CHAPTER 5 : THE MONSTER UPSTAIRS
1803 Words
POV: Alessia De Luca
The fortress did not sleep, It hunted.
Even after midnight, Alessia could hear movement beyond the walls of her room.
Boots crossing marble corridors,low male voices speaking Russian somewhere downstairs.
The distant metallic sound of weapons being loaded,prepared.
Alert,paranoid after the poisoning attempt.
The poisoning had already triggered emergency lockdowns across multiple Volkov territories, eastern ports were being searched.Syndicate communications encrypted. Protection networks activated from Moscow to Montenegro.
Or maybe this was simply how the Volkov empire lived every night,ready for war before sunrise.
The Volkov empire controlled too many laundering fronts, shipping contracts, political assets, and Balkan protection networks to risk weakness spreading beyond the fortress walls.
Alessia stood beside the bedroom window staring into the snowstorm swallowing the mountains outside.
The bloodstains had finally been washed from her skin,not from her mind.Someone poisoned her wine,inside Cassian’s fortress,inside supposedly impossible security.Which meant one terrifying thing: someone inside the empire wanted her dead,and inside the Volkov Syndicate, betrayal could collapse billion-dollar arms routes, oil negotiations, and eastern laundering fronts overnight.
A soft knock interrupted her thoughts,the bedroom doors opened slowly before she could answer.
A woman entered carrying folded clothing.Older,gray-haired, sharp-eyed.Unlike the others, she didn’t look frightened,just cautious.
“Fresh dresses, Luna,” the woman said quietly.
Alessia crossed her arms.
“Stop calling me that.”
The woman hesitated.
Then:
“That title doesn’t disappear simply because you dislike it.”
Interesting.
Most people inside this fortress obeyed instantly.
This woman didn’t.
“What’s your name?” Alessia asked.
“Yelena.”
She placed the clothing carefully onto the bed before glancing toward the locked windows.
“Do not open those after dark.”
Alessia frowned slightly.
“Why?”
Yelena went silent,too silent.
Then finally
“The wolves become restless during storms.”
A chill slid down Alessia’s spine.Before she could ask another question, Yelena moved toward the door again.
But paused suddenly.
“The Alpha assigned double guards outside your room tonight.”
Alessia stiffened.
“Because of the poisoning?”
Yelena looked at her strangely.
“No.”
Then she left.
The doors shut heavily behind her.Alessia stared after her uneasily.
No?
Then why double the guards?
The fortress suddenly felt colder.
She moved toward the bed slowly before noticing something strange near the fireplace wall.
Marks,deep scratches carved into black stone.
Her pulse skipped.
Alessia stepped closer carefully.Not scratches,claw marks,huge ones.
The stone itself had been ripped apart like paper.
A cold sensation crawled over her skin.
No human did that.
Her eyes lifted slowly around the room.
More marks. Near the balcony doors,beside one corner bookshelf, Half-hidden beneath expensive decorations.
As if someone tried covering them.
Her stomach tightened painfully.
Cassian.
The thought arrived instantly.Wolf, monster, Predator.
The images from the underground chamber flashed back violently.
Bones cracking, gold eyes, claws pushing through skin.
Silver kills slowly.
A low sound suddenly echoed faintly through the fortress.
Growling.
Alessia froze.
The sound came again.
Deeper this time.
Animal, huge, not fully human.
Her heartbeat accelerated.
The growling echoed somewhere above her.
Upstairs.
Another sound followed.
A violent crash.
Furniture splintering.
Then silence.
The fortress guards outside her room shifted immediately.
She heard weapons c*****g.
Russian voices murmured urgently through the doors.
Fear lived in their voices.
Not panic,expectation.Like this had happened before.
Somewhere beneath the fortress, hidden command centers would already be activating internal lockdown protocols. Thermal surveillance systems. Biometric vault seals. Private military divisions mobilizing through encrypted channels beneath aristocratic luxury.
