Their forced luna

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The confidence in Abe snapped. "What?" he demanded.

I grinned. "You heard me. Why would I walk away? I've won. All that's left is for me to kill the last three of you."

The two wolves beside him whimpered, pressing hard against their brother. They weren't even growling anymore.

"No balls anymore, huh?" I demanded. Worthless. "Don't think this act of being a pussy is going to stop me. You're dead no matter how much you beg."

The air around me went cold, colder than the Vermillion Kingdom even. It attacked my nose and lungs. It made me feel like ice crystals were attacking my insides. I put a hand over my mouth and pulled it away with blood dripping from my fingers.

What the hell?

"Murderer," boomed a voice from all around me. It echoed and pounded into my head, forcing me to my knees.

"No!" Clara's scream was faded, out of range almost.

What was going on? She was standing not even ten feet from me. Why couldn't I hear her properly?

"Murderer!" The booming voice screamed again. I grabbed my heads, trying to block out the pain. What the fuck was going on? I couldn't think, I couldn't process, and whatever this was, it wasn't a wolf.

"Stay still!"

I snorted. Why would I obey an order like that? Just because I was on my knees right now didn't mean I was out of the fight. With effort I ripped my hands off my ears and onto the ground, pushing up with my palms and forcing myself to my feet. I swayed back and forth.

"STILL!"

My lips peeled back, I growled at the echo but I couldn't shake it out of my head. Ares was at full attention but the wolf hadn't taken over yet. Things couldn't have gotten too serious.

"Still!" The voice snapped once more.

My limbs froze in place. I couldn't so much as flinch, and my lungs barely constricted and released enough to even breathe.

"Clara," the voice growled. "You are the Alpha's precious. Why would you ever choose to side against him? Ungrateful child. You will remember your place. Rise."

"No! Please, don't make me!" Her voice got closer and her sobs echoed around us.

I tried to dart my eyes towards her, but even they refused to obey me.

A moment later Clara came into view and was pushed in front of me. The hand that pushed her was black and withered. "Do your duty, future Luna. Slaughter this intruder, rip his heart out so we can toss it back at those that stole what belongs to us."

Clara shuffled forward the next few steps until she stood directly in front of me. Tears streamed down her cheeks, unending. "I'm sorry," she whimpered.

I couldn't speak, couldn't move. The burned to a crisp hand handed her a long thin dagger before pointing at me.

"I really did want to go with you," Clara whispered, raising the blade high into the air. She stepped forward, swinging the tip down and piercing through my chest. Whatever spell that had been cast on me made it impossible for me to react to the pain.

Blood gushed from my wound and Clara rose on her tiptoes and wrapped her hands around the blade, slowly pulling it free.

"Shift, I'll do what I can," she whispered into the shell of my ear.

Shift? How was I supposed to do that when I couldn't even blink?

The answer was given to me when Clara finished tugging the blade free and a fountain of blood gushed from the site. With a rebel scream she ran at a figure behind me. The spell on me dissolved away and the pain hit me like an avalanche, threatening to drown me in its wake.

"Fuck this," Ares growled.

Deep inside my mind he kicked me into a room and locked the door before he took control. Pain racked my body as the wolf forced a change, my body bending in unusual ways as my bones snapped and fixed themselves until I was in the middle of changing. My claws slid out from my fingers, tearing my flesh in his excitement.

"What the hell are you?" Abe demanded, backing away. "This isn't right! You can't be real!."

Area laughed. Instead of shifting into a full wolf, he stopped at this hybrid form. Abe and his brothers curled into a ball, desperate for me to keep my attention off them. Ares turned, racing back the way we'd been attacked. Without missing a stride he grabbed Clara around her waist and hoisted her onto our shoulder. Holding her tight we sprinted through the forest and far away from the mysterious and powerful figure that was able to get the best of me.

The best of me, this time. It wouldn't happen again.

"My family!" Clara cried, hitting the back of my shoulders. "I can't leave my sisters!"

Funny, I had thought she was about to try to protest for the lives of her brothers. "My priority right now is to get you back to Amanda, Clara," Ares growled. "We'll take out those strange fighters next time."

Clara wasn't given a choice to respond. Ares hadn't slowed in the slightest, even with her pummeling him. Instead the wolf only ran faster through the trees, back to where our Kingdom awaited us.

Behind us howls bounced through the trees, chasing after us.

"We're not going to make it," Clara cried, covering her face. "They're going to catch up to us!"

Ares didn't bother trying to relieve her worries. Instead he put on steam and rushed back to his mate.

"If they catch up to us, kill me. Please, I don't want to do whatever they will try to punish me with." Clara grabbed onto my neck, holding tight and kept echoing her pleas for a rescue.

Ares hit the wall and glanced over his shoulder, his nostrils flaring. "Down," he ordered Clara.

She fell to the forest floor, tears pouring.

The shield to Vermillion in front of us fizzled away and Zale stared back a wild gleam in his eyes. "What the fuck is going on, Bo?"