The Mad Alpha's Substitute Bride

(MAYA)

Griffin and Cassian break apart, both bleeding from multiple wounds. Griffin’s amber eyes find mine, and the raw anguish in them pierces through my drug-induced haze.

Cassian circles, looking for an opening.

The pressure at my throat increases, and something warm trickles down my neck. The strange presence inside me surges in response to the danger, a primal force I’ve never experienced before.

Griffin’s attention shifts from me to Cassian and back, torn between protecting me and defending himself. In that moment of distraction, Cassian strikes, sinking his teeth into Griffin’s shoulder.

Griffin roars in pain but throws Cassian off with tremendous force. The smaller wolf crashes into a wall of equipment, glass shattering around him. He staggers to his feet, bleeding heavily but still dangerous.

The two wolves circle each other, evenly matched in their fury if not their size. Blood darkens Griffin’s silver fur, but his eyes remain fixed on Cassian, calculating each move.

Mathew drags me backward toward the door. The scalpel digs deeper, and I feel more blood seeping from the wound.

A strange calm settles over me as death approaches. The darkness I see around me deepens, reality fading in and out like a faulty radio transmission. The strange presence within me grows stronger still, refusing to surrender.

Griffin lunges at Cassian with renewed fury. Their battle becomes a blur of silver and brown, teeth and claws, blood and fur. The cabin trembles with their power and their rage.

In a swift, decisive movement, Mathew draws the scalpel across my throat. "You’re welcome," he whispers excitedly against my ear.

The pain, hot and sharp, is followed by a terrible wetness. I try to scream but produce only a gurgling noise.

Griffin’s howl of anguish is the most terrible sound I’ve ever heard. Through dimming vision, I watch him tear into Cassian with savage intensity, no longer fighting to subdue but to kill.

Cassian’s neck snaps between Griffin’s powerful jaws. His body goes limp, his human form returning in death.

Mathew throws me to the ground and flees, disappearing through the door. Griffin lets him go, racing to my side instead, shifting back to human form with dizzying speed.

"Maya!" His voice breaks as he gathers me in his arms. "No, no, no, Maya, stay with me!"

Blood soaks through my shirt and pools beneath me on the floor. Each breath is a struggle, wet and painful. Griffin presses his hand to my throat, trying to stem the flow, but I can feel my life ebbing away with each heartbeat.

"I can’t lose you," Griffin pleads, tears streaking his face. "Maya, no. Not like this. I can’t, I don’t know how to live without you!"

My heart aches, and I want to comfort him, want to tell him it will be okay, but I can’t get the words out. I can’t speak.

His fingers brush my hair back from my face with infinite tenderness. Even now, at the brink of oblivion, his touch sends warmth through me.

"The mark!" he whispers suddenly, eyes widening with desperate hope. "The mating mark, it might save you." My body is growing cold and numb. I can’t even think anymore.

"I don’t care about the prophecy," Griffin says fiercely. "You’re already dying, Maya. Your heart, I have to try! If there’s any chance it will save you, I have to try."

He adjusts my limp body, exposing the junction of my neck and shoulder. His lips press against my skin, warm and gentle, and then his teeth, sharp, inhuman teeth, pierce my flesh.

Pain lances through me, then something else, something electric and alive. Heat spreads from the mark, racing through my veins like liquid fire. A connection snaps into place, bright and vibrant, binding me to Griffin in ways I can’t comprehend.

Warmth, heat, and feelings that are not my own come pouring into me. For a heartbeat, hope flares. The bleeding slows. The wound at my throat begins to knit together. Griffin’s eyes light up with desperate relief.

"It’s working," he breathes. "Maya, stay with me. Fight."

But then, my heart stutters. Once. Twice. The fire in my veins turns to ice. Griffin’s face contorts with horror as he feels it through our newly formed bond.

"No!" he roars, gathering me closer. "Maya, please. Don’t leave me."

I want to tell him it’s alright. That I understand now why he did everything he did. That I forgive him. That I’m sorry for hating him these past seven months when I should have been loving him instead.

But the darkness is too strong, pulling me under. My last sight is Griffin’s face—beautiful, anguished, desperate with love, hovering over mine.

My heart stops. Death claims me. And yet...

I float in darkness, in nothingness, adrift and untethered. But I am not alone. That strange presence I felt earlier remains and grows stronger. It takes shape within the void, fierce, primal, unyielding.

A wolf. My wolf.

Impossible, I think. I’m human.

The wolf, my wolf—snarls at death itself, refusing to surrender. It claws its way back toward life, toward Griffin, pulling me with it.

I hear his broken cries and feel his tears on my face. The raw agony in his voice reaches me even in this place between worlds.

I’ve never understood how deeply he loves me until this moment, hearing him shatter as he holds my lifeless body. How did I miss this? How did I not see the truth of his devotion even through his mistakes?

The wolf howls, calling me back. Demanding that I fight. For him. For us.

Something fierce and powerful rises within me—love, defiance, or perhaps simply the refusal to be separated from Griffin again. I reach for that connection, for the bond that still faintly pulses between us despite death’s intervention.

The wolf lunges forward, teeth bared against the darkness, and I lunge with it. My eyes fly open.

I gasp, drawing air into lungs that had ceased to function. Griffin stares down at me, shock and disbelief battling with desperate hope across his tear-streaked face.

"Maya?" he whispers, his voice broken and raw.

I try to speak but can only manage a weak sound. My hand lifts, trembling, to touch his face. His eyes widen further as he feels the impossibility of what’s happening. "How—"

My fingers tangle in his hair, pulling his face down to mine with strength I shouldn’t possess. Our lips meet, and the bond between us flares brilliantly, newly awakened.

When we part, I find my voice. "I heard you calling," I whisper. "I couldn’t leave you."

My body feels strange, like something is living and breathing inside of me, inside my mind. And I can feel Griffin. I can feel everything. His love for me is like a deep, bottomless ocean; the fear in his heart, his fear for me; and a relief so sharp and aching that I want to wrap my arms around him.

He looks closely at me, and then I see his jaw drop. "Your eyes, Maya. Your eyes have changed."

Shock fills me at his words. As my hands go to my face in an unconscious gesture, I feel the living thing inside me move. My wolf roars in satisfaction at finally being awakened.