The Revolt

The fever lasted for three days.

Jade existed in a fugue state of agony. She felt her femur snap and knit back together. She felt her jaw dislocate. She felt her fingernails splitting as keratin claws pushed from the nail beds.

She hallucinated. She saw concerts where the audience was a pack of wolves howling for her blood. She saw gold records melting into cages.

When she woke, she was lying on the furs in the corner of the den.

The pain was gone. In its place was a buzzing, electric energy. Her hearing was excruciatingly sharp. She could hear the hum of the refrigerator upstairs. She could hear a beetle crawling in the dirt three feet away.

She sat up. Her body felt different. Heavier. Dense.

She looked at her hand. Her nails were thick, yellowed, and sharp.

"You survived," Vera’s voice came from the stairs.

Jade looked up.

Vera was descending, carrying a bowl of water. She looked exhausted but triumphant.

"I knew you were strong," Vera said, smiling. "The Alpha blood took. You are one of us now."

Jade looked at Vera.

She didn't feel gratitude. She didn't feel the pack bond Vera had promised.

She felt hunger. And she felt rage. A pure, predatory rage that had nothing to do with pop songs or press releases.

"Water," Jade rasped. Her voice was a growl.

Vera knelt, offering the bowl. "Drink."

Jade leaned forward. She smelled the water. Then she smelled Vera.

She smelled the arrogance. The control. The theft of her life.

Jade didn't drink. She lunged.

The attack was clumsy, feral. Jade knocked the bowl aside and tackled Vera.

Vera fell back, surprised. "Jade! Control it!"

Jade didn't want control. She wanted to tear.

She clawed at Vera’s face, leaving deep, red furrows. Vera roared, throwing Jade off. Vera was bigger, more experienced. She shifted partially, her eyes glowing amber, her teeth lengthening.

"Submit!" Vera commanded, using her Alpha voice. It hit Jade like a physical blow, vibrating in her chest.

But Jade wasn't a wolf born of tradition. She was a monster born of trauma.

She grabbed a shard of the broken crutch from the floor.

Vera lunged, expecting a throat-hold submission.

Jade drove the aluminum shard upward.

It pierced the soft tissue under Vera’s jaw, driving up into the brain.

Vera froze. Her amber eyes widened. She looked at Jade, not with anger, but with a sudden, dawning realization.

She slumped forward, heavy and dead, onto Jade’s chest.

Jade pushed the body off. She stood up, panting. She looked at her bloody hands. She looked at the dead woman who had loved her too much.

"Contract terminated," Jade whispered.

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