Chapter 214 214.The Heart calls

Chapter 214 214.The Heart calls
Elira

The sound splits the night like shattering glass, a violent, splintering crack that reverberates through the mountains. Silver light fractures across the invisible dome above our territory, spiderwebbing in jagged lines before imploding inward.

Pain detonates inside my chest.

It feels like someone has driven a blade straight through my sternum and twisted.

I collapse to my hind legs in the magic-dusted clearing, claws digging into frozen earth as the backlash tears through me. The barrier was never just a spell. It was alive. It was tethered to my pulse.

And now it is being ripped apart.

But none of that compares to the feeling of being duped.

Tirianna had passed on the heart.

And now Keith had the upper hand.

She whipped her head toward the rush of air and watched as Keith moved at breakneck speed toward her.

“Elira!” one of her guards called as her wolves moved into motion.

Voices shout around me, but they sound distant, muffled under the roaring in my ears.

Inside my head, my Lycan surges forward, slamming against my consciousness.

The heart. Her voice is deeper than mine, ancient and feral, vibrating through my bones. We must get it.

Another crack splits the sky.

The barrier implodes in a shower of silver fragments that dissolve into nothing.

My forces swarm around me like water around a rock, forming a vicious line of defense against the onslaught of Keith’s wolves and his lycan allies.

Kieth’s shift is so swift, he is a flash of white moments before his heavy paws shake the ground. In his lycan form, he is almost as big as my beast, though it's the extension of my limbs that gives me my height, whereas Keith is just as stocky as he is large.

The clash of fang and claw bears the weight of finality.

I look quickly at Tirianna. The sight of her body stripped of life gives me a morose glee that settles like honey on my tongue.

Now to find the new keeper nd deliver the same fate.

Multiple wolves attack the white lycan at once. He pivots, with impressive footwork, dances out of reach from one's attack. Another wolf lands on his back and bites down on his scruff. The white lycan bucks nd swipes out with his paws to prevent another from getting too close.

He manages to flip the wolf off of him and bite down on his neck, delivering a killing blow. Without stopping, he moves on to the others. One of his wolves joins him.

My beast bucks back, moving further away from Keith's progression.

The collision is inevitable, but when we do meet, it will be with me as the owner of the heart, and him being forced to kneel.

Bodies slam together with bone-jarring force. Snarls and yelps erupt. Teeth sink into flesh. The metallic scent of blood rises, smoking through the air like the final wisps of fire.

I move through bodies, sniffing the air and huffing in frustration.

Too many bodies between me and what is mine.

