KESLEY'S POV
Then, a hand suddenly blocked my way. For a second, I didn't understand what I was looking at.
The warrior's fist had stopped inches from my face.
And there, between us, was a hand.
My hand. I stared at it.
My arm was raised, my palm facing the warrior as if I had deliberately blocked his attack.
But I hadn't. I hadn't even decided to lift it.
Before I could understand what was happening, a strange heat shot through my arm. My body moved before my mind could catch up.
My palm drove forward. Thud. The heel of my hand slammed into his chest with a force that didn't feel like mine.
The giant warrior staggered back, cursing under his breath.
The arena went silent. For a second, no one moved.
Neither did I. I stared at him. Then at my hand. My fingers were trembling.
I hadn't chosen to fight back. I hadn't even known I was going to block his attack.
So why had my body moved on its own?
Behind me, Celeste gasped. “You hit him.”
Honestly, I was shocked too. Where did such strength come from? I asked, still staring at my trembling palm.
I slowly lowered my hand, unable to take my eyes off it. My palm throbbed, and my fingers shook slightly.
Something was wrong.
I couldn't explain what had just happened— or where that strange force inside me had come from.
The giant warrior looked down at his chest before touching the spot where I had hit him.
Then he slowly raised his head. “You little bitch.”
The expression on his face made my stomach tighten. His eyes flashed yellow.
I took an instinctive step back. The next minute, the sound of bones cracking filled the open space.
His body began to change. His shoulders widened, muscles stretching beneath his skin. Fur pushed through his clothes as his body grew larger. His jaw shifted forward, his teeth lengthening into sharp fangs.
Within seconds, a massive black wolf stood where the man had been.
Cheers filled the arena as the wolf lowered its head and fixed its glowing yellow eyes on me.
Cold sweat broke out across my back. I had seen wolves shift before, but never this close.
He was enormous. And above all, he looked very angry.
Without a wolf of my own, I stood no chance against him. I had no claws. No fangs. No enhanced strength or healing. I was just an ordinary human.
I backed away. But I barely had time to react before he lunged.
His large paw slammed into my chest. The impact threw me off my feet.
I crashed hard against the stone floor and slid several feet across it. Pain shot through my back and ribs so sharply that I couldn't breathe.
For a few seconds, everything went still.
Then the pain hit all at once.
I gasped and curled onto my side, one hand pressing against my chest, right where he had hit me.
Something warm trickled down my forehead and into my eye.
Blood.
“Kelsey!” Celeste's scream sounded far away.
I tried to push myself up, but my arms shook beneath me.
Everything was spinning. Through my blurred vision, I saw the wolf walking toward me.
Slowly. He wasn't in a hurry. That was the worst part. He knew I couldn't fight him.
I tried to crawl backward, but before I could move far enough, his paw came down on my chest.
I cried out.
The force pinned me to the ground.
Sharp claws tore through my dress and sank into my skin near my collarbone.
Warm blood spread beneath the torn fabric.
The wolf lowered his head until his teeth were inches from my face. “See what happens when a wolfless girl tries to act brave?” The words came out as a rough growl, but somehow I understood every word.
I grabbed at his leg with both hands and tried to push it away. It didn't move. It was like trying to push a wall.
Around me, the crowd was laughing again.
Some shouted for him to kill me.
Others told him to make me beg.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second.
So this was how it ended. Not while saving my mother. Not while escaping Silvermoon.
But in a dirt arena while strangers watched and cheered like I wasn't about to lose my life.
The thought made something inside me twist.
I thought of my father forcing me into Alyssa's clothes.
I thought of my stepmother ordering the guards to hit my mother for no reason.
And then I saw my mother in my mind, alone in the Black Prison, still waiting for me as if holding on to my vow of taking her away from there.
My chest tightened.
For ten years, I had watched my mother suffer while I stood by helplessly. I had spent my entire life begging stronger people to stop hurting us.
My father. My stepmother. Alyssa.
And now this wolf. No— I opened my eyes.
The wolf's claws pressed deeper into my skin. Pain shot through me, but this time, something else rose with it.
Anger. Pure anger.
I was tired of being weak, tired of kneeling, tired of begging.
Most of all, I was tired of letting everyone else decide what happened to me.
I promised myself I would get my mother out of that prison no matter what it takes.
The thought replayed in my head. I promised her.
My hands tightened around the wolf's leg. “I refuse to die here,” I whispered.
At that moment, the strange heat returned.
I froze.
At first, it was only a small spark beneath my ribs.
Then it spread.
The wolf seemed to sense something too. Its eyes narrowed as it lifted one claw from my chest.
The heat grew stronger. It rushed through my veins, down my arms and into every part of my body.
I gasped. It felt like something inside me that had been asleep for years, buried so deeply that I had never known it was there, but now it was waking up.
The wolf snarled and raised its claws toward my throat.
Then the heat exploded. A violent force burst out of me.
The wolf was thrown backward. It flew across the arena and crashed into the stone wall with enough force to make several people in the crowd flinch.
For a moment, no one made a sound.
The wolf collapsed near the wall with a pained whine.
I lay where I was, gasping for air. My entire body hurts. My chest still burned.
But the weight crushing me was gone.
Slowly, I pushed myself onto one elbow.
Around me, the Blackmoon warriors stared. Some of them had dropped to one knee. Others looked confused.
“What the hell was that?” someone whispered.
My ears were ringing. The strange heat was still inside me, pulsing with every beat of my heart.
Celeste crawled toward me. “Kelsey...” Her voice shook. She stopped beside me and stared at me as if she didn't know who I was anymore. “What did you do?”
“I don't know.” And I was telling the truth.
Near the wall, the wolf struggled to stand. Two guards rushed toward him, but almost no one was paying attention to him anymore.
Every eye in the arena was on me.I looked down at my shaking hands, still trying to understand what had just happened.
All of a sudden, a strange scent reached me.
On instinct, I looked up to see Theodore on his feet. His hands gripped the stone railing, his eyes fixed on me with an expression I couldn't understand.
He took a sharp breath.
Suddenly,the heat inside my chest pulsed again. A strange pull answered it from across the arena.
I felt it so clearly that my breath caught. It was coming from him. I didn’t understand how I knew that. I just did.
“Theodore?” Alpha Ronan called, but he didn't answer.
His jaw tightened as he inhaled again. Then his lips moved as he spoke.
“Mate.”