4: THE TEST II

Kane's pov

I tensed as I jumped upon Rain, my wolf shouting with unrestrained rage. My veins coursed with the power of the moon as liquid heat, my brain wild with hunger.

She backed away, knocking against the cold wall of stone. Nowhere to escape. Nowhere to hide. Her chest was heaving with frightened breaths, her eyes frozen with fear as I towered over her trembling form.

"Please," she whispered, hardly making a sound.

The monster within me reveled in her fear. It devoured the racing heart at the base of her neck, the trembling limbs, the smell of fear. My claws lengthened, prepared to tear muscle from bone.

But then—something odd happened.

When my claws were inches from her face, she was no longer the same. Between us, the smell had changed, charged with something... else. My flared nostrils gathered up the smell.

She gazed up at me, no longer fearful, but defiant. She lifted up her chin, baring her neck not as a signal of surrender, but of resistance.

"Do it," she snarled through clenched teeth. "Complete what you started."

My taloned hand quivered in the air. It snarled, crying for blood, but something else within me, deep within, struggled against it.

Rain's eyes narrowed as he observed me faltering. "What's wrong, *Alpha*? Can't kill an unarmed girl?"

My body spasmed uncontrollably. The monster ripped through my internal organs, demanding control, but for the first time while cursed, I felt a thread of resistance form within me.

I recoiled backward, colliding with the destroyed cage. I snarled, a half-animal, half-human sound ripped from my throat. I felt my eyes blur, switching back and forth from red rage to stunned sharpness.

She remained still, rigid against the wall while I wrestled with myself.

"What. is. happening?" I managed to snarl, the words barely audible.

The moonlight streamed through the tiny window, illuminating us both with its silver glow. I held my breath, waiting for it to work its magic, to push me the remaining distance into beast form as had always happened. But against Rain's skin, the moonlight seemed to shimmer back, reflecting towards me with otherworldly intensity.

She noticed it too, staring down at her forearms with a puzzled expression.

"What is happening to me?" she whispered, lifting both of her palms. Beads of liquid silver accumulated on her skin where moonlight gathered.

My transformation came halfway through, it was claws extended, fangs exposed, yet awareness intact. Never once had it happened. Full moon for years had been complete loss of control for me, full blackouts, only to awaken to the sight of blood-soaked floors.

And there, with Rain standing before me, I remained conscious. Caught somewhere between man and beast, but being conscious.

I felt drawn to her under the power of something that I didn't comprehend. Rain pushed against the wall harder, but there was nowhere left for her to back away.

"Back up," she warned, her voice calmer than she should have sounded.

But I could not. There was something within her that was appealing to man as to the beast. I extended a hand, with a strange, uncontrollable urge to touch.

My half-human, half-clawed fingers grazed against her cheek. It sent a jolt through me. Rain took a deep breath, eyes flying open as she clearly felt it too.

And we remained there for a second, still and bewildered with the new sensation.

And the door swung open.

"Kane!" Alec's voice broke the reverie. He was standing at the door with drawn sword, his face horrified. "How did you—"

His eyes darted from the destroyed cage to my half-transformation, to Rain against the wall.

"Away from her!" he exclaimed, running towards her.

The commotion broke the spell that briefly held the monster back. It came back to life with a roar of rage at the intrusion. I spun around towards Alec, fangs bared, claws extended.

"No!" Rain's voice cut through the rage. "Stop!"

Alec and I stood firm as she had commanded. She stepped forward, positioning herself in front of us.

"He didn't hurt me," she declared firmly, though she was shaking.

Alec's eyes grew wide with disbelief. "That's impossible. The creature never leaves anyone alive during a full moon."

I growled again, the sound rumbling up from deep within my chest. Even halfway through my shift, I knew he was telling the truth. I'd wrecked everything I had set my mind to for years when I was shifting. Why was Rain different?

"Look at him," she exclaimed, gesturing towards me. "He is not fully transformed."

Alec's eyes scanned me, shock replacing the stance of a warrior. "How."

The creature within me growled, resisting the fleeting harmony. It was tugging at me once more, ravenous for blood. My body convulsed with the effort of controlling it.

"Get. her. out!" I managed to snarl through clenched teeth.

She gazed at me, and for a brief moment, I caught a glimpse of something other than fear in her eyes, curiosity, even a sense of awe.

"You heard him," Alec said, catching hold of her arm. "Let's go. Now."

She was drawn towards the door but never once looked away from me. "What does it mean?" she asked, the question directed at Alec but eyes still fixed upon mine.

It means," he said, his voice tight with tension, "you've proven yourself. You passed the test."

The monster howled within me, struggling harder to claim control as they retreated away from the door. My eyes blurred again, everything reddening around the periphery.

"Hurry up," I growled, rubbing my fingertips over the stone floor.

The final image I had as they shut the door was Rain's face, no longer twisted with hatred, but with questions gazing back at me that mirrored my own.

