MARKED BY THE ALPHA'S HATE

Smoke curled into the sky, thick with blood and rot.

Victor Crane stepped back from the obsidian cage, his hands slick with ash, a smile tugging at the corners of his cruel mouth. The runes on the stone pulsed with ancient energy hungry, dark, alive.

The Obsidian had been sleeping.

Now it was awake.

And so was the hunger.

Behind Victor, the Blackfang wolves stirred, their eyes wide, their instincts screaming to run. But they couldn't not with Victor watching.

"You smell that?" Victor murmured. "It's fear. The scent of prey." He tilted his head toward the creature that had begun to rise, a shifting silhouette of smoke and bone and hollow-eyed rage.

"Find the girl," Victor ordered. "Find Selene. Let this thing follow her scent. I want to see what happens when prophecy meets nightmare."

The Obsidian didn't speak.

It didn't need to.

It moved ripping through the forest with inhuman speed, howling with voices it had swallowed long ago.

The hunt had begun.

Miles away, Selene's knees hit the dirt.

She pressed her palm to the cold forest floor, her breath caught in her throat. The sword her mother's sword glowed faintly on her back, humming like it could feel what she felt.

Pain. Terror.

And something else.

A bond.

Her bond.

He was close.

"Darius," she whispered, her lips barely moving

Part of her thought she might never see him again.

But now… now she felt him.

Footsteps crashed through the trees behind her. Her body tensed, ready to run or fight but the scent that hit her was not enemy.

It was him.

It was him.

"Selene!"

His voice cracked through the woods like thunder.

She turned just in time to see him stumble through the treeline, torn and bruised but alive, wild eyes scanning the clearing until they locked onto hers.

She stood, chest heaving.

Neither moved.

Then they collided.

His arms closed around her, hard and unrelenting, like if he let go, the world would tear apart. She clung to him, fingers digging into his back, eyes wet but not crying.

"I thought you were dead, she whispered.

"I was close," he muttered into her hair. "But I couldn't stay away."

She leaned back enough to see his face. "You left."

"I had to. Talon Victor they were watching. I couldn't risk leading them to you."

Selene swallowed. "They're coming anyway. He released something."

Darius stiffened. "The Obsidian?"

She nodded. "It's hunting me. Neris warned me, but I didn't understand how fast it would come."

"Then we move." He took her hand. "We don't stop."

I have the sword .

Darius looked at her. Really looked.

"You've changed."

"So have you."

They didn't say it aloud, but the distance between them.days, choices, pain was still there. And yet, the bond hadn't broken. It had only grown quieter, deeper.

More dangerous.

From a hill not far off, Neris stood beneath a crumbling stone arch, eyes closed, lips moving.

She felt the energy too.

The Obsidian had been bound for centuries. Releasing it had shifted the balance.

"It begins," she whispered to the wind. "The final thread has been pulled."

Behind her, another figure stepped from shadow.

Talon.

"You're too calm for someone about to be swallowed by prophecy," he muttered.

Neris didn't turn. "You don't fear prophecy. You fear your part in it."

Talon scoffed. "I don't believe in fate."

"You will." She finally turned to face him. "When the girl you betrayed is the one holding your life in her hands."

His jaw tightened. "That day won't come."

Neris tilted her head. "Then why are you trembling?"

Selene and Darius raced toward the ruins of Hollowspire, their bodies in sync, the bond between them pulsing stronger with every step.

But even before they reached the gate, a sound broke the quiet

A low, rumbling growl.

The kind no creature born of flesh could make.

Darius shoved Selene behind him as a shape emerged through the trees.

Towering. Black as obsidian. Eyes burning white.

Selene gasped.

The thing was smiling.

It knew her.

It had waited for her.

And it wasn't going to stop until it fed.