Rejected His Miracle Luna (Dorothy and Ignatius)
Chapter 35

Chapter

35

"Do you love him?" Taskesi.

She fell silent, staring at me with a mix of resentment and confusion in her eyes. "More than anything she whispered. "He's like a brother to me."

1 nodded gently, holding her gaze with the intensity of my own.

"So you thought joining ties with him would be the best way forward for your pack. You're both from powerful families and you both care for one another as well as your people. It only makes sense that you would join forces. You're jealous of my position, not of his love for me"

I seemed to be spotting revelations to Angie that even she herself had not entirely understood until now. She was at a for words, all malice drained from her b*dy as she stood listlessly staring at me. loss

"You thought getting rid of me would eventually drive Ignatius back to you. Did you honestly believe that he wouldn't replace out it was you? That he wouldn't suspert you! You're the one who has damaged the relationship between the two of you. Not

me."

Angie sighed and awkwardly angled herself to sit down on the gravel. "I try to kill you and you come to me with counseling. Your mate almost murders me and you stop him just to talk. It's a kind of mercy we don't do here in this pack. It's humiliating

I sat down next to her, and the two of us stared at the white gravel at our feet. "The only thing humiliating about it is the fact that you thought killing me would do anything more than satiate your own feelings of jealousy"

Angie tossed a pebble along the ground, her cuffs clinking together as she did so. "It was worth a shot," she mumbled sardonically

It was an odd sight to behold I was sure, two shifters in fancy dresses - one in handcuffs and the other with a knife at her hip sitting together in the dust.

I inspected my nails absently. Angie's scent was becoming more apparent now that the masking leaves were wearing off. It had the same him of the S** as Ignatius's did, only hers was lighter the smell of lilac and a summer breeze

"Do you think maybe you could stop trying to kill me now?"

Angie laughed ho a rsely, her throat still scratched and aching 1 can try

That's good enough. And maybe no more death threats"

That I can manage."

Thumped my knee against hers, shushing Ignatius who was trying to pry into my mind that very moment. I reassured him that things were going fine. "How about a truce?"

"I suppose that could work.

I turned my head slightly to look at her. She seemed a lot softer, kinder when she wasn't wearing her usual abrasive expression. "And hove about friends?"

"Careful runt, now you're pushing it." But I had caught the ghost of a smile that played on her lips.

I chuckled quietly to myself, "I suppose that was too much to ask

Angie propped her chin on her knees. "Give it some time. You're not what I expected you to be Dorothy."

"Thanks. You're not so bad yourself."

"I didn't say it

it was a good thing"

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Fri, Jan 26

Chapter 35

I shrugged. "Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to let you back into the party- our guests need to think you're being tortured in a cell somewhere currently, but I think we can get those cuffs off of you. Angie feigned disappointment, "Ah well, it was a sh it party anyway."

I was in the process of helping Angie to her feet when Ignatius broke through into my mind. "Dorothy. Geranium has picked up a strange scent nearby. We are investigating it now. Are you okay there?" I recalled the odd scent from earlier and immediately went on high alert. Angle sensed my sudden unease and she too scanned the grounds around us.

I answered Ignatius, "We're fine here. I thought I sensed something earlier. Where are you now?"

A low growl from Angie had me losing Igantius's answer. I looked up to see the target of her throaty growl in time to see a fully formed wolf stalking out of the shadows towards us.

The creature was massive, thick dark fur over rippling muscles. It bared its fangs at us, yellow eyes glowing like spotlights in the dark

"Ignatius," I said memally. "It's a shifter. The scent, it's a shifter. And he's right here."

1 had barely managed to open my mouth to speak when the wolf launched himself directly at Angie, jaws ripping into her chest as he descended upon her. The scream that erupted from me was guttural. I was useless, a small girl with no shifting abilities watching a massive wolf shifter tear into the handcuffed girl beneath him. Angie howled, frightened and enraged as she tried to shift into her own wolf form The silver of the cuffs prevented a full transformation, however, and the best she could do was elongate her fangs to snarl and snap at the attacker.

