DARKNESS, the second instalment in the Marked Series.
Won first place in the SNOWFLAKE AWARDS Werewolf category!
UNDISCOVERED WOLVES Book of the Month, April 2018!
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'There is a darkness within you, Isa. I saw it then, and I see it now.'
...
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"Isa, meet Subject Z."
I walked forward, my gaze slithering from my cold mentor to rest upon the girl before me. She was kneeling, just as they always were. Head down, hands trembling and lips pursed—a typical victim, cloaked in the colours of her fear.
"Subject Z, this is Isa." Alanna smiled—a gruesome, merciless quirk of the lips that had my skin crawling—and continued. "She's the woman I told you about. She's the one who will end your life."
The girl looked up through wet lashes, blue eyes meeting my own. I looked away. Her fear, I could stomach. Her sadness?—that was another thing entirely. My entire career as a Huntress was founded on the premise that I could kill without thought, but the disconcerting tremble of her lips was enough to send me into a state of uncertainty.
That was a luxury I couldn't afford.
"Nothing?" Alanna probed, brown eyes narrowing in feigned confusion. "No 'hello'? Not even a quick nod of the head? Rude."
My mentor walked forward, brown hair riding the slight gust. Subject Z, who'd been staring at me for the past few minutes, bowed her head. I shifted from foot to foot, blood singing with the promise of an unheralded power. I knew what I had to do. I needed to prove myself.
"I'm sure your fellow werewolves have informed you of Isa's skill set." Alanna said, examining her fingernails. "She's rather...unique."
All was quiet for a few precious seconds. And then, just as I'd become acquainted with the eerie silence, Subject Z lifted her head and growled.
The sound was strange. It was eminently human yet inexplicably animalistic; a half groan, half growl that seemed to falter in the middle, flitting indecisively between two compounded natures. I recoiled, muscles spasming in abject disgust.
Alanna raised her hand, fingers curling into a fist. And before I could utter a word— before I could formulate a coherent thought—she delivered a heavy blow to Subject Z's head.
Her cry echoed throughout the field, carried far by the undulating winds. It pierced me, that sound—I felt it permeate the layers of skin, diffuse into my blood and reverberate throughout my body, desperate and powerful and unnervingly human. Alanna looked at me, cool gaze assessing my parted lips and trembling hands.
I couldn't afford to show weakness. Not even when the girl crumpled, muscles failing in a clumsy haze of movement, blood spewing in thick rivulets from her forehead. Not even as she cried once more, fingers absently tugging at the blades of grass, blonde hair spilling across the uneven turf like a halo. I was the Chief's daughter, charged with the protection of the Hunters.
