Chapter 4 - Awakening the Beast
The crimson blood-chains wrapped tighter around Darius’s chest, digging into his flesh and forcing the Alpha King to his knees in the crimson snow. His breath came in ragged, painful gasps, and the silver light in his eyes began to flicker and dim as the dark magic of the southern blood-mages sought to choke out the last remnants of his life force.
“Your reign ends here, beast,” Eveline hissed, stepping forward with a triumphant grin, raising a heavy iron staff inscribed with jagged runes. “Once the King dies, the northern packs will fall in line, and the power of the Moonborn will be mine to command!”
Before Eveline could bring the staff down in a crushing blow, Seraphina threw herself over Darius’s kneeling form, her arms shielding his broad shoulders.
“Touch him, and I will burn you to ash,” Seraphina whispered, though her voice vibrated with a terrifying, unearthly resonance that sounded like a chorus of a thousand voices speaking at once.
Eveline laughed mockingly. “You? A scullery maid? What can a— Gah!"
The laughter died instantly in Eveline’s throat.
The silver crescent mark on Seraphina’s shoulder suddenly burst into blinding, searing light—a pillar of pure, liquid starlight that shot up into the overcast winter sky, punching a hole straight through the thick storm clouds. The falling snow hissed and instantly evaporated into steam within a fifty-foot radius.
The ground beneath them cracked, glowing with intricate silver runes that mirrored the pattern on Seraphina's skin.
Darius gasped as the wave of freezing, revitalizing energy washed over him. It wasn't cold like ice; it was the crisp, clean chill of high mountain air at dawn, instantly neutralizing the dark, rotting poison that had crippled him for three long years. The necrotic black veins spreading across his chest rapidly faded, replaced by glowing silver lines of pure celestial power.
His wolf—starved, battered, and dormant—exploded back to life with a roar that echoed across the entire valley, vibrating in the very bones of every creature present.
MINE, the wolf bellowed in Darius’s mind, taking full control of his physical form.
Darius slowly stood up, rising from his knees. But he wasn't just standing; he was ascending. A massive, spectral white wolf—towering thirty feet tall, its fur woven from starlight and crackling blue lightning—manifested behind him, its glowing eyes locked onto the terrified invading army.
Celeste dropped her obsidian dagger, the weapon clattering uselessly against the ice as she fell backward in sheer terror. “M-Mother... what is that? What did we awaken?”
Eveline’s face drained of all color, her hands shaking violently as she clutched her staff. “Impossibile... the bloodline was culled! She shouldn't have full awakening without the royal altar!”
Seraphina stood beside Darius, her eyes glowing with the same fierce silver light. She raised her hand, and the heavy hemp ropes that had bound her wrists earlier dissolved into shimmering stardust.
“You spent twenty years treating me like garbage, Eveline,” Seraphina said, her voice carrying an eerie, majestic calm that commanded absolute obedience from every living thing in the vicinity. “You thought you were making a sacrifice. But all you did was deliver your executioner to the throne.”
Darius turned his head, his silver eyes locking onto Eveline with a predatory hunger that promised a fate far worse than death.
“General Valen!” Darius roared.
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“My King!” Valen answered instantly, rallying the recovering northern warriors.
“Leave no traitor standing.”
