Chapter 4 - Blood in the Snow
"Open the door in the name of the Crown!" a harsh voice barked from the darkness outside.
Inside the cottage, the air instantly dropped by twenty degrees. Frost crept across the windowpanes in intricate, jagged patterns. Caspian didn't panic; he simply rose to his feet, his muscles coiling like spring steel beneath his pristine white fur. The raw aura of dominance filled the room, making the wooden beams creak in protest.
"Stay back," Caspian’s voice echoed in Lyra's mind, laced with cold command.
"I won't let them take you," Lyra whispered fiercely, grabbing a heavy iron poker from the hearth. "You're under my roof."
Before Caspian could stop her, she slid the wooden bar and pulled the door open.
Standing on the threshold were three members of the Royal Inquisitorial Squad, clad in midnight-black armor etched with silver runes. At their head stood Commander Vane, a ruthless tracker with a scarred cheek and eyes like dead fish. He held a glowing crystal tracking sphere that pulsed erratically.
Vane’s eyes swept past Lyra, landing directly on the towering white wolf standing in the dim light of the hearth. The commander’s breath hitched, and for a fraction of a second, his hand trembled on the hilt of his broadsword.
"By the stars..." Vane breathed, taking an involuntary step back. "The tracking sphere wasn't malfunctioning. The beast actually survived."
"He's not a beast," Lyra said, stepping defensively into the doorway, blocking their line of sight. "He belongs to me. I bought him fair and square at the market."
Vane sneered, his fear quickly masked by arrogant malice. "He belongs to the crown, human scum. That creature is an illegal relic of a deposed tyrant. Step aside, or I'll cut you down where you stand for treason."
He raised his sword, pointing the silver blade straight at Lyra's chest.
It was a fatal mistake.
In the blink of an eye, a streak of white lightning blurred past Lyra's shoulder. There was no snarl, no warning growl—just the terrifying sound of tearing metal and bone.
Caspian moved with a speed that defied the physical laws of the universe. Before Vane could finish his sentence, the massive wolf slammed into him with the force of a battering ram, sending the armored commander flying backward across the snowy yard. The glowing tracking sphere shattered into a thousand crystal shards against the frozen ground.
The two remaining inquisitors drew their weapons, shouting in panic, but they were paralyzed by the crushing, suffocating weight of Caspian's alpha aura. They dropped to their knees, gasping for air as the blood vessels in their eyes burst.
Caspian stood over Vane, pinning the screaming commander to the snow with a single massive paw pressed heavily against his chest plate. The metal cracked under the pressure, groaning as it bent inward toward Vane's ribs.
"Tell Orson," Caspian’s voice resonated aloud this time—a deep, earth-shaking rumble that sounded like grinding boulders—"that his nightmare has just begun. Tell him the Blackstone King is coming to collect his skull."
Vane choked up a mouthful of blood, his eyes wide with unmitigated horror. "Y-You're dead... the ritual at the obsidian altar..."
"The ritual failed," Caspian growled, leaning down until his razor-sharp fangs hovered inches from the terrified commander's throat. "And now, every traitor who signed my death warrant will answer to me."
He lifted his paw, allowing the gasping, broken commander to scramble backward through the snow. Vane and his surviving subordinates didn't look back; they scrambled to their feet and fled into the dark treeline like whipped dogs, their armor clattering in their wake.
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Caspian turned slowly back toward the cottage. The snow around his paws was melted by the intense, natural heat radiating from his body.
Lyra stood in the doorway, the iron poker slipping from her numb fingers and clattering onto the porch. She had bought a broken, dying slave from a wretched market. But looking at the terrifying aura of power swirling around him, she realized she had just unleashed an absolute storm upon the kingdom.
