INICIAR SESIÓNSeleneIt has been two days.Two endless, agonizing days of sitting by his bedside, listening to the drip of the IV and the steady, weak beep of the heart monitor.On the third morning, the heavy silence finally broke.Alaric’s chest heaved. A low groan escaped his throat, and his dark eyes slowly fluttered open. The pale hospital light caught his gaze, and after a moment of hazy blinking, his eyes locked onto mine.“Selene…” he rasped, his voice rough as sandpaper.My heart hammered against my ribs. Tears instantly spilled over my eyelashes, blinding me as a sob tore from my throat.“Alaric!”I didn’t care about the wires or the bandages. I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face into the crook of his shoulder, holding him as tight as I dared without hurting his wounds. He let out a weak breath, his heavy arms slowly wrapping around my waist, pulling me close against his chest.“I thought I lost you,” I wept into his skin, my shoulders trembling. “I thought you were dead.”“I’
SeleneCRACK!The heavy metal stock of Elias’s rifle slammed against the side of my head. Pain exploded behind my eyes, but instead of sinking into the dark, something deep inside me snapped.A white-hot wave of heat roared from the center of my chest, flushing straight through my veins. The mate bond hadn’t just awakened—it had torn open the ancient, locked doors of my spirit.My wolf was back.I didn’t fall. I didn’t even stumble.Elias’s eyes stretched wide in utter shock as I slowly straightened up, staring right through him. He took a terrified step back, raising the rifle again with trembling hands, but I moved faster than human eyes could follow.I snatched the heavy hunting rifle right out of his grip. With a single, enraged twist of my bare hands, I snapped the thick metal barrel clean in half and threw the pieces into the dirt.Elias let out a high-pitched, pathetic shriek, stumbling backward over his own feet. “No—what the hell are you?!”A low, thunderous growl vibrated in
AlaricThere was no time to rest. Every minute I sat in that abandoned safehouse was another minute Selene was out there alone, vulnerable, and hunted.I dragged myself up from the kitchen floor, wincing as the freshly seared flesh on my ribs pulled tight. The silver poison had stopped spreading, but the brutal burn had left my body feeling battered and drained. I had no phone, no pack, no weapons, and every piece of evidence I had gathered against Elias was gone.All I had left were the blood-stained shorts on my hips, a rough bandage wrapped tight over my burned side, and the beaten-up SUV idling in the driveway.I stared out the mud-splattered windshield as I put the vehicle in drive. It felt almost absurd that Elias’s men hadn’t torched this car or crushed it for scrap. Maybe they thought the silver bullet in my chest was a guaranteed death sentence and didn’t bother covering their tracks, or maybe they were just sloppy. Either way, it was the only miracle I had left.I drove aiml
EliasShe wouldn’t stop screaming.The piercing, hysterical shrieks tore through the heavy air of the bedroom as she looked down at her blood-soaked body in absolute terror. With a desperate, shaking heave, she shoved Max’s lifeless frame off of her, sending his limp body rolling onto the floor with a wet, heavy thud.“What… what have you done?!!” she sobbed, scrambling backward against the headboard, frantically pulling the blood-stained bedsheet over her bare skin.I gnashed my teeth so hard my jaw creaked, my knuckles white around the smoking grip of the rifle. The metallic smell of fresh blood filled my nose, but it did nothing to soothe the fiery rage scorching my veins.“You’ve been fucking him behind my back?” I snarled, stepping into the room, my eyes burning into hers. “Ever since I grew suspicious, I hoped to the goddess I was wrong. But today? Today I watched you two walk in here like thieves. I stood outside that door and heard the vile sounds you were making together. I g
LioraI sat curled up on the cold stone floor, my body trembling violently as I clutched my throat. Tears streamed down my face, stinging the raw, sensitive skin where Alaric’s claws had dug in. Every breath came in raspy, painful hitches. My skin burned under the dark red bruises left behind by his vicious grip, a terrifying reminder of how close I had just come to having my neck snapped like a dry twig.Footsteps echoed frantically down the corridor before Max burst around the corner. The moment his eyes landed on me, his expression shifted to shock.“Liora!” He ran over, dropping to his knees beside me and reaching out. “What happened to you? Who did this?”Tears spilled over my lashes as I threw myself forward into his arms, sobbing against his shoulder. His hands pressed against my back, but as I wept, his head whipped around, staring down the dark, empty hallway toward the shattered dungeon gate.“What?” Max breathed, his tone instantly hardening into disbelief and anger. “He le
AlaricMy consciousness returned in a haze of agonizing heat.Every breath felt like breathing broken glass. I opened my eyes, my vision swimming, and immediately clutched at my left flank. Someone had slapped a makeshift linen bandage over the gunshot wound, but the silver bullet was still lodged deep inside my flesh, eating through muscle, melting my tissue, and spreading its suffocating poison directly into my blood.The dark, smoking blood had already soaked straight through the wrappings.My inner wolf whined weakly, trapped behind a wall of metallic paralysis. My Alpha strength—the raw surge of power that usually made me unstoppable—felt drained, fading away by the second.I looked around the small, damp space. Cold concrete floor, damp stone walls, and heavy iron bars. A dungeon beneath White Moon.Elias and Max had locked me away to rot while the silver did its work. They had taken the flash drive. They had destroyed the evidence. They had taken everything. But none of that ma