I had no other choice, I drew the small faerie blade from its sheath and launched myself onto the shifters back. I remembered Rita's warning. The blade would do no real harm to a shifter - it was iron, not silver But I could at least irritaté him enough to slow him down

The wolf barely noticed me clinging to its fur. I held on tightly, trying desperately not to be thrown off the bucking ravenous creature as I edged my way closer to its head. Angie was weakening, and the sound o her whimpered cries blended with the sickening crunch of breaking bones and tearing skin.

With every ounce of strength I could muster and a cry loud enough to scare away every bird in the nearby trees, I drove the tiny blade directly into the creature's eye.

The shifter bowled in agony and I was tossed from its back as it raised itself up onto two massive hind legs. I kept my grip

the knife and it was yanked from the creature's socket as I was thrown through the air.

00

I crashed a few feet away onto gravel and rocks and lay there wheezing once again. I felt fresh blood congealing in my hair and knew I must have been injured in the fall

The untethered wolf was still howling in pain and the whines turned to that of fear when two more large wolves made an appearance. One black as night and the other a sleek gray.

Geranium and Ignatius. I had never seen Ignatius's full wolf form firsthand before. I barely had time to take in his regal gray coat before he and Geranium were bolting after the now retreating shifter down into the forest and out of sight.

Forcing myself upright, I scrambled over to Angie whose breathing was unnatural and strained.

Her b*dy was covered in blood and her shoulder and ribcage were severely broken. Blood was pouring from a bit on her neck and her eyes were wide and terrified when she clutched at me. She opened her mouth but couldn't speak..

1 held her hand tightly, willing for her to be okay. Demanding it. She had to be. Chapter 36

-Ignatius-

Geranium and I chased down the imposter and he barreled through the forest. With only one eye thanks to Dorothy's knife. he stumbled into trees and faltered enough for us to catch up with him easily enough. Thad been on high alert from the moment Dorothy told me of his presence. I had run faster than ever before when I heard her scream. I knew she'd be alright, I had seen her crumpled on the gravel but she had been moving

She was alive. Geraniums had already alerted Gideon and Fae to go check on her and Angie alter we had left.

The wounded shifter stumbled one last time before transforming back into his human proportions. He probably thought he would be able to hide from us better that way

He was wrong. I sought him out soon enough and clenched my jaws on his shoulder, throwing him to the ground while Geranium pinned him dowis

I shifted back to my own human form and inspected the imposter. He was a young man, probably mid-twenties like me. 1 didn't recognize him, nor his strange scent. It was putrid and acrid like something toxic was boiling in his blood and seeping from his pores

His eyes well one eye, the other was a bleeding ga shi now were wild and his oily black hair was long and mutte/

"Who are you?" I growled at the stranger. "What are you doing attacking Hielke territory?"

Instead of answering my question the man spot at pressed into his chest, preventing him from escaping.

blood and valiva, and snarled vicioudy. Geranium kept his front claws

Taimed a kick at the side of the shifters, mom savout of frustration than anything else. "Who are you!" The man hissed his discomfort and glared at

lus injured eye seeped blood down his face and over his bare chest.

Tally," he spat "And I know who you are. Ignatius Armount

Ibareil my teeth. "If you know anything about me then you know you're not making it out of here alive

The man laughed, yellowing teeth dripping blood-Angie's blood-I barely refrained from kicking him again. "Threats like that have no effect on a dead man, I won't tell you anything"

I didn't know what he meant by dead man. Was he already dying? Is that why he had been so bold with his attack?

"Are there more of you here?"

He wouldn't respond and I was losing my patience. I knelt down next to him, driving a thumb into his ruined eye socket. The man screamed in agony, his b*dy shifting from half-wolf to half-human and back again in a gruesome display of b*dy horror in his attempt to get away.

"Answer me."

"No! No, there's no one else! I swear!" he shrieked, more blood spewing from his mouth.

It was dark and sticky. More black than red. There was something very wrong with this shifter. His b*dy smelled of decay and poison and his remaining eye was a sickening yellow-his pupil small as a pinprick. I sn atched my hand away and he howled in agony. "What's wrong with you?" I asked disparagingly. "Why does your scent reek like a man who's already dead?"

With this, the shifter began to laugh, haunting, spine-chilling laughter like he had completely lost his mind. The sight of that gruesome engorged face, the man with one eye who smelled of death, laughing maniacally was burned into retina

ונן

forever.

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