Amanda, Swiftfang whispered, sit down on the throne. I can harness the power from there, and make everything well once more.
The once-proud warrior felt utterly defeated. She had no more been able to save the women of the Lake than she had herself. Drearily, she loped toward the natural stone steps, taking them slowly. Her features melted away a bit more with each step, with each second of exposure to the Center’s power, until there was almost nothing left of herself. She bore a full lupine muzzle, with three rows of teats, just as the Queen desired. She would never be human again.
Sit down.
She obeyed, slowly turning around on the top step. All she had to do was sit, to rest. It sounded so inviting, to end her struggle once and for all.
It is time, Amanda. Now!
She saw in her mind, the last glimmering memory of herself as a human, being slowly molded into Caitlin’s last human memory.
“Yes…it’s time…”
Then she became once more aware of the cylinder in her hand.
“To end it all!”
Amanda poured her remaining willpower into her muscles, willed her motor reflexes into bringing the bomb up and over her head. It collided with the jagged peak of the throne, shattering the glass rods and spraying the silver nitrate over woman and rock.
Amanda and Swiftfang did not even have time to scream. The particles of poison warped the moonlight away, left the throne bare and lifeless. Streams of silver leaked across the cold stone, warping grooves and cracks into the carving, allowing passage inside. The throne of power crumbled to debris within seconds, finally blasting itself to nothingness in an explosion of white force that spread throughout the Lake, first vaporizing Amanda and Caitlin into their respective oblivions.
The moon began a rapid descent in the face of such devastation, drawing fearful whimpers from the werewolves who gazed upon it. The light loomed across the horizon, slashing through the night and the girls. They felt themselves being restored, the males and females returned to their true selves, fur and claws and tails receding, erasing themselves from their genetic code as their memories of being anything but human leeched from their minds.
It covered all it needed to in seconds, settling across the sky in a glorious sunset. It was Wolf Lake’s first true morning, the first of many its human population would savor.
END.