CURSED LYCAN
Sera woke to the sound of someone screaming.
She was on her feet in seconds, daggers drawn, heart hammering. The screaming came from deeper in the hall. From Kael's room.
She ran.
Found him thrashing on the floor, body convulsing. His skin was burning up—she could feel the heat from three feet away. And his eyes. God, his eyes were flickering so fast between silver and gold and black that they looked like strobe lights.
"Kael!" She dropped beside him. Grabbed his shoulders. "Kael, wake up!"
He didn't respond. His back arched, mouth open in a silent scream. Then his body started changing. Bones shifting. Fur rippling across skin.
He was shifting. But it was wrong. Incomplete. Like his body couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
Sera had seen a lot of things hunting lycans. But she'd never seen this.
"Come on." She shook him harder. "Fight it. Whatever this is, fight it!"
His hand shot out, caught her throat. The grip was iron. Crushing. His eyes locked on hers—completely black now. Empty.
She couldn't breathe.
Sera clawed at his hand, but it was like trying to move stone. Her vision started to blur. Gray creeping in at the edges.
Then, suddenly, his eyes flickered. Silver broke through the black for just a second.
And he let go.
Sera gasped, fell backward. Sucked in air while her throat burned. Kael was still convulsing, but the shifting had stopped. He curled into himself, shaking violently.
"What's happening to you?" she wheezed.
"Curse." His voice was barely human. "Getting worse. Full moon's in three days. I can feel it calling. Pulling me apart."
"What do you need? How do I help?"
"Can't. Help." Each word seemed to cost him. "This is what happens. Every month. Gets harder to come back."
Sera looked around the room. There had to be something. Medicine. Magic. Anything.
Her eyes landed on a chest in the corner. Old, covered in the same symbols as the ward stones. She lunged for it, threw it open.
Inside were bottles. Dozens of them. All labeled in a language she didn't recognize.
"Which one?" She grabbed three at random. "Kael, which one helps?"
He lifted a shaking hand. Pointed to a bottle filled with silver liquid. "That. Two drops. Under tongue."
Sera uncorked it, measured carefully. The liquid smelled like metal and something floral. She lifted his head, forced his mouth open, and let two drops fall.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then Kael gasped. His body went rigid one last time before collapsing completely. The convulsions stopped. His breathing evened out. And when he opened his eyes, they were silver again.
Fully silver. Fully aware.
"Thanks," he rasped.
"What the hell was that?"
"The curse. It's progressing faster than I thought." He tried to sit up. Failed. "That medicine holds it back. Temporarily. But I'm running out. Three bottles left. After that..."
He didn't finish. Didn't need to.
Sera sat back against the wall. Her hands were shaking. "How long have you been dealing with this alone?"
"Two years."
"Two years of that? Every month?"
"Sometimes twice a month. Depends on how much I shift." He finally managed to sit up. Looked at her with those exhausted eyes. "This is why I told you the curse is killing me. Each episode gets worse. Each time I shift, I lose a little more control. Eventually, I won't be able to shift back at all. I'll be stuck. A mindless beast until someone puts me down."
The matter-of-fact way he said it made Sera's chest tight. "There has to be another way."
"If there is, I haven't found it." Kael reached for the bottle, held it up to the fading firelight. "And I'm running out of time to look."
Sera watched him. This man—this lycan—who'd saved her life. Who was fighting a battle he couldn't win. Who probably had weeks, maybe days, before the curse took him completely.
A thought occurred to her. Dangerous. Possibly stupid. But it was something.
"Marcus said your blood is the key to perfecting the corruption," she said slowly. "That means he's studied the curse. Understands how it works."
"So?"
"So if he knows how it works, he might know how to reverse it."
Kael's laugh was bitter. "You think he'd help me? He's the one who activated the curse in the first place."
"I'm not saying he'd help willingly." Sera met his gaze. "But if we capture him, make him talk, he could give us answers. Maybe even a cure."
"We can't capture him. You saw what he can do. That device alone makes him untouchable to lycans."
"To lycans, yes. But I'm human." She stood up, started pacing. Her mind was racing now. "The device works on a frequency that affects lycans specifically. It wouldn't work on me. I could get close. Take him by surprise."
"He trained you. He'll anticipate your moves."
"Then I'll do something he won't anticipate." Sera stopped pacing. "Look, I know it's risky. But what's the alternative? We sit here and wait for your medicine to run out? Wait for Marcus to make good on his threat against Emma? We're out of time, Kael. Both of us."
He was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "Even if we capture Marcus, he has employers. People with resources. They'll come for him. For us."
"Let them come."
"You're talking about going to war with an organization powerful enough to fund corruption experiments and hunt down entire packs."
"Yes."
"That's suicide."
"Probably." Sera crouched in front of him. "But I'm tired of running. Tired of watching people I care about die while monsters like Marcus walk free. My sister deserved better. Your pack deserved better. And Emma deserves a future where she doesn't have to look over her shoulder."
Kael studied her face. "You really think we can do this? Two of us against whatever Marcus is working for?"
"No." Sera smiled grimly. "I think we're going to die trying. But I'd rather die fighting than live knowing I didn't even try."
Something shifted in Kael's expression. Respect, maybe. Or recognition. Like he was seeing her clearly for the first time.
