CURSED LYCAN
The ritual chamber was massive. Circular, carved from black stone, lit by torches that cast dancing shadows on walls covered in ancient symbols. Fifty cages lined the perimeter. Each one held a prisoner—lycans and humans, all drugged, all waiting.
And in the center, on a raised platform, Emma hung unconscious in silver chains.
Valeria stood beside her. Dressed in ceremonial robes, hands raised, chanting in a language that made Sera's teeth ache.
She hadn't noticed them yet. Too focused on her ritual.
Sera moved first. Silent. Fast. Crossed half the distance to the platform before a guard spotted her.
"Intruders!"
Everything exploded into chaos.
Guards converged. Sera met them with blade and fury. Cut through the first two before they could draw weapons. Ducked under a third's swing, drove her knife up through his ribs.
Kael shifted. The beast erupted from his skin, all claws and rage. He tore through guards like they were paper. Protecting Sera's back. Clearing a path.
Marcus hung back, watching the entrances. "They're coming! More guards!"
"Then stop them!" Sera shouted.
She reached the platform. Started climbing. Valeria finally looked down.
And smiled.
"Right on time," she said.
The floor beneath Sera's feet glowed. Ancient symbols lighting up in sequence. She tried to move, but her legs wouldn't respond.
Paralysis magic. Different from Marcus's device. Older. Stronger.
"Did you really think I wouldn't anticipate this?" Valeria's laugh echoed through the chamber. "I've been planning this ritual for two years. Every variable accounted for. Including the desperate rescue attempt."
Kael roared. Charged the platform. Hit the same paralysis field Sera was stuck in. He went down hard, body seizing.
"Kael!" Sera fought the magic. Useless. It held her like iron chains.
Valeria descended from the platform. Walked around them slowly. "The blood bond. I can see it. Feel it. Such a beautiful connection. And so wonderfully exploitable."
She pulled something from her robes. A syringe. Filled with black liquid that seemed to writhe.
"This is concentrated corruption," Valeria explained. "One dose would turn a normal lycan in minutes. But for someone already cursed, someone already fighting the darkness." She looked at Kael. "It'll break you instantly. Turn you into the perfect weapon."
"Don't," Sera gasped. "Please. Don't do this."
"I have to. You understand. Progress requires sacrifice." Valeria crouched beside Kael. "Your death would waste your potential. But your corruption. Your enslavement. That creates something magnificent."
She raised the syringe.
An explosion rocked the chamber. The north wall collapsed. Thomas burst through, leading his corrupted lycans. They crashed into the guards like a tidal wave.
The paralysis field flickered.
Sera broke free. Launched herself at Valeria. They went down in a tangle of limbs. The syringe skittered away across the floor.
"You just don't know when to quit!" Valeria snarled.
"Family trait!" Sera drove her elbow into Valeria's face. Felt bone crunch. Valeria kicked her off. They separated, circling.
Around them, the battle raged. Thomas and his corrupted lycans fighting Valeria's guards and corrupted soldiers. Marcus had grabbed a weapon, was holding off three attackers at once.
And Kael. Kael was still down. Still paralyzed.
But his eyes were open. Aware. And they were changing colors. Silver to gold to black.
The full moon was rising.
"You feel it, don't you?" Valeria wiped blood from her mouth. "The moon's pull. It's stronger tonight. So much stronger." She smiled. "By the time this ritual completes, Kael will shift whether he wants to or not. And without medicine, without control, he'll kill everyone here. Including you."
"He won't."
"Love doesn't conquer curses, child. It just makes the breaking hurt more."
Valeria moved. Faster than any lycan should move. Her hand closed around Sera's throat, lifted her off the ground.
"I offered you a chance to walk away," Valeria said. "You should've taken it."
She threw Sera. Hard. Sera hit a pillar, felt ribs crack. Collapsed. Couldn't breathe.
Through the blood bond, she felt Kael's panic. His rage. His desperation.
And something else.
The curse. It was tearing through him. Fighting the paralysis. Fighting for control.
His body started changing. Bones cracking. Fur rippling. Growing.
"Yes!" Valeria laughed. "Yes! Give in to it!"
But Kael wasn't shifting into the beast.
He was shifting into the primal form. The first lycan. The ancient horror that had torn through Valeria's facility before.
Twelve feet of pure destruction rising from the paralysis field like a nightmare given flesh.
His eyes burned silver. Locked on Valeria.
She stopped laughing.
Kael charged.
Valeria barely dodged. His claws carved through the stone where she'd been standing. She rolled, came up with the black syringe in her hand.
"If I can't control you," she hissed, "I'll put you down!"
She lunged. Drove the syringe toward his chest.
A corrupted lycan intercepted. Thomas. He took the injection meant for Kael. The black liquid pumped into his system.
He screamed.
His body convulsed. The corruption that had been eating him slowly suddenly accelerated. His ice-blue eyes went black. His awareness—that last shred of humanity—shattered.
"No!" Sera gasped.
Thomas thrashed. Mindless. Lost. He attacked randomly. Hit two of his own corrupted lycans. Bit through a guard's arm.
Then he turned toward Emma.
Kael moved. Faster than anything that size should move. He got between Thomas and the platform. The two massive creatures collided.
It wasn't a fight. It was mutual destruction. Claws tearing. Teeth ripping. Blood everywhere.
And Kael was losing himself too. Sera could feel it through the bond. The curse eating his mind. The primal instincts taking over.
He was becoming the monster.
She had to reach him.
Sera forced herself up. Ribs screaming. Throat bruised. She stumbled toward the fight.
"Kael!" Her voice was hoarse. "Kael, listen to me!"
He didn't respond. Just kept tearing into Thomas with animal fury.
The blood bond. She could use it.
