h4Chapter 140: The Current Situation/h4

    strongDean’s POV: /strong

    So, you all know I helped Elena escape from a deranged Alpha—Kane.

    Was it my fault he was deranged?

    Debatable.

    Technically, the darkness is his. I just help him out. I take it from him, absorb it, let it fester inside me so he can y pretend—so he can be the good Alpha, the noble leader, the protector. But sure, let’s all me Dean, the evil twin, the monster, the shadow lurking in the night.

    But back to the issue at hand.

    So yeah. I took Elena. Stole her right from under him.

    And honestly?

    I ididn’t/i n to get intimate with her.

    I really didn’t.

    I swear.

    It wasn’t the n.

    I just needed to get her iaway/i from him, let her breathe, she was after all on heat

    But her scent... her iblood./i

    It was intoxicating.

    And the darkness—the ifucking/i darkness—it clouded my judgment. It wrapped around my mind like a noose, urging me to iim/i her, to take what was mine, what Kane didn’t deserve.

    Her scent—it was intoxicating, wrapping around me like a drug, numbing my senses, pulling me under. And the darkness in me, the thing I had been holding back for iyears/i, wed its way to the surface, whispering, iTake her. Make her yours. She belongs to you too./i

    And fuck, I wanted to.

    The moment I tasted her blood, I almost lost my fucking mind.

    It was unlike anything I’d ever had before—powerful, isweet/i,ced with something that made my entire body hum with need.

    I didn’t just iwant/i her.

    I ineeded/i her.

    She was trembling underneath me, lips parted, breath hitching, but she iwasn’t/i fighting me.

    She should have.

    She should have screamed.

    She should have irun./i

    But she didn’t.

    Because she ifelt/i it too. Or was it the heat?

    The pull. The bond. The undeniable, inescapable iconnection/i between us.

    I had kissed her, drank from her, felt her pulse weaken as her body rxed under me. My fangs sank into her delicate skin, and fuck—her blood was unlike anything I had ever tasted before.

    It was warm, sweet, ialive./i

    It was ipower./i

    It made the bond between us surge like wildfire, burning hotter, more violent.

    And I almost ilost/i myself.

    For the first time in my existence, I almost igave in./i

    But then—

    Even through the haze, through the hunger, through the primal urge to iim/i her, I managed to pull myself back.

    Because she was still a virgin.

    Her innocence.

    Her ifucking/i innocence.

    She was a virgin.

    And that realization mmed into me harder than any punch Kane had ever thrown.

    Because despite everything, despite how much I iwanted/i to im her, despite how much my darkness whispered for me to ruin her for anyone else—

    I icouldn’t do it./i

    Not to her.

    Not like this.

    And maybe—just maybe—because Kane had found her first.

    And despite everything, despite how much I enjoyed fucking with him, I icouldn’t/i take that from him.

    That bastard may have rejected me, may have spent his life pretending he wasn’t just as fucked up as I was, but he was still ime./i

    And she was still iours./i

    So, yeah. I pulled back.

    Barely.

    But I still needed to be her first.

    Even if I wasn’t the one to be intimate with her.

    And there was only one way to do that.

    By sharing Kane’s body.

    By merging with him.

    By taking what belonged to iboth/i of us.

    And that’s what I did.

    What I iforgot/i, though, was that when I entered Kane’s body—the darkness I had taken from him ifollowed me back to its owner./i

    And just like that, Kane snapped.

    It wasn’t entirely my fault.

    Which, apparently, was a fucking problem.

    He isnapped./ii/i

    Apparently, sensing Elena’s distress through the mate bond—because yes, the bond was ivery/i much active after I drank from her— so after the best sex ever I left not knowing stupid Kane would wake up deranged from the darkness.

    Too bad she wasn’t a vampire.

    If she had been, she could’ve drunk from ime/i, and the bond would’ve been a two-way street instead of a one-way pull, drowning her in emotions she didn’t know how to control.

    But she wasn’t a vampire.

    She was a wolf.

    And now?

    Now she was at the mercy of an Alpha who had just had his darkness returned to him in full force.

    Oops.

    I would have said not my problem.

    ...Okay, maybe a ilittle/i my problem.

    So yeah, I came to her beck and call the moment I felt her distress.

    What? You think I wouldn’t?

    Even iI/i have my limits.

    So yeah.

    The moment I felt Elena’s distress through the bond, I came running.

    Not because I was a hero.

    Not because I wanted to save the day.

    But because something inside me idemanded/i that I go to her.

