Chapter 4: Shadows That Bite Back

The barrier hummed like a dying hive, sickly green light pulsing against the ancient stones.

Beatrice stood shoulder to shoulder with Dominic, her blood still singing from where his fingers had gripped her earlier. The heat of his body bled into her side. Her wolf rose at the nearness, claws scraping under her skin.

Marcus's sneer cut through the night. "Tainted blood. Both of you. The pack's done pretending otherwise."

The beta's toothpick splintered between his teeth. His enforcers gripped blades that caught the green glow. Dominic's muscles coiled tighter beside her. His scent spiked sharp with rage.

Beatrice swallowed the copper taste flooding her mouth. The voice in her blood whispered again, faint and hungry. Let me taste him. The beta would scream so sweetly.

She pushed it down. Her fingers twitched toward her face out of old habit, reaching for glasses that no longer existed. The magic bindings from the diner alley still held, iron threads tight under her skin.

Elena. The healer had to be close. Beatrice had seen her curly head near the trees before the trap snapped shut.

"Elena!" she called. The barrier swallowed the sound and spat it back twisted, like mocking laughter from something ancient.

Dominic shot her a look. His jaw tightened, the scar along it pulling white. "You think your friend can fix this? Marcus has three wolves ready to gut us."

"She can stop us from killing each other first," Beatrice muttered. The documents lay scattered at their feet, proof of Delaney sins exposed under the moonlight. Her fingers itched to snatch them up, but any sudden move might shatter the thin space between her shoulder and his.

Marcus cracked his knuckles. The sound cracked like gunshots. "Come out, Alpha. Or we'll come in and drag you. That bitch led us right to you. Convenient."

The mate bond flared hot without warning. Beatrice's breath hitched as Dominic's protective surge slammed through her chest. Her wolf answered with a savage twist, muscles clenching, skin prickling with the need to shield what belonged to them.

She hated how right it felt. Her thighs tightened. Heat pooled low despite the threat closing in.

Her shadow stretched too long across the moss, reaching toward Marcus with claw-like tips. The corruption stirred bolder tonight. She blinked hard. When she licked her dry lip, copper bloomed stronger on her tongue.

"Bee," Dominic growled low, for her ears only. That old nickname sliced deep. "Your eyes."

She touched the corner of one. Wetness. Not tears. Something thicker, darker.

Elena burst through the trees on the far side, curly auburn hair wild with woven herbs, face pale. Her healer's pouch swung heavy at her hip. She skidded to a halt just outside the green glow, eyes darting between them.

"What is this?" Elena's usually soothing voice cracked. She pressed a hand to the barrier and hissed at the burn. "Bee, your shadow. Your eyes."

Marcus laughed, ugly and short. "Healer Voss. Always in the middle. Tell your little witch friend to drop the barrier before we decide you're next on the tainted list."

Elena looked at Beatrice. Fear sat there raw, but something sharper twisted underneath. Beatrice felt it hook in her gut. The healer had helped her once, shown her the first blood paths after the rejection. Now that debt dragged heavy between them.

"I need the rite," Beatrice said quietly, stepping closer to the barrier's edge. Her shadow lunged again, scraping against the green light. "The one we talked about. The deep one. Tonight."

Elena's face crumpled. "No. It's eating you, Bee. Look at it. I won't help you finish the job."

Dominic moved. His hand brushed Beatrice's elbow. Lightning arced between them. His scent flooded her sharper now, pine and musk and raw alpha need. Her body answered before her mind could stop it, nipples tightening against her shirt, breath coming quick.

He stiffened too. She felt the war in him through the bond, the urge to pull her behind him clashing with years of calling her weak.

"Elena," he rumbled, voice deep and commanding. "Marcus is moving on the pack. If he takes me down, you think he'll stop at Beatrice?"

The healer's hands trembled as she pulled a vial from her pouch. Poisonous nightshade leaves showed through the glass. "My loyalty is the only reason you're both still breathing," she said softly, dangerously. "I trained her after you broke her, Dominic. And now she's asking me to push her further while you stand there pretending you don't still want her like air."

The words landed hard. Beatrice's throat tightened. She saw the exhaustion in her friend's eyes, the weight of carrying secrets for years.

Marcus's enforcers shifted, impatient. One growled low, claws scraping dirt. The beta chewed another toothpick to splinters. "Enough talk. Drop the barrier or we burn it down with all of you inside."

Beatrice's shadow crawled up the barrier like spilled ink. It formed a crude shape on the other side, almost like her old self with neat braid and glasses. The image sneered, then dissolved. Black blood trickled from her nose, dripping onto the scattered documents.

