Page 95 of Monster's Obsession

That fucking bitch. It shouldn’t surprise me, but even this was low for the cunt. My breath shuddered, my rational brain screaming for me to tell the others, to warn them. But who’d believe a worm like me?

I slammed my fist to my head to shut off my thoughts.

Heavy footfalls grew louder, and I jerked my attention to find them both coming my way.

Panicked, I frantically threw myself down the hall and into a side corridor. Flat back to the wall, I didn’t make a sound, didn’t breathe. My ears were alert, and I listened to her pushing him out the back door and instructing Captain Vero to get them out safely and fast.

By the time she returned to the throne room, I went after her in silence, only to spy Steele entering the throne room.

Fuck. Shit timing.

I waited in the shadows outside the room and kept checking over my shoulder, not even hearing their discussion with how loud my heart thumped in my ears. But when he strolled out, I made my move and entered the room silently so she wouldn’t see me.

My nerve endings were all twitchy, my brain popping with adrenaline.

What she proposed was treason. Killing my brothers, and the rest of Wyld.

I stalked her, my head not my own, but one made of fury and retribution. I was going to do the right thing, no matter the cost.

I learned a long time ago that the only person I could rely on in life was me. So I slid along the walls in my shadow form, slipping unnoticed, as the queen dropped into her throne, laughing maniacally.

The sound grated on my nerves. It brought back the hundreds of times she’d hurt me. The memories of her refusing to heal Seven after his torture. When she purposefully hurt Ash by placing things in his path so he tripped and lost confidence in being blind. To mocking Steele, and even undermining her king, Creed, by cheating on him and planning his death.

My blade gripped tight in my grasp, I heaved for breath, rage building inside me.

She had her back to me in her seat, and I lunged forward.

I sliced through the room, and all I heard in my head was her voice.

Worm. Worm. Worm. Worthless worm.

I hurled myself up and over the back of her throne.

One hand grabbed a fistful of hair, wrenching her head back, my blade biting into her throat.

Her eyes shot up with surprise in the exact same moment that I crouched on the back of her seat.

“Worm,” she growled, the slight prick of magic already slipping over my skin, but I didn’t give her the chance to hurt me.

She'd had too many already.

“You’ve got to ask yourself, why didn't you see this coming, bitch?” I aggressively swiped my knife across her throat. Blood splashed down her body, and I didn’t stop at one. I hacked a few more times until her head lopped right off.

“Die, you fucking bitch, because I’m making sure you can’t come back.”

But in a blur, something huge rushed across the room and slammed into me, throwing me off the throne, the queen’s head slipping out of my grasp. It went flinging somewhere in the room.

I hit the floor with a grunt, the blade falling from my grip.

Seconds was all it took for me to come face-to-face with Captain Vero. He roared in my face, fury bleeding behind his eyes, and he went wild on me. Punching, hitting, biting…but I wasn’t the worm anymore.

Not now. And not ever again.

She was gone.

I sure as fuck wouldn’t let this bastard ruin the good I’d finally done for this city. One day, everyone would see the queen for who she really was. They’d cheer that I killed her, thank me for removing the virus from the city’s lifeline.

So I did what any hero would: I kneed the prick in the balls and shoved him off me. And then I scrambled to grab my blade.