Chapter 56 – No Longer Human

I didn’t even flinch when Cale told me it had been five years.

Five years.

Five years of living in that over-guarded house—a prison dressed up as a mansion. Five years of being stripped down, layer by layer, until there was nothing left of the girl I used to be. I didn’t react when he said it. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, I turned and walked outside, desperate for air that didn’t taste like him.

The sky stretched above me, vast and indifferent. Remembering the night that I stopped being human, I wanted to scream at it and demand answers. Why? Why me? But I knew better. The sky doesn’t answer.

Cale had taken everything. My family, my friends, my dignity. My power. Even Luca—the one thing I’d clung to in the beginning—faded with time. The hope that he’d find me, save me? Gone. Love itself had become a distant memory, something that belonged to a different person.

I was Quinn. Or at least, I thought I was. But even that felt like a lie now.

And then there was Cale.

He didn’t just want my obedience. He wanted my soul. And the worst part? I’d let him take it without a fight.

He knew it too.

“You’re pathetic,” he sneered that night, pacing the room like a predator. His icy eyes glinted in the dim light. “But don’t worry, my dear. I’ll fix that. Tonight.”

I didn’t move. Didn’t speak. What was the point?

In a blur of motion, he was on me, his hand tightening around my neck as he slammed me against the wall. The impact rattled my bones, but I didn’t fight back. I just stared at him, hollow and empty.

His lips curled into a cruel smile. “See? Nothing left to take. You’re just a hollow little shell now.” His breath was hot against my skin. “But don’t worry. I’ll make something out of you yet. Now that you have lost the Moon Goddess' powers and protection, it's time to awaken the beast. You're ready.”

Then he bit me.

The pain was unlike anything I’d ever known.

It wasn’t just a bite—it was a fire that ignited in my veins, burning hotter and fiercer with every beat of my heart. I gasped, my vision blurring as agony tore through me. My knees buckled, but he held me up, his teeth locked onto my neck.

I wanted to scream, but the sound died in my throat. My body convulsed, writhing against him, but he didn’t let go. He wanted me to feel every second of it.

When he finally pulled back, blood dripping from his lips, he looked almost... satisfied.

“There,” he said, wiping his mouth. “Now you’re finally mine in every way that matters.”

I crumpled to the floor, gasping for air, the fire still raging inside me. My body trembled, every nerve ending screaming in protest.

Cale crouched beside me, his smile widening. “Don’t fight it, Quinn. This is what you were meant for. To be one of us. To be mine.”

I wanted to tell him to go to hell, but the words wouldn’t come.

The transformation didn’t happen right away.

The next full moon came, and with it, the end of whatever shred of humanity I’d been clinging to.

He dragged me outside, chaining me to a post beneath the moonlight. I was too weak to resist, my body still wracked with pain from the bite.

“You’re going to love this,” he said, his voice dripping with mockery. “It’s the most liberating experience of your life. Or what’s left of it.”

The moonlight touched my skin, and the fire inside me exploded.

Bones cracked and shifted, muscles tore and reformed. I screamed—a raw, guttural sound that didn’t even feel human. My hands clawed at the dirt, nails splitting and lengthening into talons. My vision blurred, then sharpened, and suddenly I could see everything—every rustle of the trees, every heartbeat of the creatures in the forest.

I wasn’t human anymore.

When it was over, I stood on shaky legs, my new form reflected in the glassy surface of a nearby pond.

Black fur as dark as night. Eyes glowing like embers. I looked like one of his mongrels.

Cale’s voice was thick with pride. “You’re beautiful.” He ran a hand through my fur, and I shuddered, not from fear or revulsion, but because I felt nothing. Nothing at all.

“You belong to me,” he said, his voice low and possessive. “Mind, body, and soul.”

I looked at him, my glowing eyes meeting his icy gaze. For a fleeting second, I thought about going for his throat. But I knew better. He was powerful, his strength radiating off him like a dark aura. He could snap my neck with one hand.

And honestly? I didn’t care. The will to live had been burned out of me.

But there was one thing that kept me going—the faint, flickering need to protect the ones I loved. Even if they didn’t know I was still alive.

The moon hung high above us, its light bathing the clearing in an eerie glow. Cale stood there, watching me with that smug smirk I’d come to hate, and I realized something.

I wasn’t just dead inside.

I was something worse.

I was no longer human, and I was his servant.

And there was no way out.