Alessia moved slowly toward the bedroom doors.
Another growl shook the ceiling overhead.
Closer this time.
Raw rage vibrated through the sound,predatory, Inhuman.
Every instinct inside her screamed danger.
Yet curiosity pulled harder. Before she could stop herself, Alessia opened the bedroom doors slightly.
Two armed wolves stood outside immediately.
“Nazad,”(Back)one barked sharply
Alessia ignored him.
“What’s upstairs?”
Neither guard answered.
Another crash echoed through the fortress.
One of the guards flinched visibly.
Interesting.
Volkov soldiers feared almost nothing,but they feared whatever was upstairs tonight.
Alessia looked between them.
“What’s happening?”
Still silence.
Then finally, the older guard spoke quietly.
“The Alpha is shifting.”
Her breath caught.
The younger wolf shot him an angry glare instantly.
But the damage was done.
Shifting.
Not partial transformation,full transformation.
A distant roar suddenly exploded somewhere above them.
Not human, not wolf, something worse.
The sound vibrated through the fortress walls themselves.
Alessia felt it deep inside her chest.
The guards moved immediately afterward.
One rushed down the corridor barking orders into a tactical radio.
“Lock down the north sector, seal command access, no one moves without authorization.”
The other stayed planted outside her room gripping his silver rifle tightly.
Alessia stared upward slowly.
Cassian.
That thing upstairs was Cassian.
The realization should have terrified her completely.
Instead,she felt something far more dangerous.
Need.
The strange bond between them pulsed painfully again.Awareness, connection.
As if some invisible thread kept pulling her toward him no matter how hard she resisted.
Her wolf reacted too,restless beneath her skin,not frightened,answering.
The guard noticed her expression immediately.
His face darkened.
“You should stay inside, Luna.”
Alessia looked toward him sharply.
“Why?”
Silence.
Then quietly
“Because during full moons… the Alpha becomes unpredictable.”
Full moon.
Her stomach dropped.
She glanced toward the towering windows.Clouds shifted outside briefly,silver moonlight spilled across the snow-covered mountains.Beautiful,deadly.
Another roar shook the fortress.
Closer,much closer.
Then suddenly,screaming erupted downstairs,human screaming.
Alessia’s pulse slammed violently,the guards tensed instantly.
“What was that?”
Neither answered.
One grabbed the radio at his belt.
“Report.”
Static crackled.
Then:
“North wing breach”
A snarl exploded through the speaker.
Followed by gunfire.
The radio died,silence followed,terrible silence.
Alessia felt cold all over.
“What the hell was that?”
The older guard looked pale now.
“Stay inside your room.”
This time it wasn’t an order.It was fear,real fear.
Because if rivals discovered the Black Alpha was losing control to the curse, syndicate wars would erupt across Europe before dawn. Entire governments, senators, cartel alliances, and protection networks depended on Cassian Volkov remaining in control.
The guards moved away quickly down the corridor seconds later, leaving her standing alone beside the open doorway.
Bad decision,very bad decision,because now curiosity completely consumed her.
Alessia stepped into the hallway carefully.
The fortress felt different tonight,darker liike something alive moved through its walls.
Another growl echoed nearby.
Close enough now that her body reacted instinctively.
Her wolf shrank,submitted.Alpha.
The corridor lights flickered once.
Then again.
A cold breeze swept through the hall carrying the scent of cedarwood and blood…Fresh blood.
Alessia’s stomach twisted violently.
Slowly, she followed the scent.
One corridor,then another.
The deeper she moved into the fortress, the quieter everything became.No guards,no servants, nothing.
Only silence.
And claw marks.
Huge claw marks shredded parts of the walls here too.
Broken marble littered the floors.
One steel security door hung half-ripped from its hinges.
Beyond it, Alessia glimpsed flashes of military infrastructure hidden beneath the luxury above encrypted server rooms, surveillance monitors, weapons vaults, and tactical command stations built beneath the fortress like a private war headquarters.
