Leilani.

I remember getting knocked out cold after Keisha injected me with another dose of the moonlight draught elixir. I also remember thinking that that was my end because the pain that came next had been so intense... so excruciating that I could barely breathe from all of it.

I had shut my eyes, awaiting my death or maybe something relatively close to death (something like a faint... like a coma or something) when a strange surge of energy suddenly rushed through my veins, and next thing I knew, I was on my feet, the chains around my wrists and ankles also long discarded and broken...

But that wasn’t all.

My hand was wrapped around Keisha’s arm— which also was the first thing I could latch onto on her body when I stood up, especially since she was about to hurt Zevran.

Her cries of pain slipped into my mind, snapping me out of my momentary daze and when I blinked at her, I was stunned to see the twisted expression on her face.

Her eyes were bulging with veins popping around and below them. The veins on the corners of her neck were worse and looked like they could fall out of her skin anytime soon.

"Stop it, you freak!" She screamed loudly, her voice dripping with both terror and pain. "Let ME GO!"

But I didn’t.

For some reason, I didn’t want to.

I felt as though possessed, like all the reasonable thoughts in my head had somehow gone down the drain, replaced instead with fury so much, I could barely think through it.

Still feeling that need not anger rush through my veins, I let my fingers curl around her arm, squeezing tightly as I sneered into her face; "You wanted to see what I can do, right? You called me a weakling and taunted me... you said—"

"I KNOW WHAT I SAID, YOU FREAK, LET ME GO!" She yelled,

And ladies and gentlemen, do you know exactly how that made me feel?

Ecstatic.

It made me want to squeeze tighter. It made me want to press on until she snapped. And to add salt to the already existing wound, my mind drifted off just then to remember Agnes.

My Agnes.

My friend.

At the time, Keisha was still screaming and thrashing wildly. Her long claw-like nails scratched at my skin as she tried to get away from me. With a shout of pain, she shoved my shoulder hard and sneered; "I said let go!"

"No!" I snapped back, causing her to immediately snap her lips shut. "You wanted to see what I can do?" I taunted in a cold cool voice, "...now baby girl, this is it!" I snapped, and with that, I squeezed so hard, her bones popped loudly.

Her loud shout resonated in the air, and it wasn’t until that moment that I stopped to take a glance at Zevran who for some reason was frozen in the same place he’d been at several minutes ago.

His jaws were slack with terror, and his eyes— the same eyes that used to hold just pure admiration for me now held something akin to fear.

I stopped.

Our eyes met.

And then he smiled. It was shaky at first but soon eased into the soft one I was used to— the one which reached his eyes.

"Bitch!" Keisha snarled as she pulled her arm out of my hold and clutched at it as if for dear life.

She however probably has a death wish because next thing I knew, she was charging at me like a mini Godzilla and because I was already feeling so antsy and so annoyed, I didn’t even glance at her as I smacked her in the face so hard that she fell to the floor and passed out instantly.

I sighed: "it was about time. She was making a lot of noise."

When no one responded to me immediately, I slowly turned to the other brothers to find them watching me with wide eyes.

My eyes thinned at them, and upon the realization that they were still chained, I glanced at Zevran and hissed; "Keys."

"Huh?" He sputtered.

"Keys," I hissed again, "the keys to those metal clasps. Also we need to do something about her," I finished, pointing to Keisha who was still sprawled on the floor, unconscious.

But still, no one moved.

No one even said a word.

Now, they were making me anxious.

I turned one more time to look at Zevran, my voice cold as I snapped; "What?"

He flinched, beamed a smile at me and drawled; "He was right."

"Who was right?" I couldn’t help but ask, especially since I was more confused now than ever. "What is happening?"

"Keisha’s ex, Gideon or Gabriel or whatever Ga his name is. Moonveil draught no longer has any effect on you." He hissed and I frowned.

"Wha—"

"You’re shifting." He finished, interrupting me, and it wasn’t until then that I stopped to look at my hands...

I froze.

Why?

Because instead of hands, what I found were paws. Paws covered in beautiful silver furs.

The sight made me gasp as I stumbled backward in shock and maybe a tinge of excitement, my smile growing when I noticed that my legs had elongated into the hindlimbs of a wolf as well.

"You’re shifting..." someone said again, and this time, I didn’t check to see if it was Zevran or one of the other brothers.

Hell, I couldn’t even care less if it was Keisha herself.

All I cared about at the moment was how, despite being shot with moonveil draught, I could still shift.

It was a miracle.

A sharp cry— one of joy— tore out from the back of my throat and the tears that filled my eyes in that moment were tears of pure bliss.

I rasped; "I never lost my wolf— my hybrid."

"You never did."

I do not know who said that, only that it made me feel so so good and with my already wide smile spreading even wider, I stumbled forward, grabbed at the chains wrapped around Caelum’s wrists and tugged it loose in one fluid motion.

The silence that followed was deafening but I didn’t care. I couldn’t.

Not now.

So I smiled. "That’s just... that feels just wonderful."

—

Zevran.

As I watched Leilani move around the room with the precision of an eagle, I wouldn’t lie, at some point, I couldn’t help but feel raw fear.

I mean, who wouldn’t?

Who wouldn’t feel fear or bow at some point to the eerily powerful aura in which she now possessed and exuded?

Who wouldn’t be in awe or feel their blood run cold when she was literally doing something I’ve never ever seen happen before?

And I do not mean snapping those silver chains like they were made of plastic, I meant being in a state of mid shift and functioning so well, you’d think she was born to be like this.

Her long thick limbs made her pants stretch so much until cracks began to form on the smooth soft surface. Her furs— silvery and beautiful peeked through the torn cracks line a game of peekaboo.

My heart pounded in my chest as she snapped the metal clasps around Kael’s wrists, that is after she’d practically destroyed the one on Caelum’s wrists, and as they fell to the floor, shattering into bits, the sound echoed.

Like echoed.

It sounded like the daunting sounds of a rock hitting the bottom of the ocean.

Then she turned to me, flashed me a smile that looked like a grimace and drawled; "Please tie her up now, will you?"

My eyebrows shot into my hairline, and I can swear that my brain scattered as I stuttered; "Huh?"

She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Tie her up," she hissed, pointing to Keisha, "we can’t afford to leave her unchecked when she has a history of waking up at the wrongest times."

"Oh oh!"

I scuttled to my feet to do as told while Kael and Caelum went over to help Jarek out of his confines.

The man was like a log of wood, so stiff and extremely drugged with only God knows what.

I grunted as I picked up Keisha and struggled to tie up her limp form; and as soon as I finished doing that, I took a step back and muttered; 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Now, that’s it. That’s done."

I turned around briefly to see Kael and Caelum already helping Jarek to his feet. They dragged him out of the stinky room with Leilani following closely behind them...

And goddess, I could not help but feel that something about this whole thing didn’t feel right.

I mean, why’s it so easy?

I followed closely behind Leilani whilst glancing around skeptically and as soon as we arrived at the entrance, I immediately realized why I have been feeling so skeptical ever since.

Because standing in front of us were a group of men— thugs. Lycans. They were about twenty in number and I am not even exaggerating.