Taming the Queen of Beasts

AARYN

Aaryn grunted, wrestling with the male who'd hidden in the trees of those stupid gardens at the big house. It had taken a minute to catch up with him, a chase through the thickets of trees while Aaryn's head screamed at him to get back, to go back, to get across, to return…

Before he'd gotten his hands on the traitor, he'd almost died.

There was a gash over his ribs where an arrow had found his flesh, but hit at the wrong angle, sliding through his skin, then carrying on.

But it had shown him where the male was.

The seconds it had taken the so-called Protector to re-arm had given him enough time to sprint the final space between them and leap through the bushes to tackle the fucker to the ground.

All his rage over the injustice of this, all his frustration and grief that he'd been forced to stay here, rolled out in his attack on the male who first tried to kill him, then when he realized that Kalle hadn't gotten into the traverse, tried to run.

"No you don't, you fucking—" Aaryn tackled him again, and the male rolled, hissing like a cat, his eyes dark. "You're too late!" Aaryn snarled. "You fucking traitor, you're too late! You lost!"

"And you're never going to see your mate again!" the male crowed. "But I'll still have my power!" The male tried to flip over and flee, clawing at the earth, but Aaryn leaped on his back, heedless of the pain in his side, and they wrestled again.

Grappling had never been Aaryn's strength, but his rage toward this male, his panic, was fuel. As they tumbled, wrestled, and punched, Aaryn's ire only rose.

Then he got the guy on his back and his hands at his neck, and there were no more taunts when he cut off the male's air, his hands clamped at his throat.

"You stole her from me, you bastard!" Aaryn snarled.

The male's eyes bulged and his face turned beet red. Aaryn picked him up and slammed his head into the tree root. Again.

"Because of you, I lose her, I lose my life, I lose EVERYTHING!"

There was a moment when their eyes locked and a blood vessel broke in the male's right eye, turning that side of his eyeball a deep red. Something in Aaryn snapped too and he screamed, a harsh, guttural roar of defiance as the male's pupils—already black—seemed to twist and coil as if they held midnight-colored serpents.

"I will kill you! I'll kill you!" he screamed hoarsely.

The male writhed, arching off the ground trying to dislodge Aaryn, and for a second Aaryn considered letting him get more air, opening his mouth on the male's throat and biting it out—but before he could make the move, the ground beneath them began to tremble, then shudder, then suddenly they were tumbling sideways and around, the tree overhead leaning, its branches whipping as if in high winds.

"What the f—"

Aaryn was thrown clear of the male who coughed and gagged and tried to roll over and get to his feet, but the ground kept shifting beneath them.

Neither of them could do anything but cling to the earth and wait for it to stop.

When it did, the air was filled with high, undulating sounds like Aaryn had never heard—wails, cries, honks and… strange, synthetic sounds that he couldn't identify. Mostly in the far distance, but some echoing from buildings near the big house.

The male disformed was still coughing and hacking, but then they both realized the shaking had stopped. And in the same moment the traitor clawed at the earth, his fingers tearing into the grass for traction, Aaryn leaped for him, grabbing the back of his shirt and yanking him back, hands extended for the male's throat.

"I'll kill y—"

A roar of wind like Aaryn had never heard before consumed them, whipping the trees again, cracking Aaryn's hair against his face in stinging slaps, tearing at their clothing. And in it, horrific, shrieking voices screaming for death and destruction, bellowing blame.

And as Aaryn watched the male began to shake. His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open, though Aaryn didn't have his throat. His body convulsed as his entire eyes turned black as hoarse, horrific voices screamed from within the wind.

"FAILURE!"

"BETRAYER!"

"YOU ARE OURS!"

Aaryn threw himself backward and off the male, scuttling back to put space between them as the guy's skin began to turn gray, then black.

He screamed in horrifying pain, but clearly could do nothing to stop the force of… whatever had gripped him. His entire body began to twist, his screams tormented—then cutting off as if his throat had been cut, while his skin turned black, then crumbled to ash as Aaryn watched in disgusted horror.

The stench of death and decay was overwhelming, and as the body of the male became nothing but a black stain on the grass under the tree, Aaryn shoved himself back and away, every instinct in him screaming to be as far from this thing as possible.

But by the time he made it to his feet, the male was gone, and the wind… died.

Aaryn stood there, once again in peaceful quiet. A breeze fluttered through the trees and rustled the hedges, but there was no strength to it. No voices within it.

Aaryn's heart pounded in his ears, and his hands shook, but he turned to look around, those wailing cries rising louder and higher beyond the walls of the garden—in the distance where he would later peer over to find the city below.

But in that moment, he could barely think.

He'd won. They'd won. The portal was closed. Those horrific voices were gone. Anima had been cut off from the human world—and if this male was anything to go by, the voices had taken their agents with them when they were forced to leave.

They'd won.

They'd done it.

They'd fucking done it.

Aaryn turned, stumbling towards the pile of boulders that held the portal, his heart in his throat, hope churning in his stomach.

When he reached it, the stench of death was gone, and his heart leaped in his chest. But when he reached for the portal, for that mysterious space that had opened to welcome him there was only… boulders. Earth.

Nothing.

Somewhere deep inside himself, Aaryn knew it was pointless, but he could only mutter vows and scrape at the rock, demanding that it open for him. That it reveal itself just one last time.

The rage he'd felt for the betrayer roared, a bonfire in his chest and he screamed, bellowing at the voices, at the portal, at the Creator that this WASN'T FUCKING FAIR!

His wolf snarled within, snapping its teeth as he clawed at the stone, "You can't do this to us! You can't!"

Then, his skin humming with rage, his mind screaming it, he tried with every ounce of power within him to shift the boulder, to claw it away to reveal whatever was behind it, using such force it broke his nails and bloodied his fingers.

"No! NO!" he screamed, his voice hoarse, and from within him, his wolf began to howl. Aaryn turned away from the rock now smeared in his blood. He had to get away from it. He had to!

But when he turned, the wolf within snarled and leaped forward and suddenly Aaryn was running, fleeing, ears flattened against the scream of the human machines, eyes narrowed against the wind of his passage, tail lashing as his claws dug into the earth and propelled him forward.

For the first time in his twenty-five years of life, Aaryn was a wolf.