Chapter 4:The monster behind the crown

The first scream came from the courtyard.

I ran to the window.

Below, Darius knelt on the stone pavement, one hand pressed against his chest. His warriors stood several feet away, their faces pale beneath the moonlight.

Black veins spread from beneath his collar, creeping up his neck.

He was in pain.

Not the kind a warrior endured after a battle. This was something deeper, something that seemed to be tearing him apart from the inside.

“Get away from him!” someone shouted.

A warrior stumbled backward as Darius lifted his head.

His eyes had turned completely silver.

Then he roared.

The sound shook the windows.

I stumbled away from the glass, my heart hammering. Every instinct told me to stay inside, but something strange had happened to my wolf.

She wasn’t afraid.

She was distressed.

Help him.

I stared at the door.

Absolutely not.

I had known the man for less than a day. He was a dangerous Alpha with a terrifying reputation, and his own guard had just warned me to stay away.

I had enough problems without adding a cursed wolf to the list.

Another roar echoed through the fortress.

My wolf whined.

Seraphina. Help him.

“You’re going to get us killed,” I whispered.

But I was already running.

The courtyard was chaos.

Warriors formed a circle around Darius, none willing to approach him. The air smelled of blood and something burnt.

An older man stood near the steps, barking orders.

“Bring the silver restraints!”

I caught his arm.

“What are you doing to him?”

He looked at me in disbelief.

“Get back inside, girl!”

Darius slammed his fist against the pavement. Cracks spread through the stone beneath his hand.

The warriors retreated.

“He’s losing control!” someone shouted.

I pulled free of the older man’s grip.

“Then stop standing around and help him!”

“Do you want to die?” the man demanded. “His wolf will tear apart anyone who comes near him!”

I looked at Darius.

His body trembled violently. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and his fingers had begun to change, dark claws emerging from beneath his skin.

He looked less like an Alpha and more like a creature trapped inside a nightmare.

I knew what it meant to be helpless.

I knew what it felt like when everyone who was supposed to stand beside you turned away.

Perhaps that was why I couldn’t leave him there.

I stepped into the circle.

“Seraphina!” the older man shouted.

I ignored him.

Darius lifted his head.

His silver eyes locked onto mine.

For one terrifying moment, I thought he would attack.

Instead, his expression twisted with something that looked almost like recognition.

“Get away,” he growled.

His voice sounded wrong, as though two creatures were speaking through the same throat.

I stopped several feet away.

“You’re the one who invited me here.”

“Leave!”

“You’re very bad at welcoming guests.”

His lips peeled back from his teeth.

“Do you want me to kill you?”

“No.”

“Then run!”

I should have listened.

Instead, I took another step.

My wolf pressed against the inside of my skin, restless and desperate. I couldn’t understand why she was reacting this way to a man she had never met.

I held out my hand.

“Darius.”

He stared at it.

“Don’t touch me.”

“Then tell me how to help you.”

“I said—”

His body convulsed.

A strangled cry escaped him, and he collapsed onto one knee.

I moved without thinking.

My fingers closed around his wrist.

The moment our skin touched, a sharp pulse of heat shot through my arm.

Darius went still.

So did I.

For a heartbeat, the entire courtyard seemed to disappear.

I felt something enormous and ancient stir beneath my ribs, reaching toward him like a thread pulled taut across a great distance.

My wolf lifted her head.

Not in fear.

In recognition.

Darius’s eyes widened.

Then the black veins beneath his skin began to recede.

One by one, the claws withdrew from his fingers.

His breathing slowed.

The terrifying pressure that had filled the courtyard vanished.

Nobody spoke.

I stared at my hand wrapped around his wrist.

“What just happened?”

Darius pulled away so violently that I stumbled.

His face had gone deathly pale.

“No.”

I caught myself against a warrior’s shoulder.

“Darius?”

He backed away from me.

“No,” he repeated, his voice barely audible.

The older man approached cautiously.

“Alpha, are you—”

“Get her away from me!”

The command sent everyone scrambling.

Two warriors immediately moved between us.

I stared at Darius, bewildered by the fury in his expression.

“I was trying to help you.”

“You should never have touched me.”

His words hurt more than they should have.

I had risked my life to help a man who had just threatened to kill me, and now he looked at me as though I were the greatest danger he had ever encountered.

I straightened.

“Next time, I’ll let you tear yourself apart.”

I turned to leave.

“Seraphina.”

I stopped but didn’t face him.

His voice had changed.

It was quieter now, stripped of its earlier cruelty.

“Don’t tell anyone what happened here.”

I glanced over my shoulder.

“Why?”

For a moment, I thought he might answer honestly.

Instead, he said, “Because you have no idea what you’ve done.”

I returned to my room with more questions than answers.

Darius’s curse had nearly destroyed him.

I had touched him, and the curse had stopped.

That shouldn’t have been possible.

The guard’s warning echoed in my mind.

If you’ve truly awakened something in him tonight, you need to pray it doesn’t awaken again.

I sat beside the fire, rubbing my wrist where Darius’s fingers had briefly touched my skin.

A faint silver mark had appeared there.

It looked like a crescent moon wrapped around a thorn.

I tried to wipe it away.

It remained.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Come in.”

The older man from the courtyard entered. His expression was grave.

“Alpha Veyr wishes to speak with you.”

“Then he can come here.”

The man hesitated.

“There’s something you need to understand first.”

I folded my arms.

“I’m listening.”

He glanced at the silver mark on my wrist.

Then he looked toward the door, as though he feared someone might overhear him.

“Every woman who has ever awakened the Alpha’s wolf has died before sunrise.”

My blood ran cold.

I stared at him.

“Every woman?”

He nodded grimly.

“Without exception.”

I looked down at the mark on my wrist.

The silver crescent seemed brighter than before.

And suddenly, I understood why Darius had looked at me with horror.

It wasn’t because I had witnessed his weakness.

It was because I might be the next woman to die.