Everyone in the inn probably heard my proclamation, but I didn’t care.

  Keagan fell off the bed and away from me.

  He's sorry? He's not allowed to be sorry for killing me. That self-righteous…

  “Lucia, calm down.” Keagan pointed his head over the bed.

  “No!”

  The door to Keagan's room shattered into hundreds of splinters. I stormed down the hall, my paws cracking the floor with each pounding step. The few who stood between me and the exit became blurs of raised hands and screaming faces. Everyone did everything they could to scramble out of my way. Half of them fled out the door.

  “Rampaging monster!”

  “Direwolf on the loose!”

  People were screaming in the streets. When I strode out, the mass hysteria amplified.

  “Where is he?” I lunged toward the open street. My head darted in each direction, desperate to find any sign that would lead me to Luther.

  I couldn't think rationally. If it didn't lead me closer to my prey, it was a wasted thought.

  There was nothing. He had been gone for a week. I knew that, but my wrath would not accept that as a reason to stop.

  If I have to tear up this entire world to find him, so be it.

  That was when the silence came.

  Not because everyone has stopped screaming and started hiding, but a deliberate, supernatural silence that fell over the street. The sound of wind was gone even though I felt the breeze. When my foot slid across the ground, there was no click of stone against my claws. I couldn't hear my own heartbeat.

  Something moved at the edge of my vision.

  “What do we have here?” A lulling voice echoed in my head. The voice sounded like they were drifting closer to me.

  The source of the voice was nowhere to be seen. Whatever I saw moving was gone.

  I bared my teeth. Get out of my way.

  My voice made no sound. I stalked towards the widest part of the street, spinning around, looking for more signs of movement.

  Nothing.

  Clouds rolled over in the sky, darkening everything with more shadows.

  I crouched low, claws ready. The cold from my body slowly bled across the stones. Every instinct screamed that something was circling me, just out of sight.

  Then another whisper—not as a sound, but as a thought—skimmed the inside of my skull. “You are in violation of public endangerment and disturbing the peace. You are to be dealt with.”

  I spun, slashing at the voice in my head. My claws cut air. I hated the fact someone was talking to me directly into my mind. It was such an invasion of privacy. It wasn't enough to distract me from my prey, but hearing “dealt with” triggered my wrath.

  You will not keep me from him. He doesn't deserve to be saved. He deserves to die!

  Something brushed the fur on my shoulder. I twisted, lunging at it, but whatever it was vanished before I struck.

  My muscles tensed. Something shimmered in the low light as the frost clung to it. Dozens of thin strands hung suspended in the air. They weren’t there a second ago. The street smelled wrong.

  Peaches? Why am I smelling peaches?

  Something peeled away from one of the buildings. A shadow unfolded, tall and graceful. The upper half of her looked mostly like a human woman. Standing at the same height as me, she wore a heavy, multilayered robe. Her black hair hung like polished thread against the soft pink of her robe. Her face had eight black, round compound eyes. Extending below the robe, eight legs extended from the solid black arachnid body, each tipped with curved points that touched down without a sound.

  “I am Yasura,” her voice said in my mind, calm as could be. “Feel free to resist; it won't do you any good.”

  She won't stop me.

  I lunged for her.

  She didn’t move. At least, not in a way I could see. One blink and she wasn’t there—she was above me. Her finger twirled as silk coiled around my front leg. I ripped it off. A new strand looped around my back leg. Then another.

  I spun around and tore free of them with my fangs. The new one wrapped around me faster than I could break the old ones. Yasura just stood on her webs, suspended above me, dancing with her fingers as her spider silk trailed from her spinnerets.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  I tried to run and pull her down. A noose tied my hind legs together and tripped me. Then I was hoisted up in the air. I thrashed desperately to escape. More silk started wrapping my torso.

  Not again. This isn't happening again!

  I bit at what silk I could. My claws were useless, and my fangs couldn't keep up. A cocoon was forming around me. It already enveloped my back legs and most of my torso and pinned my front legs in.

  Each breath I took felt heavier. The web pressed in on me, ignorant to the cold that had been, and still was, seeping from me.

  Yasura stepped closer. The motion of her legs were fluid as she walked along her webs. Her cocoon stopped at the base of my skull. My jerky movements didn't amount to much. Spittle flew from my maw as I snapped at the air between us.

  Her fingers glided down the cocoon as she lowered me and stepped down to the ground. “You cannot win. You are already a fly in my web.”

  My snarling and snapping jaws didn't deter her. She just smiled as she placed a hand on the top of my head with an unbearable gentleness. Cold needles pricked behind my eyes, numbing my thoughts.

  “With such a display, I expected more,” she cooed.

  Her fingers drifted down my snout. I took the opening and clamped down on her wrist. I tasted peaches, but no blood. So I bit down as hard as I could. When that wasn't enough, I thrashed my head side to side.

  Still no blood.

