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Chapter 290

Author: Jess Dawson
last update publish date: 2026-04-04 07:00:31

Xander's POV

The nurse finishes setting up the IV line and hanging the bags of fluid. Zahra settles back against Max with her eyes closed, and she looks so broken it takes everything in me not to pull her into my arms myself.

It feels like we’re all holding our breath, just staring at her.

Fuck, she’s really here.

I still can’t quite believe it, despite the small weight of her hand in mine, despite the way Atlas is still purring in the back of my head. He’s the closest and the most focused he’s
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  • Marked by fate   Chapter 297

    Max's POVBut she’s different.She’s not the Zahra I’ve kept alive in my head, not the untouched version of her I’ve been clinging to in dreams, memory, and desperation. She isn’t the girl I’ve been picturing every night just to survive the next morning. This Zahra is filthy and small. She’s skin and bone, and the sight of her hits me so hard it feels like someone’s driven a fist straight through my ribs.Fuck.Could this actually be her?Her lip trembles, and tears stream down her face, carving streaks through the dirt on her skin. When she smiles through it, and that small sob breaks out of her, I stop for half a second, because some part of me is terrified that if I touch her, she’ll vanish, that she’ll dissolve back into air and grief and I’ll be left standing here with nothing but the memory of almost having her.But a split second later I’m moving, before conscious thought, before anything in me has properly caught up to what’s happening. Because it’s not really a choice.I’m o

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 296

    Max's POV:It’s so fucking bright in here. Why? Why is this place burning my retinas?!I stare around blindly, but I can’t make sense of my surroundings. Everything is white and blurry, though the smell hits me before anything else does. Disinfectant, with sickness and death lurking underneath it. I think hard, trying to force my brain to work through the haze, and the only place I know that smells like this is the hospital.But why are we at the hospital?“Alpha, Deltas, Gammas, second floor,” a voice says.I try to work out who it belongs to, but my eyes won’t focus and my head’s not helping by looking in the right direction. We’re moving again, and the brightness is making my head pound even harder. I hear a pinging sound, and the floor wobbles beneath me. I stumble, and hands steady me.Fuck.Why is the floor moving?The ping comes again, and I’m pushed forwards, lurching as my legs resist the movement.That’s when I catch it.The faint, tantalising whiff of jasmine.My whole body

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 295

    Max's POVAs the car starts moving, nausea rolls through me again, slower this time but meaner, coiling low and hot in my gut before climbing. The world begins to spin with it, the motion outside the window smearing into long ribbons of light that don’t look real. I breathe hard through my nose and swallow the bile back down.I still don’t know where we’re going or why.I rest my head against the cool glass of the window, and it helps a little. The cold eases some of the pounding in my skull, and the hard, steady surface gives my body something to believe in while everything else slides in and out of focus.I close my eyes.For a second, with the glass against my temple and the engine humming under me, it almost feels like I could disappear back into the dark and let all of this happen without me.I blink and stare out at the blurred world beyond the glass, trying to make sense of the smeared lights and shifting shapes outside, but nothing settles long enough to become real. For a mom

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 294

    Max's POV:I don’t really know what’s happening.At first there’s only heat, steam, and the dull roar of water hitting tile, and for a few long, useless seconds I can’t work out why I’m wet, or why I’m upright, or why my skin feels raw. Then something moves over me again, brisk and impersonal, and the truth of it catches up slowly enough to make me want to laugh and die at the same time.I’m standing in a shower while someone washes me.Fuck.Maybe this is a new low. Maybe I’m already past lows and this is just where I live now.My head is still thick with drink, my thoughts sliding away from me as fast as they form. I’m vaguely aware of retching again, one hand braced against the wall while bright green bile burns its way up my throat and into the spray. The water beats over me while I’m sick, washing it away before I can really look at it, and for a second, I just stand there panting with my forehead against the tile, trying to remember how breathing works.Then the water shifts.Th

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 293

    Max's POVI drift back to consciousness like I’m coming up from deep water, the sound around me muffled as the ringing in my ears overrides everything else. My head is screaming, and I groan.Fuck, I feel like shit.I think I can hear a voice. It’s pulling me out like a lighthouse beacon in a storm, and I try to move towards it.There’s a sudden loud noise and a sharp movement in my periphery. I may be blurry, but I’m aware enough of that. I spin too fast and roll off whatever I’m lying on. Pain explodes up my side as I land hard on what I think is the floor, and there’s a clink and crunch as debris goes flying. I blink rapidly, the pain having shocked me awake effectively.There’s a pizza box on the floor, the red smear of pizza sauce and cheese spread beneath it. Plates and bottles are everywhere.Fuck.I hate this place.My head feels like it’s full of cotton wool. My ears still feel thick and my head is pounding. Not like a little bit, but like the entire philharmonic orchestra ar

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 292

    Xander's POV“Do you know where you were being held?” Edwardo asks.Zahra shakes her head.“Samuels will have a better idea, since he ran in. I could pinpoint a rough location based on where you found us and the journey we travelled before we made contact, but I’m not one hundred per cent sure. It was an old, clearly derelict castle in the middle of the woods. No roads in or out. No distinguishable landmarks that I could tell. We were kept in the dungeon, and only went outside once for the tournament, then the night we escaped.”Thankfully, Edwardo asks the question I want answered.“Tournament?”She sighs.“There were a lot more of us before. Apparently torturing us for months didn’t get them any closer to identifying a strong enough mate for the Rogue King, so they changed things up. Started feeding us. Had a doctor look us over to make sure we were fit enough to fight. Then they held a fight tournament, force-fed us some drug that made us shift and drove our wolves mad with bloodlu

  • Marked by fate   Chapter 123

    Zarha's POVAfter breakfast, we report to the training centre as usual and take our seats in the stands. Liam, Morgan, and Jed stick close to me. Henry sits behind us with his little pack of idiots—Montague and Jameson included.At least they’re keeping their mouths shut now.The commanders and cap

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-25
  • Marked by fate   Chapter 118

    Lincoln's POVI pull out the blindfold and place it over my eyes. Sam steps in and does it up behind my head for me, and I’m plunged into complete darkness. Fuck knows what this thing is made of, because I can’t see shit. Not even light around the edges.Someone, Baxter I assume, clasps my shoulder

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-25
  • Marked by fate   Chapter 127

    Xander's POVFear slams into my chest so hard it steals my breath. It is sudden and absolute, a raw, blinding surge that lances straight through me. I nearly cry out. I don’t even realise I’ve moved until I’m already on my feet, chair scraping back against the floor. Panic, terror, and anger crash

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-25
  • Marked by fate   Chapter 116

    Zahra's POVMy face flames. I stare at the sheets because I cannot possibly look him in the eye after that thought.But then I feel his breath again, warm and minty, ghosting across my mouth. I glance up, and he is leaning in—eyes fixed on my lips, nose a breath away—waiting, asking.I close the g

    last updateLast Updated : 2026-03-25
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