Chapter 019
1425 Words
Damien's POV
"Who are you?"
I didn't move, keeping my eyes locked on the shadow. My voice came out steady, heavy with Alpha weight, but the air had changed entirely, turning static like the moment before lightning strikes. The silence pressed hard against my eardrums until all I could hear was the slow, heavy thud of my own heart.
"Look where you are," the shadow replied.
The voice didn't travel through the air, grinding instead through my bones like a landslide as a cold wind kicked up from nowhere, smelling of damp earth and something long dead. My head spun instantly, leaving the walls to blur into grey streaks while I gripped my skull with my nails digging into my skin as the floor dissolved right beneath my boots.
I wasn't falling—I was simply elsewhere.
I stood on an endless floor of dark, stagnant blood that didn't ripple or splash, sitting there like a mirror made of iron and shadow. I reached for the pack link, searching for the familiar scent of the forest, but found nothing; the mental map I always carried had gone completely blank, leaving my instincts blind.
"What is this place?"
My voice echoed deeper, vibrating in my chest as if it came from a stone tomb, sounding like it belonged to a man twice my age.
Why do I sound like this?
"This is your Lineage, Damien," the voice rasped. "Your soul belongs here, because we have been guiding you since the day you were born. It is time."
"Time for what?"
I tried to shift my weight, but the blood felt like heavy syrup around my boots, anchoring me to the spot.
"Time to kill the Millennium Wolf," the voice said. "The bloodline that can unlock the abyss of the underworld."
"Bloodline? Underworld?"
The words made absolutely no sense. My father spoke only of territory and strength, never of ancient debts, but as the shadow spoke, I felt a sharp pull in my gut—a cold thread connected directly to the power buried deep inside me.
"You mean the Eucharist," I said, the name feeling like a physical weight on my tongue.
"You are the key, Damien," the voice said, drawing closer now. "Without the Millennium bloodline, you are far from the strongest Alpha. You are merely a king without a crown."
I scanned the darkness, looking for a throat to grab or a face to strike, but found no body—only a voice coming straight from the void itself.
"Tell me where I am, and show me a way back."
I forced my shoulders broad, refusing to let the cold shrink me.
"You must fulfill your duties," the voice continued, completely ignoring me. "Look at the golden mark on your wolf. Your beast is weak, and enemies are trying to take it from you."
Enemies—it brought back Morrigan's warning about a key to a door that should never be opened.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Take the remaining bloodline from the soul," the voice said. "Without it, your brother will kill you. Your time is up, and the bloodline is close."
The blood beneath me began to rise, moving not in waves but in a slow, creeping climb up my shins. It ran ice-cold, and before I could speak, the red world blurred completely, leaving the scent of iron to vanish as it was replaced by a thick, expensive perfume that made my throat tighten.
I didn't open my eyes, focusing instead on the bed beneath me. The silk sheets felt abrasive against my skin in the stagnant air.
"Brother. Sleeping for so long."
The voice was thin and sharp like a blade across stone, causing my eyes to snap open.
Kael leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and his posture relaxed, but his eyes were busy, measuring me to look for permanent damage.
"What happened?"
My throat felt full of dry sand as I tried to sit up, finding that my muscles felt like lead.
"Oh, you've forgotten?" Kael pushed off the frame, walking slowly into the room with each step deliberate. "The succession has been handed to me, because the pack needs an Alpha who can stand on his own two feet."
He leaned over the foot of the bed. "It's been four days, Damien. You haven't marked your mate or told the pack anything, so the council decided they've waited long enough for a ghost to return to the living."
He paused, offering a small, mocking smile.
"And that human you brought—the one you risked everything for? She ran the moment things got ugly."
"What do you mean, Kael? What did you do to her?"
I tried to lunge straight out of bed as protective rage spiked, but the moment I moved, a hot pain exploded in my gut to radiate directly to my spine. I groaned, my arms trembling as I forced myself upright against the headboard, refusing to collapse in front of him.
"Steady, brother." Kael didn't lift a finger to help. "The curse isn't fully broken, leaving you looking one step from the grave."
"Where is mother?"
My voice emerged as a low growl. I hadn't seen her since before I went to the Silver Fang Pack, leaving me to wonder if Kael was lying about Sienna, or if she really had left me behind.
I stared him down, locking onto his eyes to look for a flicker or a tell, but Kael remained a master of the mask.
"Remember Jennifer?" Kael changed the subject. "You took her curse like a martyr, but luckily your mate broke it before it rotted you from the inside out."
"Broken? You mean Sienna did it?"
Hope tried to flare despite the pain.
"No, no." Kael shook his head with a short laugh. "Sienna is a wolfless human, Damien, so how could she break a curse that would kill an Alpha? No—it was her."
Kael stepped aside, pointing straight toward the doorway.
"Clara," I gasped.
She stood there, framed by the hall light, looking paler and thinner than I remembered with her eyes rimmed with red. I had told her to leave and never come back, yet here she was in the very heart of my home.
"Damien, I hope you're okay now," Clara whispered, her voice sounding brittle. "I haven't eaten for three days because I couldn't leave your side. I sacrificed part of my own wolf's spirit to pull that rot from your blood."
She walked to the bedside, her gown hissing against the hardwood as she looked completely ready to collapse.
"You saved me?"
I searched for the lie or the manipulation she usually practiced, but tears fell down her cheeks to drip onto her silk collar, leaving her looking genuinely shattered.
"Why are you crying, Clara? Come here."
My Alpha instinct overrode all suspicion, demanding I protect those who sacrifice for the pack. If she had crippled her own beast for me, the debt was absolute.
"I'm not your mate, Damien, and I know I'm not your Luna," she sobbed, leaning into me to rest her head on my shoulder as I pulled her close. Her hair smelled of lilies and salt. "Just don't let Kael take your lead away, because the pack needs you, not a tyrant."
"I won't let him." My jaw tightened until the bone ached, and I looked past her at Kael, who remained bored and indifferent. "By tonight, I'll announce the Luna ceremony to end this succession talk now."
Kael shrugged. "We'll see if you can even walk to the podium, brother."
As I held Clara, a strange pull started in my chest—not the pain of the curse, but something else entirely, acting as a vibration that felt like a warning. Before I could stand, a sharp, rhythmic rattle started against my hand.
It was coming directly from my finger.
"It's alright, Clara. Kael, take care of her." I kept my voice neutral and controlled. "I need a moment to find my feet, so I'll be down for dinner."
I held my breath as they turned to leave, listening to their footsteps fading down the hallway until I heard the heavy click of the door.
Silence returned completely, and I lifted my hand.
It glowed with a heavy, rhythmic golden light, pulsing in perfect time with a heartbeat that wasn't mine. The metal felt ice-cold, yet the light ran blindingly bright.
"Gold," I breathed, the word caught tight in my throat.
- Writer
