The Wolf, the Demon, and Their Omega

Chapter Five

SASHA

The moon rises like a blade through silk.

I feel it in my bones first. The pull that turns monthly cycles into hunting seasons, makes wolves remember what we are beneath the suits and civilized smiles. Around the penthouse, supernaturals shift restlessly. Sanctuary's about to expire.

Mina stands at the balcony's edge, watching the city. The mean girls flank her—Charlotte human and calculating, Natasha radiating pack loyalty she doesn't understand, Evangelina's crow picking at something dead. They've claimed her as theirs, but possession runs in my blood deeper than their schoolyard politics.

"Two minutes." Kenji checks his phone like the moon follows digital time. His temperature runs three degrees hotter than usual. Stress or anticipation—with demons, there's rarely a difference.

"The Calabrese are positioning." Adrian materializes beside us, having done reconnaissance with vampire efficiency. "Six teams. They'll move the second sanctuary drops."

"Let them." My wolf pushes against my skin, ready. "They want her, they go through us."

"Us?" Lysander appears in that way fae do, between one breath and the next. "When did we become a collective?"

"When they threatened what's mine."

"Ours." Kenji's correction comes with smoke.

The word hangs between us. Four years of careful alliance, of maintaining boundaries between pack and demon and vampire and fae. Now this girl who smells like rain and lies makes us consider impossibilities.

"Thirty seconds."

Mina turns. In moonlight, she's something out of my grandfather's stories—the ones about creatures that walk between worlds, too beautiful for either. Her pulse jumps in her throat. I count the beats, memorize the rhythm.

"Whatever happens—" She stops. Starts over. "Thank you. For trying."

"We're not trying anything." I move to her, crowd her space because I can't help it. "We're succeeding."

"The great Sasha Bolkonsky. So certain."

"About some things."

The moon crests fully. I feel sanctuary shatter like ice in spring. Around the penthouse, hunters mobilize. The Calabrese won't be alone. Every underground faction with omega trafficking connections will want their piece.

"Sasha." Mina's hand finds my chest. Warm against the cold I carry. "There's something you should know—"

Glass explodes inward.

Three wolves crash through the windows—fully shifted, illegal as hell, not caring. The Calabrese follow, vampires flowing like spilled wine. Behind them, things I don't recognize. Lab coats over body armor. Scientists with soldiers' eyes.

Everything happens at once.

Natasha shifts partial, enough to grow claws. She goes for the nearest wolf's throat, pack loyalty overriding everything. Charlotte pulls a knife from somewhere—of course the human girl carries weapons to supernatural parties. She moves like she's trained for this.

Evangelina speaks words that hurt to hear. Her crow multiplies, becomes a murder of birds that dive for vampire eyes. The witchling's got more power than her age suggests.

But there are too many.

A vampire gets past Natasha's guard, fangs aimed for Mina's throat. I intercept, take him apart with efficiency that would make my father proud. Blood paints the marble. First of many.

"Predictable." Paolo Calabrese stays back, letting others do his dirty work. "The young alpha, playing hero. How tedious."

"Get f****d, Paolo."

"Such language. Your breeding's showing."

He's baiting me. Wants me emotional, sloppy. But I wasn't raised by wolves who believed in fair fights.

Kenji burns through two lab coats before they can draw weapons. The smell of charred meat fills the air. Adrian moves like death given grace, centuries of practice in every motion. Lysander makes reality hiccup, sending three attackers tumbling through doors that open onto empty air.

But they keep coming.

"There!" One scientist points at Mina. "The anomaly. Take her alive."

They converge. Military precision mixed with supernatural speed. Mina fights—Christ, she fights like water given fury. Fluid and inevitable. Whatever cat she is, she's learned to use it. But there are too many, and the suppressants she's been mainlining have to be dragging her down.

A collar snaps around her throat.

Silver-lined. Tech-enhanced. She drops like her strings got cut.

"No!" The word tears out of me along with most of my control. My wolf surges, bones cracking as I shift partial. Enough to tear through bodies between me and her.

Paolo laughs. "And there's the beast. Your father will be so disappointed. All that training, wasted on—"

Kenji's fist connects with Paolo's jaw, wreathed in flame. The vampire flies backward, healing already but surprised.

"Shut up." Kenji helps me get to Mina. "Just shut up and help."

The collar's high-tech. Biometric locks, silver core, something else that makes my skin crawl just being near it. Mina's conscious but paralyzed, eyes wide with fury more than fear.

"Can't break it." Adrian's tried, fingers bloody from the attempt. "It's designed for our kind."

"All our kinds." Lysander touches it, jerks back. "Iron and silver and something else. Something older."

More fighters pour in. The mean girls fall back, overwhelmed. Natasha's bleeding from a dozen wounds. Charlotte's knife is red to the hilt. Evangelina sways on her feet, power exhausted.

We're losing.

"Ideas?" I press my hand to Mina's throat, feel her pulse racing beneath the collar. "Because I'm about thirty seconds from just killing everyone."

"Tempting." Adrian ducks a sword—who brings swords to penthouse parties? "But ineffective."

That's when Mina moves.

Not much. Just her hand, finding mine. Her lips shape a word: Bite.

Everything stops. Or maybe just my brain, trying to process what she's asking.

"You're sure?"

She nods. Barely, but enough.

Biting claims. Biting binds. It's permanent in ways humans don't understand, creates connections that death doesn't break. Pack wolves bite family. Mates. No one else.

But she's asking.

And I'm already lost.

I shift enough for proper fangs. Find the spot where shoulder meets neck, where marks show but don't maim. Her skin tastes like rain and secrets and something else—something that makes my wolf confused but not afraid.

