7
 

 

 

 

It had to be where the Wickedest Witch dwelled since I saw only two towers in the City of Nine. On the road, I’d heard the vampires discussing the coming war with the witch. No matter how evil she could possibly be, my enemy’s enemy was my friend.

I couldn’t go to the jungle while Furies guarded the path. And the last place I wanted to end up was the wolves’ compound.

I also had no idea of the city’s layout—it wasn’t like any monster would provide me with a map without eating me.

My best bet was in the witch’s realm. 

I would offer my ship Virgin to her, even if it had been claimed, most positively. But I was the first owner and could help her reclaim the ship as hers.

I would offer her my other services as well. Even though I’d never battled or killed anyone before this, I wouldn’t be useless. I’d trained with the best shifter weapon master in the galaxy and could provide the witch with excellent security.

I had a feeling she needed it in this place.

I shivered at the thought of fighting for the witch in an arena, but I must hone myself into a warrior for survival and revenge. I craved meeting the vampires again, but I had to be ready.

I still had time.

I wasn’t a damned vampire yet, even though Desdemona had pumped more venom into me to speed up my transformation. He was confident that I would turn in a day or two. 

The Wickedest Witch might be powerful enough to purge the venom in me. I would check her out first, and if it didn’t work, I could bolt.

One problem at a time.

I dashed through the hazardous city blocks, my sword tight in my hand.

With every sprint, I drew closer to the tower. It looked ominous even from afar, but it could be my temporary shelter.

All I could choose was the lesser of all evils.

As soon as I caught something moving in my direction like a blur, I dashed into an abandoned store and merged into the shadows. I was in no shape to fight anyone at the moment.

When I didn’t hear a sound, I snuck out of my hidden place.

An enormous white wolf stood right before me, eyeing me with deceiving calm.

I hadn’t heard him. I hadn’t scented him either.

He proved a better tracker than I.

I thought I’d gotten away from him and his pack, yet he’d hunted me down.

Time to end this.

I summoned my leopard to come out and fight the battle she’d wanted to when Antonio had fucked me and shamed us both afterwards, but she seemed to be on the other side of the veil.

The vampire prince had indeed altered me and made me into his kind.

I was no longer a leopard shifter. She and I had been severed.

I shoved the pain and loss aside and flashed the sword in front of me.

“It won’t be as easy as you think to take me down, wolf,” I snarled. “I’ll cut you to ribbons before I go down, and fate might just favor me for once, you bastard.”

He growled at my vicious threat, but he didn’t leap at me to tear me apart as I’d expected. I pondered where to cut him first for the most impact. He was too powerful for me to kill with just one blow, but I sure as hell would try.

This made me wonder how long it would take him to yank out my heart or swipe off my head.

A quick death on this planet was a mercy.

If I perished, I would join Thane. This brought me some comfort.

Antonio shifted into the hot, gorgeous, and menacing man I’d fucked before. What I wouldn’t give to rewind the time.

“I won’t harm you, Bella,” he said. “I’ll never hurt you again. And I won’t let others hurt you. I’m sorry for what I said to you in the cave. I wronged you. You aren’t your father and you don’t carry his sin. I messed up by saying those horrible things to you. I didn’t even ask the reason you came here and accused you without thinking. I realize it now. Your father would have sent an army to hunt us instead of his untrained daughter, his heir, to a doomed planet everyone avoids.”

His remorse had no effect on me. Nothing could touch me now. My heart was dead.

“I wasn’t untrained,” I said viciously. “I killed a vampire today.”

“You did good, Bella. And from now on, I’ll protect you.”

He wanted to fuck me more. I could sense it. At that thought, my body softened in carnal delight. It still wanted the wolf. It remembered how good it had felt when his hard cock had thrust inside me wildly. It wanted more of that. The pleasure had been like the fire of heavens and hell.

I blinked back the desire.

As heat started melting me, I was ashamed of myself to the core. I grated my teeth. My body could want him all it wanted, but I would never let him touch it again. I’d rather it starve to death.

He probably would just fuck me one more time then torture me with his pack. They might even gang-rape me.

“I don’t need your fucking protection,” I said. “All I want is for you to stay away from me. So, get the fuck out of my way before I gut you.”

“It’s a good threat. If I let you go, where will you be going?” he asked curiously.

“Where I’m going is none of your business.”

“Everything about you is my business, ever since you came to my world.”

That had been my biggest mistake and it had cost me everything.

“The vampires think this is their world.” I sneered. “Maybe you should go fight them instead of stalking me.”

“I fought them to get you back today. My pack was still fighting while I tracked you here. I won’t let you wander alone in the wildness, Bella. It’s dangerous. I know you’re still mad at me, considering what you’ve gone through. But there’s nothing we can’t work out. Nothing we can’t overcome.”

“You have no fucking idea what I’ve gone through.” I laughed inhumanly. “Nothing we can’t work out?”

If only he knew what I was about to become.

Just then, a pack of wolves rushed toward us. In an instant, they surrounded me.

