Chapter 9

~Annalyn POV~

My heart dropped. "You knew and didn't tell me?"

"I wasn't sure," he said.

"But I suspected, that's why I marked you first to protect you."

I backed away. "You had no right to choose that for me!"

"You were already losing control."

"No! You were, Lucas."

He grabbed my wrist, not hard, but firm enough that I felt his pulse...fast and erratic.

"Annalyn, if he completes the ritual, you won't survive it. He doesn't want your heart, he wants what's inside you."

The wolf inside me stirred, she didn't like being told what to fear, but even she hesitated. I pulled free. "Then help me stop him."

Lucas's jaw tightened. "He won't come to us, but I know where he'll be."

That night, we found Ezra at the old chapel on the edge of the forest, long abandoned since the Marcos era. Vines climbed the crumbling stone, the stained glass shattered and it looked like a ruin...but I felt the magic inside it like heat through my feet.

Ezra stood at the altar, a circle of candles around him, looking like a god carved from shadow, his chest bare, arms raised, blood dripping from his palm into a silver bowl.

He didn't look surprised to see us. "I was wondering when you'd come," he said, voice echoing through the chapel.

Lucas stepped in front of me. "Tell her the truth, tell her what the ritual really is."

Ezra's lips curled into a smile. "What truth? That she was born from the blood of two alphas? That she's more than a Luna?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, stepping forward.

He looked at me, eyes glowing with something terrifying and beautiful.

"You are the first of your kind, Annalyn, the Alpha of Alphas! Not meant to be claimed... but to claim."

My breath caught. "No," Lucas snapped.

"She doesn't belong to you!" Ezra laughed.

"She doesn't belong to any of us, but the ritual... it's not just binding, it's awakening what's inside her, the power none of us have seen in centuries."

He stepped closer, holding out the silver bowl. "Drink, and I'll show you who you really are."

The blood inside shimmered, it smelled like heat, like hunger and power.

Lucas growled. "Don't!"

But my wolf lunged, before I could stop myself, I reached for the bowl.

Ezra's smile widened. "Good girl."

I tilted the bowl to my lips and drank. Fire. That was the only word for it because it exploded through me, rushing into every vein, my knees buckled and I screamed as heat scorched through my chest.

My back arched and my nails tore into the stone floor.Lucas shouted, Celix appeared in the doorway, too late to stop me.

Ezra knelt beside me, whispering, "Now they'll all see you for what you are!"

I opened my eyes, and the world changed, the fire in my veins didn't fade. Even after the ritual ended, even after Ezra's blood-fed chant died into the chapel's silence, I felt the burn under my skin.

Not like lust, not even like heat, it was something odd. A presence I couldn't explain...waking, coiling, whispering in a voice that wasn't mine, I was on my knees, trembling, my mouth tasted of metal and smoke.

Lucas knelt beside me, panic in his eyes. "Annalyn... look at me!"I tried, but all I saw was double...his face, and behind it, something else, a dark mirror, a woman with silver eyes, pale skin. My face... but not mine as she smiled.

"You feel her now, don't you?"

Ezra's voice was calm, smug, satisfied. "She's always been there, sleeping, waiting, you just needed the right key."

Lucas growled and lunged at him. "You bastard!"

But Ezra vanished in a flash of black smoke, leaving only laughter behind. Celix rushed in from the back doors, shirt torn, blood on his arms. "What happened?"

Lucas was still trying to hold me. "He gave her the blood, the full dose!"

"She's burning up," Celix said, pressing his palm to my cheek. "Her skin's on fire."

"I'm here," I whispered. "I'm still here."

But I wasn't sure how much longer that would be true, because something inside me had awakened and it was hungry.

That night, they brought me back to the Del Pieros Mansion, they didn't leave my side...not even for a moment. Celix stayed by the window, pacing like a caged beast, Lucas sat by the bed, his hand gripping mine, knuckles white. And Matteo? He came last, silent, angry, and tense.

When our eyes met, I felt it, that unbearable pull, the ache I'd ignored for too long.

"You need to mark her," Celix said.

"It's the only way to keep her grounded."

Lucas's head snapped up. "No! The bond is already too unstable, another mark could..."

"Could save her," Matteo said. "Or she'll tear herself apart."

"I'm right here," I whispered.

Matteo walked to the bed slowly, kneeling beside me, his hand touched my thigh, barely, I hadn't even realized I was naked under the sheets and my body didn't feel like mine anymore, it felt raw and starving.

"I didn't want to do this like this," Matteo said. "But if this is the only way to keep you alive..."

He leaned in, his lips brushed my jaw, soft, reverent.

"Let me in," he whispered, and I did.

His mouth was heat and silk, fire and reverence. Not like Lucas's control or Celix's dominance. Matteo kissed like a man who wanted to worship me, and I let him.

The sheets fell away, my legs opened and his hands roamed, careful and rough all at once as he entered me slowly, breathing my name against my lips.

"Annalyn..."My body arched under him and the fire in my veins pulsed harder, wilder.

Every thrust brought the ancient voice closer.

But Matteo didn't just take me, he anchored me, he looked into my eyes with every movement, whispering, "You're mine, stay with me." I cried out, pleasure and pain tangled as my nails dug into his back as I broke around him.

He bit into my shoulder, sharp and deep! That was the third mark. My body went still, for a second, everything stopped even time, and then it happened, the scream that tore from my throat wasn't mine, it was hers!I woke up in the forest, naked and alone, blood on my thighs, but it wasn't mine as I stood slowly, every bone in my body aching.

I looked around, dazed, confused, heart hammering.The moon was red, full and in the distance...I heard it... howls! Dozens of them.

My pack! But they weren't celebrating, they were hunting, and they were hunting me.