The All Consuming: A Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 4)
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Authors: May Ellis Daniels
ABLE
OF
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ONTENTS
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The All Consuming
Pureblood Predator MC
Book 4
May Ellis Daniels
C
OPYRIGHT
© 2015 May Ellis Daniels
All rights reserved.
The All Consuming
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events portrayed in this story are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, shared, down-loaded, compiled, stored, or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.
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HAPTER
O
NE
A
ARON
I
PRESS
MY
nose against the iron bars of my cage and survey a land beyond life. A land without color, of muted greys and dull blacks. A windless desert, the air so still and stifling it makes my hackles rise. Rolling black sand dunes stretch to the edge of this world. A pale sun offers little light and no heat. An unnatural, twilight sun that never moves from its noon position in the grey sky.
The Bloodless Land.
A world of ghosts, spirits and specters.
I raise my head to the sky and howl. The sound echoes in my stone cell, and soon other voices join mine. Screeches and howls and roars.
Our cries are the only sign of life in this land.
Purebloods trapped in the Cliff of Cages.
Caught between life and death.
There’s a thousand feet of empty air beneath my cage. The Dog God places his captives up high, so we can see the barren desert stretching to the horizon and be reminded of what we’ve lost.
The freedom to hunt and roam.
Across a flat plain a mile wide, hemmed in by moon-like rubble, is the Dog God’s palace. It’s constructed of black and grey stone. The palace’s turrets rise hundreds of feet into the sky. I imagine the Dog God roaming those empty halls. The loneliness. He rules supreme in this land. But for what purpose? Does his rule bring him joy? Happiness?
No. I’m certain it doesn’t.
I retreat from the iron bars, my claws scratching against the stone floor. Soon I’m pacing in a frenzied circle. The floor is nicked and gouged from eons of former prisoners doing what I am: pacing, nurturing their hunger and hatred, hoping to one day be free.
They say you don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. The memories are vague. Soon they’ll vanish completely, subsumed by my wolfmind. But for now I remember. Not specifics. Just feelings.
My freedom. My bloodmate. My MC.
My fucking
Harley
.
All taken from me when I rushed to save my bloodmate from the First Fallen’s pole-pyramid trap. But the truth is I wanted this death.
My son is out there in this lifeless land.
My unborn child.
I want to scent him. Maybe even
hold
him.
Only once. Before I die again, trying to free him.
***
Rabid barking pierces the air.
I slink to the far end of the cell, promising myself I will not watch the Dog God feed on my kind.
Soon the barking becomes so loud it pains my ears. I snarl and spit and growl, the sound maddening me. I try to remember how long it’s been since I’ve tasted a Stricken’s black blood. Time has no meaning here. Only the Dog God feeds.
Hackles raised, I stalk to the bars and peer out.
A great pack of wild dogs has assembled in the desert. Spotted black and tan, with large upright ears and narrow snouts and mouths lined with sharp teeth, so many the desert beneath the Cliff of Cages is obscured with their frantic fighting and running and barking.
A lion roars from the cell beside mine.
More dogs sprint across the desert to join their pack. They arrive from all directions, in packs of dozens and hundreds.
The barking grows louder.
The lion’s pacing his cage. I hear his claws clicking.
Sometimes the Dog God carries my son to observe the feed. I’d give anything to see my boy. My life? I’d give that twice, without hesitation.
Let it be me
, I think.
Let it be me the Dog God chooses to free.
From the cell beside mine, a metal door opens with a slow grinding sound. The lion looses a tremendous roar when he realizes he’s been summoned. Disappointment flickers through me. I hear the lion leap from the cage and hurry through the maze of tunnels leading down to the desert floor.
I peer down. The dog pack has gathered around the base of the mountain, and as I watch two of the dogs merge together, then a third, then a fourth. The dogs become a blurred mass of shifting fur and fang, and moments later the Dog God stands among his rabid pack, a creature with a man’s body and the narrow face of a Doberman.
All around me, from every cell in the Cliff of Cages, a cry of hatred and bloodlust rises up as captives glimpse captor.
The Dog God raises his arms. Flashes a toothy smile.
He lives for the feeding ceremony.
Hatred churns in my gut. This creature. The only thing that stands between me and my unborn son—
Far below, on the desert floor, a massive iron gate is being lifted. The rabid dogs fall back, opening a half circle around the gate. The dogs focus their attention on the gate. A sea of rabid death, suddenly quiet at the Dog God’s invisible command. The sand is stained black with dried blood from previous feeds.
