Wolves or Demons?

LUCE.

"What are you doing?" Mason’s eyes narrowed into hard, suspicious slits, his gaze scouring every single corner of my small, messy room. He stood squarely in the doorway, his broad shoulders practically blocking my only exit, while Sadie stood right behind him, gently gripping his arms to hold him back from stepping over the threshold.

I forced my racing heart to slow down, pasting a look of pure, unbothered innocence on my face. "I’m looking for some of my money," I answered nonchalantly. I dropped to my knees and began casually picking up my scattered clothes from the dusty floorboards, methodically folding a faded shirt to sell the lie. "But I found it already. I just misplaced it under a pile."

"Stop with your lies," Mason snapped, his voice thick with distrust. "Were you in the kitchen earlier? Were you eavesdropping?"

"What kind of question is that?" I scoffed, turning around and placing my hands firmly on my hips. I tapped my foot on the wooden floor, letting my eyes shift back and forth between the two of them as if I were the one losing patience. "Of course I was in the kitchen. I’ve been everywhere in this house today. What’s going on with you?"

"Nothing, dear," Sadie chimed in quickly. She spoke sweetly, her voice trembling just a fraction, and I could clearly see the deep worry and concern swirling in her weary eyes. Something massive was about to happen tonight, and she knew it. "I just need some help with dinner. Can you come down and give this old lady a hand before the pups come and attack me from hunger?"

"Sure," I nodded, keeping my tone light and breezy. "I’ll just pick all these clothes up and throw them on my bed, then I’ll be right down. Just give me five minutes."

"Okay." Sadie smiled widely, relief washing over her features as she tugged her stubborn mate away from my room. But Mason dug his heels in for a second longer, his dark eyes locking onto mine. He didn't believe a single word that just came out of my mouth. He knew exactly that I was up to something, but eventually, he let Sadie drag him down the hallway.

To hell with him.

The absolute second I heard the click of the door shutting, my nonchalant facade instantly shattered. I dove toward the bed, aggressively yanking my hidden backpack from under the thick wool blanket. Moving with frantic, desperate speed, I rushed to the door and shoved the lock into place. The locked door would only buy me a precious few minutes if Mason decided to double back and check on me, but a few minutes was all I needed.

I swung around and darted toward my window, practically ripping it upward. The freezing Northern night air instantly slapped my face, but the biting frost meant absolutely nothing to me. My bedroom faced the back of the orphanage. Two floors down was one of the receiving rooms, the one they typically used for guests. If there was no one in there, no one would see me jumping down from baluster to baluster to make my escape.

This definitely wasn’t the first time I had jumped and crawled out of my bedroom window, so I didn’t have the luxury of being terrified about the heights. I just needed to ensure I wasn't seen.

I swung the heavy straps of my backpack over my shoulders, securing it tight against my back, and climbed out into the freezing void. My bare hands fiercely clutched the icy window sill as I swung my legs down, dangling my body weight into the empty air until the toe of my boot grazed the upper doorframe of the room directly below mine. I used the narrow ledge as leverage, pushed my entire body up, and propelled myself backward. I landed perfectly on the old, weathered balcony of the abandoned library—a place no one ever visited except for me.

I crouched low, breathing heavily, and quickly dusted off my freezing hands. I carefully peeked over the stone railing to check if there were any lights flickering in the receiving room down below. My stomach violently plummeted in sheer disappointment when I saw a bright, yellow beam illuminating the glass window. Someone was in there.

I bit down hard on my bottom lip, chewing the flesh as my brain frantically scrambled to calculate my next move. But before I could even formulate a plan, a furious voice shattered the dead silence from above.

"She’s running away!" Mason’s aggressive shout erupted through the thin, icy air.

I snapped my head upward and saw him aggressively pointing directly at me from my own bedroom window.

Shit! I had absolutely zero time to think, zero time to calculate a safe path down. I hurled myself over the stone railing of the second-floor balcony and plummeted toward the earth. I hit the dusty ground with a loud, violent thud, pain jarring up my calves, but I instantly rolled to absorb the impact and scrambled back to my feet.

As I bolted upright, my frantic gaze immediately locked with the receiving room window. Standing right on the other side of the glass was a tall, imposing man with a long, thick beard. His forehead creased in deep confusion as our eyes met, but I couldn't afford to waste a single microsecond analyzing him. I completely broke eye contact and dashed frantically toward the dark, looming tree line. The forest was the only exit that could eventually lead me out of the orphanage perimeter and into the safety of the lawless wilderness.

My feet sprang forward, tearing through the dead grass and frozen soil at a pace that was entirely too fast for my usual human disguise. I ran with a terrifying, supernatural speed that I hadn't tapped into in years. It violently reminded me of the exact same frantic speed I used whenever I was desperately running away from the horrors of the demon world.

I might have been moving impossibly fast, but my speed was absolutely nothing compared to the massive, shifted wolves that were suddenly hunting me down.