    That was the thing about this bond—it was a fucking icurse/i. It didn’t give a damn about logic or reason. It just iwas/i.

    And let’s be real—this wasn’t just some ordinary cry for help.

    This was full-blown iterror./i

    Her fear mmed into me through the bond like a freight train, a sharp, searing jolt that rattled my entire being. It was raw, iunfiltered/i panic.

    And that’s how I found her.

    Running.

    Panicked.

    Heart hammering, breath ragged, eyes wild with fear as she tore through the forest like a rabbit in the presence of a starving wolf.

    And Kane?

    He was hunting her.

    Like she was prey.

    Like she was ihis/i prey.

    Hunting!

    Like a fucking ipredator./ii/i

    The idiot probably didn’t even realize how much he was scaring her.

    Or maybe he did.

    Maybe he iliked/i it.

    Hell, maybe that was the ipoint/i.

    Like some beast out of a nightmare, his eyes dark with fury, his movements sharp, calcted, iferal/i.

    And his stupid wolf—oh, ihis stupid wolf/i—didn’t even irealize/i that he was scaring the ihell/i out of her.

    No.

    He thought this was a igame./i

    A chase.

    A thrilling little hunt where he could y the relentless Alpha and she would eventually submit, fall into his arms, iept/i her fate.

    But Elena?

    She wasn’t iying./i

    She was running for her goddamn life.

    The darkness I had returned to him was working its way through his veins now, twisting him, warping him, amplifying every primal, possessive instinct until there was nothing left but hunger and ineed/i.

    And Elena?

    Elena was the thing he ineeded/i.

    Too bad she didn’t see it that way.

    And Kane, in all his glorious fucking iinsanity/i, didn’t even see it.

    I couldn’t sense her wolf, her stupid wolf had retreated, leaving her vulnerable—leaving her human side to deal with the Alpha that hadpletely lost his mind.

    She wasn’t even using her senses.

    She didn’t ismell/i me when I approached.

    She didn’t ihear/i me when I followed.

    She didn’t ifeel/i me watching.

    I almost wanted to let it y out.

    Almost.

    Let him chase her, let him icatch/i her, let her see the monster he was bing.

    But then I saw the look in her eyes.

    The sheer, absolute terror.

    And something inside me isnapped./i

    I moved before I could think.

    A blur. A force. A ishadow/i.

    One second, Kane was mid-lunge, about to tackle her to the forest floor.

    The next?

    I immed/i into him like a wrecking ball, knocking him off-course and sending us both tumbling into the dirt.

    "Elena, irun/i."

    I barely got the words out before Kane snarled, twisting beneath me like a wild animal, his ws swiping dangerously close to my face.

    His eyes weren’t just dark anymore.

    They were ck.

    Fully.

    Completely.

    iConsumed./i

    Oh, ifuck/i.

    I had really done it this time.

    And that’s how we ended up ifighting for hours/i.

    Yeah, ihours/i.

    Kane had never fought me like this before.

    Sure, he always iimed/i he would end me one day, that he’d rip me apart and finally be ifree/i—but our fights had never been this itoxic/i.

    This time?

    He was truly fighting to draw blood.

    To kill.

    To ieliminate/i me.

    Too bad for him, that was impossible.

    Because for all his rage, for all his dominance, for all the Alpha fury burning inside him—he icouldn’t/i kill me without killing himself.

    I was him.

    He was me.

    And he was just iwasting his damn energy/i.

    Still, I had to admit—this wasn’t like before.

    This wasn’t Kane losing his temper. This wasn’t his usual push-and-pull between morality and instinct.

    This was isomething else entirely/i.

    The darkness had him now.

    Fully.

    Completely.

    And it wasn’t iletting go/i.

    He fought like a beast iunleashed/i, no restraint, no hesitation—just raw, unfiltered rage.

    His ws sliced through the air, missing my throat by inches.

    His fangs snapped dangerously close to my face.

    His strength? Unhinged.

    His movements? Wild.

    This wasn’t just iKane fighting me/i.

    This was the darkness fighting back.

    And for the first time in centuries, I felt something I rarely ever did.

    A flicker of something cold.

    Something foreign.

    Something dangerously close to fear.

    Because I had iseen/i Kane’s darkness before—I had spent a lifetime absorbing it, drowning in it, ibing/i it.

    But this?

    This was something ielse/i.

    Something iolder/i.

    Something far worse than I ever anticipated.

    And if I didn’t end this fight isoon/i...

    We were both going to lose.