Jessamine
"My feet pound against the grass, a sob breaking from my lips. I'm fleeing because if I don't, it'll kill me. I glance over my shoulder—a mistake. I see it. Violet eyes, slitted with silver. Razor sharp canines that call for blood. They are white and stained with my blood.
My heart hammers in my chest as I trip over the roots of a tree, and my hands hit the mud. Screaming in frustration, I try pulling out of it, but the harder I struggle, the deeper my hands sink.
A guttural snarl rips the air behind me and I close my eyes, sobbing as I struggle against the sinking mud.
Paws hit the ground before me, and I look up into deathly still eyes. The wolf angles her head left and stares down at me. Her aura is...golden. She is white. There are no purely white wolves. It is why I know she is different. Lethal. Beautiful. Majestic.
Dark lips draw back, giving me a glimpse teeth and I hear words in my head. They sound... beautiful. Wrong. Right. They claw at my brain, trying to...become. I groan, dropping my head as I fight the words.
Mine! Submit!
But I don't. I don't know how to. I glance up, and snarl at the wolf, "Fuck you."
Violet eyes mock me, and another sets of words drop in my subconscious. "We'll see."
And then, she bites me.
***********
"I jerk upright, wiping at the moisture staining my cheeks. My hair clings to the sweat-drenched skin of my shoulders and back. The sheets beside me are in shreds, and when I straighten my hands, I see claws. Scrambling away from the sheets, I fall off the large bed. I reach for the untouched jug of water I'd avoided last night out of fear of being poisoned. I need it. My skin burns. Everything burns.
My fingers barely graze the glass handle before my wrist snaps and it flies into the wall. Even my hands refuse to obey me. My dinner rises up to my throat and I half-run and crawl to the bathroom. Only to reach for the doorknob and have my fingers twist away from it.
Someone chuckles and I look back, panting. But I'm alone in the room. Alone on this wing because no one wanted to stay with the
I reach for door again and my hand suddenly swings back, nearly popping out of it's socket. What in the... Woah.
Run, Jessa, the voice says to me and I shoot out of the room, faster than lightening, and I crash through the door, breaking the chair I had wedged underneath the handle last night, just incase someone tried to break in and strangle me.
The door stands no chance against my body and the wood crack in half, crashing into the wall with me. I feel my bones crack and...I yelp, startled when I feel them...heal.
"Well, someone's having a blast."
My gaze snaps left and Darrock's standing in the hallway, a filled glass in hand. I smell liquor, like it's right under my nose. I smell him; soap, sandalwood and...something tangy.
I pull away from the dent in the wall. "Oh great. I was almost worried that my wish killed you."
"Peachy," he mutters and my eyes are suddenly glued to his lips. They are thin, but well sculpted. Soft. I bet I could drag my teeth across and--
I blink twice. What is wrong with me?
Someone chuckles behind me and I swivel. No one's there. I'm losing my mind!
A surge of heat suddenly claims me and my core tightens with need. Darrock stiffens, his alcohol falling from his grasp. "You should get back in your room, princess." His voice is a low growl and something flashes behind his eyes.
His eyes. They're suddenly beautiful. His hair is pretty in that ponytail. I want to touch it. I want to thread my fingers along those silky strands. They beg to be touched.
Do it then, that voice taunts and in the blink of an eye, I'm in front of Darrock.
His eyes widen. "You're...on heat."
"Heat?" I whisper, nuzzling his neck because I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I tug on the band around his hair and it comes free. "More like an inferno."
"It's your first time," he says, taking my hands off his blue robe.
My lips stretch against my will. "It wouldn't be my first time kissing." Goddess help me. Those words aren't mine. That voice isn't mine.
"Violet--"
"Jessa," I say, pouting. "Call me that."
His eyelids droop, and his gaze fixes on my mouth. "Oh, I'll remind you of this when you're...in your right mind." His tongue brushes against my lips and I groan, rocking forward so suddenly, Darrock falls back into the wall.
Heat rolls in me. His hand catches in my hair and mine catch in his clothes. I open my mouth for him and he tastes like wine. It's intoxicating.
Darrock's hands tighten on my waist, pulling me into him, and I want to tell him I want more. Kiss me more. Touch me more.
But before I can betray myself, I am thrown off him. The force has me staggering, but I'm quick on my feet and rock back easily.
"What the fuck, Darrock?!" Nymeria yells, her eyes blazing with fury. She slaps his chest. "That is why you called off the engagement?!"
I laugh. Not me. I can't explain it. Something in me finds this particularly entertaining, even if I don't.
Nymeria glances from Darrock to me and her jaw sets. She lunges for me and a sharp sting cuts across my cheek as a force snaps my head left. She slaps me again, snarling at me, "Fucking whore!"
It takes a moment to clear my vision. Heavens. She hits hard. I feel it, but the laughter won't stop coming, like the universe is mocking me.
Her fist rises the third time and Darrock's arm encircles around her waist, lifting her off the ground.
"Let me go!" she shrieks in outrage, struggling with her legs and arms flailing, kicking. "I'll kill you and the wench, I swear!"
He murmurs something I don't quite catch and they take the stairs down, leaving my side of the castle and everything falls silent again.
The heat is suddenly gone, and in its place is fatigue. I peer down at myself. My nightdress is in shreds. My fingertips are red and the claws are gone. I stare at the wreckage in the hallway; my broken door, the dents in the wall, strips of clothing I hadn't realized I tore off Darrock's body, and the two guards at the end of the hallway, trying their best gazes fixed ahead.
I turn around and walk past the room I'd chosen, selecting another. I swear, I'm losing my mind. I flirted with Darrock. Kissed him. I was about to beg him to...have sex with me. All the while something had cackled in my head and subconscious.
I didn't think she was going to try kill me before, but now, I'm sure.
It doesn't make it any better that when I wake up the next morning, there's a lock of my hair tied into a knot by my pillow. Someone cut my hair and thought to leave the dagger behind as a message.