Chapter 43 The Severing
The guards burst from the trees, boots slipping on wet stone as they hauled Alberto’s body between them. Blood poured from every limb, black veins pulsing under torn skin like living worms. His head lolled, one eye swollen shut, the other rolled white. Thorns stuck out of him like quills, some driven clean through muscle and bone.
Fernando stood chest-deep in the ritual pond, water steaming around his waist. Mira knelt at the edge, grinding moonstone to powder.
“Alpha!” the first guard roared. “He came from the Thornwood! Crawled out and fell!”
Fernando’s voice cracked like a whip. “Bring him here! Now!”
They splashed into the pond without slowing, lowering Alberto until the water closed over the worst wounds. The moment the mineral water touched the black veins, the pond hissed and boiled violently.
Mira’s hands flew to Alberto’s throat. “Pulse is there, barely. Submerge him completely! The forest is trying to keep him!”
Fernando moved to climb out. “I will make room!”
“No!” Mira screamed. “Stay in the water! The bond is unstable! One step out and you both collapse!”
The guards forced Alberto under. Black poison exploded from every thorn wound in thick, oily streams. The water turned pitch-dark in seconds.
Alberto’s body jerked once, hard, then went rigid as iron. A sound tore from his throat that was not human, a deep, guttural snarl that shook the stones beneath their feet.
Mira’s eyes went wide. “Hold him down! The suppression is breaking!”
Fernando lunged forward, gripping Alberto’s shoulders with both hands. “What is happening to him?”
“The Thornwood ripped the curse wide open!” Mira shouted over the churning water. “His wolf is waking! It has been caged for years and now it is clawing its way out!”
Alberto’s back arched so violently his spine cracked like splitting wood. Skin tore along his shoulders as patches of dark fur tried to push through, then receded, then surged again. His fingers lengthened into claws, raking Fernando’s forearms, drawing blood.
The bond detonated between them like a physical blow.
Fernando staggered, eyes flashing molten gold. “I feel it! Something is pulling me under!”
Mira grabbed his arm. “Fight it! If the bond forces completion while he is unconscious, it will tear your souls apart!”
“I am trying!” Fernando snarled through clenched fangs. “It is dragging me!”
Alberto convulsed again. His head snapped back, mouth opening in a silent scream. The water around them began to boil from raw power, not heat.
Mira’s voice cracked with panic. “The curse is shattering! His wolf is coming whether he wants it or not! If it surfaces while the bond is incomplete—”
Fernando’s control snapped like a bowstring.
His eyes bled pure gold. His fangs lengthened fully. His entire body rippled as the wolf seized command.
“Mine!” the beast roared, voice no longer human.
He seized Alberto by the throat and the back of the skull, dragging the limp body against his chest with savage strength. There was no hesitation, no gentleness, only primal, unstoppable need.
His jaws opened wide.
“Fernando, no!” Mira screamed, lunging for him. “You will kill him!”
He struck.
Fangs sank deep into the side of Alberto’s neck, punching through skin and muscle until they scraped bone. Blood exploded into the water in a violent crimson cloud. The bite was brutal, absolute, claiming.
The bond detonated.
A shockwave of golden light erupted from the bite, blinding everyone within twenty feet. The pond flashed white, then blood-red, then white again. Every thorn embedded in Alberto’s flesh turned to black ash and drifted away. The black poison surged from his veins in one violent rush, dissolving into nothing.
Alberto’s body went rigid one final time. A single, earth-shaking roar tore from his unconscious throat, deep, ancient, free. His wolf broke through the curse at last, raw and raging, answering the claim with a fury that shook the valley.
The soul bond locked with a sound like iron chains snapping into place forever.
Fernando’s wolf held the bite for three heartbeats, four, five, six, sealing the mark, branding Alberto as mate in blood and spirit and unbreakable will.
Then the strength fled him completely.
His fangs retracted. The golden light vanished. His eyes rolled white. He collapsed forward, dragging Alberto down with him into the now-clear water, hands still locked together as if even unconscious he would never release his mate.
Mira dove in, hauling both bodies up with desperate strength.
