Chapter Five
1013 Words
Selene
“No—no, no, no!”
Dorian’s scream split through my chest like a blade. He writhed on the floor, his claws gouging into stone, his breath ragged, torn between wolf and curse. Black veins crawled across his throat, pulsing, spreading like roots of rot.
Elders shouted incantations. Guards closed in with steel flashing. And all I could think was — if they struck, they wouldn’t just kill Fenrir. They would kill *him.*
“Stop!” My voice shattered against the chamber walls. “Don’t touch him!”
Elder Neris snapped, “Luna, stand aside. He’s lost—”
“He’s not lost!” I shoved forward, ripping from Maren’s grasp. “He’s still in there. He’s *mine!*”
I fell to my knees, grabbing Dorian’s face. His skin was burning hot, sweat pouring, eyes flickering between storm-gray and endless black.
“Dorian,” I whispered, shaking. “Look at me. Please. Don’t let him take you.”
For a heartbeat, the gray flickered brighter. He rasped, voice breaking. “Selene… run.”
My heart cracked.
**“Run?”** Fenrir’s laugh echoed from his lips, jagged and cruel. “Why would she run when she could kneel?”
---
Dorian
The monster clawed at me from the inside.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Every shred of control slipped like sand between my fingers.
Selene’s scent. Her touch. It kept me tethered. But Fenrir—he tore at every chain I built.
**“She’ll betray you like the others,”** he hissed. **“They all will. I am the only truth you’ll ever know.”**
“No!” I roared inside, but the sound that escaped my throat was Fenrir’s.
My body convulsed. Bones cracked. My claws lengthened. I could feel fur threatening to break through skin — not my wolf’s, but something older, darker.
Selene’s voice pierced through. “Fight him, Dorian! Don’t let him win!”
And gods help me, I wanted to. But I could feel it: one more heartbeat, one more slip, and I was gone.
---
Elder Jorah
The curse was breaking free.
I had seen this before. Long ago, when Fenrir’s first host tore through villages like kindling. The blood. The screams. The sky black with smoke.
History was repeating.
“Warriors!” I barked. “Form a circle! Contain him!”
Steel rang as guards moved, but my gut knew — steel meant nothing to Fenrir.
Selene clung to him, foolish and desperate. She didn’t understand. If she failed to let go, she would be the first to die.
“Luna!” I roared. “Step back or you doom us all!”
Her head whipped toward me, eyes blazing with tears and defiance. “Then let me be doomed with him!”
The chamber froze. Even Fenrir stilled at her words.
The bond. It was stronger than I feared. Stronger than we accounted for.
And bonds… bonds could either anchor a curse or unleash it.
---
Selene
“Then let me be doomed with him.”
The words tore from me without thought. And in that silence — gods help me — I meant them.
Dorian’s body trembled under my hands, caught between man and monster. But in his eyes, for just a flicker, I saw him again. My Dorian. My mate.
I pressed my forehead to his. Whispered into his breaking soul. “You’re not alone. Not while I breathe. Do you hear me?”
He gasped, shuddering, his claws retracting a fraction. The black in his eyes faltered.
And then—
A scream ripped from him, so loud the stone walls cracked. His body arched, light and shadow bursting from his chest like a storm unleashed.
I was thrown back, crashing into the council table.
And when I looked up—
He was no longer on the floor.
He stood, towering, half-shifted, his body a grotesque war between Alpha and curse. Fur black as midnight spread across one arm, his chest split with glowing veins, his teeth lengthened into fangs too jagged for any wolf.
And his eyes… they were both. Dorian’s storm-gray and Fenrir’s abyssal black, warring in the same gaze.
The chamber gasped in unison.
And Fenrir spoke through him.
**“Your Alpha is dead. Bow to your god.”**
---
Dorian
I wasn’t dead. I wasn’t gone.
But gods, I was close.
Fenrir moved my limbs like a puppeteer, but my mind — my soul — I was still inside, shackled in chains I couldn’t break.
I watched through my own eyes as my claws raised, as guards stumbled back, as elders wept.
And Selene—
Selene stared at me, eyes wide, tears streaking, lips trembling. She should have run. Should have left me.
But no. She stood.
And whispered, “Dorian. Come back to me.”
Fenrir’s snarl rattled my teeth. **“She is mine now.”**
But deep inside the chains, her voice… it lit a fire.
I wasn’t gone yet. Not while she called me.
---
Selene
He was still there. I felt it.
Fenrir was stronger, louder, but Dorian—he hadn’t vanished. His eyes told me. Half of them still belonged to the man I loved.
I staggered forward, despite Maren’s scream. “Selene, stop!”
“No!” My voice cracked. “If I stop, he’s lost forever!”
Dorian’s claws lowered, just an inch, at the sound of my voice.
I reached out, trembling. “You are not him. You are not Fenrir. You are *mine.* And I am yours.”
His body shook. The chamber trembled.
And for one impossible heartbeat — I thought I had him back.
Then Elder Neris screamed, “Now! Strike him down before it’s too late!”
The warriors surged.
“No!” I shrieked.
But it was too late.
Steel pierced flesh.
And Dorian roared — a sound not of wolf, not of man, but of god.
The chamber split in half as power exploded outward.
And when the dust cleared—
He was gone.
- Writer
