Page 130 of Marked By His Hunger

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My claws bit into the stone beside me, cracking it under the surge of instinct that demanded I move.

Return.

Take.

Claim.

I stilled through sheer force of will.

Because if I gave in—if I let the darkness and this new, untethered thing collide—there would be no control left to salvage.

No restraint.

No mercy.

I closed my eyes, jaw tightening as I forced the hunger down, forced the instinct back, forced myself to answer without moving.

I won’t.

The words left me the same way hers had come.

Silent.

Certain.

A lie.

Because even as I said it—even as I tried to anchor myself in discipline and duty—I knew the truth.

Hope did not belong to me.

It was not shaped by the curse.

Not bound by it.

And that made it dangerous.

Unpredictable.

Uncontainable.

Untethered.

And I?

I was not strong enough to destroy it.

Not when it wore her voice.

Not when it lived inside me now.

The darkness coiled tighter in response, threatened, angered, aware of something it could not control.

For the first time since I became the Monster, the curse was not alone in ruling me.

And that? That was how everything would fall apart.

Chapter 15-Serena

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