I muttered Ch 14

The full moon hung in the sky like a giant middle finger to everyone’s peace of mind.

I knew what it meant. I’d heard the stories about what happened to Cassian during shifts—bones breaking, skin tearing, the whole nine yards of supernatural body horror. The palace had their little steel cage all ready, complete with fancy moon-binding sigils like that would actually contain whatever he turned into.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

The screaming started around midnight.

Not howling. Screaming. Human screaming that made my bones try to crawl out of my skin and find somewhere safer to live.

“Nope,” I said, rolling out of bed. “Absolutely fucking not.”

I bolted from my room before my brain could talk me out of it.

“Stop!” one of the guards yelled behind me.

“Counter-offer: you do!” I called back, sliding around a corner on bare feet.

The palace was a maze when you were panicking. Wrong turn, dead end, marble floors that wanted to kill me via strategic slipping. But I could follow the sound—that awful mix of rage and pain echoing through the halls.

By the time I found the lower wing, my feet were leaving bloody prints on the stone. The entire corridor was shaking like it was having an earthquake-induced seizure.

The chamber door looked like it had been designed by paranoid lunatics. Steel bolts, magical symbols, the works. And it was practically vibrating off its hinges.

“Cassian,” I whispered, pressing my hand to the door.

Something inside roared loud enough to make my teeth ache.

The guards were getting closer—armor clanking, boots thundering, probably planning to tackle me before I could do something stupid.

Too late. I was already doing something stupid.

I grabbed the wheel lock and cranked it open.

“Don’t!” someone shouted.

But the door was already swinging open, and I was already stepping inside like an idiot with a death wish.

The room was basically a sauna from hell. Heat, blood, and something that smelled like pure animal rage.

Cassian was… well. He wasn’t Cassian anymore.

Half-man, half-nightmare, claws shredding the walls, bones snapping and reforming like his skeleton couldn’t decide what species it wanted to be. Blood everywhere—his own. His shirt hung in ribbons, ribs straining against torn flesh.

“Well,” I said to the room in general, “this is new.”

He spun toward me, snarling, eyes glowing gold like a fucking demon.

Smart Lucy would have run. Smart Lucy would have listened to the guards.

Instead, I walked toward him.

“Cassian,” I said, taking another step. “I know you’re in there somewhere, you dramatic asshole.”

He roared—the kind of sound that makes your primitive brain scream about saber-tooth tigers and running for your life.

I kept walking.

“You promised,” I said, voice steadier than I felt. “You said even if you turned into a monster—”

He lunged.

And stopped.

Like someone had yanked his leash mid-attack. The bond, maybe. Or just the tiny sliver of human left in whatever he’d become.

I reached up and pressed my palm to his chest.

The moment my skin touched his, everything went quiet.

The growling stopped. The rage flickered out like a blown candle. He dropped to his knees so fast I thought he might have actually broken something.

He buried his face against my stomach, claws retracting, breathing like he’d just run a marathon through hell.

“Don’t leave me,” he whispered, voice completely shredded. “Even if I turn into a monster.”

“You’re not a monster,” I said, threading my fingers through his hair. “You’re just having a really, really bad night.”

“I felt it slipping away. This time I almost didn’t come back.”

“But you did.”

“I smelled blood. Heard voices and couldn’t tell if they were real. I thought I was going to kill whatever came through that door.”

I tilted his face up to look at me. “But you didn’t. You chose me over the monster.”

His eyes were wet, which was somehow worse than all the blood and supernatural horror. “You saved me.”

“Yeah, well.” I shrugged. “Someone had to. You were being really loud.”

That’s when I remembered we had an audience.

The guards stood frozen in the doorway, staring at their prince kneeling in his Omega’s arms like they’d just witnessed a miracle or a crime. Hard to tell which.

“Close the door,” Cassian said without looking at them.

They did, but I could practically hear their brains exploding.

By morning, the rumors were flying faster than gossip at a high school reunion.

“The Omega used dark magic.”

“She bewitched him.”

“She walked into that chamber like she owned the place.”

“Came out without a scratch. That’s not normal.”

I was back in my gilded prison, listening to the maids whisper outside my door like I was some kind of supernatural soap opera.

“Some are saying she spoke in tongues,” one of them hissed.

“Others swear the Prince bowed to her.”

“Like she was his queen.”

I snorted into my pillow. “If only they knew I just told him to stop being dramatic.”

But this time felt different. This time, they weren’t just gossiping.

This time, they were taking notes.

And that? That was a problem.