When the lock clicked into place, the monster finally triumphed. My head was flung back with a scream that shattered the walls apart. Even with all consciousness lost, there remained a thought:

Rain was different. There was something about Rain that could break this curse.

And for the first time in years, I felt something dangerous stir within me.

Hope.

---

Rains Pov

Alec dragged me through dark corridors, his tight grip around my wrist. My mind reeled, trying to put together all that had happened back there down in the cellar.

"Slow down," I instructed, struggling to free myself. "What was that a moment ago?"

He ignored me, turning abruptly into a narrow passageway I had missed. I was surrounded by walls with richly woven tapestries depicting wolves running under a full moon. Otherwise, I might have found them beautiful.

"Alec!" I tugged my arm from him, and he stopped. "What's going on?"

He stood up to face him, blue eyes flashing under the faint light. "You've been tested," he repeated as if that was sufficient explanation.

"What test? Nearly being ripped apart by your psychopathic Alpha?"

There was a distant howl that echoed through the walls of stone, causing my skin to prickle. Kane was still transforming somewhere down there.

Alec gazed nervously in the direction of the sound. "We must keep moving."

"Not until I say so," I planted my feet firmly.

He ruffled a hand through his hair, scowling. "The real test is seeing if you can stop him from transforming."

"Stop him! I didn't do anything!"

Indeed. Alec's eyes scanned mine. "No one else had ever lived through seeing him shift, especially with him free from the cage. That's never happened before. That cage had held him for years," he paused. "No one else had ever been able to get him to stop transformation, even halfway through."

The full implications of the statement sank in slowly. "What do you mean?"

He had no time to act before a second howl ripped through the air, louder. Alec's head jerked up, alarm etched into his face.

"That's impossible," he whispered. "The cellar door is reinforced steel."

There was a thud coming from somewhere under us, followed by cracking wood.

"He's breaking through," Alec repeated, grabbing my arm again. "We need to go. Now."

I didn't push back this time. We dashed down the corridors, turning corners so quickly I had no idea where I was. Sounds of devastation were getting louder behind us.

"What is he?" I asked, panting.

"Damned," was Alec's grim response. " years back, a witch cursed Kane to transform with each full moon into a monster. Not a werewolf, a worse creature. One he can't control."

We burst through a wooden door into a room that resembled a library. Alec closed the door behind us, using a heavy iron bar to lock it.

"Until tonight," he told me, turning to me.

It was pounding against my rib cage. "What makes me stand apart?"

Alec's expression relaxed a bit. "That's what we have to determine."

A thud against the door startled us both. It splintered wood but did not shatter.

Whatever it might be," Alec stepped back from the door, drawing his sword, "he can sense it. And he desires it."

The door shuddered again under a new blow. The iron bar bent.

"There's a slot there, back of the bookshelf," Alec gestured towards the back wall. "Third from the bottom of the bookshelf, there's a red book with a gold spine."

"What about you?"

"I will keep him away." The firmness of his voice permitted no argument.

I hesitated, conflicted by self-preservation vs. something. "He was part of the pack that had murdered my relatives."

The door swung open from its middle.

"Go!" shouted Alec.

I hurried to the bookshelf with trembling hands, pulling at the red book. Tugging, the entire shelf swung open with a hidden passageway behind.

I went back to Alec, who was ready to face whatever was beyond that door.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

His gaze held mine for a second. "If you're the one we've searched for all these years, you're our only hope of breaking this curse."

The door burst open with a scatter of splinters. From amidst the dust and debris, there towered a monstrous shape larger than its original size, fully transformed into a beast neither man nor wolf, but horrific.

Kane's creature shape was waiting against the door, eyes shining with a soft light, fixed directly at me.

"RUN!" Alec shouted, rushing forward to block his way.

I slid through the aperture, bookshelf grating shut behind me. Sounds of warfare—growls, crashes, and a cry of pain from a man—grew more indistinct as I blindly staggered through the darkness, the only light my fingertips sensing the cold stone wall.

The pass climbed up a slope, turning and curving where all sense of direction was lost. My lungs ached, my legs weighed down by exhaustion, but fear propelled me forward.

Finally, the passage reached a dead end. I pushed with all my might against the wall with my hand, and as I did, I caught sight of a tiny lever. I tugged it, and a hidden door swung open into a richly decorated bedroom.

I stepped inside, the door swinging shut of its own accord. There was moonlight streaming through high windows, lighting up a four-poster bed and fine furnishings. It was a gilded cage, but a cage nonetheless.

I collapsed to the ground, exhaustion ultimately winning over terror. My fingertips tingle where they'd touched Kane's face during that strange episode in the cellar. I held them up to the light of the moon, remembering the way my own skin had seemed to absorb and shine with the silver light.

"What am I?" I whispered to the empty room. Far off into the darkness, a wolf howled—not with rage, but with a howl almost of yearning. And through all of it, through my hatred of the monster who had ravaged my life, I felt a recurring tug deep inside of me.