I bite.

The collar shatters.

Not gradually. Not partially. It explodes into silver dust and regret. Mina gasps, arches, and I taste something impossible on my tongue. Not blood. Not exactly. Something that burns cold, floods my system like liquid starlight.

"What—" I pull back, see my bite mark already healing into something that looks like art. "What are you?"

She's smiling. Blood on her teeth—when did she bite her own lip?—and eyes that hold depths I don't understand.

"Yours."

Then Kenji's there, drawn by the same pull I feel. He looks at me, question and challenge.

"Do it." The words scrape out of me. Sharing goes against every instinct. But this isn't normal. Nothing about her is.

He bites the other side. Fire meets whatever I tasted, and Mina makes a sound that's pain and pleasure twisted together. Another mark forms, this one edged in flame.

The attacking forces hesitate. Two alphas marking the same omega? Unheard of. Forbidden.

Adrian laughs, dark and delighted. "If we're breaking rules..." He doesn't ask. Just bites her wrist, delicate and precise. Vampire bites don't claim the same way, but they bind. Blood to blood. Life to life.

Lysander considers. Fae don't bite. They bargain. But he presses his mouth to her other wrist, speaks something in the language that predates words. Not a bite but a binding, sealed with intent instead of teeth.

Four marks. Four bonds. Impossible.

Then Mina moves.

Fast. Faster than the cat we thought she was. She bites me first—same spot I marked her. The pain whites out my vision, but underneath runs something else. Connection. Raw and real and permanent.

She gets Kenji next, teeth finding his mark like magnetism. He actually whimpers. Adrian laughs when she bites him, like he's solved a riddle. Lysander just smiles as she seals their bargain with teeth instead of words.

The circuit completes.

Power floods between us. Not pack bonds—something stranger. Something that tastes like deep water and ancient promises. My wolf goes quiet, then purrs like it's found something it didn't know it was missing.

"Fascinating." Paolo's still conscious, watching from the floor. "The Volkov prince makes a new pack. Your father will—"

"My father will know exactly what I tell him." I stand, pull Mina up with me. Feel the others rise too, connected now by whatever she's done. "Which is that Blood Moon has a new pack. Anyone who hunts her, hunts us."

"Us." Kenji tests the word, likes how it fits.

"Unconventional." Adrian touches his bite mark. "But effective."

"Binding." Lysander sounds satisfied. "In all the ways that matter."

The remaining attackers exchange glances. Four of the strongest students at Blood Moon just formed an impossible pack around an omega who shattered a containment collar with her bite. The smart ones start backing away.

"This isn't over." Paolo stands, dignity dented but not broken. "She's an anomaly. The labs will—"

"The labs will burn." Kenji's statement comes with visible heat shimmer. "Anyone who comes for her burns."

"Dramatic." But Paolo's retreating. "Enjoy your new pack. However long it lasts."

They leave. Broken windows and blood puddles the only evidence they were here. The mean girls cluster near the door—Natasha torn between pack loyalty and confusion, Charlotte calculating odds with human precision, Evangelina swaying on her feet.

"Go." I don't make it an order. Can't, not with Natasha. "Get cleaned up. We'll handle this."

"What is this?" Natasha gestures at our group. At the visible bonds between us. "What did you do?"

"Something new."

She leaves, but I know this isn't done. The pack will have questions. My father will have questions. Everyone will have questions.

But right now, I don't care.

Mina sways. I catch her, feel the others move to help. Connected. Protective. Pack but not pack. Something the old laws don't have words for.

"The bites." She touches each mark. "They feel..."

"Different." Kenji finishes. "Like—"

"Like they're supposed to be there." Adrian sounds surprised. "Which is impossible. Vampires don't—"

"Fae don't bind without contracts." Lysander interrupts. "Yet here we are."

"Here we are." I breathe her in. Still petrichor and green. But underneath, something new. Something that might be us. "What are you?"

She laughs, exhausted. "Would you believe very tired?"

"Among other things."

"Smart man." She looks at each of us. "I should—there are things I should tell you."

"Tomorrow." I'm already moving us toward the door. "Tonight, we get somewhere safe. Figure out what we've done."

"What we've become." Adrian corrects.

We leave Lysander's penthouse different than we arrived. Bound by bite and blood and something else. Something that tastes like venom but isn't. Something that feels like pack but more.

In the elevator, Mina leans against me. I feel her exhaustion through our new bond, but underneath runs strength. Hidden depths. Whatever she is, we're part of it now.

"My place." The words come out statement, not question. "It's warded. Safe."

"Safe." She tests the word. "That's new."

"Get used to it."

The others agree without words. Connection singing between us, bright and strange and permanent. We've broken natural law tonight. Created something new.

The elevator opens on the parking garage. My car waits—black BMW that suddenly seems too small for five. But we make it work. Mina between Kenji and me in the back, Adrian riding shotgun, Lysander somehow making the middle seat look comfortable.

"Your father—" Kenji starts.

"Will adapt. Or he won't. Either way, this is done."

"This?" Mina's hand finds mine. "What is this, exactly?"

I think about pack dynamics. About traditional structures. About everything we just shattered.

"Ours."

She smiles. In the rearview mirror, I catch Adrian smiling too. Even Lysander looks satisfied.

We drive through streets that blur past. The bonds between us pulse with each heartbeat. Whatever she's hiding, whatever she is beneath the rain and green and lies, we're part of it now.

And despite everything—despite my father's inevitable rage, despite the laws we've broken, despite not knowing what we've truly done—I can't bring myself to regret it.

The girl who smells like mysteries has made us into one.

I can live with that.