Chapter 112

Dominic

The hunt was on.

I had forgotten what it was like to be this hungry, and this devoted to capturing the source of the delicious smell that wafted into my nose and my soul. My vision was blurry at the edges, the red lens of my wolf honing in like night vision on the path ahead.

Get her.

The light at the end of the tunnel. The golden wolf, a trophy for me to catch and devour however I see fit. Mine for the taking, for the winning.

Blood pumping through my veins was loud in my head, reverberating around my skull as if trying to escape from within. I had tunnel vision, looking forward and only forward towards the golden animal bonding through the trees ahead of me.

Who is she? What is she?

I knew, somewhere, who and what she was. If I tried hard enough I could grab a name and a life story from the recesses of my brain. But my wolf didn’t care. My wolf only wants to chase, capture, and consume.

I wanted to grab her and caress her and bite her and take her as mine. I wanted to tear her apart so that no one else could ever have her the way I would have her. I wanted to sacrifice her and myself to the powers of the night and give over to the rage that demanded recompense.

The light stopped moving two hundred yards ahead of me.

I slowed down, aroused by the thought of changing the rules of the game. But it wouldn’t be as fun if she was giving up so easily.

“You won’t escape from me.”

The aura of this she-wolf glowed brighter as I approached, obscuring the outlines of her body. But I could tell she was magnificent, a prize to be won. They would sing songs of my triumphant taming of the Wild Golden Wolf.

“You won’t overpower me.”

My ears itched when she spoke, and her voice echoed in my brain so loudly that I winced as if from an electric shock. She had a power over me, a great well of power within herself, and it was far beyond my expectations. She knew how to reach me…

What is she?

I shook my head, jostling my head back into equilibrium. Then I smiled, glad to have found prey that was intelligent. It was more fun that way.

“Do you think you stand a chance against an Alpha?”

“I think you underestimate the power of a Luna.”

Luna.

The thought barely formed in my brain before I was thrown back by the golden beast in front of me. She moved so quickly that I didn’t have time to react, and when her shoulders hit my chest I was thrown backwards. We tumbled together and I tried to get my claws in her back, but she evaded me.

I twisted around and was on my feet just in time to see her darting behind trees again. Pulling out all the stops, I leaped and bounded until I had passed her. On all fours, I waited the extra second until she flipped over me as she ran.

It wasn’t hard to reach her legs and drag her back and under me. When she tried to escape I took hold of her forearms so she fell forward on her chest. She was trapped, and I was in control of her.

I bit her shoulder, making her yelp and wail into the treetops. The wind howled back as if in sympathy for her pain.

Take her.

Only my wolf was in control now, drooling over the she-wolf underneath me. Her scent was thick and heat was rising off of her fur.

“You’re mine.”

“No!”

A voice from afar interrupted my one-track mind, and anger flooded my brain as I whipped my head around and snarled. I saw no one, and turned back to my prize.

In a flash of golden light, her claws swiped across my face and into my flesh. On instinct I let go of her and closed my eyes as blood started to flow down my face. Her body pulled away from me and she scampered away.

“You bitch!”

I tried to lick at my wounds and wipe my eyes, just enough that I could open them. The world seemed to be on fire around me, my mind on the brink of mania from my pain and rage. She had retreated and was hunched by a tree, panting and whimpering. Pathetic.

“Dominic!”

That voice again.

I whipped around and still could see nothing, but the voice was enticing. Did I know that voice?

Did that voice know me?

I looked back at the golden wolf, cowering. I returned to stalking my prey.

And then I heard the voice again, but this time it was singing.

My hackles raised, my ears perked up, and I was frozen on the spot. I knew the song, though I couldn’t place the words. But the melody, the feeling, it was all familiar to me.

Without my control my body turned to the sound of the song, drawn to the siren that would save or destroy me. The night air looked clearer as I got closer, my hands relaxing and my aggression melting away.

A woman stood before me. Dark of hair and pale of skin, her features still morphing into a face as my mind tries to expel the demons that had possessed it.

A sound from behind me meant the she-wolf had transformed back into her human form. Her breathing was ragged and traumatized. Good riddance.

“Come to me,” the woman said, taking a breath before continuing to sing.

She put a hand up to stop me a few paces from her, then closed the distance and touched my face. Her fingers gently traced the edges of the new cuts from the golden bitch’s claws. It hurt less just to be in her presence.

She showed me a tube, it was sharp, and had liquid in it— and then she plunged it into my neck, and I fell to my knees at her feet.

Her song continued, my heart cracking open as my body and soul transformed back into the man I was supposed to be.

By the time it was over, I was weeping at her feet with my arms wrapped around her legs. She bent down, pulling my face into her hands. My eyes were blurred with tears, but I didn’t need to see in order to follow my instincts and press my mouth onto hers.

The kiss felt like renewal and returning. And then it felt wrong.

I opened my eyes as I pulled away from her.

Celeste’s face was bright in the moonlight.