Chapter 25 The Battle Outside The Border
Aurelia
“I won’t call him.” My voice cut the night sharper than I expected. “I’m not afraid of you, Father. You’re the same heartless, power-drunk shadow I ran from years ago. You already slaughtered his family. What more could you possibly crave?”
Cassian’s eyes glinted, dark amusement laced with something colder.
“The Onyx fang itself.” he answered, smiling wide. “The Onyx fang has been passed down from Alpha to Alpha for over one hundred years. Can you imagine the kind of power I'll be able to access if I get the onyx fang?”
Varrick whipped around, shock carving his features. He had believed my father wanted only me.
I had believed the same. It turned out he was chasing the onyx fang, which meant he'd have to kill Zhayad to pull out the onyx fang.
Now that the truth hung out in the open like dirty linen, word would spread and others would join the competition.
Varrick’s claws flexed, uncertain for the first time.
“You said—”
“I said what you needed to hear,” my father interrupted him without glancing at him, his voice smooth as oil on water. “You were useful. You still are. For now.”
I seized the distraction. My mind reached inward, fumbling for the mate bond. I had never spoken through it, never learned the delicate threads to pull, yet instinct took over.
I remembered Zhayad’s gaze, the way it always stripped me bare yet held me like something priceless.
The way his eyes flared bright then darkened just before he claimed me.
The reverence in his voice when he whispered my name against my skin, as though it were a sacred vow.
I poured every fragment of feeling into that memory, fear, longing, fury, love, and shoved it down the bond.
‘Aurelia?’ His voice crashed through me—raspy, breathless, edged with battle.
He was alive, but still fighting.
My knees nearly buckled from relief.
‘Aurelia, where are you?’ Urgency sharpened every word. ‘Tell me now. I’ll leave this battlefield and come for you. Are you hurt? Give me anything.’
Gods, this man unraveled me even across miles of blood-soaked forest.
He made submission feel like worship.
I swallowed hard, my throat still raw.
‘Outside the border. Varrick had me before my father showed up. They want you to come, but it’s a trap.’ I couldn't give him the full details because of time.
Silence stretched for one heartbeat, then his fury roared back through the bond, like lava erupting from the gaping mouth of a volcano.
‘Hold on. I’m coming.’
My father's head snapped toward me as though he sensed the silent conversation.
His smile vanished, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“You already reached him,” he said quietly. It was not a question.
Varrick snarled impatiently. “Why don't we just kill her now and push her Alpha over the edge?” He asked, licking his lips.
“You're asking me to kill my daughter? The one I've been hunting for years?” My father snapped.
“You came here with a motive, same with me. I came to break the Alpha.” Varrick slashed the air with his claws as he spat the words.
“We have something in common. Stick with me and you'll get the chance to break him.” My father assured him.
Then to me, he said, “You’ve just signed his death warrant, daughter. He’ll come running to save you… straight into our jaws.”
I lifted my chin higher, refusing to tremble.
“Then you’ll have to go through me first.”
My father gave a chilling laugh. “I already have.”
He lifted his other hand, and dark light gathered at his fingertips again, thicker this time, writhing like living smoke.
Pain lanced through my skull, and I screamed, collapsing to my knees, my vision fracturing.
The bond flickered wildly, Zhayad’s roar of panic flooding me even as my father’s power crushed inward.
‘Aurelia!’ His voice was thunder, desperate, and furious. ‘Hold on. I’m almost there.’
I clawed at the dirt, fighting to stay conscious, fighting to keep the bond open.
My father crouched in front of me, tilting my chin up with one finger.
“Call him louder,” he whispered. “Let him hear you scream.”
I spat blood in his face.
His smile returned, as if I'd made him proud by spitting in his face. “Good girl,” he said.
“Now scream for your Alpha one last time.”
The pain surged again, deeper and darker this time, tearing through every nerve and muscle in my body.
I screamed Zhayad’s name into the night. And somewhere beyond the trees, a white wolf answered with a howl that shook the stars.
My father whirled at the sound of Zhayad’s howl, his cloak snapping like a flag in sudden wind.
“We’re about to feast,” Varrick mused, rubbing his palms together with greedy relish.
A white blur erupted from the shadowed field behind Varrick’s men.
Zhayad struck like winter lightning. He was a blur of light and movement. Blood sprayed in dark arcs across the ground, painting the dirt crimson.
Three shifters fell before they could even turn, throats torn open, bodies crumpling in wet heaps.
My father's jaw slackened for the first time I could remember.
‘Remain where you are,’ Zhayad commanded through the bond, his voice rough with battle and something fierce, fear for me, maybe.
Varrick’s howl ripped the night apart. Bones cracked and reshaped in brutal seconds, then thick brown fur erupted over muscle until a massive wolf stood in his place, eyes blazing yellow, jaws dripping with fat drops of saliva.
Zhayad didn’t hesitate. He feinted left, circling as though measuring his prey, then exploded right, claws flashing in a silver arc.
He slashed Varrick’s throat from behind. The brown wolf threw his head back in a gurgling roar of agony, blood fountaining.
Zhayad struck again, this time he took a long, vicious swipe along Varrick’s flank, tearing the skin from flesh to bone.
My father finally recovered from the shock of watching Zhayad fight like it was his destiny.
He punched one fist skyward, and the air ignited, flames roaring to life in a perfect ring around the clearing, hungry and unnatural, licking toward Zhayad like living serpents.
I didn’t think, I slammed both palms to the earth.
The same magic tore out of me, spilling from my fingertips in shimmering threads. Like father, like daughter, after all.
A dome of pale light burst upward, enveloping Zhayad and me in a fragile, glowing shield.
The fire crashed against it, and heat pressed inward, scorching my skin even through the barrier.
The dome trembled, wavered, but it held. Eh, barely.
Zhayad’s wolf spun inside our fragile sanctuary, his green eyes locking on mine through the haze.
Blood matted his white fur, yet he looked more alive than ever, fierce, unbreakable, and utterly mine.
My father's voice sliced across the flames. “You think a child’s shield can stop me? You're just a learner, Aurelia.”