Dessie POV:
The Council safe house was a fortress hidden in the mountains, but to me, it felt like a waiting room for the afterlife.
I was hastily packing the few things I had acquired—a change of clothes, a burner phone—when the front door splintered inward.
Shards of wood rained down on the carpet like confetti.
Craig stood in the ruin of the doorway. He looked deranged. His clothes were torn, his eyes were bloodshot, and he smelled of violence and old blood.
"You lied to me!" he roared, storming into the room.
I backed up until my legs hit the edge of the bed. "I lied? You rejected me, Craig! You stripped my rank!"
"You let me believe she was pregnant!" he shouted, closing the distance between us. He grabbed my shoulders, his fingers digging into my flesh like iron claws. "You let me make a fool of myself!"
"I didn't let you do anything," I spat back, struggling against his grip. "You chose her. You chose her money. You chose her lies because you are greedy."
"Shut up!"
He shook me, his Alpha aura flaring so hot it scorched the air in my lungs. "Chanel is gone. I dealt with her. Now you come home."
"Home?" I laughed, a hysterical, broken sound. "You destroyed my home. You destroyed the bond!"
"I can fix it," he said, his eyes dilating, the pupil swallowing the iris until they were black pits. He wasn't Craig anymore. He was just the Alpha. Possessive. Irrational. "I'll Mark you. Right now. Once I Mark you, the bond will re-knit. You'll be mine again."
He pushed me down onto the bed.
"No!" I screamed, kicking at his chest. "Get off me!"
"You are my mate!" he snarled, pinning my wrists above my head with one hand. "I command you to submit!"
*Submit!*
The Alpha Command slammed into my brain like a sledgehammer. My muscles locked up instantly. My wolf whined, terrified, trying to force my neck to bare itself.
But my human heart was screaming in defiance.
He lowered his head toward the junction of my neck and shoulder. I could feel his hot breath on my skin. He was going to bite me against my will. He was going to enslave me to the bond again.
"I... reject... you!" I gasped out, fighting the paralysis with every ounce of my will.
"You can't reject an Alpha!"
His teeth grazed my skin.
*Riiiing.*
His phone, still in his pocket, began to scream with the emergency klaxon.
He froze.
It was the Call of Duty. The specific alarm for a full-scale Rogue invasion on the home territory.
He looked at me, then at his pocket. The conflict in his eyes was wild.
"If you leave," I whispered, tears leaking from my eyes, "don't you ever come back."
He growled, a sound of pure frustration. He released my wrists and stood up.
"This isn't over," he warned, pointing a shaking finger at me. "Stay here. I will come back for you."
He turned and ran out the door, choosing his territory over me. Again.
I lay on the bed, gasping for air. My neck throbbed where his teeth had scraped.
The pain was excruciating. It felt like he had poured molten lead into my veins.
My heart stopped.
I felt it. An utter silence in my chest.
Then, an explosion.
It didn't come from outside. It came from within.
A blinding white light erupted from my skin. It wasn't heat. It was cold. It was the chill of the moon itself.
My bones cracked and reshaped, but there was no pain, only raw power.
I rolled off the bed, hitting the floor on four paws.
I looked at my reflection in the full-length mirror.
I wasn't a brown wolf anymore.
I was massive. My fur was pure, dazzling white, like fresh snow under starlight. My eyes were glowing pools of liquid silver.
The White Wolf.
The seal was broken. The trauma of his assault and his final abandonment had shattered the last barrier.
I threw my head back and howled. It wasn't a cry for help. It was a declaration of war.
