chapter 95. The Real Enemy Revealed

chapter 95. The Real Enemy Revealed
Lia

The screaming was coming from the western border.
I ran beside Kai through the pack house corridors, my broken ribs grinding with each step, my breath coming in sharp gasps. Behind us, warriors poured from their quarters, some loyal, some who'd wanted me dead hours ago, all of them recognizing that pack survival trumped internal politics.
For now.
"How many?" Kai barked at the messenger who'd intercepted us.
"At least fifty, Alpha. Maybe more." The young wolf's eyes were wild with fear. "They're not just fighting, they're slaughtering. Taking heads as trophies. They want everyone to see what happens when…"
A howl cut through his words. Not a battle cry. A death scream.
I felt my wolf surge against the silver poisoning, desperate to help, to fight, to do something. But my body was barely holding together. One wrong move and I'd collapse, become a liability instead of an asset.
We burst into the courtyard to find chaos.
Wolves in mid-shift, some attacking, some fleeing. Blood slicking the stones. And at the center of it all….
"Impossible," Kai breathed.
The Eastern Pack warriors weren't just skilled. They were coordinated in a way that shouldn't be possible for an attacking force. They moved like a single organism, cutting through Feril's defenses with surgical precision.
And leading them was a massive black wolf with eyes like ice chips.
Alpha Ronan. I recognized him from the descriptions, brutal, efficient, and utterly without mercy.
He shifted mid-stride, his human form just as intimidating as his wolf. Scars covered his bare chest, each one a story of violence survived. When he spoke, his voice carried across the battlefield with unnatural clarity.
"Alpha Kai. How generous of you to make this easy." His smile was all teeth. "We've come for the hybrid. Give her to us, and we'll leave the rest of your pack intact. Refuse, and we paint your territory red."
"You can go fuck yourself with a silver blade," Kai snarled back, already shifting.
Ronan's laugh was sharp, cruel. "I expected that answer. Pity. Your mate has made you weak. Made you stupid. Made you exactly what we needed you to be."
We. Not just the Eastern Pack.
"You're working with the Circle," I called out, my voice carrying despite the pain. "You're their attack dogs."
Ronan's attention swiveled to me, and his expression shifted to something like hunger. "There she is. The Silvermane Luna. Worth more alive than dead, but either works." He gestured, and three wolves broke from his formation, heading straight for me.
Kai intercepted the first one, his claws tearing through throat and chest in one brutal motion. Viktor appeared from nowhere to take the second, their fight spilling away from me.
The third reached me before anyone could stop him.
I'd never fought with broken ribs before. Never tried to defend myself while my body screamed for rest, for healing, for mercy.
Turned out, I didn't need mercy. I needed rage.
The Eastern wolf was fast, but he expected an easy target. Expected me to be as broken as I looked.
I ducked his first strike, used his momentum to drive my knife into his kidney. Not a kill shot, but enough to slow him. His howl of pain brought another warrior toward us, and I realized with sick clarity that I couldn't take them both.
"LIA, DOWN!"
I dropped without thinking. A massive silver-furred wolf sailed over me, Theron's scent unmistakable even in wolf form.
What the hell was he doing here?
But there was no time to question it. Theron tore into the Eastern warriors with a ferocity that matched Kai's, and suddenly we had backup I didn't know we'd needed.
More Silvercrest wolves poured through the gates—not just warriors, but healers, strategists, reinforcements. Theron had brought his entire elite guard.
Ronan's confident smile faltered.
"FALL BACK!" His command cracked like a whip. "Regroup at the eastern perimeter!"
The Eastern Pack retreated with the same eerie coordination they'd attacked with, leaving behind a dozen bodies, both theirs and ours.
The silence after battle was always worse than the fighting. That's when you counted the cost. When you saw who wasn't standing anymore.
Theron shifted back to human form, utterly unselfconscious about his nudity. His silver eyes found me immediately. "You look like shit, Solnyshko."
"You look like a gift from the gods." I tried to smile but my split lip made it more of a grimace. "How did you…"
"Do you need help? Please. I've been tracking the Circle for three years. The moment they contracted the Eastern Pack, I knew where they'd hit." He accepted the clothes someone handed him, dressing with efficient movements. "Besides, Viktor sent word. Said things were going to hell and you needed allies who weren't trying to stab you in the back."
Kai approached, blood-soaked and breathing hard. His eyes on Theron were wary, territorial. "We didn't ask for your help."
"No, you were too busy imploding to ask for anything useful." Theron's tone was matter-of-fact, not aggressive. "But Lia did. When she was at Silvercrest, she asked me to watch for Circle activity near Feril. Said if they ever made a move, she wanted a warning."
I had done that. Before everything had fallen apart, before the cell and the trial and the complete dissolution of trust.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
Theron's expression softened. "Don't thank me yet. That was a probing attack. Ronan was testing your defenses, seeing how fractured you really are. The real assault comes at dawn."
"Then we have…" Kai checked the position of the moon “…maybe four hours. Not enough time to fortify properly."
"No, but enough time to do what you should have done weeks ago." Theron looked between us. "Stop fighting each other and start fighting the real enemy."
A commotion at the gates drew our attention. Seraphina strode through with purpose, flanked by half the Council. But her expression wasn't triumphant or manipulative now.
I was terrified.
"Alpha." She stopped in front of Kai, and I saw genuine fear in her eyes for the first time. "I need to show you something. All of you. It can't wait."
Kai's jaw tightened. "If this is another political maneuver"
"It's not." She pulled out a tablet, hands shaking slightly as she brought up a document. "After you threw me out, I was angry. Decided to prove you wrong about me. So I went digging deeper into the Circle's network. And I found... this."
She turned the screen toward us. It showed a list of pack names, dates, and coordinated attacks.
"The Circle isn't just targeting dormant bloodlines," Seraphina's voice was hollow. "They're orchestrating a complete restructuring of the pack hierarchy. Every Alpha who's refused to join them, every Luna who's shown independence, every warrior who's questioned pure-blood supremacy, they're all targets."
I scanned the list, my blood turning to ice. "These are execution orders."