Chapter 82

Chapter 82
{Ryanna’s POV}

I didn’t think I’d cry again.

Not after everything. Not after surviving Osiris. Not after losing Tyrion. Not after nearly tearing myself in two thinking my son would never wake up. I thought the tears had dried out somewhere between grief and obligation.

But the moment I saw him…

The moment Casper landed beside me, silver dust curled from his fur like the gods had sculpted him out of starlight just for this moment. I felt my knees almost give.
But I held my head up high.

His chest rose and fell, each breath loud with power. His frame stretched broad, defined. Taller than I remembered. His silver fur shimmered under the blood mist, but unlike mine, his eyes burned red. Wild. Dangerous. 

Devastation incarnate.

My eyes glowed blue, like the quiet under a storm.

His? His were the thunder.

We were both Silver Wolves now, no doubt. But if I were the symbol of hope, then Casper was something else entirely. Something divine and violent. Something no enemy would want to see on the battlefield.

And thank the moons, he was mine.
He turned his head toward me, and for a moment, he just looked. And I knew. I knew in my bones he was back. Not just close. This was my son fully realized.

He was aware. He was here. His eyes softened, then he stepped toward me.
I shifted, slowly, returning to my human form in a shiver of moonlight and cracked air.

“Casper…” My voice trembled. “You're—”

He shifted too, with less elegance and more abruptness, as if the wolf wasn’t fully ready to let go. He stood, bare-chested, breathing hard, eyes still gleaming.

His scars showed — new ones, old ones — but none of them looked like they broke him.
He smiled. And it damn near shattered me.

“I heard you,” he said.

I blinked, stepping closer. “What?”

He nodded. “All of it. Everything you said is by my bedside. When you thought I was gone.” 
His voice cracked slightly. “I felt your pain, Mom. It felt like knives. That moment when you said you didn’t want to live anymore—” 

His jaw tightened. “That hurt more than dying.

My breath caught. I looked down, ashamed. But he touched my shoulder gently.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “Because your howl… that first one, when you shifted… It was like lightning inside me. It called me back.”

“You felt that?”

He chuckled. “I can't even put it in words.”

I laughed, pressing a hand to his face. “We have… a lot to talk about.”

He smirked. “After we deal with these inconveniences, of course.”

He turned then, shifting mid-laugh, and we both leapt into the fray.

What was left of Aurelius’s ambush was no real threat anymore.
Their advantage had shattered the moment I appeared. And now with Casper here? Wolves who had once charged with confidence now scrambled for footing, torn between two monsters of Pelasgus origin.

Basten, Adolph, and Magnus, all gave us room. They knew this wasn’t their fight anymore. Not right now.
Together, Casper and I moved as one. I struck from the air. He fell from the ground.

A soldier lunged at me, snarling. I barely lifted my clawed hand yet I caught him mid-leap, tightening until the snarl turned to a whimper. 
He tried fighting my grip, but it was useless. I could end him in a breath.

I glanced to my right.

Casper held another by the neck too. Dangling him like a ragged toy.

We locked eyes.

Then I grinned and flung mine across the field, straight into his.

The impact was sickeningly loud. They collided with bone-snapping force and collapsed in a heap, groaning before silence took them.

I shifted my voice louder, raising my command tone. “Council! Round up the ones still breathing. No more deaths. Jail them. Let them answer for this.”
Ophelia’s team snapped to it. Adolph dragged two bodies across the gravel with a sneer. Magnus rolled his shoulder as he pinned one attacker down with ease.

And then—

A new set of pawsteps echoed through the clearing. Dozens of them.

But I didn’t flinch. Because I knew that scent. They weren’t enemies.

They were allies.
The wolves from two of the rogue-supporting families emerged through the tree line.

Their leaders came first, Alpha Lestat of the Hollowfangs, and Alpha Nyra of Redpine. 

“Ryanna,” Lestat said, his tone clipped but concerned. “We came the second we heard you were under attack.”
Nyra gave a solemn nod. “Didn’t realize the ambush would be over before we got here.”

I smiled, a little breathless. “You’re not late. You’re right on time.”

Then their eyes shifted, widening as they caught sight of Casper. Still in his wolf, silver-coated and bloody, red eyes glowing.

Nyra blinked. “By the old moons…”

“Is that—”

“My son,” I said simply. “Casper. He’s alive.”

Their jaws hung open, and then laughter bubbled out from both Alphas.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Lestat said. “Two Silver Wolves in one pack?”

“The stuff of legend.”

They stepped forward, clasping my arms in mutual respect.

“Bless the gods he survived,” Lareth said. “We feared the worst when news of his death came.”

Casper shifted back slowly, chest rising. “About that…”

Everyone turned to him.

His voice rang out strong, clear. “The one who orchestrated my assassination... was none other than Alpha Aurelius Marx.”
Everything seemed to still in that moment.

The gravity of that information is sinking in.

And then—

Bwoooooooooooooom.

A horn.

Low. Distant. From the east.

At first, I nearly brushed it off as something unimportant.

But then something in my blood chilled.

That sound was…

It was his call.

My breath caught in my chest as I said his name aloud.

“…Nox.”