"If only you had come to me with pure intentions, I would have considered your request." Zeir's breath and scar reeked of death. The odour curled around Visena's face and gripped her nostrils.

"Now, I will have everything."

Growls erupted from the forest as her pack, the Praelia wolves, and her real mate breached the clearing.

"Get your fucking hands off her!" Gideon's eyes shone molten gold in the dark while his canines sharpened and gleamed menacingly. He paused a moment as his hardened gaze fell upon Calypso and Mihnea, surrounded by the dirt Faeries. Then, without giving them a chance to explain, the Alpha turned to his mate, still clutched in Zeir's hold.

Visena shook her head at him. Go back. She wanted to say. Forget about me.

His resonating growl silenced the thoughts.

He will never leave me. And now he'll die because of me.

She almost sobbed, seeing his eyes flicker in understanding before hardening again. He shook his head subtly, letting his dark hair fall over their glowing gaze, and stepped toward the platform.

Zeir's hand snaked around Visena's throat, and his nails dug into her soft flesh. "If you take one step closer, I will rip her throat out." He was bluffing. Zeir needed her to fulfil the 'prophecy'. However, the nails slicing half-moons in her skin, drawing blood, felt real. His tremoring palm halted her swallow, and she almost choked.

The blood-marked wolves' hackles rose as they stared into the pitch darkness behind the platform. Shivers crept down her spine, but she couldn't see anything despite her attempts to turn her head.

The unintended writhing prompted Zeir to place his lips against her lobe. "You may want to stop your squirming, mate." A telltale hardening bulge prodded her back, and she nearly retched.

A puff of air escaped his mouth, enveloping her in a cloud of halitosis. "Want to see?" he purred.

Visena was actually about to be sick when Zeir spun her 180 degrees. Out of the blackness poured the Malum wolves, all in animal form and covered in oozing necrotic scars.

More Nex markings?

Between them stood the Council leaders of the Earth Fae; Elowen and Oren. Both were adorned with crowns of thorns, poison Ivy and wolfsbane. Lovely combination. They turned their heads, staring at Visena quizzically like she was a shiny new toy.

Visena didn't care much for them; her eyes instead returned to the wolves. "What did you do to them?"

Zeir's pack looked deranged. Rabid.

"I did what had to be done so that they would not betray me." He turned them to face Gideon again. "Like the cowards that fled to your pack."

"Why are you dragging this out? What are you doing? What are you waiting for?" Visena said, pulling away again, but Zeir's grip tightened considerably. Her vision dulled, and her breath was no more than a strained wheeze.

"Stop." Gideon reached for them but was pulled back by Eve. He jerked away but didn't encroach again as his body quivered in the moonlight. His head hung as he pled in a ragged whisper. "Don't hurt her."

"Don't worry." Zeir sneered. "I'll make her feel real good."

No one had time to blink as Zeir's face morphed, snout lengthening and teeth sharpening in glistening points. His head reared back before slamming his canines into Visena's shoulder, teeth slicing through silken flesh and sinew.

Invictus and Praelia collectively gasped and froze. It was too late. Zeir had done the impossible.

Visena's agonising screams awakened them from their stupor, and they shifted in a flurry of shouts and snarls.

Gideon's guttural screams drew out Visena's sobs as he shifted into wolf form. He looked like he wanted to rip out the throat of every wolf, Fae or otherwise, who had ever threatened the Fae, her pained cries sending his wolf into a frenzy.

Zeir threw her down on the platform, winding her, and pried her mouth open, shoving his forearm against her teeth. "Bite down now, or I'll kill everyone." Then, with one last look at her obsidian wolf with olive-green eyes, she closed her own and marked the monster.

*

The tether holding Gideon and Visena's matebond together snapped as the blood magic overrode Hina's blessing. Gideon's eyes swam as his heart broke, and a hollow emptiness filled his soul. Yet, even without the bond, he still loved her. Zeir had to die, but the thought of hurting her sickened him. Markings are forever. Killing Zeir would kill her... Gideon's thoughts were muddled. More animal instinct than rational human thought.

Visena wouldn't look him in the eyes as if trying to stop herself from giving in to the darkness.

Gideon knew she loved him, but now a blood bond forced her heart to beat for another.

Zeir stared down at her lustfully before throwing her at his witch. "Hold her."

The witch dragged Visena's shaking body closer to the darkness while speaking an ancient language in her ears making her stand impossibly still. Paralysed.

The grunting and rustling of Earth Fae closing in pulled Gideon from his racing mind. He growled with one last look at his frozen lover. "Kill him."

The responding howls answered as he lunged at the twisted Alpha. After two pointless steps, Earth Fae of all shapes and sizes blocked his path, their bodies drenched in wolfsbane. Even breathing in their proximity burned Gideon's lungs and made his skin itch.

Calypso rushed in and dragged him back to the main body of wolves. "Wait," she whispered harshly in his ears.

Zeir laughed at Gideon's failure. "Now, now pup. Time for phase two."

The Malum Alpha lifted a small device in his hand with a grin. Pushing a few buttons brought the miniature machine to life, and he pointed it towards the dark.

"See, this magical little tool will open the Veil for my friends and me, and the Fae get what they want. I become King of the Wolves, and the pathetic humans can feel safe. That is until I enslave them all too." The laughter that erupted from his scarred face was pure and inexplicable evil. "And your dogs won't be able to stop me."

The device beeped and vibrated melodically.

"Time to go, Malum Pack!"

The earth shook as the Fae realm opened. The humans had harnessed Fae magic, but only just. It was still wildly unstable.

Violent winds spun through the clearing bending large branches and scattering debris into the forest's depths, yet from the blackness came ethereal beauty.

Angpriake, in all its glory, swirled and stilled despite the impending chaos. Then, finally, Malum wolves turned and sprinted into the portal with foam frothing around their growling snouts.

~~~

A/N

There are a few shifts in POV for this chapter; I'm hoping it makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't xxx

Also...

We're nearly at 10 k. I honestly never thought this would happen, and I'm so sooo freaking grateful to everyone for reading this far.

(Especially those who read this story when it was still very premature.)

Now that it's finished and I'm just editing before uploading, I'm excited to hear everyone's reactions. We still have quite a ways to go, though, so buckle up 😉

Following the climax that we can all feel coming, I'm continuing with part two /book two. I'm keeping them together for convenience's sake, but as it's already written, you don't have to wait... Yay!

Thank you, thank you, thank youuu,

K ♥️