Being thrown to the wolves is a death sentence.
Adalia knows that all too well, since she witnessed her own father being slaughtered in that same unmerciful way.
Living life as a meek slave in a kingdom full of royals, Adalia has no rights and is tr...
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The breaking of bones and stretching of flesh sounded through the night. Adalia had never seen such a gruesome sight in her life and her stomach churned painfully. She didn't know if these were just hallucinations because of the state she was in, but whatever it was, it was unbelievable.
The wolf before her was breaking. The luscious fur disappeared altogether and soon after, the skin followed. He looked like meat - stripped of all its skin. She could see the bones peeking out through the strips of red muscle, cracking and breaking before rearranging themselves into a whole new shape.
Ligaments stretched and snapped until they covered the new strips of bone completely. From there, skin came. Only, this skin was that of a human's. It was hard to tell the exact shade of the skin under the moonlight, but Adalia knew what she saw.
It was skin. Definite human skin.
Moments later, a man lay at her feet, on his knees and bent over, both his hands placed on the ground in front of him with his head hung low and facing down. Shoulders moving up and down majestically as he caught his breath, bare as the day he was born.
The pale moonlight traced the outline of his muscles and she noticed that his hair was the same color of the wolf that was once before her. Strange symbols were tattooed onto his bicep in dark ink, Adalia couldn't quite make out what it was.
His hair hung loosely atop his head, it was messy and tousled, but then he looked up right at her. Adalia gasped, curling herself tighter into her blanket. His eyes were glowing orange, like embers twirling in his eyes, set ablaze by the fire inside his soul.
The fire in his eyes was put out after gazing at her for a few more moments. They simmered down into an electric dark blue color, shimmering and glossy looking. Alive and exotic.
He had stubble scattered about his jaw and chin - though barely visible it was still there and only added to the ruggedness of the man - or beast before her. Shadows shaded where his cheekbones would be, the small details making for a breathtaking masterpiece.
No words could capture the enrapturing beauty and inhuman man presented before her.
She couldn't even begin to process what had just happened, and the other wolves stayed surrounding her, watching as their alpha claimed what was his.
Her eyes ran across the other wolves gathered around, and she wondered if they, too, could do what the man in front of her had just done. She thought that maybe it was some sort of witchcraft - or maybe her mental state was really messing with her.
That thought was the only thing keeping her sanity together.
Then he moved, reaching his hand out to touch his queen, but fear glinted in her eyes so she shied away from him.
He pulled his hand back immediately as if he had been burned. But now was not the time to marvel at his queen, he could do that much later when all was well and when she was safe.
