Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Do you think you might be taking this judge-and-jury thing too far?” Nyx snapped. “It’s over, Ava, now stand aside!”
Ava just smirked.
Shifting, I stifled a scream as all the broken bones and slashed skin unleashed their pain on me at once. Agony. Everything was agony, and it still doesn’t hurt as much as losing Mom’s letters.
“Are you alright, High Priestess?” Elizabella asked. She was a short, curvy girl with long black and white hair—the perfect match to her wolf’s black and white fur.
“No, I’m not alright. Cut it a bit close there, don’t you think?”
“We weren’t sure if this was the right time.” Ava came over and helped me up, draping my arm over her shoulder. “And then we were.”
“Hold on.” Edric shoved through Paxton and Nyx. “What is this? Why are you two... doing that!” He gestured to us and the calm and casual way that we were touching and chatting.
“No, you hold on, Eddy-boy, because everything’s about to become real clear.” I snapped my fingers. “Do it.”
Chains burst out of the floors. Latching on to every omega, alpha, and beta, they wrapped their wrists, snaked their throats, gagged their screaming mouths, and secured them to the floor.
No one was going anywhere.
“Hmmph!” Orion bellowed through his gag, body setting alight.
“Nope, none of that.” Melisent summoned a wave and doused him like a candle flame. “Everyone is going to sit down, shut up, and not interrupt. If you do, you’ll feel those chains getting tighter.”
The metal restricted Orion’s throat, ending his muffled obscenities as his face flushed redder, and redder—
“That’s enough,” Melisent said, because I sure as fuck wasn’t going to. “He’s listening now.”
“You’re all listening now,” I continued, turning my back on my fates. I had to, because if I looked at Orion for another second, I’d finish the job. “But what you weren’t doing is asking the right questions.
“Did you kill Holly? Did you kill Hall?” I mimicked, high-pitched and whiny. “Blah, blah, blah. Who the fuck even cares about those pricks? But since you all want to pretend you do, the long answer is no I didn’t kill them.” I smiled wide. “I have people for that sort of thing now.”
I took no small amount of pleasure in the disbelief in dozens of widening eyes. “Yeah, that was the other question you should’ve been asking. What was I doing over the last year? And the answer to that is...” I stepped back, resting my hands on Ava’s and Melisent’s shoulders. “Recruiting.”
“Hmmph!” I didn’t know who that was sounding off behind me, and cared even less.
“You see, I realized something in my time away.” I paced before my rapt audience, naked as a carrot. “The way Wolf Nation is governed and run as a society is corrupt, diseased, and due for an overthrow.
“It makes no sense that we recognize that only the incorruptible should decide someone’s guilt or innocence, but it doesn’t occur to us that the same people should be law enforcement, our lawmakers, leaders, our council. Why is that?” I lofted as I passed by Kitty and patted her on the head. “Why is it I’m the first one to see Luame’s true purpose for the creation of epsilon wolves? It was never for us to waste away in dusty old temples, waiting for you all to decide when you have use for us.
“The epsilons were born... to rule.”
“Hell yeah we were,” the girls crowed, laughing and slapping hands.
“Yes, we were”—the gaiety bleached out of my voice—“and that’s what we’re going to do. Starting today— No, starting now, you’re looking at your future clan leaders.” I pointed to five of the girls.
“Your future alpha council.” I swept over Ava, Melisent, Elizabella, and Tulisa. “And your new queen.” My hands came down on me, forming the crown destined for my head. “You may bow.”
“Hmmph! Hmm! Fhpp!”
They all uselessly sounded off. More than a few tried to use their powers, and were harshly punished by my secret metal wolf friend hiding in the audience. I wasn’t going to reveal them, or my many other hidden allies yet. It’s good for a girl to have secrets.
“I understand your apprehension,” I called. “From your side, this all sounds bad, and no doubt I didn’t help with all that sycophantic worm stuff, but believe me, no one wants to oppress you. Just the opposite. I want to free you.
“All your lives there have been four classes and the twenty-feet-high barbed-wire fence between them. Your life and the path it takes was decided for you from the moment you were born, but not anymore. From this point on you can be anything you want to be. All that approved-job-list shit is done,” I announced, wrinkling Tracy’s brow. “I mean, all of the positions of power will be taken by the epsilons, but otherwise, whatever your dream is—go for it with everything you have. No one is going to tell you that you can’t have it.