  Yasura’s soft face frowned. “Are you done? You should be tired. It's time to sleep.” Her voice dropped into a soft whisper. “Don't worry, I'll make it painless.”

  I tried to snarl, but it came out weak. She pried my mouth open effortlessly and removed her wrist. I tried to bite her again, but my body wasn't obeying me anymore. The edges of my vision were darkening. Everything felt sluggish.

  “Don't!” Keagan yelled.

  The boy was gasping for air at the edge of the street. He fell into a coughing fit. The darkness finished closing in, and I lost consciousness.

  “Kid, get inside, where it's safe.” A man exited another building across the street from Keagan. “This monster is dangerous.”

  He was quite tall and his coat was heavily worn.

  Yasura smirked at the direwolf in a magical sleep. “I wouldn't say that, especially now.”

  “But she's my monster,” Keagan wheezed. “I know she can be seen as dangerous, but she really isn't. She is the exact opposite of dangerous.”

  “Now that isn't quite how I would put it either. She did try to bite me.” Yasura held up her arm. There was no bite mark. The only proof there was that Lucia had bitten her was the saliva running down her arm.

  Keagan coughed again. When he recovered, he said, “She hasn't hurt anybody.”

  “That's because we stopped her,” the man replied.

  “I stopped her, Frank,” Yasura chided.

  Frank pinched the bridge of his nose. “Not now, Yasura.”

  Keagan took a step towards his partner. “She was just in the inn, full of people. She didn't hurt a soul, though she easily could have. There's someone specific that she's after.”

  “All the more reason to put her down.”

  “No! You don't understand.” Keagan held Luther's letter up. “She's acting in self-defense.”

  Yasura crossed her arms. “I'm not buying that one, little boy. That—” she pointed to me “—that wasn't self-defense.”

  Keagan kept walking to the spider woman with the letter above his head. “Lucia has the demon blood of wrath. She isn't violent for no reason. Someone tried to kill her and then wrote me this letter saying he's sorry he did it.”

  Frank and Yasura flinched. They didn't say anything even when Keagan stood in front of Yasura. The spider woman waved at the letter as she glanced at Frank. He nodded.

  Yasura grabbed the letter and read it. Afterwards, she gave Lucia a sorrowful look. “I can actually see why you're so pissed off. If I were in your shoes, I'd be livid.”

  “Really?” Frank asked.

  She handed the letter back to the boy. “Yeah. I don't understand how someone can attempt to kill her, fail, and then send a letter believing that they killed her.”

  “This all feels a bit far-fetched to me,” Frank said. “Other than the letter, do you have any other proof?”

  “I will vouch for her!” A small voice added in.

  Sereth fluttered out from an alley. “She is nice, and I saw her after she was attached.”

  Fayna followed after the wyverling begrudgingly. “The Association has already done an investigation on that situation. Lucia was attacked by direwolves and nearly died making it back to town afterwards.”

  Frank chewed his lip and started pacing. He grumbled something unintelligible.

  “Please, let me at least try to calm her down again.” Keagan coughed again and then placed his hand over his heart. “I can do this.”

  Yasura turned to her partner. “Your call. But me? I'd personally like to see this little boy try. What can he do to quell such a rabid beast?”

  “She's not rabid,” Keagan stomped his foot. That caused him to cough again.

  Frank scratched his head and turned to Fayna and Sereth. “I will keep your testimonies in mind.” He turned back to Keagan. “We'll take her to the branch office. They will decide.”

  Keagan swallowed and nodded.

  Yasura grabbed the cocooned direwolf with one hand, placed her on her shoulder, and headed to the Association’s guild hall.

  The boy could only look at his partner's sleeping face as he followed behind the spidertaur. He bought her time. Time he needed to desperately think of what to say. Her life depended on it.

  Keagan realized that he should not have shown Lucia that letter. After seeing her reaction, he thought about it as he walked. Luther had been missing for a week. But after seeing his reaction at the tournament and his actions in the basement, that letter felt out of place for the man's revenge-bent crusade.

  If Luther really wanted Lucia dead, he would've gone back to check to see if the other wolves killed her. He knew she was still alive. His plan was to make her own wrathful nature get her in so much trouble that the Association has to put her down.

  And they played right into his plan perfectly.

  Keagan was in a situation that was never in any of his books. A dark thought drifted into his mind. Maybe Lucia was right. Maybe it was not the right thing to spare Luther. He pushed that thought from his mind.

  Luther made his decision. The boy had tried to save him, but it seems he was beyond saving.

  “You can't save everyone, Keagan,” he muttered to himself. The echo of his partner's words sunk in deep.

  Lucia was unleashed, and there was no putting her wrath away again. The start of a plan formed in his mind. Lagan wouldn't stop her; he shouldn't. He only needs to direct her. It was a first step, but that didn't make it easy.

  But if she would kill for him, he must let her protect herself. He would let Lucia kill Luther, and he would help her do it.

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