Claimed by the scarred Alpha

MARGAUX

He dragged himself upright, swaying for a moment before forcing his body to steady.

"For them, however, it will not be a decade. Not even a century. They will sit inside my belly, suffering, begging for a peace that will never come. For eternity."

"Shut up," I snarled.

"But that is not even the worst part."

He straightened despite the damage Isabelle had already inflicted on him, black smoke curling from his wounds as he looked at me with an awful, patient certainty.

"I will return and it will not take long at all. I will come back for you, or for your child, or your child’s child. You exist because of me, Margaux. I own your bloodline."

His smile widened.

"I always will."

Isabelle turned toward me.

Something in her expression had changed. There was softness in it now, but beneath that softness was something terrible, something that made the air around us feel suddenly colder.

"I did think," she murmured, "that perhaps I could still stay by your side somehow. Find a way to make amends, slowly, over time."

She lowered her eyes for a moment before looking back at me.

"But that is out of the question now."

Her voice hardened.

"This demon has to perish. Completely."

She glanced toward him, and the light surrounding her intensified.

"He cannot be allowed to return. He cannot be sealed away and he cannot be trapped somewhere he can make good on a promise like that."

Her gaze settled on mine again.

"It needs to be gone."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded.

"Live a long and happy life, Margo," she whispered.

Then she charged.

She crossed the distance in an instant, seized the demon by the throat, and lifted him clean off whatever passed for the ground in this place. His legs kicked uselessly beneath him as Isabelle’s fingers tightened.

And then I felt it.

The moment she began pouring her essence into him, the entire space seemed to shift. Something vast was gathering around them, building with every heartbeat, drawing on whatever remained inside her.

Something enormous.

Something final.

I understood what she was doing half a second too late.

"No!" I screamed. "You’re killing yourself!"

Light erupted.

It tore into the demon from every direction, swallowing his monstrous form in a blinding torrent. It ripped through fur and horn and claw, burning away everything that made him solid, everything that allowed him to hold himself together.

He shrieked.

His claws raked desperately across Isabelle’s arms, trying to tear himself free, but her grip never loosened.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he howled. "You’ll die too! You’ll die too!"

"As long as my family is safe," Isabelle replied, her voice impossibly calm, "that is a price I am willing to pay."

The demon’s body began to come apart in her hands.

Isabelle’s own light was fading now, the brilliant rainbow glow around her growing thinner at the edges, breaking apart into sparks that drifted away before disappearing.

She turned her head toward me.

Even with the demon burning apart in her grasp, even as her own existence began to unravel with his, she smiled.

It was not the smile of a warrior or one someone who has won a battle would have worn proudly. As much as I hated to admit it, it looked like the smile of a mother saying goodbye.

"Be happy," she whispered.

"No."

The word barely left my mouth.

Then something inside me broke.

"No!"

I ran.

I don’t remember deciding to move. One second I was standing there, staring at her, and the next I was sprinting toward them with everything I had, my feet barely touching the ground.

"NO!"

My voice tore apart.

"Isabelle!"

She looked at me and she smiled again.

And that was somehow worse.

"Don’t you fucking dare!"

I threw out my hands, forcing every ounce of spirit light I had into them. Gold exploded from my palms, slamming against the storm of energy surrounding her and the demon.

It did nothing.

The rainbow energy didn’t even buckle. It folded over itself, forming a brilliant shield around them, dense and impenetrable, turning every burst of gold I threw at it aside as though my power had never existed.

"No!"

I pushed harder.

The gold in my hands flared brighter, spilling between my fingers as I poured everything I had into it. I screamed and forced more power forward, but the shield only brightened in response.

Then I felt something else.

The connection between us was weakening.

My breath caught.

"No..."

The warmth that had been running through me only moments ago began to recede. The thread tying me to Isabelle grew thinner, fainter, as though someone were slowly pulling it out of my chest.

The gold light in my palms flickered.

I stared at it.

"No, no, no..."

It flickered again.

Then began to die.

My knees nearly buckled. I could feel her slipping away. I could feel her perishing.

"Isabelle!"

I ran toward the shield, screaming for her to stop, but the rainbow light held firm and I hated that I couldn’t float to reach it or tear them apart from what she was dead set on finishing.

"Please!"

Inside the shield, Isabelle looked at me one last time.

Then the connection snapped.

The gold light that was sputtering out of my hands completely vanished and the rainbow shield detonated.

The white room exploded into a blinding wash of rainbow light, swallowing everything, the demon’s scream, my own, the last sight of her face, until there was nothing left but color and heat and the terrible, final silence that followed.

Then I woke.

My eyes flew open.

My lungs dragged in a ragged breath, and for a moment I could do nothing but stare at my hands, expecting to see gold light spilling between my fingers.

There was nothing.

Then arms slammed around me.

I barely had time to register Étienne before he pulled me against his chest, holding me so tightly I could feel the violent rise and fall of his breathing.

His eyes were wide when I looked up at him.

He seemed terrified and relieved at the same time that I was alive.

And something inside me finally gave way.

I broke down against him.

A sob tore out of me as I clutched the front of his clothes, burying my face against his chest while tears streamed down my cheeks.

Behind him, Ophelia stood frozen, her face pale, with Arania beside her.

And behind them...

I saw it.

A stone statue. The demon. Or what remained of him.

He stood frozen in the exact monstrous shape I had seen in that other place, his claws raised, his horns twisted over his head, his mouth open in a silent snarl.

Then a crack appeared across his stone chest.

Another split through his shoulder.

The statue began to crumble.

Pieces of stone broke away from his body, hitting the ground and shattering into dust. His horns collapsed. His claws disintegrated. His face fractured, the terrible features that had haunted me for so long breaking apart until there was nothing left but a pile of gray dust scattered across the floor.

I stared at it through my tears.

He was gone. Completely gone. But Isabelle was gone too.

And somehow, that hurt even more.

I buried my face against Étienne again and sobbed.

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