Chapter 158 The wolf she never knew she was
Chapter 158
DARIUS
I could not move.
Everything Asteria had just revealed was still ringing in my ears, loud and relentless.
Ravenna had been behind the leaked video. She had caused the war. She had done all of it to get at me and my father.
A part of me understood why. I did. After everything I had put her through, after everything my father had done, she had every reason to want to burn our world down.
But people had died.
That was the part I could not get past. Real people. Wolves from both sides who had nothing to do with whatever was between us. They were dead because of a revenge plan that started with me.
I stood there, stuck somewhere between anger and the heavy, suffocating weight of my own guilt.
"Darius!"
Sam's voice cut through the noise. She grabbed my arm and pulled hard.
"Do something! You have to stop her!"
I turned toward Ravenna, and my heart stopped.
Golden fur had sprouted across her skin, the colour of moonlight, thick and gleaming under the torches.
Her hair had shifted too, the red strands still present but threaded now with white, like the moon had claimed her.
Her fingers had elongated into werewolf claws, sharp and deadly, curved and ready.
My mouth fell open.
She was a werewolf.
Atlas stirred inside me, deep and certain, his voice low in my mind. "I think her wolf was dormant. Probably put under a spell too when she was a child and rhe reason her scent was human. Whatever she just went through broke it."
I stared at her, trying to process what I was seeing.
"Her emotions spiralled," Atlas continued. "Broke through everything. The spell shattered and her wolf came free. The heightened emotion caused a partial shift."
"Darius!" Sam's hand connected with the side of my face, sharp and hard. "Snap out of it!"
I blinked.
Sam was standing right in front of me, her clothes dirtied and stained with blood, her expression frantic.
She looked like she had already been thrown across the room once.
"Help her," she said, her voice cracking. "She is going crazy. Do something."
I looked past her to where Daniel had been standing.
He was on the floor unconscious. On the far side of the hall, his body limp and unmoving.
Ravenna had done that.
Theodore shot past me before I could react, shouting her name.
"Raven! Raven, calm down! Don't do this!"
He grabbed her arm.
She turned and slapped him away with one hand.
The force sent him tumbling backwards across the platform. He crashed to the floor several feet away, rolled over, and coughed violently, spitting a handful of blood onto the stone.
I stepped back instinctively, my eyes wide.
"Bloody hell!" I gasped.
Caleb appeared beside me, his jaw tight. "Get up," he snapped. "Or she is going to kill her sister and everyone in that rage."
I looked at him.
It was strange, standing next to Caleb after everything. But there was no time to think about that now.
I straightened, and we moved toward her together. Dorian appeared from my other side, falling into step without a word needing to be said between us.
"I think we all need to partial shift," I said quickly, keeping my voice low. "All three of us. We need to match her strength and pull her at the same time."
They both nodded.
Atlas surged forward and I let him, feeling the familiar heat spread through my limbs as I partially shifted. My hands changed, my senses sharpened, my strength doubled.
I moved in from behind, my arms snaking around Ravenna's waist and locking tight. Caleb grabbed one of her arms. Dorian grabbed the other.
We pulled.
For a moment, it felt like we had her.
And then she moved.
It was not a struggle. It was not a fight. She simply broke free, like the three of us were nothing more than an inconvenience, and sent us flying to opposite sides of the hall.
I hit the wall hard, the impact rattling through my bones, and slid to the floor.
Asteria had slumped to the ground the moment we pulled Ravenna off her.
She was coughing violently, both hands clutching her throat, gasping for breath.
Ravenna turned and started moving back toward her.
"Ravenna!"
Sam's voice cut through everything.
It was not a shout. It was not a command. It was raw and desperate, the kind of voice that came from someone who genuinely loved the person they were calling to.
"Please," Sam begged, her voice breaking. "Please do not do this."
Ravenna stopped.
She turned slowly and looked at Sam.
The silence between them stretched for a long, agonising moment.
Then Ravenna snarled low, turned away from her sister, and ran.
She disappeared through the hall and into the woods, her silhouette swallowed by the darkness between the trees.
The hall was completely silent.
Sam walked toward Asteria without hesitation. Asteria was still on the floor, coughing, her neck red and bruised, tears streaming down her face.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked flatly.
Asteria looked up at her, gasping.
And then sam's hand connected with her face in a hard, clean slap.
Asteria recoiled in shock.