Struck By Beauty

The wind brought with it the scent burnt ash and magic. It mingled with the damp earth and sweet pine trees that surrounded the pack. The wolves sleeping around me didn’t think anything of the scent. Few bothered check their surroundings. My wolf eyes didn’t see anything unusual, but the scent told me everything I needed to know.

  My paws padded silently through the wolf pack. One of the males watched me and issued a low growl. Ignoring him, I left the safety of the forest. The wolf, known as Krakk by the other wolves, had his eyes on me for months, hoping that I would be his mate. I had ignored the rabbits and other prey animals that he had given to me as gifts, but it was almost as though he thought that I was playing hard-to-get.

  A dirt road ran along side the forest, and I padded down it until I found the source of the scent. A man looked up from a small fire. His face was brown from the sun, and his golden eyes grew wide as he caught sight of my dangerous form.

  "Carra? Is that you?”

  I nodded, and then realized that he wouldn’t recognize the gesture. Closing my eyes, I forced my body to change its shape. Breath left me as fur evaporated and limbs elongated. Thick brown hair framed my face, growing long enough to cover my bare breasts. The man tossed his cloak to me, averting his eyes until I was fully covered.

  “What do you want, Raith?” I rasped. My voice was scratchy from disuse, causing Raith to raise an eyebrow.

  “How long have you been in your second form?”

  “I don’t know. What do you want?”

  “I have news of your family.”

  My heart began to pound in my chest as I sunk to the ground. “What news?”

  “They’re dead, Carra. Liam killed them around three months back.”

  “Dead?” My eyes settled on the fire as I wrapped my mind around the word. I had stayed away so that Liam wouldn’t hurt them.

  “What did you expect Carra? You denied his proposal. You can’t do that to someone like him.”

  Liam, the sorcerer king of Verella, had asked me for my hand in marriage a year ago. I knew that the only reason why he wanted me as his bride was because I was a wolf shapeshifter, a dying breed. The moment I denied him I went into hiding, not even letting my family know where I was.

  Raith put a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him. “Why did he do this?”

  “I think he wants you to have a reason to come home.”

  I blinked, wiping tears away with the back of my hand. I heard Raith’s breath hitch and I followed his gaze. Krakk was standing close enough to me that, if I wanted to, I could reach out and stroke his fur. I looked into his ice blue eyes as he sat at my side. I often wished that I could understand his thoughts as I cocked my head to the side, making a small noise. I had learned that was a questionable sound, asking for accompaniment. Krakk nuzzled my hand, agreeing to my request.

  “I’m going home, Raith,” I said, pushing my grief aside. “I can’t let Liam hurt anyone else.”

  “I don’t want you to go alone, Carra. But…”

  “I understand, Raith. You have a wife and kids. To help me any more than you have already would put all their lives in danger. I couldn’t have that on my conscious. Besides,” I said, sliding my fingers through Krakk’s coarse fur, “I won’t be alone,”

  “Do you really think that a wolf is going to best a sorcerer?”

  I looked down. “No. But I have to try. I can’t keep hiding forever.”

  “Good luck, Carra. I hope this isn’t the last time we meet.”

  “As do I.”

  Changing shape, I headed back to the woods. The scent of magic reached me and I turned back to Raith. He shifted into his hawk form before taking to the sky. Krakk rubbed his muzzle against my neck and I turned back. We had a long journey ahead of us.

  The forest turned into a blur of greens and browns as Krakk and I ran as fast as our paws would allow. Deer scrambled frantically away as we passed, a tempting snack. However, I could easily ignore them. At my core, I was human. I was not bound by the rules of wolves. I could sense Krakk’s longing to give into the chase. I had thought that such a primal desire was impossible for a wolf to ignore but upon seeing Krakk keep close to me and not deviate his course, I knew that his loyalty ran deeper than his desires.

  My wolf’s nose told me things about the forest that my human nose could not. For example, I knew that another pack of wolves was nearby. They were watching us as we passed, choosing to ignore us because we were quickly going through their territory. A human village was a mile, maybe more, to the east. The scent of charred pine and oak reached my nose, telling me that they were asleep and not a danger to Krakk and I. I could see the nocturnal animals as they ran from us. I could smell their fear, the intoxicating scent that it was. I could smell every individual plant and tree. When I had first taken this shape, it was overwhelming. However, after spending almost a year as a wolf, I was used to it. It was my second nature.

  We had to travel through the night to reach Verella by dawn. Verella wasn’t the glorious city that I had memories of. The roads were overgrown, the homes were apparently vacant, and the market held no vendors. It reeked of rotting wood and death. Verella had been reduced to nothing; the life within it sucked dry by Liam’s greed. Krakk growled as he and I approached the palace gates. I could sense it too; a thick blanket of magic hung in the air. Liam would sense wolves at his gates.

