Untamed Fate (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 2)

Savannah

I breathed in Jaxson’s signature and sighed, letting my mind drift.

Everything felt right, for once.

Wake up!

My wolf’s warning echoed through my mind, but I didn’t want to. Jaxson and I were wrapped in a marvelous dream of dancing and swimming and kissing, and I never wanted to wake.

Suddenly, the firm warmth of his body was gone, replaced by rough ground and a seeping cold. I shivered as a chill brushed over my skin. Why was I so cold?

I opened my eyes and blinked, but there was only darkness. I reached out for Jaxson, but I was alone. Fear strangled my heart, and I bolted upright.

“Jaxson!” I searched the pitch-black void—a dark so deep that it made my skin tingle. The stars and moon and lights of the maenad’s revel were gone, and the only sound was the faint echo of my voice.

Where the hell was I?

Calm down, Savy, and think.

The last thing I remembered was holding Jaxson, my cheek pressed to his warm chest. And then I’d closed my eyes…

Oh, no.

The maenad’s warning echoed through my mind: don’t fall asleep.

Fuck. I’d drifted off, and now I was God-knows-where.

My ass cheeks ached from the rocks that were jabbing into my backside, and the ground was damp and muddy. A faint but omnipresent sound of dripping water was maddening with my heightened hearing.

Don’t panic.

I just needed to figure out where I was and then find a way out. That was possible, right?

I climbed to my feet, cursing when I realized that all I was wearing was my lacy underwear. Not good.

My eyes started to adjust to the darkness. A faint purple glow began to form shadows, and I could discern the muddy, root-ridden walls that rose around me.

I fought the fear that surged in my heart. I was entombed in the fucking earth, barefoot and practically naked.

Things could always be worse. Maybe.

My light source was traces of bioluminescent lichen that speckled the walls. At least it was something.

A steady current of fresh air blew through the passage, and a sliver of hope welled up in my chest. If there was air, then there’d be an opening, a way out.

I thanked the fates for my new wolf senses. One time only.

Gingerly shuffling forward, I began making my way toward the source of the air. It was slow going, but after a few minutes, my vision adjusted, and I’d blocked out the dull pain in my soles. I had to scramble over collapsed piles of stone and squeeze through a knifelike gap in the rocks, leaving scratches across my stomach and bruises on my knees.

Covered in scrapes and mud, I finally emerged into a forked passage. I paused. I’d seen this place before in a vision. When I’d last scried on the sorcerer right before we’d ambushed Billy’s cabin. Fear crept under my skin. Both ways were constricted, but the current of air was blowing from the one on the left.

I started that way but froze as a faint murmur of whispers stilled my heart. What the hell was that? I craned my neck and listened. Words, but too subtle to make out.

I glanced at the passage to my left, the way out of this nightmare, and then at the passage to my right, the one with the voices, beckoning me to follow.

I had the uneasy feeling that I wasn’t here by coincidence. I had no idea why, but something had pulled me here. My own intentions? Or perhaps another’s?

While the way out was to the left, it wasn’t the way that led to answers.

“Fuck,” I murmured as I shook off my misgivings and went right, slowly making my way into the darkness with the voices.

This was how stupid people in horror flicks got themselves killed, I thought. But something inside of me, urged me to follow the whispers. A sixth sense.

Or a death wish.

The roots in the walls thickened as the voices grew louder, but still, I couldn’t discern their words. As I pressed further into the underground hell, the smell of sweat and grime burned my throat. What was that?

My heart pounded against my ribs as I followed the musk, and then I froze.

Lining the walls of the cave, wrapped in roots, were bodies.

Horror coursed through me as I gazed up at the clusters of suspended people. Their skin was ashen and smudged with dirt, and apart from the barely perceptible rise and fall of their chests, they appeared dead.

I moved closer and sucked in a sharp breath when I recognized the face of a woman—one of the sleepers Jaxson had shown me on his laptop. These were the shifters who’d fallen under the sorcerer’s curse.

I reached out to touch her, but a familiar voice stopped me: “Savannah, you know what they say. Let sleeping wolves lie.’

