Falling For The Demon Wolf-Chapter 33: First Night

APRIL

Jade had gone quiet for once, and that terrified me more than anything. She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

"If they touch her," she said, "I’ll gut every last one of them."

"Don’t talk like that," I snapped. "This isn’t a game, Jade."

She smirked, unfazed. "Neither was watching you cry every night she didn’t call."

I glared at her, but the truth stung. I had cried. We both had.

"April," Mom’s voice brought me back, soft but sharp. "You said she sounded scared?"

I nodded. "More than scared. She sounded like... like she thought this might be goodbye."

The words lodged in my throat.

Dad’s hand tightened around the hilt of his silver blade. "Then we don’t wait."

He turned to us, the fierce glint of the hunter fully awakened in his eyes. "We lock down the house. Every door, every window. Wolfsbane by the perimeter. No one leaves. Not until the full moon passes."

"And Violet?" I asked.

"We’ll get her back," he said. "One way or another."

Jade grabbed her phone and started typing furiously.

"What are you doing?" I asked her. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Letting the others know," she said. "If this is happening again, we’re not the only ones who need to be ready."

Dad nodded in approval. "Good. But quietly. We don’t want the wolves to catch wind that we’re preparing."

I stared out the window as the sky began to darken.

Three nights.

Just three.

We had to survive them.

And Violet—she had to come back alive.

VIOLET

The air reeked of smoke and blood.

They’d built the bonfire just beyond the eastern clearing, flames licking at the sky like greedy tongues, casting flickering shadows on the snarling faces around it. The scent of pine mixed with singed fur, and despite the heat, I was cold to the bone.

This wasn’t a celebration.

It was a ritual.

One meant to feed something ancient and violent, something that curled deep in the marrow of these creatures who wore human skin by day and tore it off like a mask by night.

The cast-outs were already lined up—ten of them, ragged, filthy, eyes glowing with that sick, feral light. Their wrists were unbound, but their minds were shackled—too far gone to resist the hunger thrumming beneath their skin.

And Zain stood before them, shirtless, the firelight dancing across his scarred chest, his eyes dark and unreadable. He looked every inch the Alpha now—cold, commanding, and monstrous.

I stood with the other servants on the edge of the clearing, forced to witness it all. We were meant to watch. To learn. To remember our place.

Inara stood beside me, silent, her fingers twitching against her skirts. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

A howl broke through the night—long, low, and mournful.

Then another.

And another.

Until the forest echoed with the sound of wolves. Real wolves. Hungry ones.

Zain lifted his chin, the mark on his collarbone catching the moonlight.

"The time has come," he said, voice like stone. "The instincts you’ve buried... you will embrace them tonight. There will be no mercy. No hesitation. The moon demands blood, and we will answer."

He turned to the cast-outs. "You’ve been given one final purpose. Make it count."

One of them—an older male with a broken jaw and white foaming around his lips—lunged forward and snarled. The others began to tremble, their bodies already shifting, bones snapping as their howls split the night air.

I backed up instinctively, my pulse hammering in my ears. Even knowing what was coming couldn’t prepare me for the sound of their transformation. It was agony and ecstasy wrapped into one—something primal and wrong, like listening to a song composed entirely of pain.

And then they were gone.

The wolves.

Massive, misshapen things with scars in their fur and madness in their eyes, sprinting into the forest, tearing at the ground like it offended them.

"Where do they go?" I asked quietly.

Inara didn’t answer right away.

"To the edge," she murmured. "Where the wards are thinnest. Where the humans still wander."

A beat.

"Where the real hunt begins."

A howl echoed again, this one louder—sharper—and it didn’t come from the cast-outs.

It came from Zain.

His body rippled, muscles tearing, bones realigning beneath his skin. His face twisted into something savage as he shifted, dark fur exploding across his frame.

When it was over, he stood taller than the rest, his eyes still burning silver in the dark, and his mouth opened in a howl so powerful it made the flames tremble.