  “Here we go,” I thought as I pushed through the doors and into the palace foyer. Krakk stayed beside me, issuing a low growl as the pressure in the room shifted. I glanced around, seeing nothing but ornate tapestries and marble floors.

  “Is that you, Carra my love?”

  I froze as the deceptively sweet voice wafted down from above us. Krakk’s fur stood on end as he growled up at the ceiling. Looking up, I could see the golden wisps of magic that held the sorcerer in the air. Slowly he lowered himself to the marble floor, eyeing me through a curtain of oily black hair with distain.

  “Yes it is you. My little wolf, where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

  I felt a pull within me and I fell writhing to the floor. I shifted back into my human form so fast that I was left sweating and panting for breath. Liam walked over to me, running his fingers across my nude back.

  “You will not hide from me again, Carra my dear.”

  Krakk growled at Liam as he stood. I cried out as the sorcerer raised his hand and golden magic blasted into the wolf, sending him crashing into the wall closest to me.

  Lying in the foyer of Liam’s palace, I felt like a prey animal that knew it was about to die. I tried to shift, but I quickly realized that my second form was bound by magic. Liam crossed his arms, a smile playing on his lips.

  “You do realize that none of this would have happened if you just accepted my proposal?” His voice mirrored his appearance, clean cut, educated, and slick. “We could have made such a team.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you do. I will never marry you.”

  Reaching out, he grabbed a handful of my thick brown hair and dragged me forward. I instinctively tried to shift forms, but once again found magic blocking it.

  “Your wolf is trapped, Carra. I don’t want to, but I will kill you if you keep resisting. What have I ever done to you to make you hate me so?”

  I shoved at his chest, and he finally let go of my hair. “What did you do?” I growled. “You killed my family!”

  I lashed out, my fist connecting with his jaw and sending him crashing to the floor. I dove on top of the sorcerer, clawing at him with my nails and gnashing at him with my teeth. I could taste the sorcerer’s blood in my mouth and feel the bone scrape against my teeth. I was not a prey animal. I was a wolf and I refused to just lie down and die. Liam’s power blasted out of his body. The unfocused energy flung me off of him, my body landing in an uninjured heap next to Krakk’s unconscious form.

  Magic swirled around me, making my hair whip in front of my face like I was standing in a tornado. Golden wisps of magic poured out o
f Liam’s bloody hands like smoke as he raised his power.

  I felt Krakk’s jaws lightly close on my wrist and I looked back at him. His eyes were small slits, pain deep within their depths. I gasped as I felt his teeth pierce my skin and power slide into me.

  The scent of magic and burnt ash singed my nose as I changed. My limbs elongated and coarse fur flowed in a single fluid movement as I changed into my second form, a wolf. As I transformed, Krakk’s fur disappeared as he became human. His blue eyes begged for me to understand as he struggled to sit up.

  “Kramen, is that you?” Liam’s sadistic laughter echoed off the rafters. “Once I’m finished with this little wolf whore, I’ll finish what I started with you.”

  Kramen? I recognized the name, but my magic muddled mind couldn’t focus enough to figure out from where. Instead I dove at Liam, my jaws latching onto the side of the distracted sorcerer’s neck. Blood gushed into my mouth as my fangs tore veins and Liam gurgled in pain. Releasing him, I shifted back into my human form and circled Liam.

  “You took my home from me. You took my family from me. You took my friends from me.” I smiled as Liam struggled to hold onto his life, and failed. “Was it all worth it?”

  I backed up until my legs were touching Krakk’s nude body. I looked down at Krakk’s secret form, a man with thick blonde hair and blue eyes whose name was Kramen.

  “Is he dead?” he rasped. I nodded, unable to speak past the confusion. Krakk was not a wolf. He was like me.

  “Good.”

  “Why do you care?” I breathed as I slowly inched away from him, the feel of our bodies touching suddenly feeling very inappropriate.

  “Liam killed my wife and child when he first came to my land.”

  “Your land?” I echoed as my mind tried to catch up with his words. Then I gasped. “You’re Prince Kramen!”

  He nodded as he struggled to stand. Prince Kramen had ruled Verella when I was a child. I knew that Liam had killed the royal family, but I didn’t realize that the Prince had survived. Or that he had been a wolf shapeshifter like myself.

  Prince Kramen made his way over to Liam, glaring at the sorcerer’s body. “I have so much work to do. Liam destroyed so much.” He glanced up at me. “Will you help me?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You killed the sorcerer king. While I’m a prince by birth, you are now a Queen by right.”

  “I don’t understand, Krakk.”

  “It’s the way of the wolves, Carra. You keep what you kill, whether that is the deer in the forest or this bastard’s throne. Verella is now your land as much as it is mine. Carra, will you rule with me?”

  I stood there in the palace foyer. I stood nude in front of a man I barely knew with my enemy dead just feet away. I thought about what Verella was, what it was reduced to, and what it could become.

  And I smiled.

  Back to Table of Contents

  BLYTHE'S VENGEANCE