Filed To Story: Claimed by the Alpha I Hate Book Read Free
“What are you doing?! Stop, stop this at once.” She hissed, still holding onto that modicum of power.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know but stop this.”
As they began climbing the tendrils that kept Rowena suspended in air, she began to thrash and buck.
It was no use, though. Any movement she made forced the shadows around her wrists, ankles, and neck to dig in deeper, coaxing droplets of blood that whipped the others into a frenzy.
I took one step, then another, until I was standing so close that I could smell the floral notes in her blood. Craning my head to look up at her, I grinned until my cheeks ached.
“I don’t need you to tell me anything, Rowena. Why would I when I can simply pry it out of you? I imagine it would be similar to cracking an egg, only in this case, the egg is your skull. That’s only half of the fun, though.” I mused, stepping back to admire the nightmare I was bringing to life. “No, I don’t think
I’ll stop.”
Once they reached the tender flesh of her ankles, the screaming began.
The shadows blacked out her pale skin, climbing her calves and slithering up her long, flowing skirt.
They didn’t slice into her skin or draw blood. No, they did something much worse.
“What are you doing to me?” She screeched, her voice cracking as she snarled and wailed, the sound more animal than human. Her eyes were bulging from her head, so bright that they truly did look like shimmering emeralds.
Much like the veins of inky darkness crawling up my fingers, Rowena’s skin began to blacken. It was the color of night, of a place where even the strongest, brightest light couldn’t reach. With how many were swarming her body, crawling up it like a nest of fire ants, it was hard to see how they seeped into her skin-how they slowly began to turn her into one of them.
A shadow.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I shouldn’t have been enjoying this, but I couldn’t seem to stop. There was nothing as potent as the screams of someone who begged for death but knew that something so much worse was coming for them. It fed that brewing darkness inside of me, the one egging me on with its seductive voice, filling my head and body with notions of unmatched power and delicious promise.
Holding my arms out, I sent out a silent call to all of the shadows. I allowed the ones forming the dome around us to break formation, urging them to come forward and claim their slice of Rowena’s humanity.
“This is for Sean.” I whispered, barely recognizing the monstrosity that my voice had become.
They were at her thighs now, continuing up and up and up. I was absorbed in my masterpiece, but not so much so that I didn’t see movement from my peripherals.
Tessa leaned into Zeke and whispered in his ear. It mattered not how quiet she was, I could hear every single word.
“You need to stop her before it’s too late. The magic she’s using is dark. It’s corrupting her as it destroys Rowena.”
Dark, savage fury filled my body, all of it directed towards the Elemental witch that thought she knew me-thought she knew my magic. Who was this girl to question me and my will?
Zeke, his face etched in a kindness I recognized but refused to acknowledge, took a step in my direction. He lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender, baring his neck the way a lower pack member would do to appease their Alpha.
“Daisy, this isn’t right. She deserves to pay for what she’s done, but not like this. I think-I think it’s best if you call the shadows off.” He said slowly, cautiously.
The flicker of fear in his eyes made my heart spasm, but any emotion it invoked was smothered-
devoured, by the scathing need for revenge. That same fury filled me, only this time directed at Zeke.
All familiarity vanished within the blink of an eye, and I found myself staring into the mournful eyes of a stranger.
A stranger that dared to tell me what to do.
“No.” I hissed, my voice deeper and darker than it had ever been.
“Sean wouldn’t want this, Daisy.” He urged, eyes broken and pleading.
Tessa clung to his side, both holding him back and urging him to talk me down from the ledge they both thought I stood on. If only they could see there was no longer any ledge. I was freefalling, tumbling through the air at a thousand miles per hour. My breath ripped from my lungs; my hair yanked back from my face.
There was no cliff because I had already fallen.
“QUIET!”
I didn’t recognize my voice as it left my lips or the wave of magic I hurled at both Zeke and Tessa. Their mouths hung open, moving as they formed words, yet no sound came out. Tessa clapped a hand over her mouth, staring wide-eyed up at Zeke.
I closed my eyes, trying so hard to hold onto the last shred of humanity I had, but all I could see behind my eyelids was Sean’s pale, bloodless face.
“Please, do not make me hurt you.” I begged the two of them, begged them with everything I had left.
The dark spider-web veins now crawled up my hands, staining my wrists with their poisonous glow.
Rowena continued to thrash like she was being electrocuted, and I continued to watch. They had reached her hips and were gaining in speed. One they reached her mind, I’d let them shatter it, cracking it open to let her secrets, fears, and desires spill out.
They, along with her human body, would fade into nothingness.
Replaced by pure, unending, Shadows.
I was so lost that I didn’t feel the bond between my mate and me. If I had, then I might’ve noticed the chill that slid down my spine and the butterfly that grew wings and took off in my chest. Even his scent was lost to me, carried away by the wind and swallowed by the forest.
“Daisy.”
One word and my head snapped up, craning to face where the deep, melodious voice had come from.
The dark, festering thing taking over my soul crooned at the sight of him.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
The people standing by his side didn’t matter. They were faceless, invisible when standing next to him.
His eyes glowed like bars of pure gold, eyes ripped open and bearing every broken, shredded piece of his soul. With messy hair and a body of rippling muscles covered in a lifetime of scars, my mate stood tall. 1
He didn’t look at Rowena, didn’t admire the craftsmanship of my work. The claws embedded in my soul tried to pull my attention away from him, but he was so beautifully broken that I couldn’t help but stare.
“Nolan.” I said in a voice that wasn’t completely my own.
“Baby, come here. Come back to me.” His voice was honey, thick and sweet in all the right ways. It latched onto me as deeply as the dark magic I channeled, only it brought a warmth that my cold soul desperately needed.
I glanced at Rowena, confused because shouldn’t he be happy for me? Shouldn’t he be encouraging me to finish this?
“Don’t look at her. Look at me, Daisy.” Nolan purred, eyes hooded and full of longing.
He looked at me differently than the others-than Zeke and Tessa whose expressions held outright fear.
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?