The Betrayed Hunter's Comeback

CHAPTER 5: THE BROKEN WOLF

Elena's POV

Pain.

That is all I feel. Pain in every bone, every muscle, every inch of my skin. It feels like my body is being torn apart from the inside and stitched back together at the same time.

I am lying on the cold concrete of the bridge, and I cannot stop shaking. One moment I am human. The next moment my bones c***k and my skin erupts in white fur. Then I am human again. Then wolf. Then human. Back and forth, over and over, like my body cannot decide what it wants to be.

"What have you done to me? Make it stop," I gasp. My voice sounds wrong. Half human, half growl. "Please... make it stop."

Valen is kneeling beside me. His face is pale, his ice-blue eyes wide with something I have never seen on him before. Fear. The Cold Alpha is afraid.

"Elena, you need to calm down," he says. His voice is steady, but his hands are shaking. "Your wolf is fighting your human side. You have to accept the shift or it will tear you apart."

"I am not a wolf!" I scream. The words rip out of my throat, and my body convulses. My fingers elongate into claws, then snap back to normal. My teeth sharpen into fangs, then flatten. The pain is unbearable. "I am human! I am a hunter! I kill werewolves! I do not become them!"

"You are a White Wolf," Valen says. "You were born this way. My bite did not create this. It only woke up what was already inside you."

"Liar!" I shout. I try to stand, but my legs give out. I crash back onto the concrete, and a sob tears from my chest. "My parents were human. My father is Michael Cross. He is the Commander of the Hunter's Lodge. He raised me to protect humans from monsters like you!"

Valen's expression changes. His jaw tightens, and something dark flashes in his eyes.

"Michael Cross is not your real father," he says quietly.

The words hit me harder than the pain. I stare at him through my tears, my vision blurring.

"What did you say?" I whisper.

"Michael Cross is a hunter," Valen says. "He has spent his entire life killing my kind. Why would he raise a werewolf child as his own daughter unless he had a reason?"

"Shut up," I say. My voice breaks. "Shut up. You are lying. You are trying to confuse me."

"I am not lying," Valen says. "Your scent told me the truth the moment I bit you. Your blood is ancient. It is pure. It is White Wolf. No human blood could survive my bite, Elena. No human blood could trigger a shift like this."

I press my hands against my ears, but I cannot block out his words. They echo inside my skull, louder and louder, mixing with the memories I have spent my whole life ignoring.

My reflexes that were always too fast. My hearing that picked up heartbeats from a mile away. My eyes that flashed gold in the rearview mirror. The female werewolf who told me I smelled different.

All of it. Every single thing I pushed down and explained away.

It was real.

"No," I sob. I curl into a ball on the cold concrete, my arms wrapped around my stomach. "No, no, no. My whole life has been a lie. Everything I did... everyone I killed... they were..."

I cannot finish the sentence. The truth is too heavy. If I am a werewolf, then every werewolf I killed was my own kind. The boy by the river. The pregnant female. The brother who begged for his life. I slaughtered them all. And I was one of them the entire time.

The grief hits me like a wave. I scream into the concrete, my voice raw and broken. My body shifts again, white fur rippling across my arms before fading back to skin. The unstable shifting is getting worse. Each change is more violent than the last. My bones c***k louder. My muscles spasm harder. I can feel my insides twisting.

"Elena, listen to me," Valen says. He reaches for my shoulder, but I slap his hand away.

"Do not touch me!" I snarl. My eyes flash gold, and I see Valen flinch. "This is your fault! Your bite did this to me! I was fine before you sank your teeth into my shoulder! I was human! I was normal!"

"You were never normal," Valen says. "You were never human. And my bite did not curse you. It freed you."

"I do not want to be freed!" I scream. "I want my life back! I want to be the hunter I was! I want to go home to my husband and my father and my..."

My voice dies in my throat.

Mark. Mark sold me to the wolves. Michael sent me on missions to kill my own kind. Clara watched me walk into a trap and said nothing.

I have no home. I have no family. I have nothing.

The realization breaks something inside me. A dam bursts, and all the pain, all the betrayal, all the lies flood out at once. I sob uncontrollably, my body shaking so hard the concrete vibrates beneath me.

Valen watches me with those ice-blue eyes, and for the first time, I see something soft in them. Something human. He does not try to touch me again. He just stays close, his presence steady and warm against the cold night air.

"I do not have werewolf parents," I whisper through my tears. "I cannot. My mother... my father said she died when I was born. He said..."

"Your father lied to you," Valen says gently. "About everything."

Rage explodes inside me. Hot, blinding, unstoppable rage. I do not think. I do not plan. I just move.

I lunge at Valen with every ounce of strength I have left. My hands claw at his face, my nails raking across his cheek. He catches my wrists easily, but I fight him with everything I have. I kick, I bite, I thrash. I want to hurt him. I want to hurt someone. I want the pain inside me to stop.

"It is your fault!" I scream, tears streaming down my face. "You bit me! You turned me into this! I was fine! I was fine until you..."

My body shifts again. This time, the change is violent and complete. White fur erupts across my entire body. My bones c***k and reshape. My jaw extends into a snout. For one brief second, I am a full white wolf, snarling and snapping at Valen's arms.

Then my body gives out.

The shift collapses. I crash back into my human form so fast it feels like falling off a cliff. My limbs go limp. My vision goes dark at the edges. The pain in my body is so intense that I cannot even scream anymore. I just lie there on the cold concrete, gasping for air, my body broken and trembling.

Valen catches me before my head hits the ground. He pulls me against his chest, and I am too weak to fight him. My arms hang at my sides. My eyes flutter. The world is spinning.

"I have you," he whispers. His voice is rough, like he is holding back something enormous. "I have you, Elena. You are safe."

"I am not safe," I breathe. My voice is barely a whisper. "I am a monster."

"No," Valen says. He holds me tighter, and I feel his heartbeat against my cheek. It is fast and strong and steady.

My eyes close. The last thing I feel is Valen's arms around me and the strange, warm pull of the mate bond humming in my chest like a second heartbeat.

The last thing I hear is his voice, low and fierce, speaking to someone behind him.

"Get the healer. Now. If she dies, I will burn this entire forest to the ground."

Then everything goes black.