Chapter 68 The Siege

Chapter 68 The Siege
The attack came before dawn.

No warning this time. No horns. No scouts racing in with wide eyes and half-formed sentences.

Just screaming.

I’m already awake when the first explosion shakes the ground. The walls shudder. Dust rains from the ceiling. For one stupid second, I think it’s thunder.

Then the pack link lights up with panic.

They’re inside.

North wall is down.

Fire. Gods, there’s fire—

I’m on my feet before the messages finish. Boots. Jacket. Hands already burning.

I don’t think. Thinking is too slow.

I run.

The air outside tastes like blood and smoke. The sky glows red where it shouldn’t. Wolves are everywhere. Shifting. Fighting. Dying.

This isn’t a raid.

This is a siege.

“They planned this,” someone yells as I pass.

“They planned all of it.”

I believe them.

Rogues flood the compound in waves. Not wild. Not desperate. Organized. Armed. Coordinated like soldiers.

I see the symbols burned into their armor and my stomach twists.

The same mark from the package.

They really do know who I am.

“Selene!”

I turn. Kael is on the battlements, sword already wet with blood. He locks eyes with me and something in his expression tightens.

“Stay behind the inner line,” he orders.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t slow down.

A rogue charges me from the side. I don’t stop moving. Fire blooms from my palm and takes his head clean off.

The smell hits me a second later. Burned fur. Burned flesh.

I swallow it down.

“Healers to the east!” someone shouts.

I veer that way. A wolf is down, chest torn open. I drop beside him, hands glowing, skin screaming as I pull him back from death.

It hurts. It always hurts. Tonight it hurts more.
I stand. Stagger. Catch myself.

“Don’t push,” a healer snaps. “You’re bleeding.”
I look down. Blood runs from my nose. I wipe it away with the back of my hand.

“I’m fine.”

I’m not.

The ground shakes again. A section of the inner wall collapses. Rogues pour through the breach like water.

“Fall back!” Kael roars. “Form a line!”

I turn—and freeze.

Riven is fighting near the breach. Surrounded. Blood streaks his arms and face.

He’s smiling like he always does when it’s bad. Too calm.
Too brave.

“No,” I whisper.

I run toward him.

A hand grabs my arm. “Selene, don’t—”

I rip free and throw fire as I move. Rogues scream. Fall. Burn.

Riven sees me and his eyes widen. “Get back!”
“I’m not leaving you!”

A rogue lunges between us. I incinerate him without slowing.

Riven swears. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“Then move!”

We end up back to back, fighting in sync like we’ve done this our whole lives.

He guards my blind spots. I heal him when blades slip through.

It feels right.

That scares me more than the rogues.
A horn blasts. Deeper. Louder. Wrong.

Kael’s voice cuts through the chaos. “They’ve breached the council hall!”

My blood went cold.

That’s the heart of the pack. The elders. The records. The civilians hiding underground.

This isn’t about territory anymore.
It’s about erasing us.

“I’m going,” I said.

Riven grabs my wrist. “Not alone.”

Kael drops down from the battlements in front of us like a storm made flesh.

He took in the scene in one sharp glance.

“No,” he says immediately. “You’re not.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.

“Not this time.”

The ground shakes again. Screams rise from the direction of the hall.

Kael’s jaw tightens. He looks between us. Then nods once.

“Stay between us,” he says. “Both of you. You hear me?”

Riven snorts. “Try to keep up.”

Kael growls but didn’t argue.

We run.

The corridors to the hall are choked with smoke and bodies. Rogues fight like they want to die. Like someone promised them
something worse if they fail.

I threw fire until my arms feel like they’re tearing apart. I heal until my vision blurs.

At the doors to the hall, we’re too late.
They’re already inside.

We burst through and everything explodes at once.

Magic slams into me like a wall. I fly back and hit stone hard enough to knock the breath out of me.

“Selene!” Riven shouts.

I force myself up. My ears ring. My head throbs.

The hall is burning.

Elders lie scattered across the floor. Some don’t move.

At the center stands a man I don’t recognize. Tall. Calm. Wearing the rogue symbol openly on his chest.

He smiles when he sees me.

“There you are,” he says. “The Goddess’s pet.”
Rage floods me so fast I shake.

“You did this,” I say.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you exist.”

He lifts his hand. Dark magic coils around his fingers. Old. Twisted.

“You’re a mistake,” he continues. “And mistakes need correcting.”

Kael moves in front of me without hesitation. “You’ll die before you touch her.”

The man laughs. “So dramatic.”

The fight is brutal.

Kael goes for the kill. Riven flanks. The rogue leader counters every move like he’s studied them both. Like he’s been preparing.

For me.

He throws a blade of dark energy. Kael blocks it—but not all the way.

It tears through his side.

“Kael!” I screamed.

He stumbles. Blood pours down his armor.
Riven roars and charges. The leader turns and drives a spear of magic straight through Riven’s shoulder.

Riven cries out. Goes down.

My heart cracks open.

“No,” I whisper. “No. No. No.”

Something snaps inside me.

The fire doesn’t bloom this time.
It erupts.

White-hot. Uncontrolled. It pours out of me in a wave that shatters stone and incinerates everything in its path.

The rogue leader screams. He doesn’t die right away. He burns. Slowly.

The hall goes silent except for the crackle of flames.

I stand in the center of it, shaking. My vision tunnels. My power keeps pouring out even when I try to stop it.

“Selene,” Kael rasps. “Look at me.”

I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what I’ve done.

“Selene,” Riven groans. “Please.”

I force myself to breathe. To pull it back. The fire fades, leaving ruin behind.

I drop to my knees.

Kael crawls toward me despite the wound. He cups my face with a bloody hand. “You saved us.”

“I almost killed you,” I choke.

“But you didn’t.”

Riven drags himself closer. His smile is weak.
“Still standing.”

Tears spill. I don’t wipe them away.

“I can’t do this,” I say. “I can’t keep choosing who lives.”

Kael’s thumb brushes my cheek. “You already are.”

The rest of the pack floods in moments later.

The rogues retreat. Again. Always again.
Victory tastes like ash.

Later, as healers rush and bodies are counted, I sit between two beds in the infirmary.

Kael on one side. Riven on the other.

Both alive.Barely.

I hold their hands. One warm. One rough. Both real.

Outside, the pack mourns. Inside, I break.
Because I know this siege wasn’t the end.

It was a message.

And whatever comes next will demand a price

I’m not sure I can pay.