We were brothers, once.Born just a year apart under the same Blood Moon, cursed with the same prophecy...Born to be rivals.One destined to lead, one destined to fall.
Our father, Alpha Rourke, made sure of it.He fed us competition instead of love.He taught us to fight before we learned to speak.Every hunt, every lesson, every breath was a battle to prove who was stronger.Who deserved his love.
And Maddox always won.
Until tonight, I thought maybe fate would give me one chance.
The Trial of Succession.Combat.Strategy.Leadership.A fight for the right to lead Stygian into the next age.The pack surrounded us as we fought, their voices a violent storm.Some scream my name.Most scream his.
Maddox moves like a predator, calculated and sure, his eyes alight with the thrill of it.I move like chaos wrapped in skin, desperate and wild.My fists connect with his jaw, his gut, and his ribs.For a moment, he staggers.For a moment, I think ...I can win this.
Then he smiles again and I know I’ve already lost.He breaks me.
His fist slams into my chest, cracking bone.His claws rake across my side, blood spraying into the dirt and the crowd.He throws me down into the mud, his knee pinning my throat.My vision blurs, the world narrowing to the weight crushing me, the laughter of the pack, and the eternal fucking disappointment in my father’s eyes.
“Yield,” Maddox snarls, his breath hot against my face.
I should fight.I should claw, and bite, and scream.But I see it, the truth.Even if I beat him bloody, even if I broke every bone in his body, the pack would never follow me.
They don’t want me.They want him.So, I let my hands fall.I let the mud take me.
“I yield.”The words taste like ash.
The crowd erupts, half in triumph, half in disappointment.Maddox throws his arms up, victorious, their golden son, their perfect Alpha-to-be.
And me?
I stand, bloodied and beaten, my father’s cold eyes burning holes in me.He doesn’t say I have failed.He doesn’t need to.I turn my back on everything I have ever known, walk into the woods, and don’t look back.
The memory curdles in my stomach like sour milk.I stare into the fire, my jaw tight, and hands fisted.I swore I’d never crawl for anyone again.Not Maddox.Not the pack.Not fate.
And now?Now she’s lying in my bed, broken and bleeding, her scent tangled with mine, the bond gnawing at my soul.The Goddess is cruel.I never asked for this.
But as I glance at her, at the faint flutter of her lashes, at the rise and fall of her chest beneath my blankets, I know one truth with a certainty that chills me.
If she dies, I die with her.
And no matter how much I hate it, no matter how much I want to run, I can’t.She’s mine.Even if it kills me.
