Chapter 4 The Deal

Selene's body stiffened as Darius's words echoed in the chamber.

Not a threat. Not pity. A declaration.

"You don't know me," she whispered again, voice trembling.

His silver eyes didn't waver. "Not yet. But I will."

Her hands gripped the quilt tighter, knuckles white. She wanted to deny him, wanted to tell him she wasn't some prize to be claimed. But her wolf stirred uneasily under his gaze, recognizing a power that couldn't be ignored.

"You should have left me there," she muttered, forcing her voice steady. "In the forest. I didn't ask for your help."

Darius's jaw tightened. "And yet here you are. Alive because of me."

Her stomach twisted. He was right. If he hadn't carried her out, she might have been ripped apart by rogues before morning. Still, she lifted her chin. "I don't belong here. I'll leave."

A dark laugh rumbled from his chest. "Leave? Where would you go? Back to the Alpha who tossed you aside in front of your pack?" His voice dropped, sharp and merciless. "Or do you prefer the rogues waiting in the woods to finish what your mate began?"

Selene flinched. His words cut deeper than claws because they were true. She had nowhere.

Her silence made his expression harden. "You want freedom? Fine. But freedom without strength is a slow death. That is all your world outside these walls has to offer you."

He took a step closer, and Selene felt her heart hammer against her ribs. Every movement he made carried dominance, a weight pressing down on her wolf until she had to fight to hold her head high.

"What do you want from me?" she asked finally, her voice breaking.

His gaze burned into hers. "A choice."

She blinked. "A... choice?"

"You can walk out of here," he said slowly, his voice low and deliberate. "Walk into the night, back to a pack that doesn't want you, or into the hands of rogues who will tear you apart. I won't stop you."

Her lips parted in disbelief. He meant it. He would let her leave.

"Or," he continued, his eyes narrowing slightly, "you stay. You remain here, under my roof, under my protection. My pack will not touch you. No one will harm you. But you will live as mine."

Selene's pulse spiked. The room suddenly felt too small, his presence too close.

"Yours?" she echoed, her voice sharp with panic.

Darius's lips curved faintly, but it wasn't a smile. "Yes. Mine. Not as a mate,yet. Not as a Luna,yet. But you will belong to Shadowfang, and through Shadowfang, to me."

Her heart thundered. She searched his expression, desperate for some sign of softness, of compassion. But all she found was steel.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why me?"

For the first time, his gaze flickered, something unreadable flashing in those silver eyes. He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Because the moon doesn't waste her gifts. If Kael was blind enough to reject you, then I will take what he threw away. And I will forge it into strength."

Selene shook her head. "You're wrong. I'm not strong. I couldn't even," Her throat closed, the memory of Kael's rejection suffocating her.

Darius cut her off. "Strength is not given. It's made. And I can make you stronger than you've ever dreamed."

The certainty in his tone startled her. He spoke as though it were already truth, as though he'd already decided what she would become.

Selene bit her lip, torn between fear and a flicker of something else,hope.

But she couldn't trust him. Not yet.

"I don't even know you," she whispered.

"You know enough," Darius said firmly. "You know I am not Kael. You know I did not leave you to die in the dirt. You know I am offering you power instead of pity."

Her chest tightened. The words hit too close, tearing open the raw wound Kael had left.

"You don't understand," she said, her voice shaking. "He was my mate. My fated one. And he,he"

"Rejected you." Darius finished it for her, his tone flat, merciless. "Yes. And tell me, Selene, do you still want to crawl back to him? Do you still want to beg for scraps of his acceptance?"

Her wolf growled low inside her chest, hurt and angry. Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them away. "No," she whispered.

Darius's lips curved, sharper this time. "Good. Then choose."

Her breath caught. The choice hung between them, heavy and suffocating. Freedom into death,or chains wrapped in protection.

Selene's mind spun.

If she stayed, she would be betraying her pack. Even if they had turned their backs on her, even if Kael had rejected her, it still meant surrendering to their enemy.

But if she left... she didn't have to wonder what awaited her. She knew. Death.

Her hands trembled as she looked up at him. "If I stay," she said carefully, "what will you do to me?"

His eyes glinted, silver burning like ice-fire. "I will protect you. Train you. Break you, if I must, until you discover the wolf you were meant to be. And when the time comes, I will decide how far this bond between us will go."

Her heart skipped. Bond. Did he mean?

"You're not my mate," she blurted.

His expression sharpened, unreadable. "No. Not by the moon's design. But bonds are not only made by fate. They can be forged by choice. By fire. By war."

Selene's breath caught at the weight of his words.

He wasn't claiming her as a fated mate. He was claiming her as his own, by sheer force of will.

Her pulse raced. This was madness.

And yet... a dangerous part of her wondered. What would it feel like to be chosen, even without the strings of fate? To be seen as more than weak, more than discarded?

Selene swallowed hard, lowering her gaze. "And if I refuse?"

"Then you walk out of this room," Darius said simply. "But you won't make it past my borders alive."

The blunt honesty made her chest ache. He wasn't threatening. He was telling her the truth.

Her hands clenched in the quilt. She wanted to scream, to rage at the unfairness of it all. But instead, her voice came out small, trembling.

"You leave me no choice."

Darius stepped closer, his shadow falling over her bed. "No. I've given you a choice. You simply don't like either option."

His words sank deep. And he was right.

Silence filled the chamber, broken only by the crackle of the fire. Selene's chest rose and fell in quick, uneven breaths.

Finally, she whispered, "I'll stay."

Darius's expression didn't change, but his eyes flashed with something sharp,satisfaction, triumph. "Wise."

Selene's stomach churned. She felt like she had just signed away her freedom, her future.

But a small voice deep inside whispered: You've survived. That is enough for now.

Darius straightened, his presence still filling the room like thunder waiting to break. "Rest tonight. Tomorrow, we begin."

Selene frowned. "Begin what?"

His silver gaze burned into her. "Your rebirth."

Her pulse quickened.

Rebirth. The word held both promise and threat.

And though fear coiled in her chest, she couldn't deny the flicker of something else. For the first time since Kael had rejected her, she felt a spark.

Not of love. Not of trust.

But of possibility.

Selene lay awake long after he left the room, staring at the fire until it burned low.

She was no longer the girl who belonged to Kael. No longer the rejected Luna of her old pack.

She was something else now.

Something dangerous.

And though she didn't know it yet, the choice she had made tonight would set fire to everything she had once known.

Because the enemy Alpha had claimed her fate.

And he would not let her go.