Filed To Story: Chasing the Rejected Luna's Heart (Clara & Liam) Book PDF Free
All the air went out of my lungs at once. I could feel my pulse in my throat and pounding in my head. I realized I could hear more than just my own heartbeat. My hearing had sharpened somehow, and I could hear the pulse of the three vampires following behind me.
And another…
No, that couldn’t be right. It sounded like it was up ahead, but there was nothing but darkness in the alleyway. I kept running because I knew if I slowed, even for a second, I was done for.
I turned the corner, but there was no sign of the owner of the fourth heartbeat, even if I could hear it–feel it–hammering away, louder than ever.
It hit me just as I reached a dead end and found myself trapped between the approaching footsteps and the crumbling brick wall in front of me.
The other heartbeat belonged to my wolf.
It had to.
I felt a surge of hope tinged with fear. If she was going to pick a time to show up unannounced, this was the second-best, after the night I was supposed to shift in the first place.
The footsteps were growing closer, and I gripped my knife, ready to fight in case this time proved as fruitless as the last. I struggled to recall Damon and Liam’s advice about shifting for the first time, but I couldn’t remember any of it.
The second I saw the leader of the group round the corner with a murderous glint in his red eyes and his shirt now stained to match, I knew I’d run out of time. I prepared to lunge again and meet the threat head-on, but as soon as my boot left the ground, overwhelming pain crashed over my whole body and the knife fell from my hand, hitting the pavement with a clatter. I could feel my body shifting, bones snapping and changing as fur pushed forth, covering me.
No, no, no! Not now, not like this!
I gritted my teeth as my body hit the ground and my arm snapped beneath me, but the pain that should’ve been unbearable didn’t even register in comparison with everything else.
All of a sudden, the vampires were the least of my worries. Even death seemed preferable to this agony. I growled as I tried to force the beast back, only to feel my bones stretching and snapping around me as my teeth lengthened and sharpened. It felt as if ice crystals were forming in my chest, and I could feel my wolf trying to break free, even if it would kill me in the process.
Damon and Liam had always said shifting was both a blessing and a curse. That seemed like a cruel joke now, and hell, maybe it was. How could anyone ever hope to control a force this strong?
All at once, the changes stopped, and I found myself stranded in flesh that wasn’t my own, standing on legs that didn’t feel quite real. The shift was over, but the agony didn’t waver. Something in my ability to process it, however, did.
More disturbing than the chase or the pain or the crunching bones was the inescapable feeling that my mind, too, was no longer my own. That I was losing my sanity. Myself. There was no sense of my own humanity left anymore. I didn’t know what was left, and I was losing the ability to care by the moment.
One moment, I was writhing on the ground as the vampires watched in confusion, not certain of what to do now that their intended kidnapping victim was having a meltdown before their eyes. The next, I was staring them down from a strange perspective on all fours, a monstrous growl echoing off the walls around me that I didn’t recognize.
It took me a second to realize it was mine.”Holy shit,” the blond breathed, staggering back as he stared at me. The look of horror on his face didn’t make any sense. Given how far off the ground I was, I wasn’t that big. And yet he was looking at me like there was some eldritch abomination right before his eyes. “What is that thing?”
Thing? Another snarl tore from my throat, this one even more monstrous than the last. Really not helping to dispel his point any.
I felt like my brain was grinding along with every move my body made, trying to put itself back together. I could feel the wolf pushing against my mind, trying to push me out. I was still somehow the one in control of my movements, but it was getting harder with every little move I made. My human voice was gone.
I opened my mouth to growl at them, but instead, a howl built up from somewhere in the back of my throat and echoed off the walls around us.