DARKNESS, the second instalment in the Marked Series.
Won first place in the SNOWFLAKE AWARDS Werewolf category!
UNDISCOVERED WOLVES Book of the Month, April 2018!
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'There is a darkness within you, Isa. I saw it then, and I see it now.'
...
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By the time I'd awoken the following morning and left the bathroom, Phoenix was gone.
My hand lingered on the door handle as I stared at the bed, my mind throwing images of his black eyes and wandering hands into my vision. I sighed, humiliation consuming me in one sweep. Why didn't I put up a fight? I wasn't some brood mare waiting to be mounted...I was my own person, not a toy for him to use as he pleased.
I kicked the carpet sullenly and looked at the heaving pile of clothes. Not only was I suffering from post-Phoenix embarrassment but I also had to leave the place I'd come to like. I had to become the Luna to a pack I'd never met; I had to abandon the world I knew in order to join one I'd never seen.
But I had to survive.
So I packed the clothes into my suitcase, my hands trembling with the force of an earthquake. Each piece of cloth, no matter how flimsy or mundane, felt almost like a piece of my soul, and as I shoved them inside the tiny space I felt my throat constrict and eyes water with unshed tears.
"You ready, Isa?" Thea asked, her voice muffled by the door.
I replied unsteadily, saying that I needed a few more minutes. She left moments later and I rose from the floor, my eyes wandering from the dresser to the wardrobe, from the white walls to the carpet, and from the lampshade to the bed, where Phoenix had ravaged me with the gentlest of caresses, eating into my soul, staining the seemingly untouched sheets with the vestiges of unbidden passion.
I looked away from the bed and grabbed my suitcase, schooling my features into impassiveness.
"I'm ready." I said to myself.
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I stepped into the frigid air, lulled by the satisfying roll of the suitcase's wheels.
There was neither snow nor rain stirring the winds; it was just cold, yet I felt anything but. I walked towards the cars, pale air venting from my mouth like dragon's breath, my blood bubbling beneath my goose-bumped flesh.
"Isa!"
I whirled around. Leila was rushing towards me, her long, blonde hair billowing in the wind. Before I could ready myself she'd barrelled into my arms, her face shoved in the crook of my neck.
