Falling For The Demon Wolf Chapter 37: Deep Dive

VIOLET

I was sent to kill him, my kind Hated his kind, that have hunted and killed us for centuries.

I hated him.

I want him dead and everything that has to do with him, wiped out.

But yet...,,,,

I didn’t know where I ended and he began.

Zain was heat and strength and chaos wrapped around like a storm, and I let him in. I wanted him in ways that terrified —deep, primal, bone-shaking need that didn’t care who he was or what we were supposed to be.

But now...

Now, he was still.

His body pressed close, the weight of him grounding . His hand stroked slow circles along my waist, as if reminding himself I was still here. Still real. Still... his.

The silence between us was thick with everything we hadn’t said.

My heart was still racing, but it wasn’t fear anymore.

It was want.

And sothing deeper—sothing I couldn’t na.

He could have taken the mark.

Claid .

But he didn’t.

Even when my body begged him to.

I turned my head, my lips brushing his jaw. "You didn’t mark ."

His chest rose sharply against my side. "I wanted to."

I swallowed hard, the ache between us still alive, still humming through my veins. "Why didn’t you?"

His voice was low, hoarse. "Because when I do... it’ll be forever. I won’t do that to you until you understand what it ans."

I looked up at him—those golden eyes burning like firelight in the dark. "And what if I already do?"

Zain’s hand tightened at my waist. He leaned down, brushing his lips over my temple.

"Then the next ti you say it..." he whispered, "there won’t be any going back."

His words ignited sothing inside —fierce and terrifying and beautiful.

I reached up, resting my palm over the mark on my shoulder. It still pulsed... not painfully, but like it was alive. Like it was waiting.

My thoughts swam, a blur of sensation and confusion and longing. Whatever was inside —it was stirring again. But this ti, the darkness didn’t feel cold.

It felt like fire.

And it wanted him.

My body started to tremble.

No—not from him.

From the thing inside .

A pressure built behind my ribs, thick and suffocating. My fingers curled against his chest.

"Zain," I whispered. "Sothing’s wrong."

He tensed instantly, lifting himself to look down at . "Violet?"

I tried to sit up, but the room spun. My vision blurred.

"No—no, not now—" My hands clawed at the sheets. "It’s coming back—"

Then ca the scream.

My scream.

I didn’t know it was mine until Zain gripped , trying to hold still as I thrashed in the bed. My mark burned white-hot. My veins felt like they were on fire. My throat ripped with another scream as the presence—that ancient, terrifying thing—flooded through like smoke through cracks.

"Violet!" Zain shouted, cradling as I convulsed. "Stay with —look at !"

But I couldn’t.

I wasn’t in the room anymore.

I was sowhere else—dark, ancient, a battlefield soaked in blood and ash.

And in the center of it... a figure. Golden eyes. A snarl. A blade.

And my na on his lips.

"Violet!"

Zain’s voice cut through the darkness.

Hands—warm, grounding—gripped my face, forcing to see him.

"Co back," he said, barely a whisper now. "I’m here. Co back to ."

I gasped.

L

And the fire receded like a tide pulling back to sea.

My body collapsed against his, shaking violently.

He held tighter than ever.

And this ti, when he whispered "Mine," I didn’t argue.

I clung to him like he was the only thing keeping from being consud whole.

Because maybe he was.

The tremors finally faded.

I lay tangled in Zain’s arms, my skin damp with sweat, my body limp from whatever just tried to claw its way out of . The fire was gone now, but it left ashes in its place—heavy, settling, and strange.

Zain didn’t let go.

Not even once.

He held through it all, whispering words I couldn’t always understand, his voice a low anchor in the storm. I think I blacked out again at so point. My mind just... let go.

And when the next wave of pain never ca, I slipped into sothing deeper than sleep.

Not a dream.

Not rest.

Just stillness.

Safe.

Warm.

His scent wrapped around —forest, smoke, sothing wild and ancient—and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat lulled down into unconsciousness.

I wasn’t alone.

For the first ti since being taken... I didn’t feel alone.