The lion from the cell beside me rushes from the Cliff of Cages and faces his captives. The Dog God doesn’t say a word, simply lifts his finger toward the lion and nods.
The rabid pack pounces.
The proud lion murders the first of his enemies, but he’s hopelessly outnumbered, and soon the ravenous pack smothers over him.
The lion’s roars are swiftly silenced.
***
A while later the door in the cell beside mine slides open and another prisoner enters. My nose fills with the acrid reek of ash and smoke and blood.
The prisoner smells familiar.
A growl escapes my lips.
“The Dog God has a rather perverse sense of humor,” a voice says in a raspy, insectile voice. “It’s been a long while, Aaron of the Mountain River.”
I can’t see the speaker. A foot of rock separates us.
But I
know
him.
Vuk. The fucking First Fallen.
My ancient, wildborn enemy.
I resist the urge to throw myself against the stone wall in an attempt to smash it down. Redness throbs behind my eyes. To have my prey so close and be unable to murder him is torture. Which is why he’s here.
“Lily followed you to this land of imprisonment and starvation,” Vuk says. “My beloved fool of a sister killed herself for you and that mixed-blood whelp of yours. Drove herself off a cliff. She has a flair for the dramatic.”
Lily? It can’t be.
He’s toying with me. He has to be. I saw her escape the collapsing pyramid in the fire-ravaged gymnasium. I pushed her out of harm’s way.
He’s lying.
I’m pacing again, forward and back, desperate for somewhere to unleash this pent up rage. Then I pause. Every instinct in my wolf screams at me not to speak to him, and for now I listen to to my gut and stay silent.
“We’re not so different, you and I,” Vuk says. There’s a sly smile in his voice. “The only difference is…
honesty
. I’m more honest about what I want and who I am. I make no attempt to hide my predator’s wildborn spirit. My
alpha
spirit. But you? You’ve spent eons hiding what you really are.”
Suddenly my spine snaps and my claws retract and I’m lying on the cold floor in human form. Vuk’s power is unmatched, even here. He banished my animal. Put me in this human skin.
“What am I?” I ask before I can stop myself.
“A killer.”
A killer. Yes. I am a killer. Vuk is right.
An apex predator. The One We Answer To.
The Pureblood destined to lead his species into the One War.
“Even our final aim is similar.”
“Bullshit,” I scowl. “You rape. Torture. Maim. Murder. For sport and pleasure. You’re a sick fuck. A mistake in natural law.”
Vuk laughs. The sound is like a swarm of locusts descending on a field. “Have you considered you might be wrong? No. You’re many things, Aaron, but you’re not much of a thinker. Perhaps I
am
natural law. I do what is necessary to achieve the ultimate aim of survival. I do what is required of a
true
apex alpha. I eradicate threats to my pack. Ruthlessly and without remorse.”
Vuk approaches the iron bars where our two cells meet. One of his razor forelegs waves in the space outside the cage. He’s taunting me. “I am what you want to be, Aaron. A true alpha predator.”
“Being an alpha is more than being feared. My brother taught me that.”
“Our means may differ. Our end is the same: survival. The triumph of our species and the extinction of those who threaten us. That end justify’s any means.”
“You’re wrong. You don’t give a fuck about your pack or your species. You care only for yourself.”
“I’m selfish. I admit. In fact, I take pride in it. Selfishness is
virtue
. By acting in my own best interests I’m acting in the best interests of my pack. What raises me raises my pack. The stronger I become…well. Even a halfwit like you understands.”
“You crave power above all.”
“I
need
power above all. And because of that survival instinct, my pack has power…over you and the Skins and all the rest who oppose us.”
I think back on my old life. The Skins I butchered. How many times did I wish the corrupted, polluting, wasteful Skins would fucking vanish? How many times did I think of their extinction?
“We
will
defeat you,” I say, not really believing it.
“Open your eyes, Aaron. You’ve already lost.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “Bullshit. If that were true you wouldn’t be here, trapped in the Dog God’s cage. You’d be free to roam and terrorize the living.”
Vuk pauses for a long while, then says, “Is there a word for males who use a female to bear them offspring? Is there a word for males who…
share
their female?”
My blood chills. I should never have spoken to him. The One Without Value. Every word a poison. Now it’s too late. I need to know. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I suppose it wasn’t really
sharing
, was it? Because until now…until
I
told you…you didn’t know. Oh, maybe you suspected. But know? I doubt that very much. I doubt even a man of your…boundless moral fortitude could overlook the fact that his bloodmate had already bedded her brother, the First Fallen.”