Page 20 of A Reign of Malice (Wolves of Lunara #3)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

JULIAN

I t’s as if the darkness has grown teeth. It gnaws at the edges of my mind, devouring the scraps of strength I have left. Every hour that passes pulls me further into that abyss, my wolf a faint, flickering ember I can barely feel anymore.

But I hold on.

Because of her.

Sloane.

Her name is a lifeline, a whispered promise against the silence. I felt her hesitation when she last left me. The intensity of her uncertainty wrapped around my chest like a vise, but beneath it, there was something else.

Resolve.

She’s not giving up on me. Which means I can’t give up on her either.

I stare down at the blackened shackles cutting into my wrists, the skin long since rubbed raw. I’ve lost count of the years I’ve spent here, chained like a beast unworthy of sunlight, the magic embedded in the cables siphoning away what little power I have left .

A snarl rises in my throat, a guttural promise of violence.

When I’m free, I’m going to kill my brother. Slowly.

I’ll shatter his bones one by one, tear the crown from his head, and make sure every single wolf in Venaris knows exactly who and what their king is.

A traitor. A coward. A murderer.

But first, I need to survive.

Pain has long been a companion of mine, a dull ache that’s become part of me, but the weakness, the inability to keep my head up for long—that’s new. My wolf barely stirs anymore, his spirit dimming like a candle running out of wax. If he dies before I’m free…

There won’t be enough of me left to save.

But Sloane will come back.

She might not trust me yet, but she’s too smart to fall for Aeson’s lies.

I saw that in the way she carried herself, in the way she spoke, even the way she tracked my every movement.

It doesn’t matter that we’ve admitted to being mates, if she decides I’m the monster she assumed to be locked away here, she’ll end me.

That knowledge doesn’t scare me. I know the truth, and I’ll prove it to her.

If it takes a lifetime, I’ll show her exactly who I am, who I should’ve been. Not just her mate, but the rightful Alpha King.

The cave’s silence presses in around me, but I don’t surrender to it. Not anymore.

I sit back against the slick, cold stone, breathing slowly, imagining her face. The slight crease between her brows as she listened to me speak and the defiance in her eyes when she challenged me.

The memory of her will be enough to hold onto, but as I unwillingly drift off, I’m not sure my wolf is around to believe the same.