Chapter 10
Snow turned to ash in the silence before the storm.
Damien and the Rogue King stood across from each other, golden fire against silver steel, their power colliding in waves that shook the grove. Every wolf in the shadows bent low under the weight of it—except me. I stood in the eye of their fury, my scar burning like a fresh wound.
“Step aside, Blackwood,” the Rogue King said, his voice rolling like thunder. “You don’t deserve her.”
Damien’s lips curled, teeth flashing. “And you do? You think a monster with no pack can claim a mate severed by the Goddess herself?”
The Rogue King smiled, slow and feral. “The Goddess doesn’t scare me. Bonds don’t scare me. But a woman who broke her Alpha? That…I respect.” His gaze cut to me, molten and unyielding. “Clara, you’re wasted on a wolf who keeps you in chains. With me, you’d never kneel again.”
My heart stuttered. My wolf whimpered at the promise of running free, unbound.
But Damien’s growl swallowed the air. “She is mine. Severed or not. Marked or not. She is mine until the day she dies.”
The Rogue King’s claws flashed, silver in the moonlight. “Then you’ll die trying to keep her.”
And they lunged.
The impact cracked like lightning. Damien met the Rogue King midair, claws raking, fangs snapping. Blood sprayed, black and red against the snow. The forest exploded with sound—snarls, howls, the deafening clash of two Alphas locked in primal war.
I staggered back, heat and power whipping through the grove in violent currents. Warriors tried to rush forward, but the Elders raised their staffs. “This is Alpha law,” Elder Maeve hissed. “No wolf interferes.”
Which meant me—alone, unguarded—in the crossfire.
Damien slammed the Rogue King into a tree, splintering wood, but the other wolf only laughed, raking claws down Damien’s chest. Damien roared, golden eyes blazing, blood soaking through his shirt.
The bond was broken, but my body betrayed me. My lungs seized, my wolf keened, he’s hurt, he’s ours—
“No,” I snarled to myself, clenching my fists. “He’s not mine.”
The Rogue King’s gaze cut to me mid-fight, hungry, assessing. For one breath, Damien’s grip faltered. The King twisted, slammed Damien into the snow, fangs snapping for his throat.
“Enough!” I screamed, my voice tearing raw. “Stop this!”
Both froze. Two predators, panting, bloodied, their eyes burning into me.
And then, as if they had spoken without words, they both stepped back.
Damien wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes locked on mine. “Say it, Clara. Say you’re mine, and this ends.”
The Rogue King straightened, silver eyes gleaming. “Or walk to me, and I’ll take you beyond his borders. No Council, no leash, no chains. Only freedom.”
The world tilted, spinning with choice. Behind me, the pack whispered—Serena’s voice frantic, Father’s booming commands lost in the chaos. But all I saw were the two wolves, both deadly, both bound to me in ways the law could never untangle.
Damien: control, desire, the bond I’d severed but still felt in my bones.
The Rogue King: chaos, freedom, the promise of never kneeling again.
My wolf trembled, torn. My heart hammered, screaming.
And when I opened my mouth, the grove went silent, waiting to hear which doom I would choose.
But before I could speak, a howl split the night—high, shrill, unmistakably feminine.
Every head snapped toward the sound.
Serena.
My sister.
Her scent hit the air, sharp with terror, and with it, the undeniable truth: she was bleeding.
And she was calling for help.
