"Come here."
*CRACK.*
Ethan tried to stand. His front leg was at the wrong angle.
Bone-white through the skin.
He shifted back. Naked. Gasping.
Blood in the dirt.
Roman shifted back too.
Roman stood over Ethan.
Black magic pulled his skin together.
"Weak," Roman said. He kicked Ethan.
Roman looked at Ella. "Come here."
Ella looked at the dagger in her hand. She looked at Ethan, dying in the dirt.
She walked down the steps.
"That's a good girl," Roman smiled.
Ella walked right up to him. And then she swung the dagger at his throat.
Roman caught her wrist mid-air. He didn't even look surprised.
"I expected more gratitude," he sighed. He twisted her wrist until she dropped the knife.
He pulled her close, his other hand gripping her hair, forcing her to look at Ethan.
"Watch," Roman commanded. "Watch what happens to thieves."
He raised his hand. Dark energy sat in his palm.
"No!" Ella screamed. "Roman, stop! I'll do anything! Please!"
Roman paused. The energy sat over Ethan's chest.
"Anything?"
"Yes! Anything!" Ella fell to her knees, clinging to his legs. "Just don't kill him. Please."
Roman looked down at her. A cruel idea formed in his eyes.
"Very well," he said. "Get up."
He dragged her to her feet.
"You have a contract, don't you?" Roman asked softly. "I know you kept it. I know you signed it."
Ella nodded.
"Use it," Roman hissed. "Use your wish to save him. Or watch him die."
Ella fumbled for the scroll. She always kept it in her inner pocket now, close to her heart.
Roman took the scroll.
"Write."
Shadows coiled around Roman's hand. A sharp point.
Ready to drop.
Ella used the dagger. Her own thumb.
She wrote.
*I wish for Ethan to be safe. Far away. Let him forget me.*
A sharp cut across her back.
A new mark.
Ethan's eyes went empty. Grey.
He vanished into a mist of gold.
Roman turned to the perimeter. He didn't use a wolf's roar. He used the scroll.
A pulse of black energy hit the garden.
The rebels froze. Their leader was gone. The Alpha Marcus fell to his knees, his eyes leaking blood.
They fled into the dark. Terrified.
"Now," Roman said, turning to Ella. "The count is nine."
He dragged her back into the mansion, up the stairs, to the master bedroom.
He threw her onto the bed.
"I have four wishes," Roman was pacing.
"You have four."
"When we hit ten... it's over."
"The souls bind. One mind."
He bit his wrist.
"I wish for your soul. Eternally. No death. No exit."
He slapped his blood onto the skin-scroll.
The lights died.
Absolute black.
Her chest burned.
Tearing her out.
Roman was laughing.
The vines slithered off him.
Roman was winning. He was taking everything.
Sacrifice wins.
She grabbed the dagger.
Not for him.
She pinned her own scroll to the mattress.
"I wish to sacrifice the blood. My nature. Every chance I ever had to be a wolf."
Darkness.
The seed burst in her chest.
"Wipe his memory. Every trace of me. Make me a stranger to his soul."
She slammed her palm onto the blade.
A physical shock.
Roman's face disintegrated.
Roman floated. Pieces of his life fell away.
*Ella.*
The name slipped. Every touch. Every scent.
Magic re-wrote the gaps.
His rise to power was about ambition.
The hole in his soul filled with nothing. Cold.
The obsession burned out.
Back in the room. The wind died. The air went flat and still.
Roman collapsed. He lay still on the floor. Unconscious.
Ella lay on the bed, gasping. She felt... empty. Lighter.
She tried to reach for her wolf.
Silence. No more itching. No more heat. The seed was gone.
She was human. Just human.
She looked at Roman. He looked peaceful. A stranger.
She could kill him. The dagger was right there.
But she looked at her stomach. The baby. His son.
And she felt the lingering echo of her wish. *Let him forget.*
If she killed him, the pack would hunt her down. If she left him... he would wake up a stranger.
She grabbed a coat from the closet. She grabbed the cash from his desk.
She walked to the door. She didn't look back.
She walked out into the ruin of the estate. The fighting had stopped. The rebels had retreated when Ethan vanished. The guards were disorganized.
No one stopped the small, human woman walking out the front gate.
She walked until her feet bled. She walked until the sun came up.
She was free.