THE ROGUE'S PROMISE
1328 Words
CHAPTER 13: THE ROGUE'S PROMISE
Saelith didn’t sleep. She fell.
One moment she was lying on Veyran’s bed, the bond burning warm against her neck.
The next, she was standing in darkness. Cold. Endless.
No walls. No ceiling. No ground.
Just black mist and the sound of her own heartbeat.
Except… it wasn’t her heartbeat anymore.
It was his. And his. Two rhythms fighting inside her chest.
Veyran. Darius.
“Hello, little sister.”
The voice came from everywhere. From nowhere.
Smooth. Familiar. Poison.
Darius stepped out of the mist.
Not the broken male from the courtyard, bleeding against stone.
This version was clean. Perfect. Armor black as night.
Eyes silver, but softer. Sad. The brother she remembered from childhood.
Before their father sold her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Saelith said. Her voice didn’t echo.
“Neither should you,” Darius replied. He circled her slowly.
“This is our bond, Saelith. Blood. Family. Not that Alpha’s brand on your neck.”
Saelith touched her neck. The mark Veyran gave her pulsed gold.
Darius hissed like he’d been burned.
“That’s not love,” he said. “That’s possession. He bit you while you were dying.
While you were weak. While you couldn’t say no.”
“That’s not true,” she whispered. But the dream shifted.
Memories not her own flooded in. Veyran’s fangs. Her blood on his lips.
Her body too weak to fight.
Darius stopped in front of her. Reached out.
His fingers hovered over the mark but didn’t touch.
“It hurts, doesn’t it?” he said softly. “Being claimed. Being owned.”
“It’s not—”
“It is,” he cut her off. “I know. I’ve felt it too.
The hunger. The need. The way your wolf screams for him now.”
Saelith stumbled back. “Get out of my head.”
“I’m not in your head, Saelith,” Darius said. “I’m in your blood.
We share a father. We share a curse.
And I can break that Alpha’s bond if you let me.”
The mist turned red. The Blood Moon appeared above them, cracked down the middle.
“Lie,” Saelith said. But her voice shook.
“Then ask him,” Darius whispered. He stepped closer.
Ask Veyran what happens to mates who reject the bond after it’s forged.
Ask him why his first mate died screaming.”
Saelith froze. “He… he never had a mate.”
“Everyone has a first,” Darius smiled. Sad. Knowing.
“Ask him about Lyra. Ask him why the Blackthorn line is cursed.
Ask him why every female he claims ends up in the ground.”
The ground cracked beneath her feet.
Saelith fell to her knees. The bond at her neck burned hotter.
Veyran’s voice, distant, furious: *Saelith!*
But he couldn’t reach her here. Dreams belonged to blood.
And Darius was blood.
“Let me save you,” Darius said. He knelt in front of her.
Took her hands. His touch was cold. Familiar. Safe, in a way Veyran’s never was.
“I won’t bite. I won’t claim. I’ll just… cut the thread.
No more pain. No more Alpha screaming in your skull at night.
No more being his.”
Saelith wanted to believe him. Gods, she wanted to.
No more fire in her veins. No more his memories in her head.
No more being wanted so desperately it terrified her.
But then she saw it. Behind Darius. In the mist.
His wolf. Not the sad brother she remembered.
A monster with too many teeth and eyes that weren’t silver.
They were empty. Holes in the world.
“You’re lying,” Saelith whispered.
Darius’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Am I?”
The dream shattered.
Saelith woke gasping, clawing at her throat.
Veyran was there in an instant. Hands on her shoulders.
“Saelith! Breathe! Look at me!”
She did. Gold eyes. Panic in them. Real panic.
Not for himself. For her.
“You were screaming,” he said. Thumb brushed her cheek, wiping away tears she didn’t know she’d cried.
“Your bond— it went cold. Like you were dying.”
“Darius,” she choked out. “He was in my dream.
He said… he said you had a mate before. Lyra.
He said she died screaming. He said your line is cursed.”
Veyran went completely still.
For one second, the Alpha vanished.
The male underneath looked ancient. Tired. Guilty.
Then the mask slammed down.
“That’s not true,” he said. Voice flat. Final.
“Don’t say my name to him again, Saelith.
Not in your sleep. Not in your thoughts. Not ever.”
She pulled back. The bond between them flared, angry, confused.
“You’re lying,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
Veyran’s jaw ticked. “I’m protecting you.”
“From what? The truth?”
He stood. Turned away. Shoulders rigid.
For a long moment, he didn’t speak.
When he did, his voice was low. Dead.
“My mother was killed by a rogue who wanted our bloodline.
My father was killed by his brother for the throne.
Lyra… Lyra was my promised mate. Before I became Alpha.
She died in a fire I couldn’t stop. A fire I started.”
Saelith’s blood went cold. “You—”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said. Didn’t turn around.
“I lost control. My wolf was young. Angry. Jealous.
The flames took her before I could reach her.”
Silence. Heavy. Crushing.
“So yes,” Veyran said quietly. “My line is cursed.
Every female I touch dies. Every bond I forge ends in ash.
That’s why I never claimed anyone. Not in twenty years.
Until you.”
Saelith stared at his back. At the scars there. Old ones. Burn marks.
“He told you that to break us,” Veyran said.
“And he was right to fear it. Because if anything happens to you, Saelith…
if you burn, if you die, if you leave me…”
He didn’t finish. Didn’t need to.
She saw it anyway. Through the bond.
The darkness in him. The monster he kept chained.
The Alpha who would burn the world if she was taken from him.
“Darius can’t break the bond,” Veyran said. “No one can.
Not without killing one of us. Maybe both.”
He turned. Eyes gold. Haunted. Honest.
“So yes, I’m cursed. Yes, I’m dangerous.
But I would rather burn with you than live in ice without you.”
Saelith’s chest hurt. The bond pulsed.
His grief. His guilt. His fear of hurting her.
All of it poured into her, raw and bleeding.
“Dreams are his domain,” Veyran said. He came back to the bed.
Didn’t touch her. Just knelt beside her.
“Blood can cross where claws cannot. He’ll come again.
And each time, he’ll offer you freedom. Each time, he’ll lie.
Because the truth is, Saelith… there is no freedom from this.
Only choice. Stay, or burn trying to leave.”
Saelith closed her eyes. Tears slipped down her cheeks.
“I don’t know how to choose you,” she whispered.
“Then don’t,” Veyran said. “Choose yourself.
Choose to live. Choose to stop running.
And let me be the reason you don’t have to run anymore.”
Outside, thunder rolled. The Blood Moon watched.
And in the shadows between worlds, Darius smiled.
“Promise me, little sister,” his voice whispered in her mind.
“I’ll come for you. And next time, I won’t ask.”
The bond burned.
A promise made. A war declared.
And Saelith caught in the middle of two wolves,
both willing to destroy the world for her.
One with fire. One with lies.
And only she could decide which would consume her first.
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EPISODE END
To be continued in Chapter 14: ASHES OF THE CURSE
- Writer
