Chapter three: The claim
1419 Words
“Too late.”
Damien’s words hit Elena harder than the howl outside.
Kael was coming. Fifty wolves. Maybe more. And Damien was staring at her like she was the only thing between him and war.
His hand was still on her throat. Thumb over her pulse. Not choking. Possessing.
“Tell me to stop,” he said again. Voice rough. Desperate.
Elena’s hand on his chest trembled. She could feel his heart. Fast. Furious. Matching hers.
She should have said it. _Stop. Don’t. I’m human._
She didn’t.
Marcus moved to the temple entrance, blade drawn. “They’re at the tree line, Alpha. Two minutes.”
Damien didn’t look at him. His eyes were locked on her mouth. Swollen. From him.
“Elena,” he said. Her name sounded like a curse. “Last chance.”
The moon was directly overhead now. Full. Silver. It poured through the broken roof and painted her skin.
Elena made her choice.
She rose on her toes.
Damien’s breath caught.
She pressed her forehead to his. “If you bite me… you can’t take it back.”
“I don’t want to,” he said.
That was all she needed.
Damien moved.
He backed her against the stone altar in one step. No gentleness left. No contract. Just the beast.
His mouth crashed into hers.
Not a kiss. A claim. Teeth. Tongue. Desperation. He tasted like blood, smoke, and war.
Elena gasped and he took it. His hand slid from her throat to the back of her head, holding her still.
She should have hated it. She didn’t.
Her hands clawed at his shoulders, pulling him closer. She kissed him back like her life depended on it. Because it did.
“Damien—” she broke away, panting. “If we do this—”
“We’re done talking,” he growled.
His lips trailed down her jaw. To her throat. He inhaled her there, deep, like he could drink her scent.
“Mine,” he said against her skin.
Her knees buckled.
His canines grazed her neck. Sharp. Hot.
Outside, the first wolves hit the temple steps.
“Alpha!” Marcus shouted. “Now!”
Damien’s eyes opened. Black. Beast fully out.
He looked at her one last time. “Hold on.”
And he bit.
---
Pain.
Sharp. Burning. Like fire under her skin.
Elena cried out. Her hands fisted in his shirt.
Damien didn’t stop. He held her tighter. His tongue lapped at the wound as he pulled back.
The pain changed.
It became heat. Molten. Racing through her veins. To her chest. To her core.
She saw it.
His memories. Flashes. A boy with silver eyes. Blood on snow. A pack betraying him. Selene’s smile. Loneliness. Rage.
And her. Always her. Even before he knew her name.
“Damien,” she choked.
The bond snapped into place.
It hit her like a wave.
She could feel him. His rage. His need. His possessive, terrified relief. _She’s mine. She’s alive. No one touches her._
And he felt her. Her fear. Her anger. Her want.
“Gods,” Damien said, breaking the bite. Blood on his mouth. Her blood.
He pressed his forehead to hers, breathing hard. “You’re mine.”
Elena couldn’t speak. The bond was too loud. Too bright.
Outside, Kael’s voice. “Break it down!”
Stone shattered.
Damien pulled back just enough to look at her. His eyes were silver again. But wilder.
“Can you stand?” he asked.
Elena nodded. She could. Because he was holding her up. Through the bond.
Marcus threw them both a sword. “We fight or we die.”
Damien caught it. Then he looked at Elena. Really looked.
“You stay behind me,” he said. “Always.”
“No,” Elena said. Her voice was steady. The bond gave her that. “I fight with you.”
Damien stared at her. Then he did something she’d never seen.
He smiled. Small. Feral. Proud.
“Fine,” he said. “But if you die, I burn the world.”
He turned.
And the temple exploded into chaos.
---
*The fight.*
Kael’s wolves flooded in. Twenty. Then more.
Damien was a blur. Black shirt torn. Blood everywhere. He fought like a god with nothing left to lose.
Elena wasn’t useless. She grabbed a fallen spear. She’d never held one before. But the bond guided her hand.
