Violet
The pain, the mories, the toxin dulling everything inside . My thoughts were fragnting, 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 , 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... ..."
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 .
She was still fighting even when dimd to almost nothing.
She reached for and I reached back.
I could not shift, but I needed all the strength I could get.
She rged with .
I did not know how, but I tried it regardless.
The rge wasn’t graceful. It was a desperate union of two drowning people grabbing onto each other.
Zephyr’s consciousness fully slamd into mine, and we beca one.
The toxin was still there. My syzygy was still muted. I still couldn’t draw from the sun or sense anything beyond my imdiate 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 ti since this nightmare began, I felt her hesitate.
And I seized that hesitation.
My hand shot up, grabbing the leg pinning 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 scread 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 with that terrible speed.
She lunged at .
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 imdiately.
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 , her full weight bearing backward. We crashed to the ground and rolled, a writhing ss of violence.
Her teeth found my forearm and she tore. I scread and drove my knee into her underbelly so hard she released 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 .
"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 . And every single one ends up the sa way. Keep fighting. It is futile."
The mory of that Lycan woman’s death burned behind my eyes, and for one terrible mont, I saw myself in her place.
I shoved the image away with everything I had.
"Get out of my head!" I scread, and I threw myself at Palisa with a ferocity that startled even .
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 sothing 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 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 fragnts of horrible mories 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 Supre Alpha or not.
The realization of this chance hit with a clarity so sharp it cut through everything else. Through the pain, the toxin, Palisa’s ntal 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 . She was bigger and heavier, but I had leverage and desperation and the rged 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 like a wall. It was warm and thick, heavier than normal water, and the mineral content stung my wounds with a ferocity that made choke.
Every cut, every tear, every bite mark Palisa had left on my body erupted with burning pain.
But it didn’t dissolve . It didn’t eat my flesh or lt my skin.
It just hurt.
Palisa was not so fortunate.
The mont the water touched her, she began to scream.
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