Chapter 149
Kane's POV
Two massive wolves faced each other on the narrow suspension bridge, the wooden planks groaning under our combined weight. Draven's grizzled brown wolf didn't rush to attack—instead, he let out an eerie, guttural snarl. With his roar, crimson runes surfaced beneath his fur, pulsing with a sickly glow—the unmistakable mark of witch-crafted blood magic.
I could feel Blaze's unease rippling through our shared consciousness.
The stench radiating from those runes was nauseating, like rotting flesh mixed with sulfur, thick enough to choke on. Draven's body swelled under the magic's influence, his muscles hardening into something closer to iron, his eyes burning with a feral, unhinged light.
I struck first. Blaze's speed was my advantage, honed through years of arena combat, and I intended to use it to knock Draven into the abyss. My black form shot across the bridge like lightning, claws carving deep gouges into the decaying wood.
But Draven's body might as well have been forged from steel—he didn't budge.
The instant my claws made contact with his fur, a corrosive surge of blood magic erupted from within him. The burning sensation tore through my limbs, as if I'd pressed my paws against molten iron. The force flung me backward, and I slammed into the bridge's support cables. The entire structure lurched violently, several rotted planks snapping free and tumbling into the darkness below, swallowed without a sound.
I barely managed to steady myself.
Blaze roared a warning in my mind—Draven's strength and defense had skyrocketed under the blood magic's influence. Meeting him head-on would only drain us faster.
Draven didn't give me a moment to breathe. He charged with a manic laugh, his enormous frame splintering plank after plank, the bridge shrieking under the assault. His attacks were chaotic, reckless, a brutal exchange of blow for blow meant to corner me.
I was forced to leap between swaying ropes and broken boards. Blaze's frame, though large, was slightly smaller than Draven's—my only advantage.
I twisted and dodged across the fragmenting bridge.
Draven's claws raked across my side, tearing three deep gashes that exposed bone. Blood dripped from my black fur, but I bit down hard, refusing to let out even a whimper.
The bridge shuddered violently under the clash of two beasts, its support cables beginning to fray. I had to end this quickly, or the entire structure would collapse beneath us.
I feigned an opening.
My hind leg slipped off the edge, my body teetering in midair.
Greed flashed in Draven's eyes. He lunged with a triumphant roar, jaws wide open, aiming for the kill.
Now.
The moment Draven overcommitted, I coiled my core and hooked the support cable with my hind leg, using the momentum to twist my body in an impossible arc. The bridge recoiled sharply from Draven's missed strike, and I used the violent rebound to launch myself upward like a black cannonball, slamming into the soft underbelly of his abdomen with every ounce of force I had.
Draven let out a guttural scream.
No amount of blood magic could fully shield internal organs. My strike disrupted the flow of power within him, and the crimson runes began to flicker erratically.
I didn't give him a chance to recover. The instant I landed, I spun and lunged for his throat. Draven tried to block with his forepaws, but he was half a beat too slow. My fangs sank into the side of his neck, hot blood flooding my mouth, carrying with it a vile, rancid taste.
Draven thrashed wildly, his claws tearing several deep gashes across my back. But I clamped down harder, Blaze's jaw strength fully unleashed.
The crimson runes, deprived of their host's mobility, began to fracture and dissolve.
"No... impossible..." Draven shifted back into his human form, his broken body collapsing onto the swaying bridge. The blood magic's backlash caused his skin to crack open, blood seeping from every fissure.
I reverted to my human form as well, planting my boot on his chest, gripping the blood-slicked mining pick I'd pulled from the splintered planks moments earlier.
Draven coughed up blood, yet his face twisted into a mocking grin. "Kill me... cough... you think this ends anything?" His voice rasped like a broken bellows. "You call me Lord Louis's dog? Kill one, and a thousand more will take my place..."
"A new overseer will come with more elite troops, more powerful witchcraft." His eyes gleamed with malice as he glanced toward the struggling evacuees on the far side of the bridge. "Look at those weaklings behind you... Three days? Five? How far do you think they'll get? This land is already marked. Every rebel will be crushed like the vermin they are."
His words hit me like ice water.
I looked back at the distant faces—Frankie, Faye, Dorothy, Steven—eyes filled with fragile hope. They had placed all their trust in me.
But Draven was right. "Escape" and "sabotage" alone wouldn't ensure survival on land ruled by Blood River.
An uprising without foundation was nothing more than leading everyone to their deaths.
I'd once thought revenge would be enough, that killing the oppressor would bring freedom. But now I understood—true freedom wasn't escape. It was the power to protect.
Unless I built an independent Pack, one with absolute force separate from Blood River, everything else was hollow.
"Then let them come," I said, my voice cold and unwavering. "One by one, I'll kill them all."
The pick fell, ending Draven's wretched life.
I kicked his corpse off the bridge, watching it disappear into the endless dark.
The bridge stopped swaying once the weight of one massive wolf was gone, though the support cables were on the verge of snapping. I stood in the center, staring into the bottomless chasm, and I realized something had shifted inside me. I was no longer just a "vengeful lone wolf."
In its place, the seed of something else had taken root—the will of a king, someone who would build order and shelter his people.
I was no longer living for myself alone, nor was I driven purely by hatred.
From this moment forward, I was their hope. I was the only barrier standing between them and the darkness.