WHEN MONSTERS MEET
1339 Words
The doors didn’t simply open.
They shattered.
A blast of wind and raw power shook the room as wooden splinters flew like daggers. Samantha gasped and clung to Zoro’s neck, burying her face against the warm curve of his throat. She couldn’t see, but she could feel. The air turned colder, thicker, heavier… as if hatred itself had entered the fortress.
And it had.
Because Morris had arrived.
Zoro’s arms locked around her protectively. His muscles tensed beneath her fingertips, steel, coiled and ready for war. He shifted her slightly, angling his body between her and the threat that growled at the threshold.
“Morris,” Zoro said, voice deep and lethal, “you’ve made the mistake of stepping into my territory.”
A low, animalistic snarl answered him.
Samantha shivered violently. It was a sound she knew too well. A sound she’d heard the night he blinded her. The night he whispered that if she wouldn’t see him… she wouldn’t see anyone.
She whimpered, and Zoro instantly pressed a reassuring hand to her back.
“I’m here,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”
But Morris had already heard her sound, her fear, and it triggered something monstrous.
“SAMANTHA!” Morris roared.
His voice wasn’t human anymore. It was cracked, unhinged, ripped open by madness.
Samantha flinched so hard she nearly slipped from Zoro’s arms, but he held her close, his scent, storm, pine, and dominance, wrapping around her like armor.
“Stay close to me,” Zoro whispered.
Her breath trembled. “I can’t do anything else.”
He almost smiled, bitter, dark, but real.
Morris stepped into the room.
The ground trembled.
His wolf form wasn’t completely shifted, something worse. He stood half-man, half-beast, eyes silver with insanity, muscles bulging and twitching beneath torn armor. His claws dripped with blood, not his.
“Give her to me,” Morris growled. “Now.”
Zoro gently set Samantha down on the bed behind him, but his hand remained on her thigh, steady, grounding, claiming.
“Come and take her,” Zoro said quietly.
A challenge.
A death wish.
A promise.
Samantha reached forward blindly, grabbing a fistful of Zoro’s cloak. “Don’t,” she whispered. “He won’t stop. You don’t know what he…”
Zoro covered her hand with his own, squeezing. “I know enough. And I’m not letting him touch you.”
The words sent heat, terrifying, forbidden heat, straight through her.
But Morris heard them.
And snapped.
“You think she wants YOU?” he snarled. “You think she’d ever choose a cold-hearted monster like you over ME?”
Zoro stepped forward, power rippling off him in waves. “She ran from you. She bled because of you. She blinded herself running from the hell you built.”
Morris’s pupils shrank, fury twisting his face.
“I blinded her,” he spat. “She’s MINE. My mark. My vow. My love.”
“You destroyed her life,” Zoro growled.
“I PERFECTED IT!”
His scream shook the rafters.
Samantha gasped, tears burning the corners of her useless eyes. She wanted to be brave. She wanted to stand up. But the smell of Morris’s rage, the sound of claws scraping stone, dragged her back into the nightmare she’d escaped.
“Zoro,” she whispered, voice cracking. “Please. He’ll kill you.”
Zoro turned slightly, just enough for her to hear the rare softness in his voice.
“Let him try.”
Morris lunged.
Not like a wolf.
Like a meteor falling from the sky.
Zoro met him halfway, the impact shaking the fortress so violently dust rained from the ceiling. Claws clashed with claws, snarls ripped through the air. For a moment Samantha heard nothing but the bone-deep sounds of war…
Flesh tearing.
Stone cracking.
Two alphas colliding in a storm of hatred.
Zoro roared, a sound deeper, older, more powerful than Morris had expected.
The Shadow King unleashed himself.
He grabbed Morris by the throat and slammed him against the wall hard enough to form a crater.
“You think you can threaten my kingdom?” Zoro snarled. “My people? Her?”
Morris laughed through blood-stained teeth.
A chilling, broken laugh.
“She’s not yours.”
“She’s not yours either,” Zoro shot back.
“Oh, but she is,” Morris whispered darkly. “Her scent… her fear… her past… I made her. I shaped her. I carved her into something only I can control.”
Samantha’s breath collapsed. Zoro’s growl turned feral.
He slammed Morris again, even harder.
“You carved NOTHING,” he hissed. “You destroyed a girl who deserved peace.”
Morris’s eyes glowed. “She will never love you.”
Zoro froze.
“And she will NEVER let you mark her,” Morris hissed. “Because she already belongs to ME.”
The words hit Zoro harder than any physical blow.
His grip faltered just slightly.
Just enough.
Morris twisted free.
He struck, claws slicing across Zoro’s chest. Blood splattered the stone floor. Samantha heard Zoro’s grunt of pain and nearly screamed.
“ZORO!”
He didn’t fall.
Instead, he moved faster, faster than any alpha had a right to. He pinned Morris to the ground with impossible strength, claws at his throat.
One move.
One push.
And Morris would die.
“Say it,” Zoro growled, voice shaking with rage. “Say she’s not your possession.”
“Never,” Morris spat.
Zoro tightened his grip.
Morris only smiled, bloody, wild, unhinged.
“That’s why you’ll lose her,” he whispered.
“You’re too late.”
Zoro’s breath faltered.
Morris’s smile widened.
“She’s bound to me,” he said softly. “By fear. By memory. By the last thing she heard before she went blind…”
He leaned close to Zoro’s ear and whispered:
“‘If you won’t see me… you won’t see anyone.’”
Zoro snapped.
His claws plunged—
“STOP!”
Samantha’s scream ripped through the room, tearing through both alphas like silver.
Zoro froze mid-strike.
Morris stilled.
The entire fortress held its breath.
Samantha stood, shaking, blind, terrified, but standing.
She reached out, searching wildly. “Zoro… don’t kill him.”
Zoro turned toward her slowly. “He came here to take you.”
“I know,” she whispered, voice trembling. “But if you kill him… you become like him.”
Zoro’s chest heaved with fury, with restraint, with something he didn’t know how to handle.
“Morris,” Samantha continued, voice cracking, “I’m not yours. I’ll never be yours. And I’m not staying in the dark you put me in.”
Morris stared at her.
Then he smiled slowly.
Terrifyingly.
Almost lovingly.
“Then let me fix it,” he whispered.
Zoro stiffened. “Don’t you dare”
But Morris’s next words froze everyone in place.
“I know how to restore her sight.”
The room turned ice-cold.
Samantha’s lips parted, breath stolen.
Zoro’s heart stopped.
Morris rose to his feet, licking blood from his claw.
“I blinded her,” he whispered. “And I am the only one who can undo it.”
Zoro’s snarl shook the walls. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Morris smiled. “Ask her why she survived the night I took her eyes. Ask her why she didn’t die from the poison on my claws. Ask her why she can still smell the world sharper than any wolf…”
Samantha trembled.
She knew some truth hid in his words.
Morris stepped forward.
“Give her to me… and I’ll give her sight back.”
Zoro moved instantly, blocking him. “Touch her, and I’ll rip your throat out.”
Morris leaned closer, so close Zoro could smell the madness on his breath.
“You want to be her hero?” Morris whispered.
“Then choose. Her freedom… or her eyes.”
Samantha’s knees weakened.
Zoro’s world shattered.
And the war between kings…
became a war for her very soul.
- Writer