Sera closed her eyes. Focused on the connection between them. That string tying them together. She pulled on it. Hard.
Kael. Come back. Please. Come back to me.
For a moment, nothing.
Then his movements slowed. His head turned. Those burning silver eyes found her.
And she saw recognition. Just a flicker. But it was there.
That's it. Stay with me. Don't let the curse win.
He took a step toward her. Away from Thomas. Away from the violence.
"Impossible," Valeria breathed. "The primal form doesn't allow consciousness. Doesn't allow control."
"You don't know anything about him," Sera said. Still holding that connection. Still pulling Kael back from the edge. "You don't know what he can do. What we can do together."
Kael shifted. Slowly. Painfully. The primal form receding. His body shrinking back to the beast. Then further. Back to human.
He collapsed. Naked. Exhausted. But human.
And his eyes were silver. Clear. Aware.
"How—" Valeria stared.
"The bond," Marcus said. He'd fought his way to them, bleeding from a dozen cuts. "The blood bond is magic too. Old magic. It's countering the curse. Giving him an anchor."
"That's not possible!"
"Then you didn't do your research as well as you thought."
Valeria's face twisted with rage. "Fine. If I can't corrupt him, I'll just kill you all!"
She raised her hands. The symbols on the walls blazed. The ritual chamber itself was a weapon. And she was activating it.
"The ritual!" Marcus shouted. "She's completing it anyway! Using ambient magic instead of Kael's blood!"
The cages around the perimeter opened. The fifty prisoners stumbled out. Still drugged. Still disoriented.
And the corruption began.
Black veins spread across their skin. Their eyes went dark. Their bodies convulsed. Changing. Twisting.
In sixty seconds, Valeria would have fifty new corrupted soldiers.
"We have to stop the ritual!" Sera looked around desperately. "How?"
"Break the circle!" Marcus pointed to the symbols. "Disrupt the pattern!"
Sera ran. Grabbed a torch from the wall. Started smashing symbols. One. Two. Three.
Not enough. The ritual was too strong. Too far along.
Then Thomas moved.
He was barely conscious. Barely alive. The black corruption from the syringe was eating him from the inside. But he dragged himself toward the platform.
Toward Emma.
"No!" Sera screamed.
But Thomas wasn't attacking.
He was saving her.
He ripped the chains off Emma's unconscious form. Lifted her gently. Then he stumbled toward Sera.
"Run," he rasped. His voice was barely recognizable. "Take her. Run."
"Thomas—"
"No time." He pressed Emma into Sera's arms. "Tell Riley. Tell her I'm sorry. Sorry I couldn't save them. But I saved her daughter. That counts. Right?"
Tears burned Sera's eyes. "It counts. It counts so much."
Thomas smiled. Then he turned toward Valeria.
And charged.
He hit the platform at full speed. His massive corrupted body crashed through the support beams. The entire structure collapsed. Valeria tried to jump clear but wasn't fast enough.
The platform fell. Crushing her. Crushing Thomas.
The ritual shattered.
The symbols went dark. The fifty prisoners collapsed, unconscious but uncorrupted. The magic binding the chamber failed.
And Thomas. Thomas went still.
Finally at peace.
Sera held Emma tight. Her niece was breathing. Alive. Safe.
Around them, Valeria's guards were retreating. The corrupted lycans that had been Thomas's followers were dying too. Their bodies giving out. But they were smiling.
Free at last.
Marcus limped over. "We need to go. This place is collapsing."
He was right. Cracks spread across the walls. Stone falling. The entire facility was coming down.
Kael forced himself to stand. Sera handed Emma to Marcus. "Get her out. Now."
"What about you?"
"I'm getting Kael. Go!"
Marcus ran. Sera pulled Kael's arm over her shoulder. They stumbled toward the exit.
Behind them, a sound. Movement.
Valeria emerged from the rubble. Broken. Bleeding. But alive. Barely.
"This isn't over," she gasped. "I'll rebuild. I'll come back. I'll—"
A section of ceiling fell. Crushed her.
This time, she didn't get up.
Sera and Kael made it outside just as the facility collapsed completely. The ground shook. Dust and debris filled the air.
Then silence.
Marcus was waiting with Emma. She was waking up. Groggy but aware.
"Aunt Sera?" she mumbled.
"I'm here, baby. I'm here." Sera pulled her close. "You're safe now."
Kael collapsed beside them. "Did we. Did we win?"
"Yeah." Sera laughed. It came out half sob. "Yeah, we won."
Around them, the few surviving corrupted lycans from Thomas's group were dying peacefully. Finally released from their prison.
Marcus watched them with something that might have been regret. "I helped create them. All of them."
"Then help us make sure it never happens again," Sera said.
He nodded. "The files. The research. We burn all of it."
"Agreed."
Dawn broke over the ruined facility. The full moon faded. And Kael. Kael's eyes stayed silver. Clear. The curse had tried to take him.
But he'd come back.
Because of the bond.
Because of her.
"So," Kael said quietly. "The curse. The bond stopped it. Pulled me back."
"Looks like," Sera said.
"Does that mean—"
"I don't know. Maybe. We'll figure it out." She squeezed his hand. "Together."
Emma stirred. Looked at Kael. "You're the lycan. The one Aunt Sera talks about in her sleep."
Sera's face went red. "I do not—"
"You totally do," Marcus said. Grinning despite everything.
Kael actually smiled. "I like her already."
They made camp a mile from the ruins. Too exhausted to go further. Emma fell asleep against Sera. Marcus kept watch. And Kael.
Kael lay beside Sera, their hands intertwined.
"Thank you," he whispered. "For not giving up on me."
"Never." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "We're bonded, remember? You're stuck with me."
"I can think of worse fates."
They fell asleep as dawn painted the sky gold and red. Two warriors who'd fought impossible odds.
And won.