AMAZING GRACE BOOK 1 of 3: Grace The Runt

This story has heavy themes of emotional manipulation and psychological abuse of children by narcissistic parents. If this is a trigger for you, skip to book 2.

NEW KURT 2035

The hospital room had never been more crowded in all the years Freya had been the doctor for New Kurt. Pretty much all the high-rankers were crowded around Lyle's bed. Only those who had weak stomachs for torture stayed away.

Despite the strong auras surrounding her, Freya’s eyes were fixed upon one individual. Olive. The most dangerous sorceress on the planet was wearing all twenty of her rings as she stood to the side, cocooned in the warm embrace of her mate.

Freya never understood this. How could they let her in there, within their circle of trust? Didn’t they know how lethal she was? Didn’t Max tell everyone that Olive could pulverise them all with a single flick of her fingers with just five of her rings?

Freya cleared her throat and pushed down the fear creeping along her body like a cold chill on a winter night. That chill got colder and went deeper every time she was about to do this. Every time she was about to ‘kill’ the descendent of Anya…..again and again.

“How long do you need me to set the timer for?” Gio’s voice brought her back to the task at hand and out of the dark abyss of fear her mind tended to fall into lately. The past few weeks had shaken her to her core, making her agonise over her decisions and question her actions. And she wanted the excruciating internal conflict to be over.

She gave Gio a small reassuring nod. “One minute,” she answered in a shaky voice, feeling grateful. By now, Gio knew exactly how long they needed to stop Lyle’s heart. He was asking the question for her benefit. To ensure that she stayed focused on the task at hand and not on the bigger picture….. if they failed to revive Lyle for some reason or if he didn’t see the future like he did every time his heart stopped, all of them were as good as dead.

Forcing her trembling hands to keep a firm hold on the syringe, she stepped forward.

“Ready?” She asked as a formality.

Of course, they were ready. They had gone through this over and over again, losing a part of their spirits for doing this to someone so dear to them all. But despite the trepidation everyone felt, Lyle was insistent that he wanted to do this to help them win the war. Even though his family and Old Queen Chloe had reservations about this method, they had given in to Lyle’s request, out of their love for him.

Freya moistened her lips and looked eagerly at the faces of those in the room, in the hope that someone would suggest that this was insane, that they needed to accept their fate and stop. Precognitive or not, killing a wolf and reviving him again and again was downright cruel. Especially when day after day, all he saw was their desecration and deaths.

“Get on with it, Freya,” Lyle snapped from where he lay, hooked up to wires and tubes. Every life he had lived had been followed by immense loss, grief and……defeat. But Lyle had stayed strong. After the lifetimes he had seen, his eyes had become weary and his nightmares more heart-wrenching. But despite the horrors he had seen, his spirit hadn’t broken. At least not yet.

Every time he woke up, he would explain the war in great detail to everyone around him and they would find a way to avoid the high death toll and somehow….win. Somehow, survive the supernatural war of their generation. By using some new tactic, figure out how they could use the Violet Wolf to their advantage. But so far, every battle plan had resulted in their deaths and the victory of their arch-enemy despite the harrowing ordeal they had been putting Lyle through.

Queen Kaya sniffled somewhere behind her, startling Freya. She was taking these ‘killing’ sessions the hardest and Freya reflexively looked up till her eyes met Nikki’s. The stunning female looked helpless for a moment, torn between keeping her children alive and shielding her mate from immeasurable distress and agony.

How was she letting her mate go through this? He was going to live another life again and die again till they found a way to win the war but that would also mean he would deal with grief and loss again and again and experience death again and again.

And yet, Freya had been outvoted by Nikki when she argued that the trauma could break Lyle’s spirit. That he would lose his mind if they kept pushing him. But right now, all Nikki and Lyle cared about was saving their children.

Freya hoped that Nikki would gain some sense of guilt and stop her. But Nikki’s face hardened as she grabbed onto Lyle’s hand. The determination on her face stumped Freya. Their mate bond was so strong that Lyle’s death could mean Nikki’s death too but there was no way that Nikki wasn’t going to stand beside her mate.

Freya drew in a deep breath as she repeated in her head. ‘It’s the only way, it’s the only way.’ Over and over, she focused on the mantra that Lyle had been constantly drilling into all their heads while attempting to find a way to survive.

She found a vein and got the tip of the needle in before she gritted her teeth and pushed the plunger of the syringe to empty the lethal contents into Lyle’s blood.

The mighty Lyle of Kamer, wordlessly closed his eyes, receiving death with open arms as the machine hooked up to him gave a long beep. Gio immediately started the timer and as soon as the minute was up…..Freya had the defibrillator paddles going.

This was the part that was hardest for her. The day before, it took them six attempts to get him back, and she knew that any day now, their luck would run out, and Lyle would be lost to them. So she prayed to the goddess and kept going.

As expected, nothing happened with the first five.

Freya had hopes for the sixth, yet…nothing. But as soon as she shocked his heart the seventh time…Lyle’s eyes snapped open.

But he didn’t move and his face was looking….pained.

Freya felt her stomach drop. She recognised that look. He looked like someone who had lost everything.

Lyle slowly blinked as he registered where he was and tears poured out of his eyes, shocking everyone. What the hell? In all these weeks, he had woken up defeated and tired but never cried. What could have done this to him? Before anyone could question him, he hugged Nikki close…and wailed. Like a child, the mighty warrior, the descendent of Anya and the wolf who could save their race from becoming extinct, bawled his eyes out.

“Lyle? What happened?” The worried Old Queen was by his side, trying to coax him to spill what he saw. “Did we lose again?”

Lyle stopped sobbing to catch his breath and shook his head. “No. We won… this time, we won the war…our children survive….but…..”

Then he stilled as his tears stopped.

A loud growl erupted from him, and Lyle went into a half-shift. He turned and glared at Grace with such loathing that Grace’s horrified face fell, and she took a step back. Luna Grace was their strongest warrior after the King and Queen Kaya, not to mention the only wolf who commanded the utmost loyalty and respect from Lyle. So the next words he spoke, baffled them.

“You!” Lyle continued to growl in his grisly half-shift voice. “You fucking runt! I should have killed you the first time I saw you.”

What?!

Everyone was too shocked to move as Lyle shifted into his wolf, sending the medical equipment crashing into the ground when he unexpectedly lunged for Luna Grace’s neck. He was in a perfect position to deliver a bite that would have ended the Luna’s life….

But before Lyle’s wolf teeth could reach his target, a loud command echoed through the room.

“FORGET!”

Lyle fell to the floor in a daze as everyone stood around his stunned wolf, taking in what had happened. They had found a way to win….but at what cost? What action of Luna Grace could dampen the joy of victory to such an extent that Lyle wanted her dead?

Olive turned to Freya and scowled, “Don’t do it again, his mind will break and he will go feral.” Freya didn’t need to be told twice, this command was all that she had needed. She nodded eagerly as Olive walked up to Grace.

The Hydutay Luna was staring at Lyle’s wolf with widened, unblinking eyes. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. Like the rest of them.

“Grace?” Olive spoke very softly as she made Luna Grace look up and meet her eyes. Olive gently placed a hand on her shoulder and whispered.

“I’m sorry, Grace. But we need you to sit out the war.”