Chapter 10
The fortress smelt of cold stone and blood. Not recent blood—old, settled in the cracks of the walls, in the carved wooden beams, in the very air that Lucien commanded like a living thing. Every breath I took felt heavier than the last. The chains around my wrists were gone, but I had learnt quickly that the mark on my skin was far worse.
It pulsed, searing, and every beat carried Lucien with it. His presence wasn't just around me anymore—it was me, lodged into my nerves, threading fire into my veins. I could feel his anger before I saw him, a tremor in the air that made the hair on my arms rise.
He appeared at the doorway, his silhouette sharp against the dim torchlight. Lucien Blackfang, the Beast Alpha, feared and worshipped across territories. He moved like a shadow made flesh, slow and deliberate, every step an unspoken threat.
"I told you to stay put," he said, voice low, rumbling like distant thunder.
"I'm fine," I lied automatically, though my knees quivered, my chest burnt, and the mark pulsed violently under my shirt.
He stepped closer, the heat of him making the air warp. "You can't," he growled. "Not here. Not ever. Not to me."
I flinched instinctively, but I refused to step back. The chains were gone, but the cage hadn't. The fortress wasn't just stone and iron—it was him. And I had no choice but to walk into the storm he carried.
"You're… too much," he hissed. His eyes burnt gold, flickering with something I didn't want to name. "Do you understand what you do to me?"
I swallowed hard. "No. I don't—"
"You do," he interrupted, stepping closer, so close I could see the heat rising along his jaw, the twitch of his muscles. The mark flared, reacting to his nearness, twisting sharp pain through my ribs and thighs. My teeth clenched. My nails dug into my palms.
I wanted to pull away. I wanted to hide. But the bond refused to let me. It had a life of its own now, unrelenting, as if it had been waiting for this exact moment to claim us both.
The hallway was silent except for our breathing—his slow, dangerous rhythm and my ragged and uneven one. The air thickened, and I could feel the pack stirring somewhere beyond these walls. Wolves who had learnt fear from his roar and loyalty from his command. But even they couldn't anticipate what was about to happen.
A soft click echoed. I froze.
Selene.
She stepped out from the shadows, black silk hugging her like liquid night. Her eyes were sharp, glinting with the thrill of cruelty, her smile cold and confident. She didn't run; she never did. She wanted this—to see me fall.
The mark pulsed hotter. My stomach twisted. I wanted to move, to escape, but Lucien's hand shot out, gripping my wrist with enough force to bruise bone.
"Do not move," he warned, voice low but trembling with barely contained fury. "Do not let her touch you."
I tried to pull free, but the bond tightened. Pain shot through me like lightning—his anger, his fear, his desire, all of it colliding in one impossible force. The mark burnt. My teeth clenched. My vision blurred with tears I refused to shed.
Lucien's lips pressed into a hard line. He didn't let go, and I realised—I didn't want him to. The paradox twisted me in ways I couldn't explain, a pull between survival and surrender.
Selene's blade glinted under the torchlight. She didn't hesitate. She moved with the grace of a predator, confident and precise.
Lucien reacted before I could. He lunged like a storm breaking against stone. Every movement was calculated violence. His hand slammed into hers, knocking the weapon sideways. Sparks of anger and tension flew through the room like shards of glass.
"Run!" he barked at me.
I stumbled, tripping over my own legs. Pain lanced down my back and through my chest. The mark flared again, wild, unmanageable.
"I… can't—" I whispered, voice breaking.
"You will," he said, jaw tight, eyes aflame. "Because I cannot survive losing you to her. Not now. Not ever."
The words hit harder than his grip. Not for him, not for me—the bond, the connection we both fought, reacted violently. Pain lanced through my veins. My vision flickered with flashes of him—anger, desperation, desire, all twisted together, impossible to separate.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to run.
But I could not.
And then Selene moved again, faster, more precise. She slashed with the blade, aiming not at me, not directly, but to test boundaries, to see if Lucien would falter.
He didn't.
But he lost something else—control.
The Beast Alpha's temper flared unchecked. The human inside him fought for restraint, but the bond, my pain, her presence—it broke his wall.
He roared, a sound that tore through the fortress like a hurricane, rattling stone and steel. My bones vibrated with the force. The mark screamed along with me, reacting to the surge of his emotions.
And suddenly, I understood—I wasn't just in danger from Selene. I was in danger from him.
"I can't control it," he muttered under his breath, voice low, deadly. "Damn it, I can't—"
The words were almost human. Vulnerable. Terrifying.
My chest tightened. The mark burnt hotter. I couldn't think. I couldn't breathe. My instincts screamed for distance, but my body betrayed me, drawn to the storm he carried like iron to a magnet.
Outside, a chorus of howls rose from the border. Organised, relentless. Wolves, dozens of them, feeling the scent of weakness. Danger beyond Selene. War is coming fast.
The bond shrieked. Pain and heat collided inside me. Lucien's grip didn't loosen. He pulled me close, pressing his body against mine. His lips hovered near my ear.
"You cannot survive this without me," he said, voice trembling, low, almost a whisper meant only for me.
"I don't need you," I spat, though my body shook, and my mind betrayed me, aching with the intensity of the bond.
For a long moment, he didn't answer. The Alpha and the man—the two halves of him—battled visibly in his expression. I could see the restraint faltering, the control slipping. He was on the edge of becoming the Beast entirely, the danger no longer just from Selene but from the storm inside him.
And then the fortress doors shook violently.
Selene screamed, enraged and frustrated, and backed away, realising she had underestimated him.
Lucien didn't hesitate. He threw her into the wall with bone-crushing force. Black silk tore. She hit the floor, gasping. Pain, humiliation, and fury radiated off her in waves.
The mark screamed. My entire body pulsed with fire. I fell to my knees, unable to stand, unable to separate myself from the chaos.
He leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine. The golden eyes, dangerous and molten, bore into me.
"You feel it," he said. "Do you understand what it does to us? What is it?"
I shook my head, words failing me. The pain, the heat, and the overwhelming surge of emotions, both his and mine, were too much.
The howl outside became a roar. Dozens, maybe hundreds, moving in perfect coordination. The fortress could not hold them for long. And the bond? It refused to be quiet.
Lucien's hand cupped my cheek, thumb brushing the tears I refused to let fall. "If we lose control now, it will destroy everything. You and me. The pack."
I swallowed hard. My body ached, my skin burnt, and yet I felt that familiar, impossible pull. Desire twisted into fear, fear into anger, and anger into something darker—something neither of us could contain.
"Then don't lose control," I whispered. My voice was raw and ragged. "If we're going down, we go down together."
His jaw tightened, nostrils flaring. I could feel the beast coiling inside him, ready to strike, ready to shatter everything.
The howl at the border escalated into a thunderous crescendo. Selene scrambled to her feet, and the mark flared violently, reacting to every motion, every emotion, every heartbeat between us.
Lucien's eyes locked on mine. For the first time, I saw the raw fracture in his control. The Alpha's dominance faltered. The man beneath, desperate and human, trembled.
The fortress was no longer safe. Selene, the bond, the howling wolves—they were all pushing him to the edge.
He roared again. And I realised, with a sick thrill of fear, that nothing would survive this next moment—not the fortress, not Selene, not me, not even the fragile control Lucien thought he had.
And the mark pulsed hotter than ever.
The bond had become a wildfire.
And neither of us could put it out.