"I WOULD RATHER SPEND EVERY MOMENT IN AGONY THAN ERASE THE MEMORY OF YOU."
-DAMON SALVATORE
"Halfway Down"
By: SLANDER & Ashely Drake
A Z A L E A
My dreams were memories of a lost time, a place where I could've thrived, with a home and family who loved me. I watched from the shadows of my dark mind, the humanity slipping free with every step of my paws on the burning sand. The wind tore pieces of me from my fur, lost forever to brutal world I'd so rudely found myself in. Yet I had no one to blame but myself. Again and again I had put those I love in danger chasing something that had to be earned, not coveted. I wanted a safe place for my wolves so badly and instead I had smothered them beneath the foundation of it.
Grief as a wolf was a merciless thing.
It never faded, never fully unhooked its claws from you. No, instead it forces you to make a choice, and I chose wrong.
When I woke on the sand that day, greeted by the hulking figure of what was once my beloved black furred alpha, I was only able to stay human for a few moments, but it was long enough for my eyes to catch the darkness spreading across the sky, and my ears the steady thump thump of wingbeats.
Trapped in the back of my mind, I could only scream in frustration as Kore circled above me and my wolf felt nothing, crouching in the sand and snarling at her. It didn't matter how much I fought to help her remember, she did not recognize them as ours any longer, only as a threat we could not escape.
Unstable in this skin, my wolf's lips peeled back in a snarl when she landed ten paces away, agony in her eyes.
Not far behind her the feline stalked through the sand, dinner plate sized paws sinking into the uneven ground. Her tongue hung out the side of her mouth and her tail swung in a relaxed expression, but her gold eyes swam with hope.
"I'm here." I tried to say, emptiness carrying my voice away.
"I know you're in there. I know you're trying to fight, and we won't let you lose. The triplets are almost one now, and they're crawling!" I whined, my belly hitting the sand, my wolf's mind swam with confusion and the urge to flee.
"Wait," I begged her. "Please just wait."
My ears flattened and she continued to talk in that low soothing tone, sliding to her knees in the sand, Elizabeth stretched out beside her.
"Rueben has so much hair, it's growing fast and curls in the most adorable way." She smiled with tears in her eyes. "And Iris has already learned a torrent of bad words from Camille, the latest being "dicksack." Elizabeth snarled and a hint of recognition slipped through the animal. A low whine whistled from my nose, and I stretched my neck out to touch her fingers, stiffing, scenting dark jasmine, something spicy, and the forest.
Me, I smelled me inside their blood.
Her fingers brushed my fur and I groaned, leaning into her hand, letting her scratch behind my ears.
YOU ARE READING
All The Queen's Monsters (The Queen's Slave, Book 3)
ParanormalEverything was gone. I sobbed, my clothes ripped and I was bleeding, but it didn't matter. I had to get to her, to them. Had to find- Struggling to stand, I grasped my side, biting back the scream that wanted to escape. I looked down at my hands...