My heart clenched.

Kahanov.

I slowly turned as his foul signature buffeted my senses.

“You bastard.” My nailbeds itched, and my wolf stirred.

“I had a dream I would see you again,” Kahanov said. “Funny how interesting dreams can get when they become real. What brings you here, anyway?”

I tensed to leap, but he whipped up a hand that erupted in green flame. “Ah, ah, ah. I could’ve already killed you where you stand, but I want you alive. We need to talk.”

I froze. How fast could he move?

“Release the wolves,” I snapped, trying to buy myself time to think.

“No. Not until you give me yours.”

What the hell did he mean?

I’ll rip his throat out! my wolf snarled in my mind.

My canines shot down, and hair erupted along my arms. I gasped as my shoulders started to stretch, but I shoved my wolf back and stopped the transformation.

“Wrestling with your better nature?” Kahanov laughed. “It’s such a tragic thing.”

I circled him cautiously, and he shifted, keeping himself out of reach. “I hate to see you burdened by your wolf, Savannah.”

“You did this to me! You turned me into a fucking monster!” I snarled as bitterness flashed under my skin.

His lips pulled into a deranged smile. “Me? Not at all. You’ll have to blame someone else for that. But I can help you get rid of your little wolf problem, if that’s what you’re aiming for.”

My skin crawled under his gaze. “Fuck you. Stay the hell away from me.”

He parted his hands, though the flames persisted. “Steady on. We can put our differences aside and help each other. You have something that you don’t want—a wolf—which just so happens to be what I need. Give me the Soul Knife, and I can free you from your beastly burden, once and for all. Everything will go back to the way it was.”

The way it was. What a foreign thought. I wanted that so desperately—to not be ruled by another spirit, to not have to worry about hiding the monster that I’d become. She wasn’t supposed to be inside me. We were complete opposites, and she fought me at every turn. I was broken, and maybe this was a chance to fix that.

Don’t you dare, my wolf growled.

But I couldn’t, could I? She wasn’t a part of me—yet she was part of me, bonded in some twisted way.

Doubts whirled through my mind, and I desperately needed to keep Kahanov talking until I could figure out a way out of this mess. “Why my wolf? You’re surrounded by werewolves. Why me?”

“Because you’re different, and your wolf is different.” The flames surrounding his hands flickered in his eyes, and the air hung with rage. “Because your family took mine and left me incomplete, forced me to inhabit this pathetic shell of a body. This is their fault, but you can fix it. Just tell me where the fucking knife is.”

“No,” my wolf and I growled together.

“Okay, Savannah, how about I sweeten the pot?” He strode toward the sleeping shifters and drew his fingers through the hair of a man in his twenties. “You give me your wolf, and I’ll let you and all these people go. I’ll swear a blood oath on it. If you don’t—well, I can’t ensure their safety.”

My stomach dropped.

I had to do something.

My wolf reared up in my chest, and I stumbled backward. I’ll fucking tear your throat out if you hand him that knife, she said.

“I’m not giving up the knife!” I shouted, both to him and to my wolf, as I wrestled for control.

“Fine. I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.” He dismissed the flame from his hand, drew a vial of red liquid from his pocket, and took a sip. Magic swirled around him, and he raised a hand. “Stop.”

To my horror, I froze in place. I could feel his magic inside me. In my blood. My eyes darted to the vial.

He grinned as a trickle of red slipped from his lip. “You forget—I’m a blood sorcerer, and I have your blood. Now, let’s start with something simple. What are you doing in the Dreamlands?”

“Visiting Cavra,” I said before I could even attempt to resist. I clapped my hands over my mouth.

His eyes widened. “Cavra? You little minx…” Suddenly, he stiffened as a realization struck him. “What did she ask of you?”

“The bloodstone,” I replied through clenched teeth, willing my voice to be silent.

Kahanov swore and spat, then stepped closer to me and lowered his voice. “Tell me where the Soul Knife is.”

“It’s here,” I heard myself say.

He laughed. “Really? Clever girl. Show it to me.”

