Violet

The pain, the memories, the toxin dulling everything inside me. My thoughts were fragmenting, scattering like leaves in a storm.

I couldn’t hold onto any single thought long enough to act on it.

If I just stopped fighting, the pain would stop too. Palisa would take me, and I wouldn’t have to feel anything anymore.

"That’s it," she laughed. "There is nothing for you to live for, you worthless thing!"

’No! How dare you—’

I let out another scream as pain shot through my head.

No. I couldn’t let this happen.

I would never let this wicked woman have her way!

I tried to fight back, but I was barely holding on. And I couldn’t even move.

No. No. No! What poison had she used?!

I tried digging in, trying to summon the last vestiges of my syzygy but it was barely responding.

No!

"Violet..."

Zephyr’s voice was barely a whisper. Thin, strained, and very weak.

"Use... me..."

Use you?!

No. I could barely even summon her.

But she was still fighting. I could feel her pull against my reach.

My wolf who had waited a thousand years hoping to reunite with me.

She was still fighting even when dimmed to almost nothing.

She reached for me and I reached back.

I could not shift, but I needed all the strength I could get.

She merged with me.

I did not know how, but I tried it regardless.

The merge wasn’t graceful. It was a desperate union of two drowning people grabbing onto each other.

Zephyr’s consciousness fully slammed into mine, and we became one.

The toxin was still there. My syzygy was still muted. I still couldn’t draw from the sun or sense anything beyond my immediate surroundings.

But I was stronger.

Zephyr’s strength layered over my own, as her wolf’s endurance and essence fused with mine.

Palisa paused.

For the first time since this nightmare began, I felt her hesitate.

And I seized that hesitation.

My hand shot up, grabbing the leg pinning me down, and I wrenched sideways with everything I had. Palisa stumbled, her weight shifted, and I tore myself free from under her.

I rolled to my feet, swaying, bleeding from a dozen wounds that were barely healing. My shoulder was ruined and my thigh screamed and bled with every step I took.

My ribs grated against my chest with a sound that made my stomach lurch.

I was in pain but I was still standing.

Palisa recovered instantly, pivoting to face me with that terrible speed.

She lunged at me.

We collided in a tangle of teeth and fists and claws. She snapped at my throat and I caught her lower jaw with both hands, wrenching her head sideways.

She twisted free and her claws raked across my stomach, opening four parallel lines that wept blood immediately.

I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop.

I was dead if I hesitated.

I drove my fist into the side of her skull. The impact jarred up my arm and I felt bones in my hand crack, but she staggered. I hit her again and again.

It was all I could do.

Each strike was fueled by Zephyr’s strength and my own rage, and each one landed with a force that sent shockwaves through the sand beneath us.

I was drawing every ounce of strength possible.

Because it was all I had!

Palisa snarled and threw herself at me, her full weight bearing me backward. We crashed to the ground and rolled, a writhing mess of violence.

Her teeth found my forearm and she tore. I screamed and drove my knee into her underbelly so hard she released me with a choked yelp.

"You stupid girl," she laughed in my mind. "You think this changes anything? I have killed hundreds like you. Stronger than you. Faster than you. You are NOTHING!"

With a sinking feeling, I realised she wasn’t even using her full strength.

She was toying with me.

"Every single one of you thinks you’re special," Palisa’s voice dripped with contempt. "Every single one thinks they’ll be the one to stop me. And every single one ends up the same way. Keep fighting. It is futile."

The memory of that Lycan woman’s death burned behind my eyes, and for one terrible moment, I saw myself in her place.

I shoved the image away with everything I had.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed, and I threw myself at Palisa with a ferocity that startled even me.

Hitting her wasn’t enough!

My teeth sank into her shoulder. My human teeth, blunt and inadequate, clamped down on her flesh with desperate force. I tasted blood and hair. I bit harder, grinding my jaw until I felt something give beneath the pressure.

Palisa howled.

It was the first sound of genuine pain she had made, and the shock of it rippled through the remaining wolves watching from a distance.

She thrashed, trying to throw me off, but I wrapped my arms around her neck and held on. My legs locked around her body. She bucked and twisted, her claws shredding my clothes and the skin beneath, but I refused to let go.

Through the haze of pain and the fragments of horrible memories still being forced into my mind, I saw it.

The lake.

The water was toxic to the wolves. It had to be toxic to Palisa too whether she was a Supreme Alpha or not.

The realization of this chance hit me with a clarity so sharp it cut through everything else. Through the pain, the toxin, Palisa’s mental assault, the grief and the rage and the exhaustion.

I knew how to end this.

I released my bite and threw myself sideways, dragging Palisa with me. She was bigger and heavier, but I had leverage and desperation and the merged strength of two beings who refused to die.

We tumbled across the sand, grappling, tearing at each other.

I dragged us both over the edge.

The water hit me like a wall. It was warm and thick, heavier than normal water, and the mineral content stung my wounds with a ferocity that made me choke.

Every cut, every tear, every bite mark Palisa had left on my body erupted with burning pain.

But it didn’t dissolve me. It didn’t eat my flesh or melt my skin.

It just hurt.

Palisa was not so fortunate.

The moment the water touched her, she began to scream.