<h4>Chapter 138: Once Upon A Time</h4>
<strong>Dean’s POV</strong>
I shouldn’t have stopped.
I shouldn’t have let Kane feel <i>all</i> of it.
But I did.
I kept <i>absorbing</i> the darkness.
And the more I took in, the <i>harder</i> it became to control.
I remember the first time I let a little slip through the cracks. Giving him just a fraction of what he was <i>meant</i> to feel.
He came to me that night, his voice unusually quiet, his expression guarded.
<i>"I want to try something,"</i> he said. <i>"Something... different."</i>
I didn’t give much of a fuck. Kane was always so damn <i>proper</i>, so <i>controlled</i>. So, if he wanted to dip his toes into something darker? Why the hell not?
"Go for it."
That’s how Laura came to be.
His first sub.
His first taste of <i>control</i>.
And I didn’t mind.
I let him <i>y</i>. Let him explore that side of himself.
Until she threw herself at me.
And let’s be honest—who <i>turns down</i> an easy fuck?
Certainly <i>not</i> me.
So, yeah. I fucked her.
And when Kane found out, he was <i>furious</i>.
Raging. Snarling.
And I?
I didn’t give a single damn.
Not until he <i>called me</i> during one of his punishment sessions.
That’s when I knew something was <strong>wrong</strong>.
Because I could <i>feel</i> it.
The darkness inside him.
It was wing its way up, creeping in, tainting his every thought.
Laura had disobeyed him, and instead of the usual punishment, he had <i>snapped</i>.
I remember walking into that room, the scent of leather and sweat thick in the air, the flickering candlelight casting shadows across Kane’s face.
He was <i>gone</i>.
His eyes—usually sharp, calcting—were empty.
And Laura?
She was trembling.
On her knees.
Tears staining her cheeks as she <i>pleaded</i>.
Begging him to stop.
But he didn’t even <i>hear</i> her.
Because he wasn’t <i>Kane</i> anymore.
The darkness had him.
And if I didn’t step in?
She was going to <i>die</i>.
So, I did what I always did.
I <i>took</i> it.
I absorbed every ounce of his rage, his sadistic hunger, his <i>need</i> to break her.
And just like that—
He <i>sobered up</i>.
The fog lifted.
He looked down at Laura, at the <i>damage</i> he had done, and guilt swallowed him whole.
He let her go.
Forgave her.
And <i>I</i> was left carrying the weight of what he had <i>almost</i> be.
That night, I made a decision.
I could <i>never</i> afford to let my guard down again.
Because if I did?
Kane wouldn’t survive it.
But the problem with absorbing darkness is that it needs an <i>outlet</i>.
And with the entire <i>pack</i> against me, with his parents whispering their poison, I had no reason to care anymore.
So, I found an outlet.
I left the pds.
I went to the rogues.
I <i>drank</i> from them.
Filthy, desperate bastards.
Nothing like pack wolves.
But it worked.
I could drain them dry, and no one would give a damn.
I could take their rage, their hatred, their sins—and for a moment, it felt <i>good</i>.
But I <i>forgot</i> something.
Rogues and vampires have <i>never</i> been friends.
It was a humiliation unlike any other.
To have a vampire drink from them?
To be nothing more than <i>prey</i>?
They were <i>furious</i>.
And when they found out where I was from?
When they saw my face and realized I looked exactly like Kane?
They wanted <i>revenge</i>.
They stormed the pack.
ughtered Kane’s parents.
Burned down half of what he called home.
And who did he me?
Me.
Even now, after all these years.
He still mes <i>me</i>.
<strong>*******</strong>
Kane never forgave me.
Not for Laura.
Not for the rogues.
Not for the deaths of his parents.
And honestly? I never asked him to.
Because deep down, I knew the truth.
He needed someone to me. Someone to bear the weight of his sins. Someone to carry the darkness so he could stay <i>clean</i>.
And that someone had always been <i>me</i>.
I was the monster lurking in the shadows, the curse that tainted his bloodline, the evil twin, the abomination. The thing that should have <i>never</i> existed.
At least, that’s what they told me.
What <i>he</i> told himself.
But Kane had always been a fool.
He thought he was better than me, stronger than me, <i>purer</i> than me.
But what he refused to see—what he could <i>never</i> ept—was that we were the same.
Two halves of a whole.
He could fight it all he wanted. Could pretend he was the noble Alpha, the protector of his pack, the loving mate.
But at the end of the day?
He had <i>my</i> darkness inside him.
He had always <i>needed</i> me.
Because without me?
He was nothing.
And I think, somewhere in the back of his mind, he <i>knew</i> that.
That’s why he never truly pushed me away.