I fought his control, but my blood began to boil.

Help me, I begged my wolf.

I felt her strength rise within, a snarled torrent of rage. Tell that bastard to—

“Fuck off!” we roared together as my body shook with her fury.

“So much stronger now!” Kahanov hissed. Then he gritted his teeth and pointed his finger at me. I felt his signature surge, a vile, dominating presence pushing down on me from every direction.

I let out a single sob of frustration as my resistance broke, and I summoned the Soul Knife. The cursed thing materialized in my hand in a swirl of purple smoke.

My heartbeat raced. It was happening all over again, just as he had dominated me in my room. Every muscle strained in protest.

He opened his palm. “Give it to me. Put it in my hand.”

He was so powerful, I knew that even with the strength of my wolf, I couldn’t resist.

But his words gave me a slender opening.

“Here, asshole!” I lunged and put the blade in his hand—point first. The vial shattered in a burst of glass and blood, and he screamed in rage.

A green wall of fire erupted from his hands. The shockwave seared my skin and threw me backward. I crashed into the wall and gasped as roots dug into my spine.

“Give me the damn knife!” Kahanov sprang forward and grabbed my wrist, but I kneed him in the groin.

He roared and, seizing me by my waist, threw me to the ground.

I screamed as the rocks jabbed into my side, but I kept my hold on the Soul Knife.

A crazed grin cut his face, and he lifted his arm and pointed at me.

Run, Savy. Get out of here, my wolf shouted in my mind.

The panic in her voice sent a fresh wave of alarm through me. I rolled onto my knees, but as I was climbing to my feet, his magic slammed me back against the wall. Piercing pain shot through my wrist, and the Soul Knife flew from my grasp. It clattered against the ground, and Kahanov laughed, delight clear in his voice, as he raced toward it.

Get out of here. NOW! My wolf pressed against my ribs.

No. This had to end.

As Kahanov bent down to scoop up the knife, I launched forward, crashing into his back. The force knocked him off balance, and together, we hurtled to the ground.

He grunted and cursed, then swung his elbow back, catching me square in the cheekbone. My adrenaline and fear dulled the pain, though, and I grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed his face into the dirt. ‘Die, you psycho prick!’

He roared and swung his arm around. I didn’t see the blade until it sank into my thigh. Searing pain shot through my leg, and my vision doubled.

As Kahanov pulled the knife free, I slammed my hand into him and released an uncontrolled burst of magic. He flew back as I scrambled backward across the floor of the cave. My chest heaved, and I shook my head, trying to quiet the tortuous noises in my mind.

I can still summon—

Before I had time to act, pain shot through me as the bones in my body began snapping. A scream tore from my throat, and I couldn’t be sure who it belonged to, me or my wolf.

When the agony subsided, I looked up at Kahanov through wolf’s eyes.

He was laughing like a goddamned maniac.

We’re injured, and he’s too strong, I said to my wolf. We need to get out of this cave.

But she didn’t respond. Not to me, at least. She bared her teeth and snarled, then attacked. The metallic taste of blood filled our mouth as she sank her teeth into his skin.

Her elation mixed with my panic. Kahanov still had the Soul Knife.

Get us out of here! I screamed to my wolf.

But it was too late. The blade sank deep, and we howled in agony. Then a wave of magic burst into us, and we were hurled backward through the air. The wall of the cave broke our flight, and the impact sent a wave of pain through our ribs.

Yet my wolf climbed to her feet and met Kahanov’s murderous gaze.

“Come here, little wolf. You belong with me,” he growled. “Savannah doesn’t respect you, but I will. You can be free, just come to me.”

For a second, terror seized me, drowning out the pain. I was helpless and out of control.

But then my wolf turned and bolted down the cave.

Green flames licked at our heels, but we were faster than him, even cut and bleeding.

We didn’t slow. The fork in the passage appeared ahead, and the scent of briny sea air pulled us forward.

She darted down the passage that I should have taken from the start, and after a few minutes, light appeared, then the azure blue of water.

Thank God.