony. I prayed for the pain to end, silently begging for my body to go into shock and for adrenaline to blot it out. I was no longer able to tell where Cordelia’s emotions began and mine ended, only that with every breath, I could feel the knife lodged in my heart and could feel the way it spasmed, trying so desperately to beat and pump blood around the obstruction.
Throwing herself onto the blade was merely a consequence of what Cordelia had done, but it wasn’t the true purpose.
With every ragged beat of her heart, her thoughts became clearer to me, and our emotions bled into one.
Cordelia knew that this fate was inevitable, that every road fate had laid out before her ultimately led to this moment. It wasn’t death Cordelia feared, not in her age and not with the things she’s seen in this life.
Her fear was that she’d die for nothing, which is exactly why she threw herself at the witch and skewered herself on its blade.
In doing so, in shifting her weight backwards and letting gravity take hold, she pulled the witch into the clearing-into the light.
Recognition hit us both at the same time, as cold and cruel as the eyes we stared into.
With cloudy vision, our lips moved to form her name, but before could utter it out loud a wave of darkness took hold, stealing away our senses until only that beautiful, ominous song remained.
Then, as our heart took it’s last shuddering beat, Death came and whisked us away.
I was slammed back into my body, the impact tearing a ragged gasp from my throat.
Panic obscured my thoughts, my hands grasping at my chest, taking fistfuls of my shirt as I pulled it from my body to peer down at smooth, unblemished skin.
“I’m alive…” I panted, my heartbeat thundering in my ears. “It wasn’t me. I’m still here.”
The sensation of my soul slipping away, the very essence that made up my memories, hopes, dreams, and fears, was one I would never forget. Far beyond the physical pain was a peacefulness I never would’ve thought existed. It caressed the soul in feather-light touches, wrapping around that beacon of light in a protective embrace.
Remembering Death’s gentle touch brought tears to my eyes and made me wonder if that was how
Sean felt-if he too felt at peace.
‘We have to go, Daisy…’ Maya said softly, her tail curling around my thoughts.
As much as I wanted to stay and linger in that peaceful haze, it quickly began to slip through my fingers. Cordelia had been right, after all.
I was alive, and every beautiful, horrible moment was mine to shape.
With my blood-soaked knees forgotten, I pushed myself to my feet and stood tall, inhaling the crisp, silky air and letting it fill my lungs with life.
‘You’re right.’ I told her, drawing her presence to the forefront of my mind, embracing the sting of my bones shifting and growing. ‘We have work to do, Maya.’
Running through the forest, melting into the world around me as I worked in tandem with Maya and became one with nature itself, I thought back to what I saw in Cordelia’s memory.
I didn’t want to believe that there were traitors in this pack. That someone I trusted with my life and the lives of my people were secretly plotting our downfall. After what I’d seen I needed confirmation, and I knew just who to go to.
It was haunting to know that I was taking the same route Cordelia had been taking when she was forced to run into the forest.
Everything, even the heavy blanket of shadows draped along the main road, was exactly the same.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?