"You're insane," he said.
"You're cursed and fighting corrupted lycans with three bottles of medicine left. We're both insane."
He actually smiled at that. Small, but real. "Fair point."
"So?" Sera held out her hand. "Are we doing this?"
Kael looked at her hand. At her face. Then he reached out and clasped her wrist in the old pack way—warrior to warrior.
"We're doing this."
They spent the next few hours planning. Sera sketched out what she remembered of Marcus's usual haunts. Safe houses, training grounds, contacts. Kael added information about the corruption facilities he'd discovered.
"There's a pattern," Kael said, marking points on their makeshift map. "All the facilities are near old pack territories. Places with strong magical signatures."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because the curse uses old magic. Pack magic. To corrupt it, to weaponize it, you need access to those power sources." He traced a line between three points. "These are the only active Bloodmoon sites left. If Marcus wants more of my blood, he'll need to do the extraction at one of these locations."
"So we set a trap."
"We set a trap." Kael tapped the northernmost point. "This one. It's remote. Defensible. And it's where my pack used to conduct our most powerful rituals. If Marcus is going to make a move, it'll be here."
"How do we lure him?"
Kael's smile was sharp. "We give him what he wants. Me."
"Absolutely not. That's—"
"The only way." He cut her off. "Marcus wants me alive. Needs me alive. So I let him capture me. You follow at a distance. When he takes me to the facility, you strike."
"That plan has about a thousand ways to go wrong."
"You have a better one?"
Sera didn't. She hated that she didn't.
"Fine," she said finally. "But we do this smart. I want backup plans. Escape routes. And if anything goes sideways, we abort. I'm not watching you die because we got cocky."
"Deal."
They worked until dawn. By the time sun broke over the compound, they had a plan. Risky. Probably stupid. But it was something.
Sera checked her weapons while Kael reinforced the wards. Her shoulder still ached where the corrupted lycan had caught her, but the wound was healing. She'd be ready.
She had to be.
"Sera."
She turned. Kael was standing in the doorway, backlit by morning sun. He looked different in daylight. Younger, somehow. Less like a cursed monster and more like a man trying to survive.
"Yeah?"
"If this goes wrong. If I lose control or the curse takes me. Promise you'll end it. Don't let me become one of those things."
The request was so casual. So matter-of-fact. Like he was asking her to pass salt at dinner.
"Kael—"
"Promise." His silver eyes were steady. "I've seen what happens when lycans lose themselves completely. I won't become that. Won't hurt innocent people because I was too stubborn to die when I should have."
Sera wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him it wouldn't come to that. But they both knew better.
"I promise," she said quietly. "But you have to promise me something too."
"What?"
"Promise you'll fight. That you won't just give up because the curse is winning." She crossed to him. "You've been alone in this for two years. You don't have to be anymore. So fight. For your pack. For the cure. For the chance to actually live instead of just surviving."
Kael's jaw tightened. For a moment, she thought he'd argue. Then he nodded. "I'll fight."
"Good."
They stood there, two warriors making promises they weren't sure they could keep. Outside, birds started singing. The compound woke up around them—a ghost of what it used to be.
Kael's stomach growled. Loudly.
Sera laughed. Actually laughed. "When's the last time you ate?"
"Yesterday. Maybe." He looked sheepish. "I lose track."
"Come on. We're not saving the world on empty stomachs."
They raided the compound's stores. Found dried meat, some kind of preserved fruit, and bread that was somehow still good. Ate sitting on the steps of the main hall, watching the sun climb higher.
It was almost peaceful. Almost normal. If you ignored the wards humming with magic and the weight of impossible odds pressing down on them.
"Tell me about your pack," Sera said. "Not the slaughter. Before that. What were they like?"
Kael was quiet for so long she thought he wouldn't answer. Then he said, "Loud. My pack was loud. Always laughing, arguing, singing. My brother used to say we could wake the dead with our celebrations."
"You miss them."
"Every day." He stared at the compound. "This place used to be full of life. Now it's just echoes."
"We're going to make Marcus pay for what he took from you."
"I know." He looked at her. "But revenge won't bring them back."
"No. But it'll stop him from taking anyone else."
They finished eating in silence. Then Kael stood, offered her his hand. "We should move. Get into position before Marcus realizes where we are."
Sera took his hand. Let him pull her up. "How long until he figures it out?"
"If he's as good as you say? He already knows."
As if on cue, a howl echoed across the compound. Close. Too close.
They both tensed.
"Corrupted lycans?" Sera asked.
"No." Kael's face had gone hard. "That's a challenge howl. Someone wants to talk."
"Marcus?"
"Maybe. Or one of his employers." He started toward the ward line. "Stay behind me. And be ready for anything."
They crossed the compound to the edge of the wards. Sera could see movement in the trees. Shapes circling. Waiting.
Then someone stepped into view.
Not Marcus.
A woman. Tall, elegant, with silver hair and eyes that glowed gold. She wore black leather like armor and carried herself like a queen.
And when she smiled, Sera saw fangs.
"Hello, Kael," the woman said. Her voice was silk over steel. "It's been a long time."
Kael's entire body had gone rigid. "Valeria."
"You know her?" Sera whispered.
"She's my aunt." His voice was hollow. "And she's supposed to be dead."