No matter how much he hated me, no matter how many times he cursed my name, no matter how many bodies piled up between us, Kane could never <i>erase</i> me.
I was the shadow he could never outrun.
And when the darkness finally came for him—when it wrapped around his soul and whispered in his ear—I was the only one who understood.
Because I had <i>always</i> been there.
Waiting.
Watching.
Knowing, sooner orter, he would finally break.
It had started subtly.
The small cracks in Kane’s carefully built facade.
He liked to pretend he had control, that he had mastered himself. But I saw the way his hands clenched too tightly during training, the way his eyes lingered too long on a fresh wound, the way his breath hitched at the scent of blood.
He wanted to tell himself he was different from me.
That he was stronger.
That he would <i>never</i> let the darkness win.
But then came Laura.
His first taste of control.
His first taste of <i>power</i>.
The first time he let himself indulge in that darker side of him—the side I had always known was there, lurking beneath the surface, waiting to be freed.
I didn’t push him into it.
I didn’t <i>need</i> to.
It was already in him.
That hunger.
That <i>need</i>.
The need to break something. To im something. To <i>own</i> something.
And I watched, from the shadows, as he explored that need.
It started with little things.
A p here. A whisperedmand there. Laura fell to her knees at his feet, eager to obey, eager to please. And Kane—oh, sweet, naive Kane—thought he had it all under control.
Until he didn’t.
Until one day, he called me.
I found him in his private chamber, standing over Laura’s trembling form. His hands were shaking, his pupils blown wide, his breathing ragged.
He had <i>hurt</i> her.
Not in the way she had wanted.
Not in the way she had begged for.
No, this had been something <i>else</i>.
Something raw.
Something <i>ugly</i>.
And he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
The darkness had taken hold of him, had wrapped around him like a vice, and he had lost control.
I had seen iting.
I had <i>felt</i> iting.
Because he had started blocking me from our bond, refusing to let me take his darkness, refusing to let me be his filter.
And now, he was paying the price.
I could see it in his eyes—the horror, the <i>guilt</i>.
And I knew what had to be done.
So I did what I always did.
I absorbed it.
Took his sins into myself, let the darkness sink into my bones, let it <i>consume</i> me instead.
And just like that, Kane was himself again.
Just like that, he was the noble Alpha again, the protector, the man his pack needed him to be.
And I... I became the monster once more.
After that, I <i>knew</i>.
I couldn’t stop absorbing it.
Because if I didn’t, Kane would lose himself.
He would fall into the abyss.
And no one—not even me—would be able to pull him back out.
So I took it all.
Every violent impulse.
Every dark craving.
Every twisted thought.
And I buried them deep inside myself.
But the thing about darkness?
It doesn’t just disappear.
It festers.
It <i>grows</i>.
And with every ounce of Kane’s sin I absorbed, the harder it became to control.
The hungrier I became.
So I did what I had to do.
I fed.
I sought out the rogues—the filth of the supernatural world—and I drank them dry.
I let their blood stain my hands, let their screams echo in my ears, let their suffering be my release.
Because I had to.
Because if I didn’t, the darkness would consume me, just as it had almost consumed Kane.
But I made a mistake.
I let them see my face.
I let them <i>know</i> who I was.
And when they realized that I shared Kane’s face, that I carried his scent, that I was of <i>his</i> pack...
They took their revenge.
They came in the dead of night, their fangs bared, their ws drenched in blood.
They tore through the pack like beasts, like rabid animals, like the monsters they had always been used of being.
And when the night ended, Kane’s parentsy dead.
ughtered.
Ripped apart.
And Kane...
Kane med <i>me</i>.
Because of course he did.
Because it was easier than ming himself.
Easier than epting that he had <i>made</i> me this way.
That every dark impulse he had ever buried, every wicked thought he had ever suppressed, every ounce of <i>sin</i> he had ever refused to acknowledge—he had given it all to <i>me</i>.
And I had carried it willingly.
For him.
For <i>us</i>.
But it was never enough.
I was never <i>enough</i>.
And so he cast me out.
Told me I was a mistake.
Told me I should have <i>never existed</i>.
Told me that if he ever saw me again, he would kill me.
And maybe... maybe part of me wished he had.
Because living without him?
Without the bond that had once made us whole?
It was worse than death.
It was hell.
But here’s the thing about hell.
Once you’ve been there long enough...
You stop fearing the mes.
And now?
Now the darkness <i>is</i> me.
I don’t fight it anymore.
I don’t hide from it.
I let it in.
Let it <i>consume</i> me.
Because I finally understand.
I was never the monster Kane feared.
I was the monster he <i>created</i>.
And one day, he’ll have to face the truth.
One day, he’ll have to <i>pay</i> for what he did.
And when that dayes...
I’ll be waiting.
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