Full Moon~
The iron scent of rust filled his lungs as chains clinked and scraped, fastening around his wrists and ankles. The heavy shackles burned against his skin, causing him to grunt as Mason pulled them tight. Masob flinched slightly at the sharp exhale from Thorne.
"I hate this," Mason muttered. "Feels wrong… like we're hurting you."
"You're protecting them," Thorne growled, his voice already roughening. "Just do it."
Caelum stood off to the side, arms folded, jaw tight. His eyes were careful, watching and measuring, waiting for the shift to begin to gauge how far gone Thorne was.
"I can still speak," Thorne snapped, glaring at him. "I'm not gone yet."
But he could feel it, the beast just under his skin, hot and restless, crawling closer with every breath. The full moon was nearly at its peak.
Mason hesitated by the final lock. "You're sure about this?"
Thorne didn't answer right away. He didn't need to look at the scars on his chest or the faded bloodstains on the floor to remember what he had done. The first five full moons after the curse had broken him.
He'd wake up in blood-drenched grass, surrounded by torn limbs and bones. Soldiers, servants, villagers, all dead. T
heir screams still haunted him every second of his life.
"I can't go through that again," he muttered. "Neither can they."
Mason nodded curtly and slammed the final lock in place. Thorne let out a shaky breath, feeling the heat in his blood rising, vision darkening at the edges, bones creaking. The Lycan inside him, more beast than man now, was pushing forward.
The chains rattled, the floor cracked beneath him, and Caelum quickly stepped back, drawing Mason with him. It was dangerous to be this close to Thorne during the shift.
Thorne roared, bones cracking forcefully, skin stretching, blistering, and splitting as dark fur surged along his spine. His roar deepened, becoming inhuman.
The shift wasn't clean.
This wasn't the controlled shift of a Lycan king. It was the unraveling of a cursed and monstrous being, a punishment he wore like a second skin, one he would have to go through every full moon.
His veins stretched endlessly under his skin, his hands, now claws slamming into the ground.
Mason cursed and backed further away. The creature that rose was not the Lycan form his men were used to seeing. It was taller, broader, with jagged horns and burning red eyes.
The chains strained, then snapped. The beast slammed into the cage, but this time, Caelum had reinforced it with blood-steel, just enough to hold him, maybe.
Thorne, or what was left of him, threw back his monstrous head and howled painfully.
Far above in the underground, in the quiet slave quarters, Adina bolted upright, clutching her chest as her heart pounded with panic.
———
Adina jerked upright, breath catching in her throat. Her eyes flickered around the room, chest heaving, hand flying to her damp forehead. Her skin was clammy with sweat.
She sat there for a moment, frozen. Nothing moved. The room was dark, save for the moonlight that shone in. Every other girl was asleep, none stirred awake.
Did she imagine it?
She shook her head, fingers pressing hard against her temples. "I'm hearing things," she whispered to herself.
She dragged her hand over her face. It had felt so real. She grabbed a bottle of water Kora had left for her, gulping it all in one go as she tried to calm her nerves. 'It's a hallucination,' she told herself.
She froze suddenly. A loud howl pierced her ears, not the kind that howled from the woods during a hunt. No, this one sounded closer, deeper, painful, like something being torn apart from the inside.
Her stomach twisted inexplicably.
She stood slowly, wincing as her injured ankle flared with pain. She'd been asleep nearly all day, Matilda's unexpected kindness had bought her that much time to rest, but now it was midnight, and her body felt raw, strained, alert, a
s though something inside her was calling.
The howl came again, twisting painfully, tugging something inside her.
She gasped, fingers tightening around the bottle she'd been holding.
It was real.
It was real.
It was real.
She couldn't stay, couldn't breathe in this room, not with that pull tightening around her lungs like a chain.
Adina stood on shaking legs and limped to the door. She looked once over her shoulder. No one stirred.
Then she stepped outside.
Adina wrapped her arms around herself, teeth clenching as she took a step forward, the pain in her ankle sharp but she didn't stop, couldn't stop.
The more she walked, the clearer and louder the howling became. Whatever it was, it was in dire pain.
She didn't know why her body was guiding her past the slave quarters and toward the edge of the training grounds, or how her hand found the edge of a wall half-buried by vines.
She shouldn't have known about the door hidden behind it.
But something inside her did.
She pushed, and the door groaned open. A rush of frigid air spilled out, and a distant sound like chains dragged across the place.
She walked the stairs slowly, gripping the railings tightly, fear gripping her insides, yet she couldn't back away.
Then she saw it.
A chamber, and at its center was a cage.
A beast.
Adina froze, bile rising to her throat.
The creature was enormous, taller than any man, larger than any wolf. Its fur was black as pitch, chains hung from its limbs, snapped in places. Its horns scraped the ceiling, its eyes burned bloodred.
Adina snapped out, her heart in her throat now. Her body trembled as she took a shaky step back.
Just as she stepped back, she heard the most horrid growl from the beast. It snapped her in place.
The ground trembled beneath her feet, d
ust rained from the ceiling, chains rattled violently. The beast threw itself against the blood-steel bars, snarling so loudly it echoed. Foam gathered at its mouth, dripping between its fangs.
Adina stumbled back, hand flying to her mouth.
It wasn't just angry.
It was hurting.
Adina's pulse screamed. Every instinct told her to run, but she couldn't move. It was as though her feet were deeply rooted into the ground.
The beast began to shake the cage, the chains holding it back rattled endlessly. Suddenly the chains broke free, and in a split second, it broke out of the cage.
It turned toward her, and she gasped and stumbled, fell hard to the ground, crying out as her ankle twisted under her.
The beast snarled and lunged.
Adina screamed, hands flying to cover her face as the beast crashed over her. She braced for the pain, for claws or death.
But nothing came…
Ragged, hot breath hovered against her skin. She opened her eyes slowly, heart pounding so loud it drowned out everything else.
The beast hovered over her, eyes fixed on her neck as if it saw something she couldn't. Its claws dug into the floor on each side of her body, caging her in. Its red eyes locked onto hers, burning, searching. It leaned closer, sniffing her like it knew her scent, like it needed it.
Adina's lips parted in a breathless, trembling gasp.
Then, before she could scream again, the beast struck. Its jaws latched onto her neck, sinking its sharp fangs into her neck.