Chapter 5 - The Awoken Fire
Outside the Panic Room, the heavy footfalls of a monster echoed down the corridor.
Jacob arrived.
He was covered from head to toe in black rogue blood. His armor was shredded, his massive wolf jaws dripping, his eyes burning with the frantic, terrifying madness of an Alpha who believed he had lost everything. He had slaughtered the remaining assassins in the hallway, painting the stone walls crimson.
When he saw the three rogue commanders standing outside the reinforced door, Jacob didn't even speak. He transformed into a towering, eight-foot-tall black beast and tore through them in a matter of seconds, painting the ceiling with their remains.
Shifted back into his human form, naked and bloodied, Jacob threw himself against the heavy iron door.
"REENA!" he roared, slamming his fists against the dragon-glass window. "REENA! OPEN THE DOOR!"
Through the glass, he saw them.
Samuel was lying safely on a velvet cushion, sleeping soundly. But beside him, Reena lay completely still, her skin ghostly pale, her dark hair spread across the floor like a pool of ink.
"NO! NO, GOD NO!" Jacob screamed.
He grabbed the golden override mechanism on the exterior wall. With a primal roar of pure desperation, he channeled every ounce of his massive Alpha force into the mechanism, forcing the ancient iron gears to grind backward against their magic wards. Metal snapped. Sparks rained down.
With a final, shattering blast of brute strength, Jacob ripped the reinforced iron door entirely off its stone hinges, throwing it down the hallway.
He stumbled into the room, falling to his knees beside Reena.
"Reena... Reena, please..." Jacob gasped, his voice breaking into horrific sobs. He lifted her limp body into his arms, pulling her against his chest. She was ice cold. There was no pulse. No breath.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry!" the King wept, burying his face in her neck, his tears washing away the rogue blood on her collarbone. "I was going to tell you! I was going to find a way to save you! Please don't leave me! Don't leave us!"
He brought her hands to his mouth, kissing her cold fingers.
Then, he felt it.
A strange, unnatural warmth began to radiate from the center of Reena’s chest.
Jacob froze.
Underneath her skin, intricate gold-and-silver lines began to glow, spiraling outward from her heart like branches of a blinding tree. The air inside the panic room began to hum with a frequency so deep, so ancient, that it made the very stone of the citadel shake.
Reena’s eyes snapped open.
They were no longer human brown. They were not even the golden color of a standard Alpha wolf.
Her eyes were a blinding, celestial silver—burning with the fiery intensity of a thousand supernovas.
GRRRRRRRR...
A low, guttural growl vibrated from the back of Reena’s throat. It wasn't the sound of an ordinary wolf. It was an ancient, terrifying roar that resonated through the spiritual plane, striking a chord of absolute submission in Jacob's blood.
Jacob gasped, falling back a step in pure shock.
Reena was not dead.
The ancient magic of the binding spell had attempted to shatter her because her body was wolfless. But Reena hadn't fought the magic—she had absorbed it entirely, embracing the infant Alpha’s spirit with pure, selfless love.
The overwhelming surge of royal Alpha energy hadn't killed her empty vessel.
It had ignited it.
Deep inside her dormant, wolfless bloodline lay an ancient, forgotten lineage—a mythical line of celestial guardians who possessed no physical wolf because they were meant to be the absolute rulers of the spirit realm itself. She wasn't defective. She was an empty vessel waiting for the flame of a King's bloodline to awaken her.
Slowly, gracefully, Reena levitated to her feet. Golden and silver light engulfed her body, repairing her torn uniform and weaving the raw magic into a magnificent dress of pure, radiant energy.
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She looked down at her hands, where silver flames danced across her fingertips without burning her.
Then she turned her blazing, silver eyes toward Jacob.
