Wild Wolf (Darkmore Penitentiary Book 4)

I flung open the door to the room at the very top of the tower, expecting a fight to ensue as I finally tracked down Sin and Max along with Vard and my Lion. But the room was just a long storage space with a window at the far end giving a view back down to the snowy plain beyond. I’d fought tooth and nail to get up here, killed guards and monsters alike to make it here and this was all there was to be found?

I cursed, running to the window and flinging it wide, hearing the sounds of battle carrying from below before my gaze locked on the clash of Fae.

I could see Cain among them, Ethan and Sin too along with Max Rigel, but my heart didn’t rest until I locked sights on Rosalie’s silver Wolf form racing out towards the horizon. I frowned, my gaze narrowing in on the dark figure she was chasing into the snowdrifts and my heightened eyesight picked out Vard’s face as he threw a frightened look over his shoulder. Locked under his arm was the glimmering golden form of my Lion, contained in a jar like it was nothing more than a trapped butterfly.

A growl ripped from my throat and I swung myself out the window, casting a sheet of water ahead of me and turning it to ice at once. The platform sloped down right to the ground and I didn’t hesitate as I started running down it, sprinting at full pelt and fixing my focus on Rosalie and Vard.

With my Vampire speed, it wasn’t long before I was catching up, the icy wind whipping around me and setting the hairs rising along my arms. I didn’t slow as I passed Rosalie, my fangs bared and my bloodlust rising before I leapt at Vard and brought him crashing down to the snow.

My hand locked around the jar, saving it from the impact of the collision as we rolled and Vard screamed. Rosalie ripped Vard from my grip, tossing him in the snow beneath her and slamming a paw down on his chest, her teeth bared as he whimpered in terror.

I shoved to my feet, carrying the jar toward him. “Tell me how to return it to my body.”

“You cannot undo what has been done!” Vard cried. “My work will outlast me, even if I die this day.”

“Liar. Tell me how to reverse it,” I snarled and Rosalie’s claws dug into his chest, making Vard wail in pain.

“There is no reversal,” he spat. “You are my Nightroary and you always will be.”

“I am not your anything!” I boomed and he flinched.

“If I am to die, then my legacy will live on through you,” he hissed, his fingers twitching.

I lunged, trying to douse the flame he cast, but I missed and it came speeding towards me. No, not me. The jar.

The fire slammed into it, shattering the glass and my Lion spilled out of it, the ghostly form of it like smoke pouring across the snow, still glowing that golden glow. But it was fading. Already dimmer, losing light by the second.

“No!” I roared, dropping to my knees, trying to gather it in my hands, bringing it to my chest and feeling its essence swirling around in my palms.

Rosalie howled in grief over my loss, running to me and abandoning Vard.

The Seer shoved to his feet, tearing away across the snow and I barked at Rosa, “Don’t let him go!”

She turned from me reluctantly, a mournful howl leaving her as she raced after Vard, the monster who had stolen my Lion from me.

I knelt in the snow, trying to gather the shadow of my former self against my body, desperate to keep hold of it.

“Please stay. Don’t go. Don’t leave me,” I pleaded, cupping the shimmering smoke in my hands and watching the life fade out of it. A vital part of me would die with it and I would never be whole again. “I can’t let you go.”

My Lion glimmered, its glow growing fainter and fainter until it was nothing but smoke, evaporating into the freezing air. My hands shook as I tried to grasp at the emptiness in its wake, but there was nothing there.

It was gone.

The absence of it was terrifying, its loss a pain I couldn’t bear to accept.

My fingers flexed, each of them tingling, slowly drawing my attention to them as that sensation grew.

A shimmer of silver light made me turn my arm over, finding my mate mark gleaming on my wrist. A ragged breath left me as I touched it, the silver glow turning molten gold, flaring to life and making my heart thunder in my chest. That flood of light washed along my skin, dousing me in its beauty and making me gasp in confusion as it sank into my blood. The light of the moon slid into my chest and I could have sworn it was stitching the pieces of my broken soul back together, weaving something utterly beautiful into my being. With a feel of rippling, heated liquid, something settled inside me and I shivered at the sensation of my Lion reuniting with my body, the power tumbling through me, giving me a head rush.

I glanced up at the moon in shock, sensing her watching me and a thanks parted my lips in a heady groan. She had done this, granted me this gift and allowed my Lion to return to me. I could feel how easy it would be to shift, to return to that incredible, natural form of mine and let it free at long last.

I was made anew, reborn as a beast that was built from the man I had once been as well as the man I had become. A man who belonged to that stunning creature out there in the snow from now until etern