Octavia's POV
I found him in his study, standing with his back to the door as if he'd been waiting for me to follow. The room was dimly lit by a single candle on his desk, casting long shadows across the scattered papers and maps that seemed to follow him everywhere.
"Darius," I said softly, stepping inside and closing the door behind me. "Please, let me explain what you saw-"
He turned to face me then, and I was struck by how exhausted he looked. There were shadows under his dark eyes, and his usually immaculate appearance was disheveled in a way that spoke of sleepless nights and careful control finally beginning to fray.
I approached him carefully, the way one might approach a wounded animal, and reached out to take his hand. "I need you to understand-" But he pulled away before I could touch him, stepping back until he was pressed against his desk. The rejection stung worse than I'd expected, and I felt tears threatening to spill over.
"Did you really plan to leave with him?" he asked, his voice low and carefully controlled.
Before I could answer, he moved with startling speed, his hands coming down on either side of me to cage me against the desk. I found myself trapped between his arms, our faces suddenly close enough that I could see the faint glow in his eyes that meant the wolf was never far from the surface.
"Answer me," he said, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "When he offered you escape, when he begged you to run away with him, did you consider it?"
The honest answer was yes, I had considered it. For just a moment, in the warmth of the kitchen with Leon's familiar presence surrounding me, I had remembered what it felt like to be wanted without reservation.
But the truth was more complicated than that simple yes or no. Instead of answering, my eyes fell to his arm, and I gasped. Blood was seeping through his shirt sleeve, the dark stain spreading with each heartbeat.
"You're bleeding," I said, reaching toward the wound instinctively. "When did this happen? You weren't injured when you found us in the kitchen-"
"I went out after," he said simply, not moving away from my touch this time. "The wolf needed to run."
That's when I understood. He had shifted after seeing Leon and me together, had spent the night in his wolf form working through the rage and betrayal he couldn't express as a man. But something had gone wrong. Something had hurt him out there in the darkness.
"Why do you keep shifting at night?" I asked, my fingers tracing the edge of the bloodstain through his shirt. "Even after we... after our wedding night?" For a moment, I thought he wouldn't answer. Then he pulled back slightly, his eyes meeting mine with an intensity that made my breath catch.
"The curse was supposed to break," he said quietly. "True love's first claiming from a virgin bride, that was the condition. But it didn't break, Octavia. It never broke."
The words hit me like a physical blow. I went completely still, the implications crashing over me in waves of cold understanding. What I had done with Leon, what I had given away in that moment of desperate rebellion, hadn't just broken tradition or violated my father's plans.
It had doomed my husband to remain cursed, trapped in a cycle of transformation that would continue until... until what? Until he died? Until he lost himself completely to the wolf?
"I wasn't..." I started, then stopped. The lie wouldn't come. Not now, not when I could see the pain in his eyes, not when the truth sat between us like a sword.
"I know," he said simply. "I've always known."
Our eyes met and held, the silence thick with everything we'd never said to each other. The guilt I'd carried since our wedding night, the secret that had poisoned every interaction between us, was finally out in the open.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I whispered.
"What would have been the point?" he replied, and there was a weariness in his voice that spoke of sleepless nights and careful calculations. "The alliance was already sealed. The marriage was already consummated. Breaking it would have meant war." He paused, his dark eyes meeting mine with unexpected vulnerability. "And by then, I had already begun to hope that what we might build together could be worth more than what you had given away.”
He started to pull back further, but suddenly winced, his face going pale. I looked more closely at the wound on his arm and felt my blood turn to ice. The edges of the cut were already turning black, dark veins spreading outward like poison through his bloodstream. This wasn't just an injury from claws or fangs, this was something else entirely. Something magical, something meant to kill.
"Darius," I said, panic creeping into my voice as he swayed on his feet. "What attacked you out there?"
"Hunters," he managed, his voice already growing weak. "They've been tracking me for weeks. Finally got close enough to..."
He stumbled, his legs giving out beneath him. I caught him before he could fall, my arms going around his chest as I lowered him carefully to the floor. His weight was dead in my arms, his breathing becoming shallow and labored.
"Help!" I screamed, my voice echoing off the stone walls with a volume I'd never allowed myself in this castle. "Someone help us!"
No one came. The study was too far from the main corridors, too isolated for casual traffic. I was alone with my dying husband, watching poison spread through his veins while I held his head in my lap.
"Please," I cried, clutching him tighter against me. "Please don't leave me. Not like this. Not when I'm finally understanding..." His eyes found mine, already growing dim but still holding that spark of awareness that made him human despite the curse that plagued him.
"The baby," he whispered, his hand moving weakly toward my stomach. "Keep it safe."
"It's your baby," I said fiercely, tears streaming down my face. "Do you hear me? It's yours, and you're going to live to see it born."
But his eyes were already closing, his breathing becoming so shallow I could barely detect it. The poison was winning, stealing him away from me just when I'd realized how much I had to lose.
"HELP!" I screamed again, my voice breaking with desperation. "SOMEONE HELP HIM!"