I move through the battlefield on elongated limbs that bend and flex in ways nature never intended. My claws sink deep into churned earth, each step tearing trenches into soil and bone alike. Wolves scatter when they see me. Some try to stand their ground.
“Find it,” the beast inside me croons, her voice layered beneath mine. “The Heart calls.”
I lift my head and inhale.
Copper. Ash. Fear.
And beneath it—
A whisper.
Ancient. Familiar.
My lips peel back from teeth too large for my mouth to close fully. Saliva drips from the corners as hunger coils low in my gut.
Tirianna, I mutter, thinks herself clever, but that power could never remain hidden.
She reeks of it still, my beast hisses. She carried it too long.
I shove through a cluster of fighting wolves, swiping one aside when he lunges at me. My three-clawed hand splits his shoulder open. He falls. I don’t look back.
The scent is faint, fractured by magic and chaos.
Someone screams my name.
I ignore it.
A body slams into my side—Thorne, I think. He shifts midair, claws aiming for my throat. I twist unnaturally, spine bending too far, and catch him by the jaw. My grip crushes bone, but at the last second, he twists and escapes me.
The liquid scent of the heart stings my nose, mixing with…Thorne?
The beast purrs. There it is.
I look over, and Thorne looks at me if wolves could smirk, his would.
He turns and runs.
A flare of power ripples across the field—residual magic from the shattered barrier. It burns against my unstable flesh. My scars twitch. Muscle knots and reknits.
Pain flickers.
I shove it down.
And give chase.
The Heart. My beast says. Focus.
Thorne moves toward the northern ridge, where the air carries a cleaner current. Less smoke. Less interference.
There.
A thread.
Thin but unmistakable.
I follow it, vaulting over a collapsed barricade. An enforcer rushes me with a battle cry, blades flashing silver in the moonlight.
He snarls, and once again I’m slapped with the metallic, smoky flavour of the heart.
This is impossible.
I reorient myself.
He strikes fast. I am faster.
One elongated limb extends, curls around his barrel body, reaching the ribs. His teeth sink against my left ankle, and I drag my claws down his side.
He perrys before I could catch a vital spot.
He darts out of range, and another wolf takes his place. This is one female. Her lithe form moves with the liquid grace of a running river.
She narrowed in on me.
Brave.
Foolish.
I hurl her into two other wolves, but stop short as that scent slashes against me.
My beast shudders with delight. My lizard brain is latching onto my prize as the analytical side of me tries to process what is going on.
How could all three carry that scent? Were they near the heart?
Yes, that had to be it. They were shielding the new guardian.
It must be close.
Yes… yes… it is close, my beast said. I can feel her anticipation—the growing need to get her hands on the heart, to wrap her claws around unquestionable power.
I let out a piercing growl and barrel through the wolves following my first target. It has to be him. The brush gets thicker the further from the settlement I run. Twigs break under my paws, the terrain turning from smooth damp dirt to wild unventured mazes.
The trail splits.
Three directions.
I pause, nostrils flaring.
The sound of a chase comes from behind. There is no time to think. I want to avoid another altercation and save my energy for the clash with the new guardian.
I choose the strongest thread and charge through the forest line beyond the main battlefield. Branches snap against my distorted frame. My claws carve through trunks that dare stand in my way.
The scent intensifies.
It pools ahead like spilled light.
I slow.
The clearing opens before me, quiet compared to the chaos behind.
Too quiet.
A single wolf stands at the center—one I know all to well.
Xavier.
His stance is steady, chin lifted despite the way his pulse thrums wildly in his throat.
I inhale deeply.
The Heart’s scent wraps around him.
Triumphant laughter bubbles up from my chest.
“You?” I mock, his eyes widen in temporary shock as my voice carries out from my beast. “Of course, she gave it to you?”
That’s right, my beast says. Let him see our power. How we can do what he cannot.
His face pacifies. He doesn’t answer.
He only smiles faintly.
The beast inside me stiffens.
“Something is wrong.”
Movement flickers at the edge of the trees.
I turn my head sharply.
A lycan, still in human skin, steps out to my left.
The Heart’s scent clings to him, too.
To my right, a female Alpha emerges.
The same ancient whisper coils around her skin as more appear.
Behind me. Ahead
All of them radiating that same unmistakable trace.
My pulse spikes.
It wasn’t me misinterpreting the scent. They weren’t just protecting the new guardian.
The scent is overwhelming now, layered and thick, saturating the clearing until it feels like I’m drowning in it.
“You think this is a game?” I snarl, my voice distorting with rage.
One of the Lycans tilts his head slightly. “You tell us.”
I lash out at the nearest tree, splintering it with a single strike.
“It cannot be split,” I hiss. “The Heart chooses one Guardian.”
The female steps forward just enough for the moonlight to catch her eyes. “Does it?” she asks softly.
My mind races.
This isn’t possible.
Unless they found a way to fragment the signature—ritual duplication, scent weaving, magic overlay—
The beast inside me recoils.They are baiting us.
Of course they are.
The clearing ignites with movement as more wolves step from the shadows, forming a tightening circle. Each one carries that same infuriating echo of the Heart’s power.
Layered.
Interwoven.
Indistinguishable.
“You masked the true bearer,” I say slowly, fury sharpening every word. “You spread its scent among you.”
Xavior’s smile widens just slightly. “Maybe. I guess you're going to have to find out.
I lunge for him.
The trap springs instantly.
Chains of silver-infused netting snap up from the ground beneath my feet, tangling around my elongated limbs. Magic pulses through the metal, biting into unstable flesh.
I roar and thrash, claws slicing through two strands—but more tighten, glowing brighter.
I sly looking lycan male steps closer but keeps his distance.
“You’re predictable, Elira. Or should I say over confident. Just like your ancestors.”
“Release me!” I shriek, my voice cracking into layered distortion.
The wolves don’t retreat.
They don’t falter.
They hold the circle.
And every single one of them smells like the Heart.
My eyes dart from face to face.
I can’t tell.
I can’t separate the true thread from the woven lie.
The beast howls inside my skull, enraged and humiliated.
Rage floods every vein.
“You think this will stop me?” I snarl, straining against the net as it burns into my skin. “I will tear every one of you apart after I make you watch your loved ones' screams.”
Tessa’s expression doesn’t change.
They think they’ve won.
My beast howls, sending out my final call.
And the trees shift in answer.