Chapter 5 Where the wolf begin to fade

The moment my eyes opened, the infirmary felt smaller, the air thicker, as if it had been pressed down by an unseen hand. Every breath I drew was shallow, forced, the weight of the curse still pressing against me like a living thing. My wolf stirred faintly, barely more than a whisper, and I could feel her trembling under my skin. She was weak and fading, her presence fragile and distant. It terrified me.

The healer was already there, moving with careful precision, her eyes scanning me with a mixture of concern and unease. She didn’t speak immediately, letting the silence stretch, letting me feel the truth that I already knew. The curse was relentless. It was consuming me piece by piece.

“You shouldn’t be sitting up,” she said at last, her voice steady but low. “Your wolf is fading faster than I expected.”

I swallowed hard, trying to focus on her words, but my chest felt hollow, my heartbeat sluggish and uneven. The wolf stirred again, a soft, almost mournful whine slipping from her lips inside me. She was weak, too weak to respond, too weak to fight. My stomach churned. I could feel the sickness spreading through my body, the darkness curling at the edges of my mind, pulling me toward it.

“What… what is happening to me?” I whispered, though my throat protested, dry and raw. My hands trembled as I pressed them against my chest, as if I could hold the wolf together with sheer will alone.

The healer crouched beside the bed, her hand hovering over mine, hesitant. “It is not just rejection,” she said. “The bond he cursed is not like any normal severance. It is an Alpha’s mark. It feeds on connection, on the bond you share, and it will not stop until it consumes the wolf entirely. The heart weakens first. Then the senses dull. Strength fades. And then…” She trailed off, letting the sentence hang between us. Then she added quietly, “The last stage is irreversible.”

I flinched. Irreversible. The word made the room spin. My wolf whimpered again, faint and trembling, her voice so soft I almost didn’t hear it. But I did. And it broke something inside me. She was fading and I could feel it in every beat of my chest, in every shallow breath, in every tremor of my limbs. She was slipping away, leaving me hollow, leaving me terrified.

“Is there… anything I can do?” I asked, my voice trembling. “Anything at all?” The wolf pressed against me in a soft, desperate pulse, her need echoing inside. She was frightened. She was fragile. She was begging me to act, to fight.

The healer looked at me with an intensity that made my stomach knot. “There is a way,” she said slowly, carefully. “But it is dangerous. Rare. Only wolves who are bound to their own strength can survive it. You must confront the curse from within, meet it where it feeds, and reclaim the bond it has twisted. If you fail… you will lose her completely.”

I shivered. The wolf shifted beneath my ribs, a faint ripple of fear and exhaustion that made me grip the sheets tighter. I could feel her struggle, her strength faltering. My pulse dropped again, sluggish and weak, and panic clawed at my chest. I couldn’t lose her. Not like this. Not now. Not when everything I was had been built around keeping her alive, keeping us together.

“How?” I asked. My voice was barely more than a croak. “How do I fight it?”

The healer hesitated, her eyes searching mine as though measuring my resolve. “You cannot fight it alone,” she said finally. “You will need to reach inside yourself, to find the wolf, and trust her. And even then… the bond is still tethered to him. The Alpha’s presence is strong. He will resist, and he will fight you in ways you cannot anticipate. Your strength, your will… it must be greater than his.”

I closed my eyes, letting the words sink in, letting the reality settle like ice in my veins. Greater than his strength. Greater than the Alpha who had cast me aside, who had marked me in public humiliation, who had left me broken. My wolf trembled, a small, fading pulse that I could barely reach. She needed me, but I was so weak, my body screaming in protest at every movement, every thought of action.

I pressed my hand to her side, closing my eyes, trying to feel her more clearly. She was so quiet now, her essence so fragile, slipping away like water through my fingers. And yet, deep beneath the fear and the ache of weakness, I could feel a spark, a pulse of defiance, faint but insistent. She was still there. She was not gone yet. I had to hold onto that.

“Focus on her,” the healer said softly. “Call to her. Anchor yourself to her. The curse feeds on fear and despair. Do not give it either. Let your bond remind you of life, of strength, of survival.”

I drew in a trembling breath and reached inward. Not with my hands, not with my body, but with my mind, my soul. I reached for the wolf inside me, whispering to her, coaxing her awake. I felt the faintest flicker of recognition, the softest pulse of life. She shivered, a thin thread of strength, but it was enough. It was something. A lifeline.

