Zola Flash (The Zola Flash Series Book 1) Read Free

heart-weakened, pathetic, and he only laughs. “Your turn, Victian Princess,” he says, grabbing me a second time.
    I want to run, but with the Payohlini blocking the exits, there’s no place to run to.  It doesn’t stop my body from bracing, though, but before I can act, Rican yanks me closer. So close our body touch, like a father smothering his little girl, to keep her from growing up. So close, I’m unable to jerk away.
    “No! Let me go!” I kick at him while screaming and pleading. “Please, let me go!”
    “You wanted this.”
    I thump my fists against his chest over and over. As hurt as I am, I’m even more infuriated. All I can think about is killing. Killing everyone in the room.
    Rican’s hands suddenly drop from my body as if burned.
    The other males in the room back away from me, as if defeated by my wailing.
    I stare at them, the alarm in their expressions, wondering what just happened, what’s going on … until I catch a flash of white in my periphery and realize I’m surrounded by a full-bodied mane.
    What had been my flowing, pale hair has expanded into an impressive halo of white strands. My manicured fingernails have grown into claws. Against the underside of my lips, my teeth are razor-sharp.
    Panic engulfs me, setting my pulse soaring, as I try to take in the transformation, what’s happening to me—what I’ve become.
    I’m an animal?

Chapter Four
    I SNARL AT THE petrified men and leap over the crowd, feeling every bit as terrified as they probably are.
    Bursting out from the enclosed space, I race down the corridor, and with each step I take, I become aware of the ever-sharpening of my hearing.
    “I thought they were all dead,” a distant voice says. “I ordered you to kill all of the shape-shifters.”
    “I didn’t know she was a shape-shifter,” says another. “She’s a child.”
    “I don’t care. Find her and end her!”
    Shaper-shifter?
    No.
    Tears run between the fur that has grown over my face.
    Erupting from the building takes me back into the cold rains of my war-torn planet.
    I glance upward at a sky altered by ashes and smoke, and I know I will have my revenge on the Payohlini.
    If it takes me my whole life, they will pay.
    * * *
    As I run farther and farther from the building of death, pain makes an indent in the pit of my stomach. It is way more painful than when I was bitten by a glumunk as a child, clenching as though forced by gripping fists, twisting as though tortured.
    I fall to the ground, clutching my stomach, and lay on the slushy ground in a painful ball of fur. Death would be a much better feeling than this.
    Right as a familiar sensation washes over me, a dark shadow approaches, until someone in dark, hammered battle armor stands over me.
     

Chapter Five
    I AWAKE TO BRIGHT lights, directed right at me, and a surrounding silence. The pain in my stomach is gone, and a quick body search with my fingers tells me I look as I did before. Back to normal, with long flowing white hair and skin without fur.
    From the unmade, black bunks and green lights lining the walls of the room, I presume I’m in a spaceship. I start to rise but something holds me put, and my gaze darts to the side, where it lands on the body I’m pressed against. A body dressed in dark battle armor. A body with perfect cheekbones, and eyes I realize I recognize.
    Gasping, I crawl off his lap and across the room away.
    The male slowly walks to me, but I pat the ground for ammo and throw whatever my hands touch at his approach.
    “Calm down, Zola.” Holding his hands up to ward off my thrown missiles, he continues coming. “Just calm down and, please, stop.”
    “Why would I, when I awaken in the arms of an enemy?” I snap at him.
    “Calm down, settle yourself! I could have left you on the filthy, wet ground, but, instead, I brought you here! You should be thanking me!” He barks back.
    “Thank you? I would never thank a Payohlini!” My gaze searches for the ship’s exit, and