Chapter 395 395
Sabine POV
“Bee? Go back. Maxime get her the fuck out of here.”
Maurice’s growl cuts through the cavern just as the weak light from his beta’s makeshift torch begins to die, the fabric burned nearly to ash.
I feel him then.
His anger.
His disapproval.
His fierce, overwhelming need to protect me.
It slams into me through the mate bond like a runaway train, stealing the air from my lungs and forcing a gasp from my chest. He must have lifted the block because suddenly he’s everywhere inside me.
His alpha command washes over my senses, heavy and commanding, urging me to flee, to run as far from this cave as possible.
And part of me wants to.
The old me.
The human me.
That part is screaming to escape.
But I can’t look away.
I’m frozen utterly mesmerized by the Alpha King standing before me.
By the man who shares my blood.
My brother.
I can’t stop staring at his eyes.
The black has swallowed them whole no white remains. That shadow I once noticed flickering across his gaze has grown into something vast and consuming, a living darkness that has taken hold of Damien entirely.
“Damien?” I step forward instinctively, needing to touch him, to shake him, to pull him back from whatever this is but the vicious growl that rips from his chest sends my wolf surging forward with a sharp warning.
Don’t move.
“What’s happening?” I whisper urgently, barely moving my lips as I angle the question toward both Maurice and Maxime. “What is this place?”
“You”
Damien’s roar is monstrous, unnatural. He launches toward me without warning.
My wolf screams for me to move but panic roots me in place. Terror for my brother locks my muscles, my feet glued to the stone beneath me.
I brace instinctively, bending my knees just enough to absorb the impact I know is coming.
But it never does.
Maurice and Maxime hurl themselves between us, slamming into Damien and knocking him back. The moment he collides with them, he rebounds like something solid and untouchable.
“You’re not yourself, my friend,” Maurice says firmly, planting himself in front of me. His arms stretch wide, a barrier of pure will as much as muscle.
“Whatever this is,” he continues, voice strained but resolute, “you have to fight it. You have to.”
“It’s too late,” Damien replies and his voice isn’t his own. “It already has me.”
No.
No, no, no.
“It took my father,” Damien goes on. “He cursed me with it when he died.”
“You’re not yourself,” Maurice insists. “Fight it, Damien. You need to fight it.”
I step out from behind Maurice before I can stop myself.
“Why are you talking about Father?” I plead, my voice shaking as I face Damien directly. “Why now? Why here?”
“I won’t let it take my son,” Damien says, staring down at his hands. His fingers clench into fists then relax. Over and over. “It ends with me.”
“What ends with you?” I ask softly, taking another step forward.
He won’t hurt me.
I know it.
The cave is thick with masculinity, the air saturated with raw power and aggression. He doesn’t need force he needs calm. He needs to remember we aren’t his enemies.
“Dammit, Bee get back behind me now,” Maurice roars inside my mind.
I ignore him.
“He won’t hurt me,” I answer calmly through the bond, so certain of it that I reach for Damien’s hand.
For one brief second, I think I’ve reached him
Then he swipes at me.
My wolf reacts instantly, surging forward and seizing control. She throws us backward just as Maurice lunges, using the opening to attack my brother.
“No!” I scream as they crash to the ground, locked together in brutal struggle.
I rush forward I don’t know what I can do, but I have to try. This is my fault. Maurice is in danger because of me.
“No, Luna.”
Maxime grabs me from behind, his hands clamping firmly around my upper arms, holding me back.
Helpless. Useless.
I watch in horror as Damien lifts Maurice by the throat and hurls him across the cave. Maurice’s body slams into the stone wall with a sickening force.
Maxime charges next throwing himself at the Alpha King
But a beta is nothing against that kind of power.
And our second-in-command never truly stood a chance.