And then the room changed. Not outwardly, but within my perception. The shadows behind the lanterns stretched and bent, the flicker of flame elongating into shapes that were almost alive. I felt the curse shift inside me, sensing my focus, recognizing my resistance. It was deliberate now, intelligent. It hissed through my mind, a cold, invasive pressure that made my teeth ache, my skull throb, my heart falter.

The wolf cried out inside me, a thin, terrified wail that I matched instinctively. Her fear was mine, her pain mine. I refused to let it consume her. I refused to let it consume me. I had to fight. I had to anchor myself. I had to survive.

I remembered the first night I had collapsed, the sharp, commanding voice of the Alpha that had reverberated in my skull. He hadn’t needed to be near. He hadn’t needed to touch me. His mark was enough. The curse had been seeded, waiting for the moment of rejection, waiting for the fracture in the bond. And now, it was alive inside me, feeding, twisting, gnawing at her strength with a deliberate cruelty that made my stomach turn.

I clung to the sheets as though my life depended on it, and in a way, it did. My wolf pressed against me, frail and flickering, and I let myself feel her presence fully. I whispered words of defiance, words she might not understand, but the sound of my own voice anchored her, reminded her that she was still here. Still part of me. Still alive.

“Fight,” I said softly. “Fight with me.”

The healer stepped back, her expression unreadable. “This will not be easy,” she said. “You will feel the curse pressing every nerve, every sinew, every heartbeat. It will tempt you to surrender. To let go. To give her to it. You must resist. You must anchor yourself to life.”

I nodded weakly, though the effort made my head spin. My wolf pressed closer, a tiny pulse of warmth and life that I felt in my chest. She was trusting me, relying on me, and I could not fail. Not now. Not ever. I clenched my hands on the sheets until my knuckles whitened, biting back a scream that threatened to escape my lips. I had to find a way. I had to anchor her. I had to survive.

Then the healer reached into a small satchel at her side, pulling out a vial filled with a swirling, iridescent liquid. Her eyes met mine. “This may help,” she said. “It is rare, made from the essence of wolves who have resisted curses like this before. But it will only buy you time, not cure the bond. The work must be done by you. Together.”

I nodded, feeling a spark of hope ignite, fragile and trembling. I wanted to reach for it, to grasp it, but my arms refused to obey. My body felt like stone, heavy, resistant. The wolf whined softly, a thin pulse of panic, and I had to remind myself to breathe. To move. To act. To survive.

I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling the faint, flickering heartbeat of the wolf, fragile but real, and I knew I had to try. I had to reach her fully, reclaim the bond the curse had twisted, or she would fade entirely. The thought of losing her, of watching her spirit collapse inside me, made the air sharp and cold. I shivered from more than fear. I shivered from the raw, aching truth that this fight was just beginning, that the curse was patient and ruthless and it would not relent.

The shadows in the room shifted again, growing longer, darker, and I felt them seep into me, probing, testing, daring me to surrender. My pulse dropped once more. My vision swam, and the wolf whined again, faint, desperate. I could feel her slipping, slipping, and panic rose like a tide in my chest.

I tried to call out, but my voice failed me. I tried to sit, to move, to take the vial, to do anything, but my body refused. It was as if the curse was already claiming me, staking its claim, threading itself into every nerve, every sinew, every heartbeat. I pressed harder against my chest, willing myself to resist, to anchor, to survive.

And then I felt it. Not in the body, not in the mind, but deeper, where the wolf lived. A presence, a shadow within the shadow, darker than the darkness around me. It wasn’t just the curse anymore. It was aware. It was watching. Waiting. Smiling. And it reached, threading tendrils of cold, hunger, and cruelty into the wolf, testing her, tasting her weakness.

I felt her shiver in terror, her pulse faltering, and I realized with a crushing clarity that this was no longer just a fight to survive. It was a fight to remain ourselves. To keep her alive. To keep me alive. To defy him. To defy the bond he had perverted.

I swallowed hard, pressing my forehead to the cool sheets, closing my eyes, feeling the faintest pulse of her life against my ribs. I had to fight. I had to anchor. I had to survive. I had to reclaim her, even as the darkness pressed in and the shadows whispered, mocking, cruel.

The wolf whimpered one last time, a faint, desperate sound, and I braced myself. I was ready to do whatever it took. I would reach into the shadow, into the curse, into the bond itself. I would find her. I would fight. And I would not let go.

And then the lanterns flickered, and the room went black.

A voice, cold and sharp, slid into my mind, echoing with cruel amusement. “You think you can resist me?”

And the wolf screamed inside me.