“Kill me,” I say, holding onto the last part of me that isn’t lost to the bloodlust. If he doesn’t kill me, I won’t stop until I’ve killed everyone that exists in this world. Until every being—witch, vampire, and human has been drained of their blood. This is their one chance to stop me, before I doom us all.
The wolf just stares at me. But I’m so in my bloodlust that I can’t even remember this wolf’s name. All I know is he belongs to me, my pack. He’s mine.
“Kill me,” I say again.
He shakes his head.
I growl, preparing myself to kill him for his insubordination, but then I take a deep breath again.
Her.
The snow wolf.
The one that brings light into the darkest of winters.
She’s my strength, my love, my reason for existence.
My mate.
Lumi.
I take another breath—her. All I want is her.Her blood.
I don’t think, I just run.
Run away from her. If I find her, I’ll kill her.
My bloodlust—my vampire curse will.
Ambrose’s curse will force me to.
Or maybe the curses are just excuses for what would inevitably happen if she chose me as her mate anyway. I’m a predator, a killer. I kill.
She chose Ambrose and made a blood deal with him. She severed our bond. She can never be mine.
But I can make sure she’s mine to keep alive. Mine to protect.
And I can do that by running as far and as fast as possible away from this. Everything inside me is begging me to turn around. To stop and drink any of the many magical creatures’ blood around me. I need blood—blood, blood, blood. Two witches’ blood was not nearly enough. But then, nothing will ever be enough again.
I can continue my draining of blood in a few minutes. I just need to get away first. Away from the most intoxicating thing I’ve ever smelt in my entire life. She’s always smelled good to me. I’ve tasted a drop of her blood before. But that was before I lost all control over myself.
Suddenly, I stop running. There’s a light in front of me. The sun is beginning to crest over the horizon. It’s coming—the lightthat will hold me hostage and keep me from leaving the shadows of the forest until nightfall.
My heart stops. There, standing in the middle of the light, is Lumi in her wolf form. Breathtaking shimmers dance across the gold flecks in her otherwise pure white coat. If I didn’t know better, I would swear I saw frost clinging to her eyelashes and fur. She stands stoic with a quiet grace about her. Otherworldly in her appearance, she’s never looked more beautiful.
The light isn’t enough to protect her from me, not yet. I don’t know how I ended up here with her alone. I ran the opposite way. I sent Sylara with her. We shouldn’t have ended up this way.
She doesn’t move, just stares into my eyes. She can see how the curses have already affected me. How lost I am. How I can’t be saved. I’m not her future. I’m her end. The death of her. The one who will bring an endless night down on her if she keeps trying to save me.
She entered into a blood deal with Ambrose to try to save me. She made her choices, and now it’s my turn to do something unforgivable. She’ll hate me for the rest of her life, but at least she’ll have a life.
I let all of my power surge through my body as I lock eyes with her, invoke my vampire mind control, and dig my talons into her mind.
“Kill me.”
Chapter 2
Lumi