CHAPTER TWO — THE WOLF BREAKS LOOSE

DARIUS’S POV

I can’t breathe.

Everything hurts and burns and I can't breathe, damn it!

Everything… my chest, my head, my very bones. It feels like something is trying to scratch its way out of me, not caring what damage it causes, and I can’t stop it.

I can hear them shouting my name… everyone but their voices feel so far away. Fuzzy. Like I’m underwater. The hall spins. I smell blood and smoke and the sharp sting of silver. The glass. The floor. The damn moon. Everything feels too bright, too loud.

And then I hear the crack. My bones.

I feel my body twist like someone just ripped a wire through my spine.

“Hold him down!” I hear someone scream.

Hands grab me. Too many hands. I can’t see who. I can’t think. My mind is splitting in two. I hear growling and at first, I think it is someone else, that I am being attacked.

Then I realize, it’s me.

The sound comes from deep inside, raw and violent. My body arches off the ground. My teeth ache, sharp and wrong. My nails dig into the floor, leaving marks I don’t remember making.

“Alpha! Stay with us!”

I want to. I really do. But it’s too late. Something’s taken over. Something that’s been waiting.

Watching. Waiting for tonight.

Run.

The voice inside me doesn’t sound like mine. It’s rougher. Older. Hungrier.

Run, or I’ll hurt her.

Her. Elara.

My head jerks up. I can smell her. Even in the chaos, I still know her scent. I crave it. Warm. Soft. The only thing that ever calms me down when I get aggressive.

But the wolf inside me doesn’t want calm. It wants chaos. It wants her. To hurt her.

I try to fight it. My body shakes. The world blurs. I punch my fists into the ground, but that just makes everything much worse. The power snaps out, knocking people back. Tables crash. Chairs splinter. Someone screams.

I don’t know who.

Lyra… Elara's assistant for the wedding, her voice cuts through the noise. “Move! Give him space!”

She rushes forward, her face twisted in care, as she raises her hands. But even through the pain and haze, I catch it, the smirk that grows on her lips before she hides it.

I hate that I see it. I hate that I can’t do anything about it.

The guards hesitate. She turns to them. “The Alpha’s losing control! Get everyone out!”

They listen. They are too confused not to. The room empties halfway, fast footsteps echoing. Lyra steps closer, her perfume too sweet, too sharp.

“Darius,” she says, soft, fake. “You have to breathe. You’re fighting it.”

The voice inside me growls. Liar.

She strikes my face and I flinch back, snarling at her before I can stop myself. My vision going from black and gold and white all at once.

“Don’t touch me,” I spit out, though my voice doesn’t sound like mine anymore. It is deeper. Rougher. Almost layered. Wrong and twisted

But she doesn’t move back. She just cocks her head, watching me like she is studying something fascinating.

“It is working,” she whispers. “It really is working.”

The walls feel like they.are closing in and my pulse keeps pounding in my ears. I hear bones snap again. My spine twists as I crash against the wall beside me, watching as the marble cracks.

Everything hurts and I can’t tell where my body ends and the wolf begins.

Then I hear her voice.

“Darius!”

Elara.

I don’t even have to turn around to know it is her.

The whole room feels different when she is near. Lighter. Quieter. My wolf pauses. Just for a second.

She runs toward me, dress torn at the hem, hair loose and wild. Her eyes, goddess, those eyes. They always see too much.

“Stay back!” Lyra yells, but Elara doesn't pay attention to her.

She falls to her knees in front of me and I can smell the salt on her skin from sweat and tears. She touches my face. Her hand shakes.

“Darius, it’s me,” she whispers. “You’re okay. Just look at me.”

For one heartbeat, everything stops.

The pain fades. The world goes quiet. My breath slows. Her scent fills every part of me. My wolf backs down, confused, listening.

I almost think it’s over.

Then the pain comes back. Harder. Sharper.

Something snaps in my chest. My claws dig into the ground. I feel the curse twist her calm into rage. Her touch burns now.

I grab her wrist without meaning to. Too hard. She gasps. I can see fear in her eyes and it breaks me because I never wanted her to look at me like that. Never.

“Darius, please,” she says.

But I can’t stop. The wolf moves before I can think. My arm swings. I hear the sound before I understand it.

A thud. A sharp inhale.

She falls back.

Blood.

There’s blood on my hands. Her blood.

Everything inside me freezes. The wolf goes silent.

“Elara,” I choke out.

Her eyes are wide open and shivked. She lifts a bad and touches her cheek, her blood spilling through her fingers. I reach for her, but the guards rush in before I can.

Lyra’s voice cuts through the panic, fake and sharp. “Protect the Alpha from his cursed bride!”

The room explodes again. Guards move between us, pulling her away, even as she screams my name.

I try to follow, but they grab me too, forcing me down, chains of silver burning into my skin.

Lyra steps back, pretending to tremble. “It’s not his fault,” she says loudly. “He’s been cursed!”

She glances toward her father at the edge of the crowd. He nods once. Almost invisible. But I see it.

The air changes again. A scout runs into the hall, panting. “We found this in the Luna’s room!”

He’s holding something small. A figurine. It’s glowing. It is low, but enough for everyone to see and soon gasps ripple through the hall.

Lyra covers her mouth, eyes wide with mock horror. “She did this,” she whispers. “She cursed him.”

I want to scream, but my throat won’t work. My head spins.

The last thing I see is Elara reaching for me through the crowd before everything fades into black.

And somewhere, deep inside the dark, my wolf laughs.