The Wolf Series #3: Between Two Worlds

Chapter 5*

Chapter 5*

France, four years ago...

The granite tiles are like frostbite against the stripped skin of my stomach. My shaking shoulders curve inwards towards the cage of my heart. Salty tears and dirt-stained my cheeks. My throat is raw. I can taste blood in the back of my tongue as I scream and grunt in agony.

My back throbs to the pace of my frantic heart.

"It's going to take a while to heal," The Healer beside me touches the tattered flesh. She picks the silver chains from the deep gashes that the whip left embedded in my skin. "Best to stop now—"

"She hasn't learnt yet."

I flex my hand out and grip the cold, stone tile beneath me. My arms are shaky, but I force myself to my knees. I have to get back up again. For him.

Crack.

Another shriek tears from my throat as the silver whip comes down on my back. I wretch and heave but nothing comes out anymore.

"I'm not just doing this for your sake, Amelia. This is for the protection of our community—our kind," Serani speaks over my hollow cries, her voice low and dangerous, "Your emotional attachment is going to put us all in danger, Amelia."

"Fuck you," I grunt. My face hits the ground as she flicks the whip against my spine, "Fuck you!"

The Wolf inside me bares her teeth down, feeling my pain through the several layers of poisonous silver. She throws herself against the cage of my mind, snarling. Let me out.

"Amelia, you need to understand that we are sworn to the Goddesses. Our ancestors vowed to serve their lives to The Moon and no one else. Your brothers and sisters understand this, but that's because it is all we have known," Sashi says in her usual quiet voice, "There are consequences if you choose someone else. You know—you have seen what has happened to Zemira. What has happened to you—"

"What kind of Goddesses would want this?" I ask as I turn on them all. My spine curls up in a grotesque way, as if my vertebrae have become my hackles. "Your solution is to whip someone for being normal? If you expect me to stop feeling then you've got another thing coming—"

"It is not that you have to stop feeling," She interrupts me, nodding to her sister. The whip cracks as Serani flicks it back, "But you cannot choose him over Her."

I stare at her. She is a brick wall, formidable and unbowed. But so am I. I look at the veiled figures around me, hands to their mouths in horror as they see the blood pooling around my calves.

"What will it be?" Serani's voice echoes in my head. That whip dances around her feet like a cat's tail.

I shut my eyes. All I need to say is that I don't love him. That every ounce of me and my energy would go to the Moon. Instead, I reach for the tattered, white robe they had dressed me in and tear a large chunk of the blood-soaked material off.

Serani's frown only deepens as I shove the material in my mouth and brace myself against the stone tiles.

"Suit yourself," I can feel the strain in her voice as she begins to cast the whip, "If you won't bow willingly then I'll make you."

With the sting of a thousand coals, the whip scrapes at my skin. All I see is white hot agony. All I can think about is him. My willpower—my reason to cling onto hope. I won't lose another loved one. I won't give him up.

The Wolf only embraces the pain, like a long-forgotten friend. Inside me, I can feel the Darkness inside me stir.

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