*WINNER of Best Cliche Breaker for Undiscovered Werewolves*
"Underneath her skin was a wolf; all bite and snarl and nothing else."
The day Saoirse de Rais made her Alpha submit is the day she decided to run.
Traveling from city to city--state to sta...
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Loved ones are taken.
Loved ones are devoured by the wildling blood.
She'd never wholly believed that her wildling blood would devour her—it sounded too quick, almost painless. Her curse was more like erosion... her affliction, her blood, was a harsh, rough river and her mind and body was the river bed. She was a new continent, and the water was slowly making mountains and valleys and canyons. In a few decades, she'd be something—different. The erosion would be painful, an undeniable force that would slowly but surely obliterate her.
The stories were right... she wouldn't know real peace until she died.
Today's poison was a very strong Vodka, hidden behind frozen peas and carrots in Bo's freezer. She couldn't help but wonder if Judd had done the same thing, if he drank away the fears and awful truths. At least with the liquor in her system, she felt better... numb. But she coughed after her first shot, clutching at her throat as the burning sensation slowly ebbed into nothing. That was why she preferred flat beer. At least she had to endure that terrible, disgusting flavor as opposed to literal fire scorching her esophagus.
"Five O'clock somewhere," she muttered miserably, taking another shot.
Her hands shook. As Marie's sermon echoed in her head, she could feel the prickle of fur—she could feel the phantom claws where her nails were. Saoirse closed her eyes, ignoring the incessant needs of the wolf inside of her—because she was in charge, now. Saoirse had control of her body. Not the wolf. Her.
She refrained from taking another shot, instead sitting down in the booth, and selecting one of Bo's old books. She could tell he read it often; the spine was cracked and corners were bent to bookmark a spot. She cracked a quick smile, snorting quietly at the ridiculously cheesy cowboy displayed on the cover. She flipped through the first few pages, unsurprised at the content inside. She never pegged Bo to be the kind to read country romance, but he did.
Romance, she snickered to herself. I never would have thought.
A half hour passed, and she became weirdly engrossed in the book. She reached the hundredth page when the door swung open, and Bo entered the trailer with his father right behind him. She smacked the book shut, her shoulder immediately tensing when William Church sat across from her.
There was something off about him—before the Tribunal, William Church had been a legend that everyone enjoyed talking about. He was a righteous Alpha, nearly a King, when he was in charge. And then he fought against his own son and lost... but it was an honorable defeat. After the Tribunal, he was different. As much as she wanted to write it off as bitterness that the Church family could no longer carry the title, she knew it was something worse... something that would ruffle Bo's feathers.
He linked his fingers together and set them gingerly on top of the table, looking around, William clicked his tongue. He shook his head as he looked at Bo.
