Some moments ago…
Outside the palace, within the windswept Avriantya Plains, chaos rippled like fire in dry grass.
The clash of claws and the echo of deep snarls filled the air as soldiers of the territory battled the infiltrators—men and women in shredded trousers, mid-shift, their forms caught between human and wolf.
Dust and silver moonlight blurred together, glinting off fangs as they snapped within inches of throats. A growl broke into a sharp cry, but the fighting never slowed.
Through the frenzy, a dark wolf burst from the edge of the plain, his fur like midnight silk under the cold sky.
The ground trembled beneath each stride, and behind him, four more wolves followed, their eyes burning with a single purpose.
"Victor is close; I can smell his scent," one growled, her voice low and resonant in the air as the white wolf instantly picked up the scent of the head of this territory, who was their aim, instantly informing her allies, who were already aware—just unlike her, having a bad past with Victor, non-reactive.
"Stop here, Lila; stop anyone from entering the palace!" The black wolf at the front, with his speed, directly plucked off the heads of two soldiers as he entered the palace.
The screams of the humans resonated as he dashed, leaving those four wolves who jumped and turned their direction, standing like guards. While growling, clearly the white one wanted to kill Victor herself, but she couldn't, especially knowing about her strength.
GRHHHHH
"Kill that bastard, Javrian!" Lila yelled before lurching toward the arriving royal guards, her jaws wide open as a bloodied battle started outside the palace.
Javrian's Hunt
"Aarghhh—Brute kuUrgh!"
With the last servant falling on the trail within the hallway, Javrian's human form moved through shadows like death itself. His silver eye, cold as winter moonlight, scanned the opulent corridors with disgust.
'These nobles and their gilded cages,' he thought, his scarred face twisting.
The scent of Victor—that putrid mix of arrogance and hypocrisy—grew stronger with each step, but there was something else.
Something that made his nose twitch.
Mating scent.
But not the natural, willing kind his people honored.
This reeked of something artificial, tainted. His enhanced senses, sharp enough to detect fear from miles away, picked up layers of smells from the room ahead: hormones stimulated artificially, creating a fake impression of lovemaking by medicines.
A way the Empire processed its most hypocritical method of mating—artificial, loveless.
As he approached, a figure caught his attention—a woman with cascading red hair, clutching something in her trembling hands.
She stood outside a room like a ghost haunting her own life, and something about her stillness made Javrian pause in the shadows.
'Why is she just standing—!?' But before he could process anything, the soft wind through the hallway brushed past her hair and reached his nose. It was as if all the scent of hormones and artificially stimulated pheromones vanished and was replaced by the scent of that woman alone.
She smelled sweet.
Then she entered, leaving Javrian, who was trying to understand what kind of sorcery it was, suddenly pulled back to the present.
'...She...' While still processing as his steps moved ahead, Javrian's enhanced hearing caught every word within the room, every cruel laugh and taunt thrown at that woman, the earlier sound of flesh meeting flesh vanishing and replaced by silence and taunts.
'Huh?' Javrian's canines extended involuntarily as Victor's voice boomed with entitled rage, the sound of a man who had never faced real consequences directed toward the woman who entered the room.
'Trash.' The word formed in Javrian's mind like poison, his silver eye gleaming through the darkness.
He'd seen plenty of cruelty in his battles, but something about this scene—the woman's hollow expression, the systematic treatment given to her by those inside the room—stirred a rage deeper than his usual bloodlust.
"Haa... am I under some spell?" Standing outside the door, he looked at his palm, clenching his fist as he felt his anger slightly illogical, given that he didn't even know that woman.
'!?!'
He was trying to process... until suddenly, his nostril flinched with a visible frown due to that sweet smell he had been feeling faintly, which suddenly began to spike and densify.
It was as if that red-haired woman suddenly let out all of her body scent in a tsunami. He covered his nose as his eyes gleamed and his canines surged with insatiable beastly desire.
And fueling his last bit of understanding of what happened within was when he heard the sound of something liquid being forced down someone's throat, followed by that broken woman's resigned voice. Something inside Javrian snapped.
'Enough.'
Bam!
The Door Shatters
The force of Javrian's kick sent both door and Victor hurtling backward.
Due to Javrian's body being shrouded in intense spark energy, his reflexes surged like adrenaline because of that deep, sharp smell, added to the cloak hiding his presence until this moment. The kick was strong enough to damage Victor's internal organs.
Though even if he had not been caught off guard, it did not matter.
Even facing him directly, Victor would have been no match.
Given the sudden surge from that pheromone smell pulling out his beastly instinct, he closed the distance before Victor could fall, and his hand closed around Victor's throat, lifting him like a rag doll.
But Javrian's attention was drawn to the scent emitting intensely from the floor.
The red-haired woman lay there, hollow crimson eyes staring at nothing, while a purple-haired woman held an empty bottle.
The artificial mating scent hit Javrian's nostrils like a physical blow. He wouldn't have cared, but this was coming not from the purple-haired naked woman but from the one lying down.
The same woman who seemed to have a strangely sweet, addicting scent.
It was something that pushed him to the edge of control.
'...They forced that curse on her.'
For a moment, something primal and protective surged through him—not the usual predatory instinct, but something he hadn't felt in years.
The sight of the broken woman, the casual cruelty of what had been done to her, awakened something he thought had died in countless battles.
"What do you think you are doing, woman?" His voice carried enough killing intent to freeze blood, his silver gaze boring into Livina's soul.
He wanted to shred that purple-haired woman now.
But he kept himself in control because he heard, from within the room, that she was the sister of the red-haired one.
Soon Victor reacted, jumping away from his hand, which he yanked back while uncaring of that purple-haired woman that sprinted towards Victor.
He stood looking towards the red-haired woman who slowly stood, looking at him, as if to tell him something that made him think for a moment
'...She is smart.'