Chapter Ten: The Beast Within

I ran faster than I thought. Faster than fear. The forest blurred around me until trees became shadows and the ground became nothing but a memory beneath my claws.

The curse sang in my veins. Beautiful. Terrible. Perfect.

Every breath brought new scents. Blood from the pack. Fear from the wolves fighting for their lives. Death everywhere. The Council’s cursed wolves were tearing through my territory like wildfire through dry grass.

And part of me was excited.

That was the worst part. The curse did not just want to fight. It wanted to hunt. To kill. To prove dominance over everything that challenged me.

I pushed harder. The bond with Kade stretched thin behind me. He was running too, but he could not keep up. Nobody could. I was something new now. Something evolution should have left buried.

Howls erupted ahead. Pain and rage and desperate defiance.

My pack was dying.

I burst through the tree line into chaos.

Six massive creatures prowled through Steele territory. They were not wolves. Not anymore. Cursed beasts twice the size of any natural wolf, with eyes that glowed different colours. Red. Green. Gold. Purple. Each one represented a different bloodline. A different ancient horror bound to flesh and rage.

And they were slaughtering my wolves.

Bodies littered the ground. Wolves I trained with. Ate with. Lived beside. Now reduced to torn flesh and spilt blood.

Beta Richards fought the red-eyed beast. His wolf form was strong but outmatched. The creature caught him by the throat. Lifted him. Prepared to crush his windpipe.

The curse inside me roared.

I hit the beast like lightning.

We crashed through three trees before slamming into the ground. My jaws found its throat. Bit down hard enough to taste blood that burned like acid.

The creature howled. Threw me off with inhuman strength.

I rolled. Came up snarling. Ready.

The red-eyed beast studied me. Recognition flickered in those cursed eyes. It knew what I was. Knew I was like them now.

And it was terrified.

Good.

We collided again. Claws and teeth and fury. The beast was strong but I was faster. Smarter. The curse gave me power but I still had my mind. Still had control.

Barely.

I tore out the beast’s throat. It collapsed, choking on its own blood. Dead before it hit the ground.

One down. Five to go.

The other cursed wolves turned toward me. The green-eyed one abandoned the wolf it was mauling. The gold-eyed one stopped circling Sera. All of them focused on me.

The new threat. The unknown variable.

They attacked together.

I met them with everything the curse gave me. Claws that could tear through steel. Speed that made me invisible between heartbeats. Strength that let me throw creatures twice my size like they weighed nothing.

But they were coordinated. Trained. They worked together in ways that should not be possible for mindless monsters.

The purple-eyed beast caught my back leg. Bone crunched. I screamed but twisted mid-fall. Caught its face with my claws. Ripped through flesh and eye and skull.

Two down.

The gold-eyed beast slammed into my side. Ribs cracked. I tasted blood. But the curse would not let me stop. Would not let me feel pain. It pushed me forward. Made me faster. Stronger. More vicious.

I caught the gold-eyed beast’s throat between my jaws. It struggled. Clawed at my face. But I held on. Bit down until something vital snapped.

Three down.

The remaining three backed away. Reassessing. The green-eyed one growled orders in a language that was not wolf. Not human. Something older.

They were communicating. Planning.

And I realised the horrible truth.

These were not mindless monsters. They were prisoners. Wolves trapped inside cursed forms, forced to obey the Council’s commands. Just like Kade had been trapped inside his curse.

Just like I was being trapped inside mine.

The realisation hit me like ice water. Made the curse pause. Made me see clearly for just a moment.

These wolves did not want to kill my pack. They were being forced to.

“Stop!” I tried to speak through the curse. The words came out garbled. Wrong. But close enough. “Stop fighting. I can help you. Can free you from the binding magic.”

The green-eyed beast tilted its head. Listening. Hoping.

Then its eyes went blank. Empty. And it attacked with renewed fury.

The Council was watching. Controlling them remotely. And they just gave the command to kill me at any cost.

The three beasts came at once. No mercy. No hesitation. Just pure, desperate violence.

I fought back but they were overwhelming me. Too many. Too coordinated. The curse inside me screamed to let go. To give in completely. To become the monster that could win this fight.

But if I did, I would not stop at the cursed wolves. I would tear through my own pack. Would kill Sera. Would kill Richards. Would kill everyone until nothing was left but blood and silence.

A howl split the air. Silver and pure and familiar.

Kade.

He burst through the trees in his cursed form. Smaller than mine but just as deadly. And behind him came more wolves. Survivors from the Blackwood pack. Rogues who had followed Sera here to fight for their fallen alpha’s son.

We were outnumbered. Overpowered. But we were not alone.

Kade slammed into the green-eyed beast. Gave me space to breathe. To think. To remember why I took the curse in the first place.

Not for power. For protection. For pack. For love.

I forced the curse back. Just enough to regain control. Just enough to think clearly.

The Council’s wolves were bound by magic. Dark magic that controlled their actions. But magic always had a source. An anchor point. Something physical that maintained the connection.