Loud, heavy paws began thudding violently against the earth behind me. The sound kept getting louder, closer, and more aggressive with every single step I sprinted forward. They were closing the distance with terrifying ease.

Panic clawed fiercely at my throat. My hand instinctively flew up to the cold, smooth surface of the opal stone hanging securely around my neck. All I needed to do was rip it off. If I yanked this necklace from my skin, I could instantly summon my demonic fire. I could torch these wolves to ash and save myself in a matter of seconds.

But did I really need to be saved? If I used my power, my father would instantly sense my location. He would drag me back to the Underworld, a fate far worse than whatever these shifters had planned for me.

Wolves or demons? Make your choice, Luce! My mind screamed at me, the internal ultimatum tearing my thoughts apart as the thudding paws practically clipped the back of my heels.

Ultimately, I let my hand fall heavily to my side. I consciously chose the wolves. I chose to keep my demonic aura entirely hidden.

The very second I surrendered my defense, the massive wolves overtook my sprint. They completely surrounded me in a blur of fur and muscle, and one massive, hulking wolf abruptly cut into my path, completely blocking my only way forward.

My small frame slammed violently against the solid wall of the wolf's muscle. The brutal impact threw me backward into the air in an instant. My ass hit the hard, unforgiving dirt with a sickening thud, and my upper back immediately followed. Blinding, excruciating pain violently coursed through my entire body from the sheer force of the crash.

I gasped for air, the breath completely knocked out of my lungs. I think I broke my fucking spine.

I remained entirely paralyzed, laying flat on my back in the freezing dirt with my eyes squeezed tightly shut and my chest heaving erratically. I bitterly wondered if my small, cheap backpack was even remotely enough to protect my fragile bones from snapping.

I heard the distinct sound of bones cracking and flesh shifting around me, and I knew instantly that the wolves were shifting back to their human forms right over my helpless body.

"She’s fucking too fast for an omega." A deep, gravelly voice echoed above me.

I snapped my eyes open to see a bulky, fully naked man towering directly over me. He was sneering down at my pathetic state, completely unabashed by his nudity, with his dick straight up to where I could see it perfectly.

"But we’re faster…" Another dick answered from my left.

I just remained completely still, my breathing shallow, genuinely wondering if my spine was shattered and if I would ever be able to function normally after this brutal takedown.

"What’s your name?" the bulky man demanded, his eyes raking over my trembling form.

I just stared up at them, watching them loom over me, but I had absolutely no intention of opening my mouth to reply. My back was still screaming in absolute agony.

"Were you not listening earlier? Luce. Her name is Luce," the bulky man answered his own question, scoffing at my silence.

The other dick crouched down right by my side, hovering dangerously close to my head. If I even slightly tilted my face in his direction, I was absolutely sure I would get a front-row view of the thing he clearly wanted to show off. "Listen," he commanded, his voice dripping with condescension. "We will take you and prepare you for the Omega Feast. Now be a good girl, stop your pointless running, and submit to us. If you do that, I promise you, no harm will come your way."

"I don’t want to be part of the Feast," I blurted out, my voice shaking as I tightly closed my eyes, refusing to look at his nakedness any longer.

"This is beyond your power, little Omega," he coldly reminded me, his tone hardening into a sharp threat. "And if you try to run away again, you will be punished accordingly."

"Are you trying to scare me?" I spat back, forcing a sliver of defiance into my trembling voice.

"No. I’m trying to tell you exactly what will happen to you."

I didn’t even get a single second to say a proper goodbye to Sadie or the innocent pups back at the orphanage. The ruthless men who had hunted me down simply grabbed me by the arms and tossed me roughly into the back of a dark SUV that had quietly followed us deep into the middle of the freezing forest.

Only Mason had accompanied them from the house. Standing by the open car door, he blatantly warned the men that I was incredibly stubborn and that they absolutely needed to watch out for me, insisting that I would surely try to pull another stunt and run away again.

I just aggressively rolled my eyes, tightly crossing my arms against my chest as I sank into the leather seats. The bulky man Mason was talking to merely chuckled, confidently assuring him that I was definitely not the first difficult case they had dealt with, and they knew exactly what to do to break an Omega like me.

I knew I should be absolutely terrified right now, but I honestly wasn’t. I have seen far worse, far more horrifying atrocities with my own young eyes while I was trapped in the Underworld than the mundane cruelties these shifter men could ever dish out. Absolutely nothing in this earthly realm could genuinely scare me. Except for maybe a permanently broken spine, which, fortunately, didn’t seem to have happened tonight, as the sharp pain in my back was slowly dulling into a deep ache.

But even if I wasn’t genuinely scared, I absolutely needed to pretend that I was. I had to maintain my fragile facade. If I didn't act like a helpless, terrified victim, they might start digging deeper and eventually find out that I was not an ordinary, wolfless Omega.

