Every color faded to red once more, and she felt the darkness return. Pain. Anger. They triggered it.
Vivienne shook her herself so hard that Samia was forced to let go. She padded a few feet away, waiting. Like clockwork, Samia attacked once more, and Vivienne went low, then sprang up to catch her neck between her jaws. Clamping down hard, she tasted bitter blood before shaking the wolf and tossing her away.
Samia wheezed on the ground, trying to lift her body. She failed and a pain-filled whine escaped her lips as Vivienne slowly stalked her. Pausing above Samia, Vivienne read the fear and resignation in her gaze. Vivienne snapped her teeth together, wanting—needing— the kill. She was practically salivating with the need for the kill, and then there was another voice. The darkness. Kill her. She would kill you. Kill her.
She shook her head, took a fraction of a step backward, and growled down at Samia. The wolf’s eyes widened as if in disbelief and wheezing still, she rolled onto her back, presenting Vivienne with her neck and belly.
Vivienne held still for long moments, and the crowd seemed to collectively hold its breath. She moved forward, and touched her nose to Samia’s belly before stepping away. Mercy.
Noise erupted around the circle as Vivienne tried to understand what had happened. She was inside the white wolf—no, she was the white wolf. Somehow she knew that. How she was white wolf, she didn’t exactly know. How she would get out of this body she didn’t know, either.
And then as suddenly as those thoughts came, the environment around her fell away and she was suddenly inside someone’s house. At least, she thought she was in someone’s home. She could see stairs. Someone was running down stairs.
“Go, Cassie!”
Her mother came into sight, and Vivienne watched in horror as a tracker cruelly jabbed a syringe into her mother’s neck. Evelyn’s eyes rolled back, and then her head fell forward.
No!
She saw the stairs again, and then the road, the overcast sky. She was Cassie. Somehow, she could see through her sister’s eyes. Her sister ran for the car, fumbling with the keys as she did so. Vivienne’s heart stopped.
Cassie was muttering all sorts of curses and Vivienne was chiming them in right with her. Someone grabbed Cassie, and her sister began a frantic fight that led to her escape. As Cassie ran, Vivienne felt her sister’s heartbeat like it was her own. She was tackled from behind, and with a strangled cry, went down. The breath was knocked from her body, but Cassie managed a low scream. Vivienne screamed as well. She felt a prick, as if someone had just stabbed her with a large needle, and then Cassie faded away and Vivienne lay on the dirt ground, a frantic Conall above her.
“Vivienne!” His hands were strong on her shoulders as he shook her.
She sat up quickly, barely even recognizing she was completely naked before the entire Cedar Creek community, and yes, all of their eyes were on her.
“Cassie!”
Chapter Sixteen
It took everything inside of him to concentrate on navigating his convertible through rush-hour New York traffic. The car was built for speed, which was why he was driving it, while his pack followed behind in the SUV. Still, his mind kept drifting to other things that had nothing to do with the road. And who could blame him? In the span of an hour, he’d found out that his mate was a werewolf, or could somehow access a wolf body, that his mate had either premonitions or visions, and that it was highly possible Maximilian Cronin’s covenant had just taken Vivienne’s mother and sister. Separately, any of those three things were worthy of scrutiny, but together, they made for a ball of chaotic thoughts.
For one, his mate was a wolf! Not that he had a problem with that, but how? He’d never smelled it on her before. When Samia had dragged her to the ground, her muzzle only inches away from Vivienne’s neck, Conall had fought his way through his betas. He refused to stand by and watch Vivienne die. Laws be damned. He would deal with the consequences later. He’d just managed to get past Sloan when he heard Vivienne scream. Immediately, his wolf had come to the surface, demanding to be released, as that scream signified pain. His change was quickly approaching when a bright light surrounded his mate, and in the next moment, a white wolf stood in her place. His wolf retreated briefly in the face of confusion, as Conall tried to wrap his mind around what should be impossible. The white wolf was Vivienne. He’d been able to smell her, and although the scent was slightly different due to the wolf nature, there was no doubt she was his mate, one and the same. And she’d fought with a grace and viciousness that made him proud, and sent his beast even wilder than before. If the beast was attracted to Vivienne the druid, he’d come close to obsession with Vivienne in wolf form.