Damien’s instincts. His training. Hers now too.
She drove the spear into a wolf’s leg as he lunged for her. He went down snarling.
“Elena!” Damien was there in a second, tearing the wolf off her.
“You’re bleeding,” she said.
“So are you,” he said.
He kissed her. Fast. Bloody. In the middle of the fight.
“Stay alive,” he said.
She nodded.
They fought back to back.
Marcus held the entrance. Selene was nowhere. Smart.
Kael himself stepped into the temple last.
“Alpha Blackwood,” he said. “You claimed a human. You’ve doomed your pack.”
Damien stepped forward, Elena at his side.
“She’s not human anymore,” Damien said. “She’s mine.”
Kael laughed. “Then let’s see if she bleeds.”
He lunged.
Damien met him.
The two Alphas collided. Stone cracked. The temple shook.
Elena couldn’t breathe. The bond was screaming. Damien’s pain was hers.
Kael had a blade. Silver.
He slashed.
Damien took it in the side.
“No!” Elena screamed.
Damien’s head snapped to her. Blood on his lips.
“Run,” he mouthed.
Elena didn’t.
She ran forward.
Kael turned to her, blade raised.
Elena grabbed the altar. A heavy stone piece. She swung it with everything she had.
It hit Kael’s arm. Crack.
He howled.
Damien was on him in a second. No mercy.
He broke Kael’s neck.
Silence.
Kael’s men froze. Then they ran.
It was over.
Damien collapsed to his knees.
“Damien!”
Elena caught him. Blood was everywhere. His side. Her hands.
“Don’t you dare,” she said. Tears hot on her face. “You don’t get to die on me.”
Damien’s hand came up to her face. Bloody. “You… fought.”
“You said I would,” she sobbed.
Marcus was already there. “Kiera! Now!”
Kiera appeared from the shadows, running.
She pressed her hands to Damien’s wound. “He’s losing blood. The bond—”
“Use it,” Elena said. She didn’t know how she knew. She just did.
She grabbed Damien’s face. “Look at me. You’re not leaving. Do you hear me? You’re mine too.”
Damien’s silver eyes found hers. “Always.”
The bond flared.
Heat. Light. It poured from Elena into him.
Kiera gasped. “The bond is… healing him.”
The bleeding slowed. Stopped.
Damien’s eyes stayed on Elena. “You saved me.”
“You i***t,” she said, crying and laughing. “You claimed me.”
Damien’s mouth curved. “Worth it.”
He passed out.
---
*Later. Dawn.*
Elena sat outside the temple. Damien’s head in her lap. He was breathing. Alive.
Marcus stood guard. Kiera slept against a column.
The pack had retreated. Word would spread. Alpha Blackwood claimed a human. And won.
Elena looked down at her neck. Two marks. Faint. Silver.
Mated.
She touched them. They didn’t burn.
Damien’s eyes opened.
“You’re staring,” he said, voice hoarse.
“You’re alive,” she said.
Damien sat up slowly. Wincing. But alive.
He looked at her. Really looked. “You hate me?”
Elena thought about it. The contract. The cage. The blood. The kiss. The way he’d chosen her over his pack. Over his life.
“No,” she said. “I don’t.”
Damien exhaled like he’d been holding it for hours.
He reached for her hand.
She gave it.
“I’m not letting you go,” he said. “Contract’s gone. Bond’s real.”
“I know,” Elena said.
She leaned in and kissed him. Soft. This time. No blood. No war. Just her and him.
When she pulled back, Marcus cleared his throat. “Alpha. We have a problem.”
Damien didn’t move. “What?”
“Selene,” Marcus said. “She’s gone. And she took the Council’s seal.”
Damien’s eyes went hard.
Elena felt it through the bond. Cold.
“Then we hunt her,” Damien said.
He stood. Pulled Elena up with him.
She didn’t let go of his hand.
- Writer