The wolves sniffed, then bared teeth, and snarled.

They’d scented what I was—I was their ultimate enemy, either the leopard or the vampire. Or both. Had Antonio smelled me earlier?

Antonio snapped his head toward them and snarled furiously. “Back off! She’s my mate.”

At this point, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get out of this. Let’s get it over with then.

No way would I allow them to capture me. I would bury the sword into my heart after I drew blood from Antonio first—that would be my last lame effort at justice that didn’t exist in any corner of the universe.

“I’m not your mate and never will be,” I said. “I’m the daughter to King Felim, your sworn enemy. I escaped him at the cost of my best friend’s life, only to meet you, asshole. By the way, the Dark Prince of the vampires has turned me.”

The wolves snarled. A few of them who had shifted to their humanoid forms gasped. They had the confirmation of what they’d smelled in me.

That’s right, babe. I’m what I am now—a monster abomination.

Antonio winced in grief. “Bella.”

He raised his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, but the steely look in his eyes told me that he was determined to subdue a rabid beast like me.

I grinned diabolically, viciously. “I’m a vampire now. I’m your double mortal enemy. So, fuck you! Fuck this place! And fuck the universe!” 

I raised my sword and charged him.

Antonio ducked aside like a flash, his hand lashing out. The next, it gripped my wrist that clutched the sword.

Fuck him! I didn’t even see him move.

He disarmed me and wrapped me in his arms, my back against his hard chest.

My weapon dropped to the ground.

He kicked it away from us, and a shifter, who had wheat-colored hair, lunged forward to pick up my sword. I spat at him, and he wiped his hair with a groan and darted away.

I should have slashed my throat instead of trying to bleed Antonio. Now my last chance of ending my misery and future torture was gone.

I kicked hard to break free, but Antonio was unbelievably strong and had me in his iron grip.

“Listen, Bella, just listen,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who you are. You’re my mate. You’re mine. We’ll get you the cure. We’ll purge the venom in you.”

I tried to elbow him, but he bound me completely.

“If she’s fully turned, there’s nothing we can do for her,” one of the shifters said. “Not even the Wickedest Witch can help her. It’s best—”

Antonio snarled at the speaker.

Antonio freed an arm while his other arm tightened around me. I took the chance and stomped my boot on his toes, but he didn’t even flinch.

He shifted to his massive warrior form—half wolf and half man, his lengthened fangs biting into his palm. He balled it into a fist and let his blood drop to the ground.

He spun me to face him and stared into my eyes. “I, Antonio Evans, will protect Bella Felim, my fated mate, with my last drop of blood and my last breath. I’ll never hurt you, and I’ll tear anyone’s throat out before I allow them to hurt a single hair on your head.”  

The shifters’ vow was the most sacred.

And Antonio had just declared that it didn’t matter to him if I was his sworn enemy’s daughter or a vampire. He’d announced me as his mate in public.

It didn’t matter. It was too late.

The primordial vampire’s venom, more powerful and dominant than anything, traveled in my veins. I felt Desdemona’s commanding will, even while I was in Antonio’s arms.

I was the ticking, walking time bomb of poison.

The burning in me had started.

It would worsen and reach its peak in a day or two. The vampire princess’ words echoed in my head. “The fire will burn your heart, your airway, your veins and every fiber of your being. You’ll only wish it will burn you to ashes.”

After my transition, I wouldn’t be me. I would never be Antonio’s. I would become the dark vampire prince’s vassal—completely under his spell and his command.

I would be a slave.

I had tried to run away from that fate, only to charge headfirst into it.

I escaped Jeroboam, only to be snared by something worse than him.

“End me, Antonio. If you care for me, give me the death of mercy and revenge me.”

The wolves howled in agreement.

Antonio growled. “No, I’d rather go down with you. I’ll give my life for you, but I’ll never give up on you. We’ll get through this, Bella.”

Unlike leopards, wolves mated for a lifetime. Most of them stayed faithful to their partners once mated, even if the match was bad.

He would never let me go, no matter what I was, and what I became.

I screamed, “Fuck you, asshole! You don’t get to decide my path either!” I put all I had into the fight in order to break free and seek a chance to end myself.

Two shifters came about to restrain me, but Antonio snarled at them threateningly, and they hurried to step back.  

“I’m sorry, Bella,” he said, his voice full of agony. “I’ll have to subdue you, so you won’t hurt yourself. I’ll take you to the Keep. I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

A shifter moved forward and handed him a syringe.

Where the fuck did they get that?

Antonio plunged it into me before I could do anything. 

He was prepared. He’d thought of the possibility that I might have been turned, yet he’d come for me anyway. By doing so, he’d doomed me further. He was going to put me through more hell.

I howled.

My people—the leopard shifters—would be shell-shocked to see their princess sink so low. But I was no longer a princess.

I was a hysterical freak and a savage.

My knees buckled as the drugs kicked in. 

As I slumbered into Antonio’s arms, I vaguely heard someone say, “She’s gone mad. Many of them go insane a couple of weeks after their crash. It took her a day.”