Chapter 219: I feel her pain

Alyssa didn’t stop to ask questions. She didn’t wait to wonder why this naked woman had her husband pinned against the floor while she straddled him and tried to take advantage of him.

All she saw was red; a haze of blood-red fury that tore through her mind, burning away every shred of rational thought, leaving behind only the primal instinct to destroy.

She stormed into the room, her chest heaving, her breathing coming in harsh, ragged gasps. With a single flick of her wrist, she channeled the fury building inside her and sent Elvira flying violently across the study.

The impact was thunderous. Elvira crashed hard against the second bookshelf, hitting the floor with a sickening thud as the structure tipped over. Hundreds of heavy books cascaded downward, slamming brutally into her bare body.

Still driven by the blind rage clouding her mind, Alyssa didn’t stop. She jerked her hand sharply upward.

Elvira gasped, her eyes widening in horror as her body was yanked off the floor, suspended in midair. Trembling, she stared unbelievingly at Alyssa, her jaw dropping in terror.

"What... What are you? What witchcraft is this?"

"You little bitch," Alyssa snarled, her voice dripping with venom as she glared at Elvira’s naked form. "How dare you? How dare you put your hands on my husband?"

With another sharp flick of her hand, Elvira was hurled backward like a rag doll, smashing against the wall before dropping limply to the floor. Blood sputtered from her mouth.

Alyssa started to stalk forward again, ready to unleash the full volume of her wrath, when a low, ragged groan of pain suddenly pierced the air.

It was Dorian.

Fear seized her the moment she saw blood sputter from his lips. All the rage vanished instantly, replaced by panic. She scrambled to his side, dropped to her knees and carefully lifted his head to rest on her thighs.

"Dorian? Dorian, can you hear me?" She cupped his face in her hands, her breath catching as she watched him wince, every muscle in his body rigid with pain.

"Alyssa," he rasped, his eyelids fluttering as he fought to keep them open. "I... I didn’t mean..."

"I know you didn’t," she nodded, forcing a smile she didn’t feel, desperate to reassure him. "I saw the talisman. I know she’s the one who tried to..."

Her words trailed off. Even though she knew everything that had almost happened was all Elvira’s doing, she still felt hurt and betrayed.

She forced her attention back to Dorian, gently wiping the blood from his lips. "Are you hurt? Did she do something to you?"

"No..."

"Let me get Jake," she rushed on, panic threatening to drown her voice. "He can send for Nina to find out what’s wrong."

"No, Alyssa," Dorian shook his head weakly. He reached up and grabbed her arm, forcing her to focus on him. "Don’t... don’t hurt Elvira..."

Alyssa drew back sharply, a look of shock and confusion fracturing her expression. "Wh–what do you mean? Why...?"

"I feel her pain," Dorian managed to explain, his voice straining against the crushing weight suffocating his chest. "The more you inflict pain on her... the more I feel it."

"Oh goddess," Alyssa gasped, the horrific realization hitting her hard. "How... how is that possible?"

"The mate bond," Dorian said, his voice fading to a whisper. "A sorceress cursed it."

Alyssa was stunned into silence. She couldn’t believe what length Elvira had gone just to keep Dorian permanently tied to her.

"What can I do?" she asked urgently, her hands hovering helplessly over him. "Do you want me to get Jake?"

Dorian shook his head slowly. "Get the talisman first. Put it around her to suppress the mate bond. I can’t hold Shadow and Soren back anymore."

Nodding frantically, Alyssa gently lowered him back to the floor. She scrambled up, rushing back toward the desk where the talisman lay.

Grabbing it, she cast a cold look at Elvira, and out of pity, she also snatched up her discarded clothes. She marched over to where she lay and flung them over her to shield her bare body.

Then she dropped to her knees beside her, her eyes flashing with ice.

"I should kill you for what you tried to do," she muttered, leaning in close to hook the talisman around Elvira’s neck. "But I’ll let you face the law of Wintercrest. You’re going to die, Elvira. For everything you’ve done. And I’ll make sure of it."

She started to pull back when Elvira’s hand suddenly shot out and wrapped tightly around her wrist. Her eyes snapped open, and she bared her bloodstained teeth in a sickening grin.

?"You made a mistake not killing me yourself," she hissed viciously, venom dripping from every syllable. "If I can’t have Dorian, then no one else will. Not even you."

Before Alyssa could realize what she was about to do, Elvira whipped out her claws and slashed outward in one brutal strike, slicing cleanly across Alyssa’s throat.

For one terrifying second, time froze. Nothing moved.

Then came the sudden warmth as a torrent of blood spilled down Alyssa’s neck, soaking into the fabric of her dress. That warmth was instantly swallowed by an excruciating pain.

Stumbling backward, Alyssa fell hard against the floor, scrambling away on weak, failing limbs. Both hands flew to her neck, pressing desperately against the gaping wound as she choked on her own blood and fought desperately for air.

Across the room, trapped on the edge of losing total control to his beasts, Dorian heard the wet, unmistakable sound of someone choking.

Slowly, his head turned. His dazed eyes tracked the trail of blood pooling across the floor from Alyssa’s throat. For one moment, his mind convinced him he was hallucinating; seeing Alyssa crawling toward him, her skin and dress drowned in scarlet.

When his vision finally cleared and realization set in, every trace of his weakness vanished. He shot straight to his feet, instantly taking absolute control over both beasts inside him.