One by one, the rest of the wolves followed. Betas. Elites. Some I hadn’t even known were wolves. All of them shedding their skin in the name of the moon, answering the ancient call with blind, brutal devotion.

And yet—

Something tugged inside me.

A throb beneath my skin.

A pressure behind my ribs.

I stepped back, clutching the front of my shirt as a searing pain hit my shoulder—the mark burning like molten iron, alive with something I couldn’t name.

My legs gave out.

I hit the ground, vision swimming.

Voices rose around me—some snarling, some shouting.

But I could only focus on the fire.

On the wolves disappearing into the woods.

On the fact that the hunt had begun.

And I didn’t know whether I was prey—

Or predator.

The world tilted sideways.

Heat pulsed through every nerve ending, the pain in my shoulder burning brighter than the fire behind my eyes. I couldn’t tell if I was shaking or if the earth itself was trembling beneath me.

Then—arms.

Strong. Steady.

Lifting me from the dirt like I weighed nothing.

I blinked, vision swimming, catching only glimpses—the flare of firelight, snarling jaws disappearing into the woods, the glint of a silver streak in the dark.

Cian.

"Dammit," he muttered under his breath, adjusting his grip as he carried me away from the chaos. "You just had to watch, didn’t you?"

I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn’t form words. My skin was on fire. My blood felt too fast, like it was trying to outrun something inside me.

The sounds of howling grew distant. The smoke thinned. And before I knew it, we were inside.

Zain’s room.

Of course.

Not the infirmary. Not the servant quarters. His room.

Cian kicked the door open and nudged it shut behind him with his foot. The walls were dark, stone and shadows, but there was warmth here—fur throws, a fireplace still glowing, the faint trace of cedar and something else. Something that smelled like him.

"Put her on the bed," another voice said.

Inara.

She was already there, placing a basin of water on the table.

Cian set me down with more care than I expected, his brow furrowed. "Her mark—it’s reacting."

"No kidding," Inara snapped. "Look at her eyes. They’re starting to glow."

"What does that mean?" I croaked, my throat raw.

They both stilled.

Cian looked at Inara. Inara looked at me.

Neither of them answered.

Instead, Inara knelt beside me, dabbing a cloth at my forehead. "You’re burning up. Whatever’s inside you... it’s waking up."

"I’m not—" I tried to push up, but my arm gave out. "I’m not one of you."

"Maybe not," she whispered. "But you’re not fully human either. Not anymore."

The words hit like a punch to the chest.

Not anymore.

Outside, a howl split the air—deeper this time. Commanding. It was Zain. I could feel him.

"Why here?" I rasped. "Why bring me to his room?"

"Because this is the only place you’re safe," Cian said. "No one will touch you if they think you’re his."

"I’m not his," I snapped, though it came out weaker than I’d hoped.

He raised a brow. "Try telling that to your mark."

My hand flew to my shoulder. "This isn’t his mark." I snarled.

It was still burning.

And pulsing.

Like it knew him.

Cian paused and looks up to me. "It isn’t, yet it knows who you belong to."

"I need to leave," I said. "I need to—"

"No," Inara interrupted gently. "The hunt has started. If you go out there now, they won’t stop.

Not even Zain. Not with the moon in his head."

I swallowed hard.

"What happens when he comes back?"

Cian’s gaze darkened. "That depends. On whether he finds prey... or if the hunger follows him home."

I closed my eyes, the heat spreading like wildfire beneath my skin.

And for the first time since arriving here...

I was afraid of what I might become.

The room remained empty and silent for a while as they finally left to join the hunt.

The burn in my shoulder had spread to my chest, up my neck, and down my spine like wildfire. I couldn’t lie still.

I kicked off the fur blanket, breathing hard, sweat dampening my skin. My body didn’t feel like mine—it felt restless. Hungry. My hands trembled as I pressed them to the stone wall, trying to ground myself. The room spun. My heart raced like a drum against my ribs.

And then I felt it.

That pull.

A shadow at the edge of something unspoken. The air thickened, heat prickling across my skin like static.

The door swung open.

Zain.