Chapter 91

Chapter 91
{Ryanna’s POV}

The field erupted into unrestrained chaos.

It began with one howl — Nyra’s. Sharp. Unrelenting. Then mine followed, carrying the weight of every war cry that had ever been choked back. Together, they cracked the air without regard for how wild it could've sounded.

The fighting followed shortly after.

Wolves lunged across the frostbitten dirt, meeting Aurelius’s army with fang and claw. There was no formality. No positioning. Only chaos.

What else was supposed to happen when a couple of thousand wolves faced off against tens of thousands?

I saw a Hollowfang warrior leap over a burning tent, his jaws snapping a soldier’s throat mid-air. Blood sprayed in an arc as they fell together.

To my left, Adolph tackled a beast twice his size. They rolled through crushed snow and ash, teeth flashing, claws raking fur. He didn’t stop even when the thing stopped breathing. He just kept going, shredding flesh like he wanted to erase it from existence.

Screams filled the cold.

A young wolf — barely a Beta — was pulled under by three Wraiths. He tried to shift mid-fight but was too slow. They tore him apart. I didn’t flinch. Couldn’t afford to.

Another wolf, this one from Redpine, flung two daggers laced in what I was sure was extremely potent poison — one landed in a Wraith’s skull, the other caught an ally’s thigh. She fell, seizing. The Wraith melted. The girl died a minute later.

That was the price of war. Fast. Messy. Most times even unfair.

I ran forward, slashing a line through a pair of enemies who thought I was slower than I looked. One died instantly. The other lived just long enough to regret the assumption.

I caught his dying words. “I'm sorry, D–Din...a”

If I stared into his eyes at that moment, I might’ve seen the faces of his loved ones. Maybe I might have seen the faces of all the lives he’d taken too — but I was already on the next opponent.

In war… sometimes I wondered. What if those I fought felt their actions were just as justified as mine? Who was to say they even truly supported their leader? What if they just wanted to protect their loved ones?

Those were too many assumptions to make. Too many “possibilities” that couldn't be considered in the heat of battle.

“Stay focused, Ryanna.”

I watched as traps snapped in the trees behind me. Shortly after, someone screamed again… this time in a voice I knew. Jade. Still alive. Still fighting, but slower.

Lestat fought like a beast beside me. His ashen coat now streaked with the black blood of creatures and wolves he’d gutted. He tackled one of the larger Wraiths and slammed it into a spiked barricade. It shrieked once. Then it was quiet.

That was the role of the Alphas: Take down as many Wraiths as you could.

Sure we had just three — two allies, and a newly realised Alpha from a lesser House — but they were all pulling their weight without missing a beat.

With all the fighting, just a couple of minutes into this battle, the snow was no longer white.

Even more troublesome was the fact that there was no end in sight.

For every enemy we killed, three more replaced them. 

But that wasn’t what caught my attention.

It was the first death here that shook me. It was… Vann. He went down to protect a companion of his.

He’d taken six Wraiths with him. But the seventh bit through his throat. I saw it. I saw it happen.

Still, I didn’t…couldn't stop moving.

Every step I took was bloody. Every breath I pulled felt like it scorched my lungs.

We were outnumbered. Badly. But not outplayed. Homeground meant every fallen stone, every emptied tonic, every pit and false floor belonged to us.

I passed a trio of medics huddled over a body, pouring some tonic down his throat. His chest cracked. He sat up, coughing hard enough to spit blood. But he lived. Whoever he was.

It was enough.

Casper still hadn’t returned. He was retrieving something deeper in the pack. The Moonskin pack… I wondered what it was. But only for a moment, before a Wraith rushed me, bone arms swinging like machetes.

I ducked under it, lunged, and sank my claws into the seam of its ribs. With a twist, I snapped through what passed as its spine and used my foot to stomp its chest. The creature collapsed in a putrid haze as I struck its core.

They were endless.

But I was angry. Angry enough to outlast the ache in my bones.

The center of the battlefield pulled me like gravity.

A familiar scent spread through the gore and quickly mounted bodies.

I turned—

There he was.

Aurelius.

Atop the rise. Towering. Watching. His dark brown eyes pierced mine with contempt.

I took a step forward.

And then—

Something moved swiftly and quietly behind me.

“I've been waiting for this, Rohan!”

I spun, but not fast enough.

Even maimed, he was still deadly fast.

His good hand struck forward like a bolt, claws ready to carve me clean open.

But I wouldn't be caught by that.

Not the way he expected.

Just as his claws came close, close enough to feel them on the ends of my fur. I ghosted.

A blink in motion, a trick Nox taught me. It wasn’t invisibility or disappearing from one point to another. But it looked like it. I shifted just enough to slip past his attack when he slowed for a second, questioning himself.

And then I reappeared behind him.

My claws plunged into his back deep and bloodied. It wasn’t meant to be clean.

His body stiffened on impact. Maybe from his shattered spine. Ribs. Or the inevitability of the strike. Everything Nox might’ve felt, and more.

He tried to turn as I curved my claws inside his chest until I found the beat. The pulsing reminder of what he once was.

Then I ripped it out.

Rohan stumbled forward, confusion frozen on his face.

He looked down.

My claws glistened with his heart.

Beating its last.

He opened his mouth to speak as I crushed it in my hand.

It burst like wet fruit and the pieces hit the ground like fat drops of rain.

He dropped it.

And I?

I dropped too. To my knees.

My heart was pounding. Not from fear.

From rage.

I didn’t look away from the corpse as I lifted a shaking claw and pointed across the bloody expanse.

Right at Aurelius.

“You’re next,” I rasped.

I stared up finally to see that he didn’t flinch. Instead, he spat, then leapt. Not even taking a second to mourn his supposed best friend, like he had delivered a less-than-impressive performance.

He came at me in an impressive burst. Fully transformed.

Fur black as night. Teeth like daggers carved to perfection.

He was coming.

And the end was near.