Avelyn’s brows furrowed in anger, and she was sure Caleb could feel the tension in her muscles. She couldn’t believe Sabine’s words and the normal, slightly bored tone in which she said them. “You’ve hurt so many people… How could you?”
“Hurt them? I would never do something like that, they’re my friends. I made them faster, stronger, I gave meaning to their lives and increased their lifespan by centuries! Actually, if I come to think of it, I did the same for you. Of course, the side effect was supposed to be the inability to have children, but that never happened, so here we are.”
“You haven’t answered my question,” pressed Avelyn. “How did you find out about my baby?”
Sabine gave her another smile, and the sight of those thin lips stretching upwards and revealing the sharp tips of her fangs sent a cold feeling of helplessness straight to Avelyn’s heart. “Oh, that wasn’t hard. You see, I did try to move on and forget everything about you and Max, but I couldn’t. I simply couldn’t. There were days when I felt so enthusiastic about being with my new friends, going places, and running as far away from the world, that I felt exhausted only by thinking at how wonderful it would be. Then, I’d fall into a deep sleep, and there you were, in my dreams, filling my mind with your lies about how you hated Max and the Schloss, how you wanted to escape and never hear of him again.”
“They weren’t lies…” Avelyn’s words were barely a whisper.
“But they were. I knew you loved him. Even as you made plans to run away and talked behind his back, I could hear it in your voice: you loved him. And that wasn’t what bothered me, you know? Of course you loved him, who wouldn’t? Maybe I still loved him myself. What bothered me was the thought that you were human, and if you ever decided to go back to him, you could so easily give him the only thing I had struggled for years to give him and couldn’t: an heir. That was the thing I couldn’t live with.”
“So you took it away from me.”
“What else could I do?” Sabine stretched her arms in front of her, palms up, emphasizing how her decision hadn’t been exactly a choice. She had always been a victim of her own fiddly emotions and mood swings. “You were everything I had once been, and Max loved you for that. He would have chased you to the end of the world and brought you back to the Schloss. Whether you went by choice or by force, there was a fair chance you would have ended up his wife anyway, and sooner or later you would have given him a child. I couldn’t have that. No, never!” Her features twisted in rage, and her palms closed back into fists. “Spies.” She finally answered Avelyn’s question. “I sent two of my pack mates to spy on you. I couldn’t leave you alone, and at first I was slightly ashamed of my weakness, but then I understood it was the right thing to do. After the Thunder Moon, they had all become my friends and subordinates. They adore me, you see? They would do anything for me. They informed me about the mating ritual and about… this new scent they caught on your skin. About how you could move faster the next day, and about how they could catch glimpses of your thoughts when they were close enough. It was strange because you hadn’t turned, but what was even stranger was the sound of the tiniest heartbeat low in your belly.”
Avelyn closed her eyes. For a moment, she felt like she was about to faint, and she was grateful to feel Caleb step closer to her and place his other hand on her shoulder. She knew he was getting ready to pull her back or push her aside if things got out of hand. For now, both Caleb and Daniel were hoping Avelyn could really talk Sabine out of whatever she had in mind. The chances were thin, but it didn?
??t hurt to try. Delyse and Claudia were still behind them and the two Alma Venus guards, paying attention to every move in the forest, following the green, glowing eyes appearing and disappearing behind Sabine, and trying to remember to breathe from time to time.
When she opened her eyes, Avelyn caught the same glimpse of what had made her shudder in apprehension some minutes before. The dark forest was littered with round, green eyes, but if she looked closely, she could also see specks of purple dancing here and there, appearing and disappearing behind the old trees.
“Caleb, did you see that?” She turned her head slightly, trying to whisper closer to his ear.
The werewolf tensed and pressed his fingers into her shoulders. “Yes,” he hissed between clenched teeth. He had hoped it had only been his imagination. “I think I can smell it too.”
Avelyn stretched her neck and sniffed the air as discreetly as possible. Yes, there was something there, something that smelled different than the werewolves’ specific scent, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it. It didn’t smell human, that much was certain.
“What can it be?”
“Purple eyes, sweet, heady scent…”
“Werefoxes?” As she said it, Avelyn understood the implications, and the word died on her lips, the last syllables barely audible. Caleb didn’t answer, and she took his silence as a bad sign. A very bad sign. She had to do something to stop this madness.