THE NEXT MORNING

The howl of a wolf echoed faintly in the distance—far away, fading with the rising sun.

I blinked, groggy and sore. The light spilling through the window was soft, golden... morning.

Morning.

The full moon’s grip had loosened.

My body felt like it had been dragged across glass and stitched back together with fire, but I was alive.

Alive... and not in my bed.

Zain’s scent still clung to the pillows, even though he wasn’t there.

I sat up slowly, wincing as the sheet slid down my bare shoulders. Soone—him, I knew it was him—had tucked in again before leaving. The fire in was quiet now, but it wasn’t gone. It humd beneath my skin, like a secret waiting to be asked.

I glanced at the door just as it creaked open.

Inara stood there, dirt smudged across her cheek, dried blood on her sleeves. Her eyes widened when she saw sitting up.

"You’re awake," she breathed, stepping inside. "Thank the goddess. We didn’t know if you’d..."

Her voice trailed off.

I swallowed. "They’re back?"

She nodded slowly. "Just now. The hunt ended with dawn."

There was sothing in her voice. Sothing heavy.

I looked past her, to the hall beyond. More footsteps echoed from below—so quick, others slow. The pack was returning... changed.

"Did they...?" I couldn’t finish the question.

Inara t my eyes. "There was blood, Violet. A lot of it."

I looked down at my hands, still trembling faintly. That fire still curled at the edge of my senses, a whisper that hadn’t stopped since the night before.

"And Zain?" I asked, voice raw.

Inara hesitated.

"He hasn’t spoken to anyone yet. He ca in before the others. Went straight to the Alpha’s quarters."

I bit the inside of my cheek.

He ran from .

But then... he ca back. Laid beside . Held .

Whatever happened between us last night—it wasn’t over.

Sothing had changed.

In both of us.

And now?

Now, the moon was no longer full.

But I didn’t feel any lighter.

I felt closer—to sothing I didn’t yet understand.

And judging by the sounds coming from below...

That sothing was waiting for .

Inata shuffles her feet, walking warily to like she was bing conscious.

I don’t bla her, I’m a danger to myself and every one around .

She slipped in quietly, her expression drawn, her eyes rimd red as if she’d seen too much too soon. She closed the door behind her and leaned her back against it for a mont, breathing like she’d run all the way here.

"There are prisoners," she whispered.

I blinked at her, sitting up straighter in bed. "What?"

She moved slowly to sit beside , her hands trembling in her lap.

"Humans," she said. "So from the nearby village, I think. A few of the cast-outs dragged them in not long ago. It wasn’t supposed to be like this... The hunt is ant to cleanse the wild, not..." Her voice broke.

"Not target people," I finished, throat tight.

She nodded, her eyes flicking up to mine.

I felt cold all over. "How many?"

"Six. Maybe more. I couldn’t get too close."

My pulse thundered in my ears.

"Where are they?"

"In the lower cells. Zain hasn’t co out since he returned—Cian’s been handling everything. The rest of the pack... they’re restless. Drunk on blood. So of them are talking about keeping the humans. Training them like animals."

Revulsion churned in my stomach.

I swung my legs off the bed, teeth clenched. "I need to see them."

"You’re not strong enough."

"I don’t care."

"there are guards outside your door, even if you did leave, you will be brought back in here before you take a step to that direction."

Inara grabbed my wrist gently, her grip steady despite the tremble in her voice. "Violet, this isn’t just about you being tired. You don’t understand what’s happening out there. Sothing shifted last night. Everyone felt it. So think it was just the moon. Others..." She hesitated. "Others think it was you."

My skin prickled. "What do you an?"

"They say you howled. Loud. So loud they heard it from the tree line."

I stared at her.

"Only wolves howl under the full moon," she said quietly. "Only true wolves."

My throat dried. "But I’m not—"

"You’re sothing, Violet. I don’t know what. But it’s waking up. And everyone feels it."

A silence fell between us

I looked out the window, at the moon climbing high again into the sky.

This is the second night of the hunt, one more to go and then I can get this over with.

One more to go.