Chapter 92

Chapter 92
{Ryanna’s POV}

So this was it.

After all the years of fleeing, of being beaten near death, of clawing back, of burying names and faces I could never truly afford to mourn. After over a decade of running, chasing, and surviving. I stood before the monster who started it all.

Face to face with the enabler of the system that made my reality such a hell.

“Aurelius Marx.” I breathed.

He was larger than I would've imagined possible. Towering in his wolf form, he looked like he was sculpted from some nightmare. And that nightmare had a name… Moongrave.

His fur flowed like ink, his muscles taut with fury, his crimson eyes seemed to glow with the blood of every life he had taken. His very presence felt repulsive and impossibly domineering.

Compelling… no. Forcing everyone around to bow their heads in complete and bitter surrender… fear… reverence.

He was the Alpha behind the myths. The terror behind the name.

The very one whose blood I would taste at last.

I met his lunge in kind.

Our bodies collided like battering rams meeting at the center of the world. Claws scraped fur. Teeth snapped inches from bone. My ribs rang with the sound of his bulk slamming into mine. It was a clash of titans, and the world around us scattered like dust.

His power was suffocating.

I ducked beneath a swiping claw, spun, and caught his hind leg with mine, but he didn’t budge. My strength — as immense, honed, and vicious as it was—met a wall of raw force that resisted everything.

My heart thundered from the adrenaline.

Pure. Overflowing in my veins like a storm’s tides, singing for every cub he slaughtered, every family torn, every Omega enslaved, every piece of me lost to him.

This was for all of it. All of us.

“AURELIUSSSSS.”

He came down hard, snapping for my throat. I ducked low and rammed my knee into his chest. He grunted and reeled back a step, but that was all I got. He returned with twice the speed, claws lashing out, catching my flank.

“Is this the best you can do, Ryanna?!”

He added: "At least make all the resources I have poured on you worth it.”

“That's what you see all the lives you snuffed out as? RESOURCES?”

I faltered in my rage and paid for it. Pain sparked from my elbow but I ignored it. I couldn’t afford to feel now.

I launched at him again. 

Sending a calculated spinning kick to his chest, he dodged it but mid-air I struck with my other leg. Just a flick with enough force to daze him. 

He staggered back, groaning. I was on him not even up to a moment later, claws raked down his side. I twisted as I bit into his shoulder. The taste of his blood hitting my tongue was sweeter than nectar.

He howled.

But not in pain.

It was some sick sort of amusement.

I couldn’t even tell if it was real or not.

“You think this is your moment?” his voice crackled in my head. “Little Silver Wolf… I’ve killed a hundred like you.”

I didn’t answer.

Talking was a luxury. Breathing was already hard enough.

We fought in a blur of motion. He used the terrain against me. From rocks to broken trees, and even carcasses. Regardless, I kept matching his onslaught, claw for claw, breath for breath.

Despite my every effort. Despite burning through every reserve of energy, he didn’t fall, and I was tired.

My muscles screamed. Every step in this form tore something inside me. And the ghosting technique Nox had taught me… it took an even greater toll on me. I had abused it stupidly in this war. Not because I wanted to, but because nothing could be wasted or left to chance.

So despite it all, I couldn’t let myself falter.

Not once.

His strikes became faster. Wilder. Or maybe I slowed down. Dulled… My limbs moved out of instinct now. I ducked. Dodged. Took a slice across the jaw. Slammed a paw into his ribs. 

Every attack from him earned another in kind from me.

And still he smiled.

“You’ve grown,” Aurelius mused, even as blood matted his fur.

“But power doesn’t come from pain alone.”

He flung one of my wolves at me.

A girl barely of age, bleeding and battered, collided with my side and we both rolled.

I scrambled up, dragging her behind me before his claws could finish her.

And that second cost me.

He was on me in a breath.

His claws pierced my shoulder, forcing me to the ground. His weight pressed against my back like a mountain.

“I expected more. From the ‘savior of Moonskin.’ You thought your little tricks would save you?” He said, voice laced with cruel glee.

I growled low. “I didn’t come here to win.”

He paused.

I lifted my head. “I came to kill you.”

Aurelius laughed. A sound that shook my very being.

“You forgot what I am,” he snarled, leaning closer, twisting his claw deeper into my shoulder. “I am the Alpha. I was carving packs long after your pitiful bloodline vanished. My father before me was just as powerful. An Apex predator. We survived. What does your glorified pack have to show for all its supposed power?”

His breath burned my fur.

“It’ll take more than your silver fur and mournful eyes to dethrone me.”

He raised his paw and struck.

The pain was staggering. A jab to my ribs sent bones and splinters of agony through my chest. My vision blurred. My jaw hit the bloodied snow, and for a moment I tasted iron and frost.

And still I didn’t scream.

He pierced my thigh next. Then my side.

I retaliated, biting into his leg. My jaws clamped down until I felt bone.

He roared.

But it was working. I could feel it.

He was slowing.

Sure I was weakening.

But so was he.

This was far more than the me of the past would have been able to achieve. I had to admit.

But now, we bled together, staining the earth with years of conflict. The battlefield blurred around us. I saw Nyra tear a Wraith in half with her jaws. I saw Magnus go down beneath three wolves, only to rise again covered in blood.

Every wolf fought like it was their last breath.

Because for many, it would be.

Through all this, my focus stayed on the one above me.

Aurelius loomed, breathing heavily. His snarl was ragged now. One eye was swollen shut. Blood was leaking from his ribs, jaw, and throat.

And still, he raised his claw.

“This ends now.”

I didn’t blink.

“Do your worst.”

If I were going to die. This would be the place.

Where the tyrant ended the rebellion.

But fate had other plans.

Something slammed into him. So fast it couldn't be anyone but him. 

The impact rocked Aurelius so hard, it knocked the breath from his lungs.

He stumbled, hit the ground, and rolled at least a hundred metres away.

I blinked through blood.

And there he stood. Casper.

Panting. Clawed. Glowing with fury. But not transformed yet.

“You do not touch my mother,” he growled.

Aurelius snarled as he rose, eyes narrowing. “The disappointment.”

Casper didn’t answer.

His claws glowed with a faint blue light.

I pushed myself to my feet, every inch of me shaking. “Took you long enough.”

Casper smirked but didn’t look back at me. “Together?”

My voice was raw. “To the end.”