Page 50 of Broken Moon

When one of his claws shreddedthe side of my face—just missing my eye—I had the horrible thought that thiswas how other exsoloups were made. A scratch, a bite, at attack that didn’tquite kill the wolf but turned it.

Everything extra about mekicked into high gear and I fought like I’d never fought before, working onpure instinct. My wolf aided me, adding a dark, fearless rage that rivaled thecreature’s own.

None of us were human, and wedidn’t think, fight, or fear like a human. I became somewhat feral when Ifought, but how else would I survive it? I wanted to live.

Once, when we’d tumbled androlled down the hill, claws, teeth, and blades slashing desperately forsomething vital that would end the other, I flashed on a startling image and mybrain filed it away for later.

The warrior wolf incharge—William—and the female guard were standing a good distance away,watching. They hadn’t shifted, as they knew better, and they made absolutely nomove to help me. I was pretty sure they hoped the creature would kill me.

I’d never been in such avicious fight. I’d never evenseensuch a vicious fight, and I’d spentthe first fourteen years of my life in a wolf pack. The creature and I bothfought with everything inside us because we knew that one of us would have todie, and neither of us wanted to be the one.

I no longer thought I’d beenfoolish to take on the monster alone. This was what I did—well, one of thethings—because this was what my ex-alpha had turned me into when he so cruellyhobbled my wolf. That was not a natural act, and I was not a natural person.

I’d dropped my machete. We weretoo close for such a big blade, but that was okay. I had my demon blade and mywolf. He didn’t scream again, and I suspected he’d used up too much energy onit the first time. He was weak, injured, and starving.

And that was why I beat him.

Turned out I didn’t need themachete after all. I put all my weight behind my blade and forced it throughhis bony chest wall and into his heart, and at that instant, I felt somethinginside him pop.

An electric pain traveledthrough the hilt of the blade, through my fingers, and up my wrist, and thoughthe power of it tried to throw me off him, it also held me fast. I didn’t knowif it would rip off my arm or suck me into his wide-open mouth, and for anendless few seconds, I wished it would rip off my arm, because the pain wasjust…horrific.

I felt my wrist bones twist andstretch, felt them break and reknit, then a hot gush of something thick andsizzling burned the flesh of my fingers, hand, and forearm, and I actuallysawthe bone beneath the skin.

We were frozen, the creatureand I, held by some ancient magic that was neither of us, and it was both ofus. It was everything. Even my wolf ran to hide, whimpering in terror andagony.

Suddenly, it was over.

I was flung off the creature,but my fingers were cramped and stuck around the hilt of the demon blade and itcame with me, pulling from the creature’s heart with a thick, gooey suckingsound. My breath was knocked from me as I hit the ground, and I lay theretrying to remember how to breathe.

“I’m alive,” I croaked,finally. Everything hurt. I struggled to my feet, afraid the creature wouldcome back to life before I could fetch the machete and slice off his head, butwhen I limped toward him and stood staring down at him, I realized he wasn’tever coming back.

He was…crispy. Black and burnedand red and raw, his dry wings crumpled and ripped and spread out around him.His heart had come out with my blade and lay in the dirt beside his body. Itwas small and twisted up with red and black veins, and a few long strands ofwhite matter stretched from it to the hole in his chest.

I leaned over and severed them,and then attempted to hack the heart to bits, just in case. Before I couldstraighten, I lost my balance and fell to my knees, then listed sideways andfinally, I was spent. Completely and utterly spent.

But the exsoloup was dead, andI had killed him. Me, a wolf shifter. I wasn’t a demon, but I’d killed thecreature anyway. I think I passed out, because when I next opened my eyes,wolves were standing around me. Not just the two who’d followed me into thewoods, but at least a dozen others. And most of them had shifted.

“I got him,” I told them, myvoice broken and rusty. “I killed him.”

I don’t know what I expected.Maybe I thought they’d cheer and suddenly love me and lift me from the groundto carry me tenderly back to their village. Maybe I thought they’d be so happyand relieved that they’d welcome me into their pack with open arms andgladness.

They did not.

“You’re a demon,” William said,satisfaction in his eyes. “You’re a fucking demon and you’ve infiltrated ourpack with your lies and your treachery.”

“What do we do with it?” thefemale guard asked. “Should we burn it?”

“We can’t kill it until thealpha returns and says we can,” another wolf insisted, when one of them liftedmy little hatchet as though to chop off my head. “You know how protective he isof her.”

“It’s not aher,”Williamgrowled. “Not anymore. It’s a demon, and we will kill it. The alpha hatesdemons even more than we do.”

They argued forever, it seemedto me, and all I wanted to do was lie there and rest. I’d never felt this sortof exhaustion. Something had happened to me when I’d killed the creature, and Iwasn’t entirely sure I wasn’t going to expire on the spot and save the wolvessome trouble.

Finally, they decided to put mein their “jail,” which was basically a hole in a rock with a thick, silverbarred door over the small entrance.

They pulled my items from mypockets and belts, dumped the holy water on my wounds and down my throat,stripped me of my weapons and clothes, then bound me with my own zip ties.

At last, they carried me away,and I did not care at all.