No Caging Me

Feels So Good

The tension in the air was so thick it felt like a physical weight, vibrating with the residual hum of the lightning strike.

​I didn't feel like the girl who scrubbed pots or dodged Aiden’s punches anymore. I felt ancient. I felt free. The silver fur on my neck stood like needles, and the deep, jagged puncture wounds Silas had left in my shoulder were already knitting together, the flesh sealing with a faint, iridescent shimmer.

​I took a step toward the Elder Alpha. Then another.

​My Fae blood wasn't whispering; it was roaring. It was a cold, rhythmic chant that drowned out the pack bond: An eye for an eye. A pound of flesh for a pound of flesh. Silas had tried to break me, and the Fae nature within me demanded a tithe. I wanted to feel his fur between my teeth; I wanted to taste the copper of the man who had taken from me that which I was not willing to give.

​My jaws parted, strings of thick saliva dripping onto the scorched earth, my golden eyes locked onto Silas’s throat. Silas, still dazed from the lightning, could only scramble backward, his wolf whimpering in the face of a predator it didn't recognize.

​"Hex! Hex, stop!" ​Aiden scrambled to his feet, throwing himself into the space between the silver wolf and his father after recovering from his shock. He didn't shift—he knew a wolf stood no chance against the lightning-charged creature before him. He stood human, raw and vulnerable, his hands held out in a desperate plea.

​"Hexianna, look at me!" his voice cracked, raw with a mix of terror and a lingering spark of their friendship.

​I let out a sound that wasn't a growl—it was the sound of grinding stones, a low, vibrating warning that made the very air tremble. I lunged forward, but Aiden didn't move. He stood his ground, his chest heaving.

​"If you attack him now, they’ll have the excuse they’ve been looking for, a reason to get rid of the thing their wolves fear!" Aiden shouted, his eyes darting to the other pack members who were beginning to recover from the shock, their hands moving toward weapons and their bodies tensing to shift. "They will have just cause to rip you apart, Hex. They’ll call you a monster and they won’t be told they are wrong."

​He took a cautious step forward, his voice dropping, trembling with an earnestness I had never heard from the cocky future Alpha. ​"Stop. Here and now, my friend. Just... calm down. Don't let him turn you into what he’s afraid of. I know you. I know you want payback but not at the cost of your own life. Please, I need my smart friend back. You need to think beyond the bloodlust and whatever power is going through your veins. I need Hex back. We all do. Please prove you are more than the monster they fear."

​I froze, my front paw hovering inches from the dirt. The word friend flickered through the chaotic storm of my mind, clashing with the "Blood for Blood" command of my Fae ancestors. I tilted my head and looked at him. (Did this i***t just sound smart for a second? Well, I suppose if there was a time to listen to a buffoon, it would be right now. wait... did I really just scare sense into this jackass?)

Aiden's eyes narrowed on me. "You realize the whole pack can hear your thoughts right now, right?" He grumbled.

(Oh? Good. They can share in the joy of you finally growing a brain cell.) I smirk in wolf form and sit. Silas and blood lust totally forgotten as I tease this normally smug bastard. I heard quite a few snickers before the were covered by coughs. This was meant to be a serious moment.

"Hex, shift back." Aiden said through clenched teeth.

(Why? Don't like me being taller than you?) I tease with a rumble that almost sounded like a laugh. My head tilting forward and down to get at eye level. (Now who is the diminutive pipsqueak?)

"What's diminutive?" Aiden asked with a confused look.

(Annnnd... he's back. Open up a book once in a while, genius.) My eyes roll.

"What the hell, Hex?! Can you just... not... this... whatever you're doing right, now?" Aiden said flabbergasted. Throwing his hands up.

(I think the word you're looking for is called "communicating.") I deadpan through the pack bond. My wolfie eyebrow raised at him in exasperation. A few of the pack members lost it.

​Behind us, the treeline exploded.

​The sound of snapping timber announced the arrival of something far larger and more violent than a Trinity wolf. The Lycan scent hit the clearing like a physical blow—musk, ancient forest, and a terrifying, possessive heat.

​Riker Strife hadn't just arrived. He had scented the blood of his mate, and the Lycan King was coming for anyone standing in his way. He was going to burn anyone who thought they could hurt what was his.