8. Baser Instincts

Sona’s veins flooded with ice.
Arden and Artem’s heads whipped around to stare. In their arms was Amaris’ now-still body. Their faces were bleak with horror. 
Sona strained to hear the Luna’s heartbeat, but there were too many in the room to distinguish hers. They were all beating too hard, too fast, and her own was throbbing in her ears like a frantic war drum. 
But she was rooted to the spot. *Where’s my healer’s instinct? Why aren’t you running to help her, damn it?! Run, Sona Mai, run!*
No one else moved—until Vallea screamed at the four Epsilon guards stationed in the room, “What are you waiting for? Arrest her! Protect the Alpha!”
They hesitated. The order wasn’t from the Alpha himself, the only one they would obey at this moment. Arden yelled, “No, don’t!”
Arguing came from outside the main doors before they burst open—Conri. “I was walking by and heard shouting. What’s going on—”
His eyes found Sona’s first, as if a mate’s attention would always find the other’s. She opened her mouth but no sound came out. Then it was drawn to his family on the floor, where it paused in disbelief. Then back to Sona—then to Vallea, who pointed to Sona and cried desperately, “She poisoned the Luna!”
Next to Sona, Raff started to cry.
Sometimes Sona thought Conri was closer to Amaris than her own son. He loved her, was indebted to her for saving his life, and… Sona watched the thought process in his eyes, flitting through every emotion and possibility, trying to understand, to fight through his confusion…before coming to a cold conclusion.
Terrible dread flooded her veins—raw, crippling fear she’d never felt before. His name came out in a hopeless croak. “Conri—” 
The Gamma Conri Grayhide commanded calmly, “Arrest Sona Mai for the murder of Luna Amaris Roshan.”
Ten words and a voice like a vengeful god was all it took for everything to happen at once. 
Conri moved quietly to Amaris. 
The Epsilon lurched toward Sona—Arden, too, shouting, “No! Sona!” but he was slammed to the ground by one of them.
Her body locked, and that stupid cowardly instinct gave her grandfather time to move in front of her as if his frail frame could be a shield.
The guards had no mercy on the healer who served the Alpha’s family for over a decade—they shoved Auryn aside as if he weighed nothing, and Sona watched him fall as if underwater—slow, where gravity’s rules seemed nonexistent. But the sound was not muted or peaceful.
She was forced to move—not toward her grandfather, but toward the Roshan family. Auryn would want her to tend to them first before worrying about his well-being. “I can heal her!” she screamed as she veered away from the Epsilon. They were all massive; they could crush her bones easily if they were told to.
But she was light on her feet. She danced around and between them, each step taking her further away from her fallen grandfather and wailing son. 
I have to get to her.
*I have to get to Amaris—*
“It’s too late.” Conri’s voice boomed through the room. It was like it froze time.
Sona stumbled. A second of hesitation—and two arms locked around her. Caught.
“She’s dead. Get her out of my sight. Take Auryn too.”
*Dead.*
*She’s dead.* 
*Amaris is…dead?*
Sona’s ears started to ring.
“This is foolishness,” Auryn shouted in a rasp, breaking the silence. Sona whirled, a cry on her lips, to find him being hoisted up between two Epsilon, *dragging* him as he struggled weakly. “Come to your damn senses, Grayhide—”
“Shut him up.”
The guard brought his fist into Auryn’s gut. He went limp. Sona’s scream scraped her throat raw. She writhed like a beached fish, kicking her legs and trying to pull free. “No!”
“Mama! Da!”
Raff’s sobs lit up her terror like a flame to oil. She thrashed harder. “Raff! *Raff*! Let me go—please, please, my son—*Conri!”*
Arden was shouting over her. “Conri! Call them off! Sona didn’t do this! Epsilon, I command you—”
“Quiet, son!” Artem’s bark felt like a slap. “She faces trial first.”
Her heart was breaking. She was fighting like the beast she was born to be, but the Epsilon were carrying her away, and with a new flood of horror she couldn’t see any of her family anymore—just the doors that groaned open into the hall.
“No,” she wept. “No. Arden!”
She heard grunting, some kind of struggle, and footsteps crashing closer—then bodies hitting the floor.
The orange evening light from the windows within went out when the doors slammed shut behind her, dousing the corridor in darkness.
She wanted to go weak with despair as the shouting grew distant. Her head lolled to the side—to Auryn, her frail grandfather, unconscious. Her throat couldn’t utter another sound. But she heard others.
Raff was screaming—for her.
No. *Not my family, you bastards. Fuck this*. 
The beast within her roared. The werewolf erupted from despair, its strength flooding every muscle and bone in her body, and she wanted to tear them limb from limb.
Sona snarled—her entire being rattled with it—and threw everything she had into ripping free. Her nails lengthened to claws, her elongating teeth piercing her lip as she gnashed them down on the closest flesh—a hand. The Epsilon yowled and released her. She twisted and launched herself at the other male, swiping her talons across his face. Warm blood sprayed into her mouth and eyes. 
 Another hand grabbed her hair and pulled her off with one powerful yank. She whirled before arms could lock around her and used hers to slash her claws deep across his throat. Her vision went red.
Her bloodthirst was a monster of its own.
And then knuckles slammed into her spine. Agony rocked through her body. 
She reeled around—right into that fist.
Everything went black.