Ninety Four: The Awakening

Ninety Four: The Awakening
Ronald’s POV

The light hit first.

Not fire.

Not magic the way the Council used it.

Something older.

Silver tore across the arena like lightning, blinding, violent, alive. I flinched, the chains biting deeper into my wrists as the runes flared in response.

“Mara…”

My voice came out rough, almost lost under the roar of the crowd.

Below, she stood at the center of it all, no longer just fighting, no longer barely holding on.

She was burning.

Silver flames licked along her skin, wrapping around her like a second form. Her wolf wasn’t hidden anymore. It moved with her, through her, a shadow of light instead of darkness.

The entire arena went still.

Even the monster hesitated.

Lucas let out a low breath beside me. “That’s not just power,” he muttered. “That’s… something else.”

“Yeah,” I said, eyes locked on her. “That’s her.”

My chest tightened, but not from pain this time.

From something deeper.

Pride.

Fear.

And something dangerously close to awe.

Mara lifted her blade slowly, the silver light stretching with it, bending the air around her.

The creature backed up a step. Then another.

For the first time since this started…

it looked unsure.

“She’s doing it,” I breathed.

Lucas shook his head. “No… she’s becoming it.”

The silence didn’t last.

“Witchcraft!” one of the Elders screamed from above.

The spell broke.

“She’s using forbidden power!” another shouted.

“This is no Alpha, this is corruption!”

“End it now!”

The voices rose fast, panicked, desperate.

The Head Elder slammed his staff down. “Stop the trial! Kill her where she stands!”

My head snapped up.

“What?”

Guards along the arena walls shifted immediately, weapons rising, waiting for the command to strike.

“No,” I said under my breath.

Lucas cursed. “They’re breaking their own laws.”

“They were never following them,” I growled.

Below, Mara didn’t move. She didn’t even look at them.

Her focus was locked on the creature.

Good.

Because if she looked up..

if she saw what they were about to do..

I didn’t know if she’d still hold that control.

The Head Elder raised his staff again. “By authority of the Council, the Silverfang heir is condemned. Execute!”

“Try it.”

My voice cut through the chamber like a blade.

Every head turned.

I stepped forward, chains rattling, my entire body vibrating with barely-contained rage. “You take one step toward her,” I said slowly, “and I start tearing throats out.”

The Elder sneered. “You forget yourself, Alpha. You are bound.”

I smiled coldly and dangerously. “Then maybe it’s time I stopped caring.”

The runes on my wrists flared, reacting instantly. Pain shot up my arms, sharp and brutal.

I didn’t stop.

My wolf surged forward, slamming against the inside of my skin. Break it.

“I will,” I muttered.

Lucas grabbed my arm. “Ronald, don’t be stupid—those aren’t normal chains.”

“I know exactly what they are.”

I tightened my grip, muscles straining. The metal dug deeper, the runes burning brighter.

Below, the creature lunged again.

Mara met it.

This time, the clash shook the entire arena.

Silver light exploded outward, forcing the monster back like it weighed nothing. It hit the ground hard, sliding across the stone.

The crowd gasped.

“She’s overpowering it,” Lucas said under his breath.

“Of course she is,” I snapped. “They just didn’t expect her to survive long enough to prove it.”

The Elders were shouting again now, louder, angrier.

“She cannot be allowed to live!”

“That power will destroy us all!”

“End her before it spreads!”

One of the guards stepped forward.

That was it.

Something in me snapped.

I pulled.

Hard.

The chain resisted for half a second

Then cracked.

A sharp, violent sound echoed through the chamber as one of the links split apart under the force.

The runes flared wildly, backlash slamming into me like a hammer. Pain tore through my arms, but I barely felt it over the roar in my ears.

Lucas staggered back. “You just broke”

“I’m not done,” I growled.

Below, Mara moved like something untouchable now. Every strike she made landed clean, precise, unstoppable. The creature was faltering, its movements slower, its confidence gone.

But something felt off.

My wolf went still.

Not calm.

Not satisfied.

Alert.

Something’s wrong.

I frowned, scanning the arena. The crowd. The guards. The shadows along the edges of the stone walls.

Everything looked the same.

But it didn’t feel the same.

The bond flickered not from Mara this time.

From something else.

A presence.

Close.

Moving.

My eyes narrowed.

“There,” I muttered.

Lucas followed my gaze. “What?”

“Don’t you feel that?”

He shook his head. “Feel what?”

I didn’t answer.

Because I was already watching it.

A figure.

Half-hidden in the shadows near the lower pillars of the arena. Still. Too still.

Not watching the fight.

Watching her.

My chest tightened.

“Lucas…” I said slowly. “That’s not one of ours.”

The figure shifted slightly.

Just enough for moonlight to catch the edge of a blade.

Poison-dark.

Aimed.

Not at the creature.

At Mara.

My blood ran cold.

“They’re not waiting for her to lose,” I said, voice dropping. “They’re making sure she doesn’t win.”

The assassin adjusted their stance.

Preparing to strike.

Now.

My wolf exploded inside me.

MOVE.

I yanked against the remaining chain, rage tearing through every inch of me.

“Mara!” I roared.

But the sound came too late because the shadow moved.