I searched the battlefield with enhanced senses. Looking for anything that felt wrong. That pulsed with dark energy.

There.

At the edge of the clearing. A woman stood in the shadows. Young. Beautiful. With eyes that glowed with the same colours as the cursed wolves.

Not a Council member. A handler. Someone who maintained the binding magic through her own life force.

Kill her, and the cursed wolves would be free.

But she was too far away. Protected by trees and distance and two of the cursed beasts that had broken away to guard her.

I could not reach her. Not without leaving my pack vulnerable. Not without risking everything.

The curse whispered a solution. One that made my human mind recoil but the wolf accepted immediately.

I could split my focus. It could become what First Blood truly offered. Not just a cursed wolf, but something that could exist in multiple forms simultaneously.

It would hurt. It would push me to the edge of madness. It would test every shred of humanity I had left.

But it was the only way.

I closed my eyes. Felt the curse inside me. Felt it burning and building and begging to be unleashed completely.

And I let it.

My form split. Not into two wolves. Into three. Three separate bodies. Three separate consciousnesses. All connected. All me.

The pack gasped. Even Kade stumbled back in shock.

I was everywhere. Everything. Unstoppable.

Two of me attacked the cursed wolves guarding the handler. The third stayed back to protect my pack from the remaining beasts.

The handler’s eyes went wide. “Impossible. You should not be able to do that. Nobody can control the First Blood that completely!”

But I was not controlling it. I was becoming it.

My forms moved in perfect synchronisation. One caught the cursed wolf guarding the handler’s left. The other took the right. And within seconds, both beasts were down.

The handler turned to run.

I was faster.

My jaws closed around her throat. Not to kill. Just to hold. To threaten.

“Break the binding,” I said. The words came out clearer now. More human. “Free them or die.”

“I cannot. The Council will kill me if I break the spell.”

“I will kill you if you do not.”

Her hands trembled. Blood ran down her neck where my teeth pressed against her skin. “They are my family. The cursed wolves. My brothers. My cousins. The Council took them. Forced me to control them or watch them die. I did not have a choice.”

The curse wanted me to kill her anyway. Wanted to eliminate the threat. But the human part of me, the part that still remembered compassion, hesitated.

“If I free you, will you help them? Will you try to break the binding magic?”

She nodded frantically. “Yes. Yes, anything. Just please do not kill them. They are victims just like your mate.”

I released her throat. Stepped back. My three forms merged back into one with a snap that made reality ripple.

The handler grabbed a pendant around her neck. Crushed it. The binding magic shattered like glass.

The remaining cursed wolves collapsed. Their forms began to shift. Shrinking. Changing. Becoming human again.

Three men. One woman. All naked. All covered in blood and scars and years of trauma.

They looked at their hands. Their human hands. And wept.

“Thank you,” the handler said. She ran to them. Held them. “Thank you for giving them back to me.”

I shifted back to my normal wolf form. Then to human. Stood there naked and covered in blood but victorious.

Kade appeared beside me. Human now too. He wrapped his arms around me. Held me like he was afraid I would disappear.

“You did it,” he whispered. “You saved them. Saved us.”

“We saved them,” I corrected. “Together.”

Sera approached. Her amber eyes were filled with respect. With awe. “You split yourself into three. Nobody has ever done that. Not even the First Ones themselves.”

“I did what I had to do.”

“No. You did what nobody thought was possible.” She looked at the freed wolves. At the handler helping them stand. “You gave them back their humanity. Proved that the curse can be controlled. Can be used for good.”

But I felt the cost. Felt my humanity stretched thin. Felt the curse begging to be unleashed again. To push further. To see what else was possible.

Beta Richards limped over. His throat was torn but healing. “Alpha. The Council will send more. Will come themselves if they have to. This was just the first wave.”

“I know,” I said. “But now we have something they did not expect.”

“What?”

“Hope.” I looked at the freed wolves. “And allies who know their secrets.”

The handler stepped forward. “My name is Elena. And I can tell you everything. Where the Council meets. How many members are there? What they are planning.” She looked at her freed family. “But we need sanctuary. The Council will kill us all when they learn what happened here.”

“You have it,” I said. “You are packed now. All of you.”

Kade squeezed my hand. “Aria. Look.”

I followed his gaze to the eastern tree line.

A figure stood there. Watching. Tall. Ancient. Wrapped in shadows that moved like living things.

A Council member. Observing. Judging. Learning.

They wanted to see what I could do. Wanted to measure the threat before committing their full force.

The figure raised one hand. A salute. A challenge. A promise.

Then it vanished like smoke.

“They are coming,” I said. “All of them. And next time, they will not hold back.”

Kade pulled me closer. “Then we will not hold back either.”

But as I looked at my pack, at the freed wolves, at the blood-soaked ground and the bodies of those we could not save, I wondered.

How much more could I become before I stopped being Aria Steele altogether?

How much more could the curse take before there was nothing left to save?