A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
666 Words
Chapter Three:
Lilith trembled in Darius’s grip, her green eyes darting between him and Selene. The once-smug expression on her face was gone, replaced with sheer panic.
The pack stood frozen, waiting for their King’s judgment. Waiting to see what kind of Alpha he truly was.
Selene should have been afraid. She should have been thinking of mercy.
But she wasn’t.
She was thinking of every time Lilith had humiliated her. Every whispered insult, every stolen opportunity, every time she had been treated like dirt.
This wasn’t just about the mate bond.
This was about justice.
Darius tilted his head, golden eyes locked onto Selene like a predator. “You said we make her pay.” His voice was soft, but it sent a shiver down her spine. Dangerous. Testing her.
Selene stepped closer, heart pounding. “Yes.”
A slow smirk played on Darius’s lips. He liked that answer.
Lilith thrashed in his grip. “Please, Darius—I only did it because I love you!” she sobbed. “I wanted to be worthy of you! I—”
Darius’s fingers tightened around her throat, cutting off her words. “Don’t say my name,” he murmured, voice cold. “You disgust me.”
Lilith whimpered. The once-powerful she-wolf was nothing now.
Selene should have felt pity.
She didn’t.
Darius turned his head slightly, looking at Selene from the corner of his eye. “Tell me, little mate… what shall we do with her?”
Selene’s breath hitched. Little mate.
The bond flared to life between them, raw and undeniable. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t comforting. It was obsessive, consuming, inescapable.
Selene’s wolf shuddered. Want. Need. Mine.
Darius stepped closer, his heat swallowing her whole. “I can kill her now,” he whispered, his lips almost brushing her ear. “One snap, and she’s gone.”
Lilith whimpered, but Selene barely heard her.
Darius was too close. Too intoxicating. The mate bond wrapped around her like chains, tightening, pulling, twisting.
No.
This couldn’t be so easy.
Selene forced herself to focus, to push back the wild need clawing inside her.
She met Darius’s gaze. “Death would be a mercy.”
The moment the words left her lips, something dark flashed in his golden eyes. A slow, wicked smile spread across his face.
Approval.
His grip on Lilith loosened, and she collapsed to the floor, coughing.
Darius turned to the pack. “From this moment on, Lilith is stripped of her title. She will no longer be treated as one of us.” His voice was smooth, but there was something cruelly amused in his tone.
Lilith choked out a sob. “No… please…”
Darius ignored her, walking around her like a predator playing with its food.
“She will live as an Omega,” he continued. “Servant to the lowest of wolves.”
The pack gasped. Omega status was worse than death. It meant humiliation, servitude, never being acknowledged again.
Lilith shook with horror. “You can’t—”
Selene took a step forward, staring down at the woman who had tried to steal her life.
“Try anything,” she murmured, “and I will make sure you suffer.”
Lilith’s lips quivered.
Selene leaned in, whispering so only she could hear.
“You wanted my life so badly? Now you can live it.”
Lilith crumbled, sobbing into the floor.
Selene turned away, a slow smirk curling on her lips.
Darius was watching her. Closely. Hungrily.
He reached out, brushing a single finger down her arm. A shiver shot through her. “You enjoyed that.”
Selene didn’t answer.
His fingers trailed lower, brushing her wrist, where her pulse raced.
“I like you,” he murmured. “More than I should.”
Selene swallowed hard.
Darius’s gaze darkened, possessive. “You’re mine.”
She should deny it. She should run.
But she didn’t.
Because for the first time in her life, she wanted to be claimed.
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- Writer