The heavy car doors slammed shut, enclosing me in the dark interior. The engine roared to life, and the car started moving quickly through the bumpy dirt roads. The three men sitting inside the vehicle with me remained in complete, heavy silence. I eagerly took the quiet atmosphere as an open invitation to rest my weary eyes and deeply reflect on the absolute mess that was my life. I slowly leaned my aching body and head back against the soft, leather cushion and closed my eyes, letting the rhythmic hum of the tires lull my racing thoughts.

Wolves or Demons?

Wolves. It would always, without a single doubt, be wolves. I would choose this brutal, unpredictable shifter world over the fiery pits of hell every single time.

I was only eleven years old when my beautiful mother died of a broken heart. Merely months before her tragic passing, my adoptive father was brutally killed. My mother was completely unable to recover from the devastating loss of her other half, which eventually led to her giving up on life and completely succumbing to death.

My adoptive father and my mother were both strong shifters, and they were true fated mates. They had been deeply in love and together for a long time before I was even born.

No, my mother didn’t cheat on her fated mate. Every single tragic thing that happened to our family was entirely my biological father’s doing.

Lucian, my real father, the terrifying Prince of Darkness, frequently wandered the human realms from time to time to cure his immortal boredom. His insatiable libido was not only limited to the desperate she-demons constantly throwing themselves at his feet in the Underworld. He wanted to violently taste every single species that existed in this world. And one unfortunate day, his dark eyes landed on my mother, and he instantly took a sick, twisted fancy to her.

He actively tried to woo her, attempting to manipulate her into willingly coupling with him. But my mother was fiercely loyal; she never once bent to his will. She already had a loving mate, and she boldly chose her mate over the seductive demon prince over and over again. Being an arrogant, entitled ruler of hell, my father simply couldn’t stomach the repeated rejection.

Driven by dark obsession, he went after her in his horrifying incubus form. He completely bypassed her defenses and took her forcefully, violating her over and over again. He ruthlessly came back night after night, forcing himself upon her until he finally got tired of his new toy. It was only then that he coldly left her behind, utterly broken, and never bothered to show his face to her again.

But what the arrogant demon prince didn’t know at the time was that a cursed offspring was conceived from his horrible, violent act. Me.

My mother’s true mate, Diego, knew absolutely everything about the horrific assaults, and yet, he didn’t leave her side for a single second. Instead of casting her away, he fiercely protected her. He helped her raise me with boundless affection and never, not even once, made me feel like I was a monster or that I was not his own precious child.

In fact, I lived in complete, blissful ignorance. I didn’t even know I wasn't his biological daughter until a terrifying accident occurred when I was six years old. I had gotten angry and accidentally summoned my demonic power, effortlessly killing a small rabbit with a blast of hellfire.

With my dark power suddenly unleashed in the human realm, the magical portal and my dormant connection to the Underworld violently ripped open. And in mere seconds, my biological father, the towering Demon Prince of Darkness, materialized before me and possessively claimed me as his own flesh and blood. His one and only daughter.

My real father didn’t drag me down to hell that exact day, but my peaceful life was entirely shattered and never the same after that moment.

I always knew deep down that one day he would inevitably come back for me. My mother had spent her remaining years frantically preparing me for that horrifying day. I desperately tried to take in as much of her warnings and teachings as I could, but with a young, naive mind, I simply couldn’t comprehend the sheer magnitude of the darkness I was connected to.

The beautiful opal necklace I currently wore tightly around my neck was a sacred gift from my mother. She had secretly buried it in the quiet cemetery near our old home, hidden away safely alongside a small stack of money that she and Diego had managed to save up over the years. She hid those precious items there shortly after my stepfather, her beloved fated mate, tragically died. She intimately knew that she didn’t have much time left on this earth, and she desperately wanted to make sure I had options, a way to survive and hide if the terrifying time came that I didn’t want to remain trapped in the demon world with Lucian.

My mother and her fated mate, my stepfather—they truly, unconditionally loved me. And the pure, undeniable love that fiercely existed between them was the absolute only thread that was keeping the fragile light alive inside of me. Their memory was the only thing stopping me from fully surrendering to my dark heritage and falling permanently into the pitch-black depths of hell.

Even with both of them long gone, I still had a stubborn, desperate hope deeply instilled in my soul. I clung to the belief that one day, against all odds, I would find the exact same profound, earth-shattering love that they had found with each other. I desperately needed a love that would fiercely cross all boundaries, a love that was strong enough to pull me back from the edge and save me from the terrifying darkness constantly looming inside my blood. I needed a saving grace.

And that was exactly why I was still fiercely fighting to survive here, willingly treading into the dangerous, lawless wilderness entirely on my own. I was desperately protecting the tiny, fragile part of me that still believed I had a fated mate out there somewhere, explicitly meant for me.

But as the car sped further into the freezing, unknown night, a heavy, suffocating doubt ruthlessly crushed my chest, making it impossibly hard to breathe. I was completely wolfless. My inner wolf remained entirely dormant, silent and completely disconnected from the mystical bond that tied mates together. Without an active wolf howling for her other half, I had absolutely no idea if I would ever be able to find him.

Or, more terrifyingly, if he would ever be able to find me.