radicalducati Chapter 45
Chapter 45
Katrina’s POV
A sharp gasp broke the silence like a shattered pane of glass.
It rippled from the two warriors who had moments ago held me down, their eyes now fixed on me, wide, disbelieving. Their mouths hung open, the color draining from their faces.
“A… silver wolf…” one of them breathed, voice trembling, reverent. Awe laced every syllable, as if he were seeing a legend made flesh.
“She’s… she’s glowing,” the other stammered, taking a hesitant step back, his boots scraping against the stone.
Power surged through me. It thrummed in my muscles, vibrating through bone and blood like fire beneath skin. My breaths came in low, controlled pants, each one burning in my lungs but feeding something deeper, something no longer human.
I took a step forward.
The air around me shimmered, just faintly, like heat rising from embers. My silver fur caught the moonlight and threw it back in flashes, as if my entire body was forged from light and fury. I could feel it burning in my eyes too, heat and something wild, something ancient, flickering like fire.
Nicholas stood frozen a few feet away, his mouth slack, his eyes full of something I had never seen on him before.
Fear.
Real, unmistakable fear.
“No…” he breathed, shaking his head slowly, backing away as though trying to deny the truth with his body. “This isn’t possible.”
I bared my teeth.
A deep, guttural snarl tore from my throat before I could stop it, no, I didn’t want to stop it. Rage surged to the surface, not frantic but focused. Not panic, but purpose.
And then I lunged.
He barely had time to blink. My claws sliced across his chest in a blur of movement, quick, brutal. The fabric of his shirt shredded, followed by the wet sound of tearing flesh. Blood burst forth in a spray, splattering across the alley floor as he collapsed with a scream, raw, ragged, and all too human.
He crumpled like a broken puppet, gasping, clutching at the gash with wide, disbelieving eyes.
The warriors turned to run.
But I wasn’t done.
Instinct roared louder than any thought. I launched myself after them. My paws struck the ground with punishing force, the thud of them echoing like war drums. I crashed into one mid-stride, sending him hurtling into the wall with a heavy crack.
The other tried to veer away, but I caught him too, slamming him into a stack of barrels, wood splintering under the weight of our collision.
For so long, fear had ruled me, choked me, silenced me.
But not now. Now I was ruled by power. By the clarity of a predator who finally understood what she was.
My wolf was awake and she wasn’t backing down.
A triumphant howl ripped from my throat and soared into the sky, loud and raw, echoing through the trees like a challenge to the stars themselves.
And then I ran.
Through the village. Past shuttered homes and watchful shadows. Into the trees. The forest swallowed me whole, but I didn’t stop. My silver fur flashed between the trunks, bright and wild beneath the moonlight.
Every pawstep hit the ground with the rhythm of freedom. I ran until my legs ached and my lungs burned. Until the agony of it all transformed into something else, release. Escape. Rebirth.
Finally, I found the river.
The same river where I had first met him.
The current moved softly, whispering over rocks. The moon shimmered on the surface. I staggered to the edge and collapsed there, the grass cool beneath my belly.
My chest heaved.
With a shuddering groan, I shifted back. My body returned to its human form with a wet, painful crackle, bone and muscle reshaping, skin pulling tight. Sweat coated me, my hair clung in damp strands to my back, my breathing rough and uneven.
I curled in on myself, arms wrapped around trembling knees. My body felt hollow. Shaken. But it wasn’t the transformation that wrecked me.
It was the weight of everything else.
What I had done. What had almost happened. What had happened before.
And Adolphus, he had chosen her. He hadn’t come for me.
A sob wrenched itself from my throat, broken and hollow. My shoulders shook. I buried my face into my arms and let it all pour out, the pain, the rage, the love, the shame. I was alone. In every way that mattered.
And for the first time, I didn’t even know who I was anymore.
Then, I felt a touch. A gentle, familiar and warm hand on my shoulder.
My body flinched on instinct. I sucked in a breath and stiffened, ready to bolt, ready to fight again if I had to.
I turned my head slowly. And there he was.
Adolphus.