The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 71: Chapter 71
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Nasha, once again, lowered her head. This time it wasn’t to spy on her surroundings as she got used to seeing things from her own eyes for the first time. Her eyes were locked, set on Noah, narrowed and predatory as she bared her fangs and snarled from her defensive position.
“Nasha, what the hell are you doing? That’s our Alpha!”
She was being hostile. While Noah and Logan stood calmly observing us, Nasha looked at the guys like they were the threat; trespassing on her territory, ready to defend what was hers, and I could feel the exhilarating lust for the taste of blood swirling on her tongue.
“Back down,” I ordered. But I got no response.
“Nasha, back down!”
Nothing.
This was a whole other level of bad.
If my wolf attacked, or even attempted a threat toward Noah, we were both as good as dead. And this didn’t feel like a whim, or an anxious shift turning bad. She seemed genuinely pissed the fuck off and craved blood.
I was supposed to be able to control her, it was my responsibility, my duty as a werewolf. If a human couldn’t control its wolf, chaos unfolded, and it never ended in therapy or training camp. It always ended in death. Because a human who wasn’t in sync with her wolf was a ticking time bomb ready to blow, and in all the recorded instances where this had been reality, the number of casualties was terrifying, even for me.
A wolf and her human needed that bond, it was what kept them in sync, what protected them and kept the stability between beast and man. Without that, there was nothing but primal, unhinged anger fighting for dominance against the human.
Every time I heard about it, I would shake my head, repeating quietly that the human vessel must’ve been too weak to bond with her wolf, too meek to control the beast within.
And yet, here we were, standing in the reality of that nightmare, and I was by no means meek or without strength, whether mentally or physically.
So why the hell couldn’t I control her?
“Nasha, stand the fuck down!”
Her spine rolled, and she dragged her claws back through the ground, ripping into the grass that padded her paws, leaving marks to prove where my biggest mistake was made.
They should pour some cement in it to eternalize it.
Maybe even make a plaque that says: ‘Madeline Torrance forced her disobedient wolf to shift. Her first shift was her last.'
‘Noah, you need to leave. Now!’ I sent him the mind link and watched as he started to circle us.
‘Control your wolf, Maddie.’
Like I hadn’t tried?
‘She’s not listening to me. Take Logan and go.’
‘We’re not going anywhere. Control her. Take charge.’
Nasha backed away. One step, and then another, all the while scanning Noah as he moved around us, and Logan stood in the same spot, but he too was prepared.
All emotion drained from his face and a cold, calculating mask covered his features. Whatever he was thinking, it originated from an analytical part of his brain where emotions had no place.
This was Logan, the sinister twinkle in his eyes whenever chaos was about to ensue. A twisted pleasure in the pain of others. I hadn’t seen it in a while; it was like coming home.
It was familiar, and in a sick way, it soothed me knowing that some things don’t change.
Because everything else had.
A surge of energy flowed through Nasha and spread through my core. My nerves twisted in jumbles and stiffened like a chain being pulled in all directions, but with a resistance that kept a cliff from tipping. It was happening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I tried to shift back, I tried to block her out from her own consciousness and I tried to take charge and grab hold of her reins, but they withered in my hands.
I was a bystander, sitting deep in a mind that had no function, watching everything unfold like on a movie screen.
Nasha lunged. Dirt rose around her paws, and she bit in the air, aiming for Noah.
He dodged the first attack, but it was just the start, barely the start. That was the initiating move, and now it was on. It wasn’t a fight or a defensive charge, she was going for the kill.
Despite us being linked, her being my wolf, I couldn’t read her mind as one was supposed to. All I felt was her emotions, the pulsating pleasure of pain she wanted to inflict, and the desperate craving for his blood.
This meant that Nasha could feel my full-blown panic, my nervousness, and fear of what waited when Noah realized that his only method of defense would be to kill us.
It was the only outcome. Even if he didn’t do it, his father would.
The Alpha would never let another live after a threat against his son’s life.
Under the layers of everything we were, all that we explored, and all it could be, Noah was still the rising Alpha.
And I was the girl who couldn’t control her wolf.
The second Nasha first growled at him, I was the enemy.
'Maddie, pull her back, dammit!'
It wasn’t a question of me not wanting to or not trying to, I physically couldn’t control my goddamn wolf. That’s why I told him to fucking leave!
Nasha jumped again, biting inches from his neck and brushing his shoulder with her claws as he jumped out of the way and rolled across her shadow.