“Get them out!” she screamed at the guards. “Pull them out now!”
The guards waded in and dragged the two unconscious males onto the stone. Blood poured from the fresh claiming bite on Alberto’s neck, but the wound already glowed with the faint silver scar of a completed mate bond.
Mira fell to her knees between them, fingers pressed to both throats, counting frantic heartbeats.
“They are alive,” she whispered, voice trembling. “The bond is whole. The poison is gone. The curse is broken.”
She stared at the savage, perfect bite mark scarring Alberto’s skin.
“He walked through the Thornwood,” she said, voice breaking. “And he severed the curse with his own blood. The bond is no longer incomplete. It is finished.”
One guard stared in awe. “He has a wolf now.”
Mira nodded slowly, tears in her eyes. “He has a wolf. But the beast will only rise in mortal danger. It has not accepted his human soul yet. It answered the claim, nothing more.”
She looked at Fernando’s pale face, then at the glowing mate mark.
“And Fernando finally has his true mate.”
The pond lay still, clear as glass, reflecting the moon above.
Two bodies lay side by side on the stone, hands still clasped, the claiming bite glowing faintly between them like a brand forged in fire and blood and unbreakable will.
The guards lifted the two unconscious males from the stone and carried them toward the ancient home. Fernando’s head lolled against one guard’s shoulder, the fresh claiming bite on Alberto’s neck still seeping silver-tinged blood. Mira walked beside them, hands glowing faintly with healing light pressed to both chests.
“Faster,” she ordered. “The moonstone chamber. They need the deepest one.”
They crossed the threshold into the cool, shadowed interior. Torches flared to life as they passed, sensing living blood. The guards laid Fernando and Alberto side by side on a wide stone bed carved from the mountain itself, its surface inlaid with veins of pure moonstone that pulsed softly.
Mira dismissed the guards with a sharp gesture. “Bar the doors. No one enters until I call.”
The heavy doors boomed shut.
She began stripping away the last of Alberto’s ruined clothing, peeling shredded cloth from wounds that were already knitting closed under the new bond’s power. Fernando’s breathing steadied, the black veins finally gone from his skin.
Then Alberto began to thrash.
His body jerked hard enough to nearly roll off the bed. A raw, broken scream tore from his throat.
“No! Do not touch her!”
Mira lunged, pinning his shoulders. “Alberto, wake up!”
He did not wake. His head whipped side to side, tears streaming from the one eye that could still open.
“Please,” he sobbed, voice small and young. “Do not stab Momma. I will be good. I promise I will be good.”
Mira’s hands froze.
Another scream, higher, terrified. “Momma! Run!”
His claws extended involuntarily, raking the stone. Blood spattered from the fresh claiming bite as the wound reopened under the strain.
“Dina!” he screamed, the name ripping out of him like a blade. “Dina, no! Dina, please!”
Mira pressed both palms to his temples, pouring calming energy into his mind. “Alberto, it is a dream. You are safe.”
He fought her touch, body arching off the bed. “Dina! I am sorry! I could not stop them! Dina!”
Fernando stirred at the sound, golden eyes flickering open for a heartbeat. His hand moved blindly until it found Alberto’s, fingers locking tight even in half-consciousness.
Alberto’s screams turned to broken sobs. “They stabbed Momma. They stabbed her because of me. Dina said run. I ran. I left her.”
His voice cracked into nothing, just wet, ragged crying.
Mira’s own eyes filled with tears. “Moon goddess, what did they do to him?”
She kept one hand on his forehead and reached for a vial of nightshade draught, forcing a few drops between his lips. Slowly, mercifully, the thrashing eased. The screams faded to whimpers.
“Dina…” he whispered one last time, then slipped into deeper, dreamless dark.
Fernando’s grip never loosened.
Mira sat back on her heels, staring at the two joined hands, at the glowing mate mark, at the tears still drying on Alberto’s battered face.
“Whoever Dina was,” she said quietly to the empty chamber, “she died so he could live. And now he carries that weight into a completed bond.”
She pulled a blanket over them both, tucking it around their joined hands.
“Sleep,” she whispered. “Both of you. The worst is over.”