Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
I slowly inched back, wishing I could just run. It wasn’t a full moon night, so Badr couldn’t lay a finger on me, but it’s not like a sun wolf needed to. All he had to do was blind me, and I’d be back in the grave.
It was awful. Looking right at him would be the end of me, but looking away and letting him get the jump on me would achieve the same end. The only thing to do was run, but my sprint through the woods tired my wolf out, and she was already not at her best.
I need to think of a way out of this one. Think, Daze. Think!
“—when I heard that you didn’t die.” A vicious, dangerous edge bled into his voice. “You were still alive and plotting your insane take-over-the-world garbage. I knew I had to stop you again but I didn’t know how until Orion called.”
“What?” I halted my slow retreat. “Orion?”
“That’s right.” Badr was beaming like a kid at Christmas. “He’s still a little PO’d about you framing him for murder and landing him in prison. Anyway, he called me up and told me there’s a new vice in the school, and she—only she—is in charge of your fates.”
Oh no...
“You can’t punish us. You can’t scold us.” Every word and every step brought him closer. “You can’t expel us. You can’t stop us,” he whispered in my ear. “It’s over, Volana. Give up now because burning up projection equipment was only the beginning.”
“Wait, you did that!”
“Of course not.” He shrugged, moving away and allowing me to breathe. “I’m no fire wolf. Orion blew it up.”
My jaw dropped, even though, honestly, that was the most obvious explanation. “How could he do that? How can you look so fucking smug about it! Do you have any idea how big a deal that was for the omegas? No, not just them—for everyone! Only clan leaders can propose the laws for the council to vote on. This was going to be a huge step forward in equal—”
“Who are you putting on this show for!” Badr roared, eyes bugging.
I jerked, stomach shooting up in my throat.
“It’s me you’re talking to! There’s no one else around. There’s no one else who cares! Quit with the bullshit, Volana! You care about equality like a terrorist cares about world peace!” The dried mud around his mouth cracked with the force of his bellows. “Tonight was just another round in your long fucking con game!”
“That’s not true!” Suddenly, I was screaming just as loud. “For fuck’s sake, Badr! Everything I told you that night was the truth. We want the same things! Vengeance for Castor and a safe world for Hope!”
He snorted so hard, he blew mud off his upper lip. “Oh, please. Enough with the fake-baby bullshit. That kid doesn’t even exist.”
“I can literally get my phone and show you pictures of her right now, jackass!”
Badr scoffed again. “You’ll show me pictures of a baby. That doesn’t mean she’s yours, and it damn sure doesn’t mean she’s Castor’s.”
I threw up my hands. “What the hell do you want? A video of me expelling her from my fucking womb?!”
“Huh— Actually, yes,” he replied, his volume turning down. “I do want to see that. Alright, Volana, a video of you having a baby, and I’ll believe that you, in fact, had a baby.”
“Well— I—” Frustration choked me. “I don’t have a video of the birth!”
His smug grin made me want to kill him.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I snapped. “I had zero desire to replay, or show everyone, my vagina ripping apart as I pushed a bloody, screaming watermelon out of it. Not every woman does, and that’s not weird!” I tossed my head. “What the fuck are we even talking about? This has nothing to do with anything!
“Badr, I’ve told you what’s at stake. You have to believe me. You have to help me!” I couldn’t believe I was reduced to reasoning with him. Pleading with him. But what choice did I have? I was dying from the broken bond. I didn’t have three months to defeat the alpha council. Going by how quickly my wolf was deteriorating, I’d be lucky if I had a month. “Everything I’m doing is for the good of our world. If Luame could speak to you, she’d tell you the same fucking thing!”
His expression refused to soften. “Luame’s not here, Volana. It’s just you and me, but how about this?” Badr clapped. “I make you a one-time-only offer. Proof,” he growled. “Give me one shred of proof for any of the things you told me that night. I’ll even wait right here and let you go get it if you need to.
“Proof of just one of your claims,” Badr said, holding up a finger. “Proof that my brother was poisoned, proof that Dagem arranged his murder, proof that half the fucking staff was involved, proof that Rici was murdered too, proof the alpha council somehow figured out the future before you—the child of the moon goddess—did, and that they have been plotting and planning to turn all of Wolf Nation into a nightmarish hellscape of rape and genocide.”