Chapter 80 Protective Fury
[Nyx]
The monitoring room was a cage of tension.
Selene knelt on the floor, my knee pressing into her spine, her arms wrenched behind her back. The syringe lay on the cold tile, catching the harsh fluorescent light. Her clothes were disheveled, tear tracks staining her cheeks, blood seeping through the bandage on her knee.
Lysander stood beside me, USB drive gripped tight in his fist—evidence. Complete, damning evidence.
The guard cowered in the corner, face pale as death.
And Selene's voice still rang through the room, raw and hysterical: "He loves me! I should be his Luna! She doesn't deserve him! Lilith has to die!"
The words hung in the air like poison.
Then I heard it.
Footsteps. Fast. Heavy. Charging down the hallway with Alpha force.
The guard must have triggered the alert.
I met Lysander's eyes. His jaw tightened.
Damon.
The door burst open.
---
Damon Blackwood stormed in.
His eyes swept the room in one horrified glance. Dark jacket, sleeves rolled to his elbows. Exhaustion carved into his face. Worry. Fear. Something deeper—protective fury burning just beneath the surface.
He saw his sister.
Kneeling. Restrained. Bleeding. Crying.
He saw me standing over her.
Lysander with evidence.
The guard trembling.
The syringe on the floor.
"Selene?!"
His voice cracked. Not with anger. With terror.
Everything in him shifted. The brother before the Alpha. Instinct overriding reason.
"Get away from her!" He lunged forward, shoving me aside hard enough to send me stumbling. Lysander caught me before I could fall.
Damon pulled Selene into his arms, his body a shield. His hands moved frantically over her—checking for injuries. The torn bandage. The red marks on her wrists where I'd held her. Her disheveled clothes.
"What the hell happened here?" His voice dropped to a dangerous growl. "Who did this to you?"
Selene said nothing.
Just pressed her face into his chest.
Silent tears. Heartbroken sobs.
The perfect victim.
"Selene, talk to me." Damon cupped her face, tilting it up. "What's going on? Why are you—"
Selene's body shook with sobs. "They... they attacked me, Damon."
Her voice came out broken. Scared. The perfect victim.
"They said... they said I caused the avalanche. That it was my fault Lilith got hurt." Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. "I tried to explain, but they wouldn't listen. She—" She pointed at me with a trembling hand. "—she grabbed me. Threw me down. I couldn't fight back, my knee—"
She gestured to the blood seeping through her bandage.
"I was so scared. I thought... I thought they were going to—"
Her voice broke into another sob.
Damon's expression shifted. From confusion to fury in a heartbeat.
His gaze snapped to me. To Lysander. To the USB drive.
To the syringe.
"Nyx Verdant." He stood slowly, keeping Selene behind him. "Explain. Now."
Alpha command rolled off him in waves. My wolf bristled, but I held steady.
But Damon wasn't waiting for explanations. His eyes locked on the syringe on the floor, then on Selene's injuries, then back to me.
"You attacked her." Not a question. A statement. His voice dropped to a lethal growl. "You assaulted an injured wolf under medical care in my territory."
"Damon, listen—"
"No." He cut me off, Alpha authority flooding the room. "You crossed a line. You dare come to my territory, attack my sister, and expect to walk away? You're done here."
He gestured sharply to the guard still cowering in the corner. "Take her into custody. Now."
The guard hesitated, looking between Damon and me.
"I said NOW!"
The guard moved toward me. Damon took a step forward too, reaching for my arm.
That's when Lysander moved.
Fast. Brutal. Efficient.
He caught Damon's wrist mid-reach, twisted, and shoved him back hard enough to make him stumble. Then positioned himself directly between Damon and me—a living wall.
"You're not touching her." His voice was quiet. Deadly quiet. The kind of calm that preceded violence.
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. Alpha and Gamma. Face to face.
Lysander might not have Alpha blood, but right now—protecting me—he looked every bit as dangerous. Maybe more. Gammas were bred for battle. For taking down threats that even Alphas couldn't handle.
The air crackled with barely restrained violence.
Damon's eyes flashed gold. "Move. Or I'll make you move."
"You're not my Alpha." Lysander's voice came out flat. Cold. "Your commands mean nothing to me."
His stance shifted—combat ready, weight balanced.
"But you want to try force?" A dangerous edge crept into his tone. "Go ahead. But you'll go through me first. And I promise you, Blackwood—that won't end well for either of us."
"Your wife just attacked my sister on my territory—"
"My wife just stopped your sister from murdering hers." Lysander held up the USB drive, voice still deadly calm. "And before you make threats you'll regret, you're going to watch this. Three minutes. That's all we're asking."
Damon's jaw clenched. His fists trembled. The guard had frozen mid-step, clearly not stupid enough to get between them.
Behind Damon, Selene made a small sound—fear? Or calculation?
"Three minutes," I said quietly from behind Lysander's protective stance. "Then if you still want to punish someone, we can discuss it."
The silence stretched. Taut as a wire ready to snap.
Damon's eyes flickered between Lysander's unwavering stance, the USB drive, and me. Calculations running behind his fury.
Finally, he stepped back. Just one step. But it was enough.
He gestured curtly to the guard. "Stand down."
Then his gaze locked on Lysander, pure ice. "Three minutes. Then we settle this."
"Fair enough." Lysander didn't move. Didn't drop his guard.
"Lysander," I said. "Play it."
Selene's head snapped up. Her eyes went wide—not with confusion, but with pure panic.
"No—"
She lunged.
Straight for the monitor. Hands reaching, desperate, wild.
I moved faster.
Caught her wrist mid-leap. Her momentum carried us both sideways, but I held firm.
"Don't!" Her voice cracked. Raw. Terrified. "Please don't show him—"
She twisted violently in my grip. Her free hand shot toward the keyboard—trying to shut it down, smash it, anything to stop what was coming.
I blocked her. Forced her arm down.
"Damon shouldn't see this—" Tears streamed down her face. "He can't—"
Her fingers clawed for the power cable. Desperate. Frantic.
I yanked her back. Hard.
She stumbled. Fell to her knees. But still tried to crawl forward—
"Please—"
Lysander stepped between her and the equipment. Silent. Immovable.
The monitor flickered to life anyway.