He sighed, his eyes dropped with the realization that I was no help, and in the next second, Noah shifted and his wolf cast a large streaking shadow across the ground.
“Nasha, what the hell are you doing? That’s our Alpha!”
She was being hostile. While Noah and Logan stood calmly observing us, Nasha looked at the guys like they were the threat; trespassing on her territory, ready to defend what was hers, and I could feel the exhilarating lust for the taste of blood swirling on her tongue.
“Back down,” I ordered. But I got no response.
“Nasha, back down!”
Nothing.
This was a whole other level of bad.
If my wolf attacked, or even attempted a threat toward Noah, we were both as good as dead. And this didn’t feel like a whim, or an anxious shift turning bad. She seemed genuinely pissed the fuck off and craved blood.
I was supposed to be able to control her, it was my responsibility, my duty as a werewolf. If a human couldn’t control its wolf, chaos unfolded, and it never ended in therapy or training camp. It always ended in death. Because a human who wasn’t in sync with her wolf was a ticking time bomb ready to blow, and in all the recorded instances where this had been reality, the number of casualties was terrifying, even for me.
A wolf and her human needed that bond, it was what kept them in sync, what protected them and kept the stability between beast and man. Without that, there was nothing but primal, unhinged anger fighting for dominance against the human.
Every time I heard about it, I would shake my head, repeating quietly that the human vessel must’ve been too weak to bond with her wolf, too meek to control the beast within.
And yet, here we were, standing in the reality of that nightmare, and I was by no means meek or without strength, whether mentally or physically.
So why the hell couldn’t I control her?
“Nasha, stand the fuck down!”
Her spine rolled, and she dragged her claws back through the ground, ripping into the grass that padded her paws, leaving marks to prove where my biggest mistake was made.
They should pour some cement in it to eternalize it.
Maybe even make a plaque that says: ‘Madeline Torrance forced her disobedient wolf to shift. Her first shift was her last.'
‘Noah, you need to leave. Now!’ I sent him the mind link and watched as he started to circle us.
‘Control your wolf, Maddie.’
Like I hadn’t tried?
‘She’s not listening to me. Take Logan and go.’
‘We’re not going anywhere. Control her. Take charge.’
Nasha backed away. One step, and then another, all the while scanning Noah as he moved around us, and Logan stood in the same spot, but he too was prepared.
All emotion drained from his face and a cold, calculating mask covered his features. Whatever he was thinking, it originated from an analytical part of his brain where emotions had no place.
This was Logan, the sinister twinkle in his eyes whenever chaos was about to ensue. A twisted pleasure in the pain of others. I hadn’t seen it in a while; it was like coming home.
It was familiar, and in a sick way, it soothed me knowing that some things don’t change.
Because everything else had.
A surge of energy flowed through Nasha and spread through my core. My nerves twisted in jumbles and stiffened like a chain being pulled in all directions, but with a resistance that kept a cliff from tipping. It was happening, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I tried to shift back, I tried to block her out from her own consciousness and I tried to take charge and grab hold of her reins, but they withered in my hands.
I was a bystander, sitting deep in a mind that had no function, watching everything unfold like on a movie screen.
Nasha lunged. Dirt rose around her paws, and she bit in the air, aiming for Noah.
He dodged the first attack, but it was just the start, barely the start. That was the initiating move, and now it was on. It wasn’t a fight or a defensive charge, she was going for the kill.
Despite us being linked, her being my wolf, I couldn’t read her mind as one was supposed to. All I felt was her emotions, the pulsating pleasure of pain she wanted to inflict, and the desperate craving for his blood.
This meant that Nasha could feel my full-blown panic, my nervousness, and fear of what waited when Noah realized that his only method of defense would be to kill us.
It was the only outcome. Even if he didn’t do it, his father would.
The Alpha would never let another live after a threat against his son’s life.
Under the layers of everything we were, all that we explored, and all it could be, Noah was still the rising Alpha.
And I was the girl who couldn’t control her wolf.
The second Nasha first growled at him, I was the enemy.
'Maddie, pull her back, dammit!'
It wasn’t a question of me not wanting to or not trying to, I physically couldn’t control my goddamn wolf. That’s why I told him to fucking leave!
Nasha jumped again, biting inches from his neck and brushing his shoulder with her claws as he jumped out of the way and rolled across her shadow.
He sighed, his eyes dropped with the realization that I was no help, and in the next second, Noah shifted and his wolf cast a large streaking shadow across the ground.
End of The Alpha's Gamble Chapter 71. Continue reading Chapter 72 or return to The Alpha's Gamble book page.