"No," he whispered, a sound torn straight from his soul as he lunged forward and swept her into his arms. "No, no, NO! ALYSSA!"

Elvira suddenly threw her head back and began to laugh like a maniac whose mind had completely shattered. She stumbled to her feet, still tangled in the clothes Alyssa had thrown at her, her eyes wide, glassy, and unfocused.

"THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, DORIAN!" she screamed hysterically, her voice echoing shrilly as she pointed a shaking, blood-covered hand at Alyssa’s bleeding form. "THAT’S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO REPLACE ME! IF I WON’T HAVE YOU, NO ONE ELSE WILL! YOU HEAR ME? NO ONE ELSE WILL!"

While she continued to rave madly, the doors of the study swung open. Anthony burst into the room, his expression frantic, with Pandora, Jake, and Alec right on his heels.

The breath left all of them at once as they froze at the horrific scene before them; Alyssa was cradled in Dorian’s arms. Her eyes were closed, her lips parted, her skin pale. A deep bloody gash cut completely across her throat. It wasn’t healing.

"Oh... oh goddess," Pandora exclaimed, her legs failing her as she collapsed hard to the floor. "What the hell happened? Is she alive?"

"Dorian, what happened?" Anthony’s voice was barely louder than a whisper, while Jake and Alec stood paralyzed in petrified shock.

Dorian didn’t utter a single word. He didn’t have to. His entire frame began to tremble, as if something monstrous and ancient was about to erupt from within him.

Gently, he lowered Alyssa’s body back to the floor. Then, he rose to his feet.

As he straightened, the terrifying sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone echoed through the silent room. His body violently contorted and expanded, stretching and shifting until he erupted fully into his terrifying Demon Lycan form.

Anthony reacted instantly, lunging forward to yank Pandora out of his path as his transformation completed. A deafening, earth-shattering roar ripped from the beast’s mouth, making the mansion groan and tremble.

Elvira’s manic laughter died down as she laid eyes on the nightmare towering above her. Through the insane haze covering her broken mind, a spike of cold terror finally pierced through.

"Dorian..." she whimpered, her voice cracking with fear as she backed away from the beast and pressed herself against the wall. "Dorian, please... it’s me... it’s your Elvira..."

From where Anthony stood, he knew a brutal bloodbath was about to follow. His gaze dropped back to Alyssa’s motionless, bleeding form on the floor. Time was running out.

"Jake," he snapped, whipping his head around to lock eyes with the Beta. "Send for Nina. Tell her to meet us at the hospital."

Jake nodded sharply, turning on his heel and bolting from the study. Anthony turned back to Pandora, pulling her up and gripping her shoulders. "Stay here with Dorian. He’ll need you and Alec to pull him back if he goes feral."

"What about you?" she asked, her voice shaking with fear.

"I need to take Alyssa to the hospital. I don’t know how much blood she’s lost, and she isn’t healing."

Tears finally spilled over Pandora’s lashes. "Is... is she..."

"No!" Anthony cut her off fiercely. "She isn’t. We just found out Alyssa is a powerful Hybrid. She can’t die so easily."

Without wasting another second, he rushed to Alyssa’s side and scooped her fragile body up into his arms. Her skin was growing cold, and he didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

He looked up again, his eyes landing on Dorian’s beast form. The Demon Lycan had Elvira pinned mercilessly against the wall.

One massive clawed hand was wrapped tightly around her throat, cutting off her breath, while the other hand was slowly tearing the skin from her flesh. Elvira’s blood-curdling screams of pure agony filled the air, and Anthony knew exactly what Dorian was doing.

He was giving her the worst punishment of all. A slow, excruciating, unmerciful death.

Turning his back on the gory sight, he sprinted out of the study, holding Alyssa close against his chest while silently praying to the Moon Goddess that whatever hidden powers coursed through Alyssa’s veins would be enough to keep her alive.

...

Hundreds of miles away, in the dark cave Ozai was trapped in, he let out a furious roar that shook the cave violently.

"NO! NO!" he raged, his voice reverberating off the rock like thunder. "The Hybrid cannot die! She alone can free me from this cage... She cannot die!"

In a flash, his form vanished from the cave.

A second later, he materialized inside a brightly lit hospital room. The harsh fluorescent lights flickered violently at his sudden presence, though no one inside the room noticed.

On the bed lay Alyssa; deathly pale, her throat heavily bandaged, though blood still seeped through the white gauze.

Surrounding her was a team of panicked doctors and nurses, their voices overlapping in wild panic.

A heart monitor echoed with a flat, continuous tone.

Two doctors charged up the defibrillator pads. "Clear!" one shouted, slamming the equipment onto her chest. Alyssa’s body jolted off the bed before sinking back down motionless.

No one in the room could see or hear the dark entity looming directly above them.

Ozai floated over Alyssa’s body, his red eyes locked onto her pale face.

"Fight it, Little Hybrid," he commanded, his tone a sinister mix of desperation and venom. "You can’t die. Not yet. As much as I will hunt you down once I am free, I need you alive."

Suddenly, Alyssa’s eyelids flew wide open.

A sharp gasp of air burst from her lungs as her chest heaved upward, her dilated eyes moving towards the ceiling and locking on Ozai.

Ozai grinned, his work done, and disappeared.