“Sabine, please… What do you want? Just name it, and let’s end this here. No one needs to get hurt.”
“I agree. With the no-one-needs-to-get-hurt part.” The she-wolf grinned. “I want you dead. I didn’t want you dead then, but I do now. I will never find peace knowing that you’re alive and well, sitting comfortably in my husband’s arms, giving birth to another pup, and another pup, and another pup every damn year.”
Avelyn felt the urge to tell her she had no intention of turning into a breeding machine, but that would’ve been silly and useless. It did fit the situation, though, given that what Sabine had just suggested was also beyond stupid. She was growing tired of this nonsense.
“Look, I’m going to give it to you straight.” Avelyn’s voice became serious and determined. “First, Max is not your husband anymore. What you had with him was wonderful and special, and I can never top that. No, please let me finish. Maybe you don’t believe me, but I’m being honest here: I know he loved you with all his heart and you loved him back. He didn’t care about children. He didn’t want them as long as he had you, he told me himself.”
Sabine’s menacing eyes turned into slits, and she swallowed heavily.
“But that was years ago. So many years ago, Sabine… I wasn’t even born. Just stop for a second and think about that. What happened between you and Max had nothing to do with me. I didn’t steal your husband, I didn’t want your life! Hell! I didn’t even want children until it happened!” She stopped to take a breath. Her hands were now squeezed into fists at her sides, and she realized how angry she was. This whole mess was so unfair. She didn’t deserve this, and Max didn’t either. “Do you really think that taking revenge on me would change anything? It wouldn’t bring Max back to you. He would hate you, you know that, right? He would hunt you down!”
“I don’t care!” In two long strides, Sabine was pressed against the iron gate. She curled her fingers around two bars.
Daniel took a step forward, and Caleb pulled Avelyn behind him, shielding her with his own body. Claudia gasped and grabbed Delyse’s hand.
“Max already hates me, and I learned to thrive on that. How do you think I managed to survive in those godforsaken dungeons for half a century? There’s nothing he can do to hurt me now. He already did his worst. He doesn’t deserve to be happy, and you don’t deserve it either! I don’t care if it costs me my life, I will have both of you pay for what the Blackmanes did to me!”
“I’m sorry, Sabine… don’t…”
It was too late. The she-wolf tightened her grip on the bars and pulled with all her force. The iron bent towards her, then the hinges gave in, and everyone behind the gate watched in amazement how Sabine lifted the only thing that had separated them from her wrath and madness, and tossed it aside, as if it wasn’t made of heavy metal. Avelyn had always known shape-shifters were incredibly strong, but it was the first time she was witnessing such a display of rage and pure physical strength. For a brief moment, she wondered if she could do the same thing now that she was a hybrid, but she didn’t have time to finish her train of thought. Growls rose in the night, and a long howl broke somewhere in the forest, as Sabine’s bones snapped back into her wolf form.
“Run!” screamed Caleb, pushing her towards the school.
Avelyn almost fell into Delyse’s arms, and the last thing she saw before turning around and following the Delta’s order was Daniel ripping off his own clothes and convulsing under the sheer force of his fast transformation while being quickly surrounded by huge, rogue wolves. Delyse and Claudia pulled at her arms, and together they started running towards the main entrance. They were halfway there, when the black she-wolf cut their path and snapped her fangs at Avelyn. Mouths open in terror and knees shaking in fright, the three girls turned right, leaving the cobblestone alley and running through the well-trimmed grass towards the garden and the back entrance. Two werewolves jumped in front of them. Out of options, they tried running back to the gate, where they at least had Caleb, Daniel, and the two guards, but a fox made them stop in their tracks. Avelyn had never seen such a huge fox before. She couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but it was large and beautiful, with soft, red fur that glowed eerily in the pale moonlight. Its purple eyes shifted from one girl to the other, then fixed on the black she-wolf behind them, as if it was awaiting her orders. Avelyn had no idea why fox-shifters would ally with a rogue Alpha she-wolf, but she was glad to notice the fine specimen before her had only one tail. Hopefully, there were no multi-tailed werefoxes among Sabine’s acolytes, or the moonlit night had fairly good chances of turning into a stormy one.