Close Calls

The full moon was only days away. The note’s deadline burned in my mind like a brand.

After the altar revelation, the Alphas hadn’t killed me. They had fucked me until I couldn’t think, couldn’t lie, couldn’t breathe anything but them. But trust was fractured. Silas watched me with new shadows in his steel eyes. Rook’s touches grew more possessive, almost desperate. Wren’s visions kept him quiet, but I felt his suspicion through the bond like a blade at my throat.

I still played the fragile Omega. Trembling smiles. Soft pleas. It was getting harder to remember it was an act.

That afternoon, the house gave me an opening.

Silas was alone in the armory, sharpening blades by candlelight. His left side was almost fully marble now, heavy and cold. The curse was accelerating. I slipped in silently, the hidden blade warm against my palm.

One strike. Under the ribs. End the Stone Lord and weaken the Entity.

My hand shook as I approached from behind. He didn’t turn. The bond fed me his exhaustion, his quiet hope that I would choose them. I raised the blade.

And stopped.

The memory of him on the throne, forehead pressed to mine, whispering Stay with us flashed through me. I lowered my arm, nausea rolling through my gut. Instead, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek to his broad back.

Silas tensed, then relaxed with a heavy sigh. “Ashe.”

I hated how right it felt.

He turned and took me against the weapon rack, stone hand cold on my throat while his good one worked me open. I moaned like the desperate Omega I pretended to be, riding his cock hard until we both shattered. Afterward, I slipped the blade back into hiding, sick with relief and shame.

The second attempt came that night.

Rook was out hunting threats near the treeline. Wren was lost in visions. Silas slept deeply beside me in the master chamber, his breathing slow. The poison pill felt heavy in my fingers as I hovered it over a cup of water beside his bed.

Just a drop. Enough to weaken him. Enough to make the kill easier later.

His stone arm twitched in his sleep, reaching for me even unconscious. The bond pulsed with quiet trust. I crushed the pill in my fist instead and swallowed the powder myself, letting it burn harmlessly in my rare blood. My body neutralized it instantly another cruel gift of the vessel.

I curled against Silas’s chest and cried silently.

The third close call nearly ended everything.

We were in the conservatory the next evening, all four of us tangled on furs after another desperate claiming. Rook had knotted me while Silas fucked my mouth and Wren marked my chest with bites. I was limp, full, and floating in the afterglow when the house shifted again, isolating Silas and me in a small stone alcove.

His guard was down. The marble had reached his collarbone. He looked vulnerable. Breakable.

I had the blade.

I straddled his lap, still leaking their cum, and kissed him deeply. As his good hand gripped my hip, I positioned the blade between us, angled perfectly toward his heart. One thrust while he was inside me. Quick. Clean.

Our eyes met.

I saw myself in his steel gray gaze not the weapon, but the man he was falling for.

Tears spilled down my cheeks. The blade clattered to the floor.

Silas went rigid. He saw it. He knew.

For one terrifying heartbeat, I thought he would crush me with his stone hand. Instead, he pulled me down onto his cock again, fucking up into me with brutal, punishing strokes.

“You were going to kill me,” he growled against my mouth, voice breaking.

“I can’t,” I sobbed, clinging to him as pleasure and pain tore through me. “I can’t anymore.”

He came with a roar, flooding me, then held me tight as the bond flared painfully bright. Partial redemption. Not forgiveness not yet but a crack in the wall between us.

“The next time you raise a blade to me,” he whispered, stone fingers gentle on my jaw, “I won’t stop you. But you’ll have to look me in the eyes while you do it.”

I nodded, shattered.

The priests’ chants grew louder outside the walls. The full moon approached. My time was running out.

And I had never been more certain that I would rather burn the Sanctuary to the ground than lose these broken, beautiful monsters.