MARKED BY MY STEPBROTHER

Chapter Thirty Nine

Sophie’s POV

So every morning started with training. Elowen and her hybrids worked with me for hours in a secluded part of the forest, teaching me how to stabilize my golden energy and channel it without draining myself completely. Lucas sat nearby in a reinforced playpen, watching everything with wide, curious silver eyes. Sometimes he would reach out with his own power, as if trying to help me when I was struggling with minea.

“You’re progressing faster than expected,” Elowen told me one afternoon, as she wiped sweat from her brow. “The child’s presence seems to increase your abilities. But it also makes you a beacon. Those who can smell what real power is will definitely be drawn to you."

I glanced at Lucas, who was happily chewing on a teething ring that glowed faintly gold whenever he touched it.

“That’s what scares me the most," I told her.

Damon trained with the warriors nearby. I could hear his commands rising over the trees. He was one to show strength, how to make decisions and how to hardly ever give up. He had become a true Alpha in every sense of the word. The pack respected him now, not out of fear, but because they had seen him bleed for them.

That evening, after Lucas was fed and sleeping, Damon found me in our bathroom. I was soaking in the large tub, trying to ease the soreness from training.

He didn’t say a word. He simply removed his clothes and joined me, pulling me onto his lap so I straddled him. The warm water lapped around us as he kissed me, his hands sliding over my wet skin.

“I missed you today,” he said to me.

I rocked against him, feeling the familiar part of his d**k get hard. “I missed you too.”

He lifted me slightly and guided himself inside me, filling me slowly. We moved together in the water. He f****d me deep and sensual. I moaned softly as if I wanted to drag the pleasure from escaping my lips completely. His knot swelled gradually, locking us together as we kept enjoying the s*x. When we came, it was intense and quiet, my forehead on his own forehead, breathing the same air.

Afterward, we stayed connected, his arms wrapped around me.

“The Hollow Court sent another message,” he said quietly. “They want a meeting in three days. Just them, us, and Lucas.”

“Lucas? Honey, we’re not taking him.”

“I know,” Damon replied. “I already know that. But we don't have to show any sign of weakness. If we hide, they’ll only grow bolder.”

Damon’s POV

Three days later, we met the Hollow Court at the same neutral bridge.

This time, their leader brought only five beings with him.

“The child must come with us,” the leader said. “He is the Spark so he belongs to the Court. Refuse, and we will take him by force. If your pack tries to intervene, well, they will burn.”

I stepped forward, Sophie at my side. “You will never touch my son.”

The being inclined its head to the left.

"Is this war you're indirectly asking for?"

"Is that what this looks like? You're trying to take a child that belongs to his father and mother against their will, for your selfish, ulterior reasons. If that isn't war, then I don't know what it is."

“Then prepare for war.”

Before we could respond to his assertion, one of the creatures came at us so fast that I almost didn't see him. His target was Sophie. I shifted instantly and intercepted it, tearing through its shadowy form. Sophie unleashed a powerful golden blast that disintegrated two more.

The Hollow Court leader simply watched, then smiled.

“You have until the next full moon. Bring the child, or we will come for him ourselves.”

Then they vanished into smoke.

Sophie’s POV

We returned to the mansion without saying a word. Even throughout the ride back.

That night, after Lucas was asleep, the fear finally broke me. I sat on the edge of our bed, crying as the tears didn't stop running down my face. Damon knelt in front of me and took my hands.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Look at me.”

I met his silver eyes. “What if we can’t protect him? What if..”

“We will,” he said in reassurance. “I swear on my life.”

"You swear?"

He nodded his head in the affirmative. “We’re going to win this, Sophie. For Lucas, for us, for the future we deserve.”

I knew that I had to take his words seriously because he meant them but the news that we heard from Marcus the next morning was a devastating one.

He came into the dining room where we were having breakfast with Lucas and said, “Alpha. The Hollow Court has allied with what’s left of Victor’s loyalists and a rogue faction of the Shadow Pack. They’re assembling am army and it seems like they’ll be here in five days.”

Damon stood slowly. “Then we prepare for another battle.”

He looked at me. “This ends with us standing victorious, or not at all.”

Damon’s POV

Talk about my most intense five days of my life, it was something else. We trained over and over and over. Elowen’s hybrids taught us new techniques to counter shadow creatures. Sophie grew stronger every day, begining to master how to control her power. I was proud of her. I was proud of the pack and what hwe had achieved under pressure.

On the night before the expected attack, I took Sophie to the same hot spring where we had first truly connected after everything began.

We made love slowly under the stars. When I knotted her, I held her close and whispered every promise I could think of.

The next morning, as the sun rose, our scouts reported the enemy force approaching.

Hundreds of dark beings, rogue wolves, and traitors marched toward our territory.

I stood on the mansion steps with Sophie beside me, Lucas safe in the deepest bunker with the best guards. Our warriors were assembled and ready.

I took Sophie’s hand and kissed it.

“Whatever happens today,” I said, “know that I have never loved anyone the way I love you.”

She squeezed my hand, golden energy

flaring around her. “And I you.”

We shifted, me into my black wolf, while Sophie just put up her golden shields.

As the enemy army appeared on the horizon, I did the only thing that I could think of at the time.

I roared.