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Tension pervaded the night air, and the battlefield was silent and peaceful before the impending conflict. Thornwood's wolves howled in the distance, their cries raw with uncertainty and expectation, carried by the wind. Although no blade had been pulled yet, there was still a faint smell of blood and moist ground.

The mood changed as soon as Thalia entered the battlefield.

She moved with the smooth grace of a predator, a figure dressed in silver armor and dark leather. As she went on, her long cloak billowed behind her, the moonlight illuminating the complex marks down her arms, the battle scars of a woman who had once been broken but had reforged herself into something uncompromising.

The first were the rumors. Then the murmurs began to spread like a chilly breeze across Orion's men's ranks.

"She's present."

"Goddamn it, it's her."

Upon seeing her, a scout who was just over twenty years old staggered back. He turned to face Garreth, his broad-shouldered leader, his fingers tightening around the hilt of his sword.

"She should be dead," the scout growled.

Garreth kept quiet. With a jaw so tense it would break, he tightened his hold on his firearm. He watched as Thalia slowed to a stop at the field's edge, his eyes fixed on her. She held herself with an uncomfortable air, unflinching and unafraid.

She then did something that chilled his blood.

Her smile came on her face.

Her lips curled slowly and knowingly, revealing every tragedy she had endured and every foe she had outlasted.

A shiver of anxiety ran through Orion's army. Now, the lady who had been described to them as frail, abandoned, and buried in the wreckage of her life was standing in front of them, exuding strength.

One of the grizzled mercenaries spat on the floor. She was a ghost story, they said. A caution to beware of traitors

"So why does she appear more alive than any of us?" mumbled another man.

Garreth let out a loud breath and jolted out of his reverie. He yelled, "Enough," his voice piercing the ambiguity. She is only one woman. Walking dead queen. She can't take on us by herself; we are an army.

However, he wasn't certain he believed it even as he was speaking.

Because Thalia wasn't the only one who came.

Out of the darkness, a second figure appeared: a tall warrior dressed in the colors of Thornwood. Ryker. With his amber eyes blazing with silent challenge, he stepped to her side. As if they had already won this war in their imaginations, the columns of their warriors behind him started to fill the field, moving silently and with steady steps.

Still, Thalia was the one who captured their interest.

Edric, a veteran who had witnessed several wars, a lieutenant from Orion's soldiers, approached from the far side of the battlefield and studied her as though she were a nightmare creature. "This cannot be done," he whispered. "Her presence is inappropriate."

Thalia cocked her head slightly and stared at him. "And yet I'm standing here."

The hush that ensued was oppressive.

A voice then growled from inside Orion's camp, "Cowards, all of you!"

One of the men, dressed in heavy armor, came forward, his presence so imposing that the smaller troops instinctively straightened.

"Gregor." One of the commanders Orion trusts. He displayed scorn instead of terror, unlike the others.

He growled and yanked his blade free, saying, "I don't care who she is." "I'll knock a woman down myself if you're too weak to do it."

Under the moonlight, his weapon shone as he entered the field.

Thalia did nothing but watch him come closer.

“You look like you want to die,” she thought.

Gregor's laughter was a bark. And it seems like you want to act like you have a chance. His blade was raised. "Are there no final words before I chop you down?"

A gradual smile returned to Thalia's lips. “Just this—”

She took action before he could respond.

She was motionless for one second. She was a whirlwind of movement the next moment, slipping past his defenses with such ease and elegance that it chilled everyone in the vicinity.

Gregor had hardly had time to comprehend the change when he was on his knees, his wrist wrenched at an odd angle, his weapon torn from his hands. Thalia leaned down and whispered something in his ear as a choked cry escaped his throat.

"You ought to have bolted."

She let him fall to the ground, crumpling him.

Suddenly the battlefield was engulfed in a deafening quiet.

Be afraid.

Like poison, it contaminated the air and crept into Orion's forces.

Thalia stood up, looking about at the men in the crowd. "You already know how this ends," she yelled, her voice carrying with effortless authority, "if you choose to stand against me."

A pause, a beat. Next, another.

There was an uncomfortable change.

A younger recruit, a soldier near the rear, then retreated a step.

Another came next.

Cracks were starting to appear.

Ryker, who remained by her side, observed with a silent sense of joy. He spoke in a low enough voice for only she to hear, leaning slightly in her direction. "You always had a way of introducing yourself."

Thalia grinned without answering.

Garreth turned abruptly, his annoyance leaking out from somewhere in the opposing ranks. He said, "Stand your ground!" "You embarrass yourselves!"

His words, however, were being ignored.

Other soldiers faltered. Their self-confidence, which Orion had painstakingly built up through his lies, was disintegrating in the face of the indisputable reality.

The groans of Gregor continued to reverberate. Thalia had quickly taken him down, even though he had been one of their strongest.

The terror established itself.

A low, commanding growl that sent a new wave of anxiety through the lines was suddenly heard coming from the far end of the battlefield.

“Enough.”

Orion.

Thalia tensed her back. The muscles in Ryker tensed, prepared.

The air itself was swallowed by a man that strode into the moonlight, his dark armor shining like obsidian. The hesitating soldiers froze as he got there, as though they were frightened to express their hesitancy in his presence.

Orion looked at Thalia, and the weight of it was oppressive. The stiffness in his posture told her all she needed to know, but his face was inscrutable.

His men were shook by her.

She had shaken his grip on them.

He despised her for it.

Nobody said anything for a long time.

Orion then let out a slow, thorough exhale. His voice resonating around the field, he declared, "You've played your games long enough."

Thalia raised a chin. "Want to win them too?"

Orion felt a muscle in his jaw twitch.

He then grinned. It's a hazardous, slow thing.

"Let's make this right." With a dark and evil glimmer in his eyes, he turned to face Ryker.

Orion's voice was teasing and seductive as he continued, "A duel." "Me and you, Ryker. From Alpha to Alpha.

Shock rippled through both armies at the words.

Thalia's eyes squinted.

Ryker clenched his jaw.

In the oppressive quiet, he finally said something.

"Done."

The combat zone held its breath.

The battle was no longer solely about numbers and strategy.

It was about them.

And there would only be one Alpha who walks away.