Beneath the Dolomites, Northern Italy
Hidden deep within the ancient Dolomite mountain range, Darius's secret base is carved into the ruins of a pre-Roman temple once devoted to the Unbound Moon—a forgotten offshoot of the Lunar Faith, whose adherents believed the wolf soul could be stripped of all human tethering and elevated into pure, primal power.
These ruins were long thought lost, buried after the old priesthood declared the Unbound Moon heretical. But Darius—disgraced, cast out, and stripped of his wolf tether—spent decades obsessively tracking its remnants through forbidden scrolls, bone maps, and dreamwalking the memories of the dead.
When he finally found it, he made it his fortress.
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The Base Layout & Security
The base is structured in concentric levels, each increasingly more sacred—and sinister:
1. Outermost Level: The Stone Forest
Camouflaged by enchanted stone trees that pulse with a low resonance to deter werewolves.
Guarded by mutated rogues—feral shifters enhanced by unstable blood magic.
Wards carved into the earth to blind seers and scent-trackers.
2. Middle Chambers: Laboratories of Blood
This is where Darius performs his experiments.
Rows of iron-wrought cells and cold chambers.
Walls lined with preserved organs from ancient wolves, including spinal cords soaked in moonstone dust.
A blood-forging circle used to force wolf spirits into host bodies—creating chimeric monsters he calls Hollowborn.
Subjects include kidnapped shifters, rogue alphas, and even witch-blood hybrids.
3. The Inner Sanctum: The Altar of the Unbound
A ritual chamber with a desecrated moonstone pillar, cracked and blackened.
Here lies the sarcophagus of the First Unbound—an ancient figure Darius seeks to resurrect or mimic.
Carvings depict wolves with hollow eyes, no human forms—shadows of what Darius hopes to become.
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His Experiments
Darius's goal is to create a new wolf order, free from the "weakness" of humanity, empathy, and prophecy.
Key Experiments:
1. The Hollowborn Project
Using rituals to strip wolves of emotion, memory, and moral restraint.
Replaces the wolf's inner anchor (the "tether") with void blood or corrupted moonlight.
Hollowborn are loyal to Darius, but they decay rapidly—he's trying to stabilize them with ancient blood.
2. Moon Pulse Reversal
Darius is building a device using stolen moonstone fragments to reverse the Lunar Cycle in a chosen vessel.
The theory: if he can bind this reversed pulse to Adunni, he can override her destiny—or fracture it completely.
3. Hybrid Possession
He has created a "mirror vessel" using blood stolen from Adunni's ancestry (possibly through a traitor).
His plan is to transfer Adunni's spirit/soul into a corrupted duplicate of herself if she won't surrender willingly.
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Darius's Long Game
Darius isn't just a mad outcast—he's a visionary zealot.
Is evil plan is to:
Phase 1 – Destabilize the Lunar Accord
Sow division between the inner circles (using a traitor close to Adunni and Luca).
Orchestrate rogue attacks and blame rival packs.
Undermine Adunni's trust in her mate bond and heritage.
Phase 2 – Capture or Break Adunni
Force her to perform a corrupted version of the ancient Moon Rite.
Bind her power into the reversed pillar beneath his altar.
Use her as a living source of hybrid energy to fuel Hollowborn and the Rebirth Ritual.
Phase 3 – Become the Unbound Alpha
Complete the transformation into a new being—no longer bound to the moon, the wolf, or mortality.
Reforge the Accord in his image, with Hollowborn Alphas ruling across the ancient territories.
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Adunni is the last living hybrid of a pure African wolf line tied to the Moon Priests. Her blood is a key—possibly the key—to stabilizing the Hollowborn.
Her line once held a secret: a genetic memory of the First Song—the original howl that linked wolves to the moon.
If Darius can unlock it, he can rewrite the pact that all wolves live by.
If she awakens fully… she might be able to undo Darius completely.
_ _ _
The sky above the Dolomites bled grey with thunder.
Darius stood at the edge of a shattered ridge overlooking the valley, cloaked in a long robe woven with shadows and blood-sigils. The air hummed with charged energy—his wards reacting to the celestial pull of the moon, veiled tonight behind the thick storm clouds.
He inhaled deeply.
Not because he needed air—but because he could smell their panic brewing in the distance. It curled on the wind like incense: hot, sharp, laced with adrenaline and fear. Matteo. Selene. Their bond was faltering—strained by secrets neither was ready to say aloud.
Even the strongest break when pressed in the right places.
He extended a pale, veined hand to the creature crouched beside him—a Hollowborn, its skin greyed like ash and eyes silver-black. "Send the others. Make sure they run. Bleed them a little, but not too much. Matteo must live."
The Hollowborn hissed and vanished into the trees like smoke.
Darius turned, descending the stone steps behind him as lightning carved the sky in two. The ritual chamber pulsed in his veins—every rune he'd carved, every blood-inked line, all sang in harmony.
He was close now.
Each attack, each strike against Adunni's people, each whisper through his traitor in the castle... all were moves in a longer game. One Adunni hadn't even begun to understand.
Matteo was a key. Not to power. But to Selene's will. And through her, Adunni's inner balance.
You can't destroy a queen without first cracking her generals.
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He watched through the scrying pool, the obsidian surface rippling like water as the scene unfolded.
Matteo and Selene had stopped in a clearing, moonlight flickering through the trees like a warning. Selene's hand hovered near her blade. Matteo had taken the lead, as always, overconfident in his strength.
Good, Darius thought. Pride dulls the instinct.
He saw the flicker of shadows as the Hollowborn struck from three directions. Matteo went down hard—his shoulder ripped open, blood fountaining into the air.
Selene screamed his name, a sound that vibrated even through the pool.
Darius smiled slowly, fingers tracing the edge of the stone. "That's right. Let it unravel."
She fought like a fury—flames bursting from her blade as she carved through the corrupted beasts. But there were too many. And Matteo was slowing, staggering—bleeding too much, too fast.
Darius watched her choose.
Fight… or save him.
She chose him.
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Adunni would hear that Matteo had nearly died, and Selene was injured.
The clock was ticking.
Her choices would be fewer with each passing night.
And when she turned to Luca for strength, for truth, she would find only fear in his eyes. Because Luca, too, was hiding something—something ancient, something damning. And Darius knew it.
As thunder cracked the sky again, Darius raised his hand to the heavens.
Soon, the prophecy would bend.
Or break.
And when it did, Adunni would belong to him.