Chapter 104- The last of Him.

Chapter 104- The last of Him.
Rain could no longer smother the flames that crawled up from the valley. Wolves clashed through the mud, their snarls lost in the thunder.
Ariella’s sword was slick with blood. Every swing cut through smoke and bone; every heartbeat echoed the screams of dying men.
Beside her, Ares was a storm made flesh  his eyes silver-bright, his blade singing through armor and fur. He fought like the god the wolves whispered he was.
But the field was chaotic. Cole’s forces fought with the desperation of those who already knew they were dying.
Ariella cut down another rogue, spun, and froze.
Cole stood on the slope above her  armor cracked, his chest heaving. The glow in his eyes flickered red and silver, caught between Dylan’s control and his own will. His sword dripped crimson under the lightning.
For a heartbeat, the world fell silent.
“Ariella!” Ares shouted. “He’s mine”
“No,” she interrupted, stepping forward. Her voice was steady, her heart hammering. “This ends with me.”
Cole’s mouth twisted. “So the Queen wants to kill a man already half-dead?”
“You chose this path,” she said quietly.
He smiled bitterly. “You think I had a choice?”
Ariella lifted her sword. “We all do.”
He laughed, hollow and pained. “Then let’s see what yours costs you.”
He charged.
Their blades met with a sound like thunder splitting stone. Sparks burst in the rain. Ariella moved fast, her strikes clean, but Cole was relentless  stronger than he should’ve been, as if Dylan’s rage still pumped through his veins.
Steel clashed. Mud sprayed. Every strike drove them higher up the burning ridge.
Ares tried to break through the fighting around them, but soldiers closed ranks. He bellowed her name again, but she didn’t look back.
Cole’s blade sliced across her shoulder. Pain flared white. She countered, cutting through his guard  slicing his armor open, close to the heart.
He stumbled, growled, and lunged again. “You can’t kill me,” he hissed. “Not while he owns my soul.”
“Then I’ll free it,” she said.
Their blades locked. Cole forced her backward, their faces inches apart. His eyes were wild, bloodshot.
“I never wanted this,” he rasped. “I only wanted to matter.”
“You do,” she whispered. “But not like this.”
She twisted, broke his grip, and drove her sword through his chest.
The sound tore through the storm — sharp, final.
Cole staggered, his hand clutching the blade, disbelief in his eyes. The red faded from his irises, replaced by a dull, fragile gray.
For a heartbeat, he looked almost peaceful.
Ariella held him upright. Rain streamed down her face, mixing with tears. “It’s over, Cole.”
He smiled faintly, blood on his teeth. “Maybe for you.”
Then his knees gave way, and he collapsed into the mud.
Ares reached her a moment later. He caught her shoulders, scanning her for wounds. “You’re hurt.”
She shook her head. “He’s gone.”
Ares looked down at Cole’s body. “He was too dangerous to leave alive.”
“I know,” Ariella whispered. “But he wasn’t the monster Dylan made him.”
Ares’s voice softened. “No. But he let himself become one.”
Lightning flared again and then came the sound they had waited for: the retreat horns of the enemy. Cole’s soldiers, seeing their commander fall, were breaking.
Ares turned, raising his sword high. “Hold formation! Push them back!”
The royal wolves howled as one, surging forward. The battle’s end came like a collapsing wave  furious, fast, merciless.
By dawn, the ridge belonged to them.
When the last of Cole’s army scattered into the forest, Ariella stood amid the ruins. The smell of ash and blood clung to her skin. Ares moved beside her, his armor cracked, his expression unreadable.
Claire approached slowly, her face pale. Behind her, Cassian limped, supported by two soldiers. His wrists were still raw from the chains.
“Cassian,” Claire breathed, her voice breaking.
He looked up, eyes hollow but alive. “It’s really you.”
She ran to him, and he caught her weakly in his arms. They clung to each other, shaking, their tears lost in the rain.
“I thought” she began.
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
Ares watched them quietly, his jaw tight. Ariella reached for his hand. “Let them have this moment.”
He nodded. “They’ve earned it.”
The surviving soldiers gathered around the fallen, their howls carrying over the quiet valley. 
Ariella knelt beside Cole’s body one last time. She placed her hand over his chest, the memory of how he stood and watched as Dylan raped her was fresh in her mind.
Then she rose. “We’re done here.”
Ares signaled the retreat. “Back to the palace. Let the dead have the field.”
By the time they reached the gates of the capital, the rain had stopped. The sun rose behind the shattered clouds, painting the towers gold.
The city erupted in cheers as the army entered  battered, bloodied, victorious.
Children threw flower petals from the balconies.For a moment, the kingdom forgot its pain and remembered what hope felt like.
Claire walked beside Cassian, her hand in his. She smiled faintly, but her eyes were far away haunted by the man she’d betrayed and the one she’d saved.
Ariella and Ares rode at the front, their armor gleaming. The people knelt as they passed. Their howls rose again, this time not for mourning  but for unity.
Ariella looked up at the palace gates and whispered, “Home.”
Ares smiled faintly. “For now.”
She glanced at him. “You think Dylan will come?”
His jaw tightened. “Evelyn lived. She’ll tell him everything.”

Far to the south, the forest whispered with the sound of running feet.
Evelyn stumbled through the undergrowth, blood streaked across her face, her cloak torn. Behind her, smoke from the battlefield still curled into the sky.
She reached the clearing where the shadows waited  where Dylan’s presence thickened the air like poison.
He emerged from the mist, tall and silent, his eyes dark as coal.
“Where is Cole?” he asked.
Evelyn fell to her knees. “Dead, my lord. The Queen killed him.”
Dylan’s expression didn’t change. Only the air grew colder.
“And the army?”
“Destroyed.”
He was silent for a long time, then whispered, “So… the wolf I raised has fallen.”
Evelyn bowed her head. “I tried to warn him.”
“You did,” Dylan said softly. “And now you will help me avenge him.”
She looked up, fear and devotion warring in her gaze. “What do you wish me to do?”
He smiled, slow and cruel. “Be patient. If the Queen has taken my Beta, I’ll take her kingdom.”

Back in the palace, Ariella stood on the balcony overlooking the celebrating city. Ares joined her, resting a hand at her waist.
“They think it’s over,” she murmured.
He nodded. “Let them believe it for tonight.”
She looked at him. “And tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” he said, “we face whatever comes next as long as we have each other.”