Unmarked by Love novel Chapter 8

Chapter 8

1288 Vouchers

Chapter 8

Willow’s POV

“Willow! You can’t let him mark you! It’ll kill you-a human body isn’t built to handle a Lycan’s power!”

Rowan’s voice cracked with desperation. “I know I hurt you… but I was drugged! Please, even if you hate me, don’t gamble with your life. You know you still love me!”

My eyelashes fluttered, a wave of old anxiety washing over me. Damian sensed my distress instantly. He let out a low, bone-shaking growl, doubling down on his aura until Rowan was pinned to the floor, gasping for air, unable to make another sound.

The hall fell dead silent, save for the frantic thrumming of our hearts.

“I’m never letting you go back,” Damian whispered against my ear, his breath warm and steady. “No matter what happens.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I murmured, clutching the hem of his black shirt.

In that moment, Damian leaned down. His sharp canines pierced my skin.

Unlike Rowan’s jagged, brutal claim, Damian’s mark was intense but wrapped in a strange, protective tenderness.

His Lycan power surged through my veins like molten gold, knitting my broken body back together from the inside out.

I opened my eyes and looked over Damian’s shoulder, locking gazes with Rowan.

His eyes were wide, shattered by what he was witnessing. He let out a pained, hollow whimper.

“Willow… please… don’t…”

I watched him with a cold, hollow calm.

“Rowan, you said it yourself-I was just a pet to keep you sane. Let’s just call it even.

A jagged, soul-crushing howl echoed through the hall. Veins popped on Rowan’s forehead as he forced himself to stand, burning through his very life force to break free of Damian’s aura. He stumbled toward me, his body a map of scars and fresh blood.

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Chapter 8

“Not… a pet… Willow, I… I love-”

Damian cut him off mid-sentence.

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He lunged, catching Rowan by the throat and slamming him into the stone wall with enough force to crack it.

“You don’t get to use that word,” Damian spat, his face twisted in disgust. “You don’t deserve her comfort, and you damn sure don’t deserve her love.”

They clashed, the sound of heavy blows vibrating through the floor.

It didn’t last long. Damian let out a roar that shattered the nearby glass and delivered a final, crushing hit.

Rowan collapsed, clutching his caved-in chest as he curled into a ball on the floor.

Damian didn’t show an ounce of mercy. He dragged Rowan’s broken body to the edge of the territory and threw him out like trash.

Back inside the packhouse, I couldn’t stop shaking. Damian noticed immediately and wrapped his heavy coat around me, pulling me close.

“I don’t love him anymore,” I whispered into his chest.

I felt the deep rumble of his heart against my cheek.

“Then… would you be willing to try loving me?”

***

The sun was bright as Damian walked with me through the courtyard.

In the shadows just beyond the estate walls, a haggard, derelict figure followed our every move. We’d tried to drive him off a dozen times, but he always came back. Eventually, we just started treating him like part of the landscape.

Damian didn’t want me to feel like a prisoner, so he asked if I wanted to go back to my job at the subway.

I didn’t want to lose my grip on the human world, so I agreed.

Now, Damian personally drops me off at the platform every night. When my shift ends, he’s always there waiting with a hot coffee to take me home.

But no matter where I was, I could feel a pair of bloodshot eyes watching from the darkness. Day

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Chapter 8

or night, those eyes never left me.

“Willow! Disturbance in the first carriage! Move now!”

I followed the radio orders to the platform edge and stopped dead. There she was-Lyra.

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She was kneeling by the tracks, her blonde hair matted, her eyes glowing a frantic red. The feral state was finally winning.

“I’ve become a monster… they threw me out…” she hissed.

Rowan, who had been tailing me as usual, rushed forward to grab her.

He patted her back mechanically, but his eyes were glued to me as I tried to usher the crowd away.

“You came to save me, didn’t you, Rowan?” she muttered, her voice delusional.

But when Lyra saw where his eyes were fixed, her face contorted.

She shoved Rowan aside and lunged at me with a scream.

“It’s you… it’s all because of you! If you hadn’t left, we wouldn’t be like this!”

Her shriek pierced my ears as she slammed into my chest.

The safety barrier shattered. Shards of glass sliced into my back, and before I could even register the pain, I was free-falling into the pitch-black abyss of the tracks.

The emergency sirens wailed.

Someone had accidentally hit the train’s override.

The massive steel wheels in front of me began to grind, ready to crush everything in their path.

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