“Fucking speak,” he snapped.
“It was a whimper. There’s glass in my feet,” I said on a gasp.
“You think I’m fucking stupid?” He threw out an arm. “You think I didn’t recognize that succubus that went after Kane? I was the one who disposed of her last body. Fucking stupid ass demons—always using the same appearance when they regenerate. Then she comes in and pretends to want to fuck me, and I reacted as any man would.” Oliver shook his head. “You and that damn succubus probably planned the whole thing, and now those fucking demons are making it so we can’t leave this motherfucking town.”
“Did you kill her again—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he growled.
My jaw snapped closed.
“Yeah, I fucking killed that stupid bitch. You think you can set me up and not get what’s coming to you?” Oliver’s eyes blazed. “I’m getting tired of your fucking games, Omega. You know what… I’ve got a new plan. Take your finger off the trigger and hand me the gun.” The moment I did, he pointed the barrel at me and said, “Now strip.”
My hands went to my hem, but I clenched my jaw and resisted with every ounce of defiance. Every moment I defied his order, the air squeezed out of my lungs.
“Do it,” he growled. “I’m not stupid enough to try to fuck you. The moment I relax my aim, that alpha will be on me.” Oliver turned his head. “Don’t think I don’t know you’re tracking me. It doesn’t matter if I can’t see, smell, or hear you, I’m ready for you.”
Glaring into Oliver’s cruel gaze, I gave in to his order and pulled off Declan’s massive t-shirt, folding it and placing it on the ground. After, I shimmied off my underwear and jeans, taking the time to fold them too while glaring at Oliver.
“Now change into a wolf,” he snapped.
Fuck.
If I changed into a wolf, glass shards would embed deep into my paws. I wasn’t sure if the damage would be something I could heal from. But even as my mind screamed with objections, my body contorted. The skin of my back itched, followed by every inch of my body. I fell onto hands and knees, and searing agony licked over my skin as the whole world faded into darkness.
A feeling like ants burrowing into my flesh spread over me, and fur slid out of my skin. My bones cracked and reformed, chin stretching, hips tightening, legs pulling in and straightening. The transformation left me whimpering and gasping on the forest floor.
“Stand,” Oliver demanded as he pressed the barrel of his gun to my forehead.
My body moved without my permission, forcing me to stand on my paws. I screamed as a pain unlike anything I’d ever experienced before ripped through me. It was so much worse than I could have imagined. It felt like my legs had been caught in a meatgrinder and blades were slicing into me, inch by inch.
The glass must have shredded my muscles and tendons while I transformed, because my hind legs failed me, and I collapsed back onto the forest floor.
“Get the fuck up,” Oliver growled.
Air pushed out of my lungs as my body tried to obey the impossible order. Even though I tried to push onto all fours, my hind legs were useless. I whimpered and gasped for air, but my legs were done. As breath squeezed out of me, I spent the last few dregs of my defiance, and I forced my eyes closed.
Even though I knew that it could be the last mistake I ever made, I used the bitter edge of my pain to focus my mind, and I called out to the memory eater. I could have been wrong, but I was almost positive that Ace’s coded message was that the memory eater took memories through the eyes. Oliver’s order to look only at him had kept my eyes open for the entire day, but his control over my eyes had loosened, and I squeezed them closed.
The words, “the memory eater,” seared through my thoughts, and then my muzzle tingled.
A high-pitch laugh filled the woods, making all of my fur stand on end. The laughing grew louder, like the cackle from a hyena.
Oliver bellowed. “What the fuck? What the—”
His words cut off, and a loud rustling sounded a few feet away.
I squeezed my eyes tighter, even though Oliver’s fading order compelled them open. My defiance only made my lungs squeeze out all of my oxygen until my head pounded.
Oliver cried out, but the sound was drowned out by the creature's laugh. The sound grew so loud my whole face throbbed with it. The creature had to be inches from my ear, and then the sound cut off abruptly, vanishing.
As the last vestige of air in my lungs dissolved, I opened my eyes and was able to take a shallow breath as my gaze landed on Oliver.
He crouched on the forest floor, in the same position he had been in before I’d closed my eyes. His face was turned away, and he glared into the darkening forest.
My body attempted once more to force me to stand, and I cried out as pain exploded through my hind legs.
Oliver’s light blue gaze snapped to me, and he looked me over.
“What the…?” he whispered, and his gaze fell on the gun in his hand.
My body tried to force me up again, and Oliver held out a hand.
“Lay down, your back legs are broken,” he said, and the order pressed down on me. It was an order that I immediately obeyed, and as my wolf body collapsed on the forest floor, I was finally able to gasp in a full breath of