Pain lanced through her skull. Dominic's hand gripped her arm, steadying her. His touch burned. She wanted to shake him off. She wanted to pull him closer and sink her teeth into his throat.

"We need her inside," Beatrice whispered. Her voice stayed precise even as blood ran down her chin. "Marcus will use her against us."

Dominic's jaw worked. His thumb brushed her wrist where the old bond mark throbbed. Electricity shot up her arm. His scent thickened with conflict and hunger.

"Temporary," he said through clenched teeth. "We get her safe. Then we settle this."

Elena pressed both palms to the barrier, murmuring words that made the green light thin. She slipped through, herbs scattering from her pouch as Marcus roared and charged.

Dominic shoved Beatrice toward the stones. His back pressed against her front for one searing second, all hard muscle and fever heat. Her hands gripped his hips without thinking. The bond surged between them, raw and demanding.

She felt his wolf's need to claim her right there. The terror that she'd be hurt. Her own body answered with liquid heat, thighs clenching, breath catching in her throat.

Not now, she thought fiercely. Not like this.

Elena moved fast, smearing something oily across the stones. The barrier thickened again, shoving Marcus back with a burst of sparks. He slammed against it, face twisted in rage.

"Traitor healer," he snarled. "You'll burn with them."

Inside the smaller circle, the four of them stood in tense silence broken only by heavy breathing. Elena wiped the black blood from Beatrice's face with a strip of clean cloth. Her touch stayed clinical, but her eyes held deep hurt.

"This corruption," Elena whispered so only Beatrice could hear, "it's getting worse. If you don't stop feeding it, I'll lose you completely."

Beatrice's chest ached. The rage that had carried her back to Silver Hollow cracked a little wider. Elena's fear wasn't for the pack. It was for her. For what she was becoming.

Dominic paced the tiny space. Three steps, turn, three steps. His fists clenched and unclenched. Moonlight slid over the scars on his arms. The bond fed her fragments of old nights in the library, him turning pages of the grimoires she'd once recommended, dust and secret want thick in the air.

He stopped facing her. "Library," he said, voice rough. "I went there after you left. Read those books you used to push on me. The ones about old pack laws."

The admission cost him. She saw it in the way his shoulders hunched, the unconscious rub of fingers over the scar on his ribs.

"You should have read them before," Beatrice said. Her voice came out tired instead of sharp. The black blood on her chin felt like proof that every strike against him cut her too.

Elena watched them both, arms crossed tight. "Marcus won't wait long. He's been planning this. The coup. He came to me weeks ago asking for poisons. I gave him duds."

Dominic's gaze sharpened. His scent shifted to hard suspicion.

The healer's chin lifted. "My loyalty to Bee is the reason I did it. But if you two don't figure this out, the pack dies from the secrets finally eating us alive."

Beatrice's shadow flickered again. It crawled toward Dominic's boots and wrapped around his ankle like a possessive hand. He stiffened but didn't pull away. The contact sent phantom heat racing up her leg, intimate and dangerous.

She wanted him. The need hit so hard her magic flared jealous. Every breath they shared made revenge taste less like victory and more like surrender.

"We work together," she said, the words like ash on her tongue. "Until Marcus is dealt with."

Dominic's gold-flecked eyes met hers. "No more running, Bee."

His hand lifted slow. Fingers brushed hers where they rested on the stone, tracing the same invisible rune she always did when stressed. The touch went straight between her legs, deliberate and hot.

The bond surged wider. A shared flash of the rejection night hit them both. She saw his father's grip on his shoulder, heard the threats. He saw her already reaching for dark power in the crowd. Their memories clashed and pain spiked through her eyes.

Black tears spilled faster down her light brown cheeks. The corruption surged. Her shadow chains wrapped around both their wrists, tightening like living binds.

Elena cried out and reached for them, but the magic shoved her back. Dominic's hand gripped hers tighter. His wolf rose to meet her darkness, possession burning in his scent.

"Whatever this is," he growled, voice rough with pain and raw need, "we face it together."

Beatrice's heart slammed against her ribs. The words should have tasted like triumph. Instead they felt like the start of her ruin. Her vision blurred as the grimoire she needed next burned clear in her mind, hidden where he'd once read in secret.

Outside, Marcus began to shift, bones cracking loud enough to carry through the barrier. The shadow chains pulled tighter, drawing fresh black blood from her wrists to his.

And the worst part was how badly she wanted him to be the one to break her completely.