God.
What kind of creature could do that?
Another sound echoed nearby.
Breathing,heavy, animalistic.
Alessia stopped instantly.
The scent hit her harder now.Wolf, wild,male,dangerous.
Then she saw it.
Blood smeared across the floor ahead,fresh.
Leading toward a partially open doorway.
Her pulse thundered painfully.
Every instinct screamed at her to run.
Instead,she stepped closer.
The room beyond looked destroyed.Furniture overturned,walls shredded,silver chains snapped apart across the floor.
Something massive had clearly been locked inside here, something powerful enough to break free.
A low growl suddenly vibrated behind her.
Alessia froze completely,heat flooded the back of her neck instantly,predator.
Close,too close.
Slowly,terrifiedly,she turned around.
And stopped breathing.
Cassian stood at the far end of the corridor.
Except…not fully Cassian anymore.
God.
His body looked wrong,bigger,broader.
Dark veins spread beneath his skin like black poison.
His shirt hung torn open exposing claw marks carved across his chest like he’d fought himself.
Bones shifted visibly beneath his skin,cracking,reforming, painfully.His eyes glowed molten gold in the darkness.
Pure wolf,pure monster and still,terrifyingly.
He looked like a king built for war.The Black Alpha.
The man controlling ports, military contractors, laundering empires, senators, and syndicate alliances across continents,the ruler entire criminal dynasties feared losing.
Alessia’s body locked instantly beneath the force of his dominance.
The animal inside her recognized him immediately.Alpha, predator, danger.
Cassian stared at her silently,breathing hard.
Like he was barely holding himself together.
A low growl rolled from his chest again,not threatening,warning.Run.
His wolf was warning her to run but Alessia couldn’t move. Because despite the terror flooding her veins she saw something worse in his expression.
Control slipping, The curse.
This was the curse,the monster beneath the Black Alpha finally surfacing.
Cassian took one slow step toward her.
The movement looked unnatural,predatory.
His claws scraped lightly against the stone wall beside him.
“Go back to your room, Alessia.”
His voice sounded distorted,rougher,barely human.
She swallowed hard.
“You’re hurt.”
Blood covered parts of his hands,one side of his ribs.
Cassian’s jaw tightened violently.
“Go.”
Another bone cracked loudly beneath his skin.
Alessia flinched.
Pain flashed briefly across his face before disappearing beneath cold control again.
Then suddenly,he inhaled sharply.
Like he caught her scent fully for the first time tonight.
Everything changed instantly,the gold in his eyes darkened dangerously,possession slammed through the bond so hard Alessia physically felt it.
Mine.
The word hit her like a pulse beneath her skin.
Cassian looked furious about it,which somehow terrified her more.
His wolf wanted closer,wanted touch,wanted claim.The realization flashed across his face briefly before he buried it again.
“Alessia,” he said softly now.
Too softly,predator soft.
“Leave.”
But her feet refused to move because despite the monster standing in front of her,she suddenly realized something horrifying.
Cassian wasn’t trying to attack her, he was trying not to.
Another violent shudder hit his body,bones cracked sharply,a growl tore from his throat.
The transformation was getting worse,fast.
Fear crawled down Alessia’s spine.
“Cassian”
“Don’t say my name right now.”
The warning came instantly,savage,raw.He turned away abruptly bracing one clawed hand against the wall like he was losing control by the second.
The stone cracked beneath his grip.
Alessia’s pulse hammered wildly.
This man terrified entire syndicates,executed traitors without blinking,and ruled empires through fear.
And yet tonight,he looked afraid of himself.
The realization hit her hard.
Then suddenly,a loud metallic click echoed behind her.
Alessia turned sharply.
Her bedroom door stood at the far end of the corridor,slowly opening by itself in the darkness.
No guards,no servants.Just darkness waiting inside.
And from somewhere within the shadows,something growled back.
- Writer
