Kael's POV
The clearing exploded into chaos.
Half the wedding guests shifted immediately, their wolves erupting in a cacophony of snarls and howls. The other half ran for the forest, trampling over each other in their desperation to escape.
But I only had eyes for three people.
Marcus, frozen at the altar, his face a mask of shock and fury.
Elena, backing away slowly, her white dress already stained with dirt from stumbling.
And Daemon, standing tall, his Alpha aura blazing as he tried to regain control of the situation.
"SILVERFANG!" Daemon's voice cracked like thunder. "DEFENSIVE FORMATION! PROTECT THE COUNCIL!"
Warriors poured from the crowd—far more than should have been present at a simple wedding. Fifty. Seventy. A hundred. They'd been hiding among the guests, waiting.
This was always a trap.
"Bloodfang!" I roared. "ATTACK!"
My hundred wolves charged into the clearing, crashing into Silverfang's forces like a tidal wave. The Sacred Grove—neutral ground, protected by ancient laws—became a battlefield in seconds.
Zane materialized beside me in his wolf form. "Three packs' worth of warriors, at least. They knew you'd come."
"Good." I bared my fangs. "Let them see what I've become."
I launched myself toward the altar, my hybrid form moving with inhuman speed. A Silverfang Beta tried to intercept me—I caught him mid-leap and threw him into a tree so hard the trunk cracked.
Two more warriors converged on me from opposite sides. I spun, my claws singing through the air. One warrior fell, clutching his throat. The other managed to dodge, but Zane was there, tearing into his flank.
"Go!" Zane snarled. "I've got your back!"
I pushed forward, carving a path through Silverfang warriors. My Primordial strength made each strike devastating—bones shattered under my claws, wolves flew through the air like ragdolls.
But there were so many. For every warrior I downed, two more appeared.
Marcus finally moved. His shift was instant—a massive silver-gray wolf, larger than any Beta, almost Alpha-sized. He leapt from the altar, aiming for my throat.
We collided in mid-air.
The impact sent us both crashing into the crowd, scattering wolves and humans alike. Marcus's fangs snapped inches from my face as we rolled across the ground, a tangle of claws and fury.
"You should have stayed dead!" Marcus's mental voice was venomous. "I made sure of that fall—"
"You made sure of nothing!" I threw him off me, my Primordial strength overpowering him. "You're a puppet, Marcus. Always have been."
He lunged again, but this time I was ready. I caught his jaws with both hands, holding them open, preventing him from biting down. His wolf eyes went wide with shock as he realized he couldn't overpower my grip.
"How—"
"Because I'm what father always feared." I forced his jaws wider, wider, until I heard tendons creak. "I'm the monster he tried to bury."
A massive weight slammed into my side, breaking my grip on Marcus. I tumbled across the ground, coming up to face—
Daemon.
His wolf form was magnificent and terrible—pure black with silver eyes that glowed with Alpha power. Even in the chaos of battle, wolves around us instinctively gave him space. This was a true Alpha, one who'd ruled for three decades.
"You think power makes you special?" Daemon's mental voice was cold, controlled. "I've killed Primordials before, boy. Your real mother was one. She died screaming."
Rage exploded through me. I charged.
Daemon met me head-on. Our collision sent shockwaves through the clearing. He was older, more experienced, knew exactly where to strike. His claws raked across my ribs, drawing blood. His jaws found my shoulder, biting down with crushing force.
But I was younger. Stronger. And I had thirty years of rage fueling me.
I twisted in his grip, ignoring the pain, and drove my claws into his side. He howled, releasing me, stumbling back. Before he could recover, I was on him, my hybrid jaws closing around his throat—
A blade pierced my back.
Silver. Burning. Poisoning.
I released Daemon and spun to find Marcus behind me, holding a silver dagger still slick with my blood. His human form, naked and bloody, wore a triumphant sneer.
"Did you think I wouldn't prepare for you?" Marcus panted. "I knew the fall wouldn't kill you. I felt it through our bond. So I prepared. Silver blades. Wolfsbane in the air. Reinforcements from three allied packs."
He gestured to the battle raging around us. I suddenly realized the Bloodfang wolves were being pushed back, overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
"You walked right into my trap, brother."
The silver in my back was spreading, poisoning my system, forcing my hybrid form to destabilize. My vision blurred. My legs trembled.
No. Not like this. Not when I'm so close—
"STOP!"
The voice cut through the battle like a blade of ice.
Elena stood at the center of the clearing, her white dress torn and bloody, but her eyes blazing with something I'd never seen before.
Power.
She raised her hands, and every wolf in the clearing—friend and foe alike—froze mid-attack. Not by choice. By compulsion. An Alpha command so strong it transcended pack bonds.
"What—" Marcus stared at her. "Elena, what are you—"
"Shut up." Her voice was cold as winter. "I'm done pretending."
She walked toward me, her movements fluid, predatory. Nothing like the delicate she-wolf I'd known.
"Kael." She crouched beside me, her hand reaching for the silver blade in my back. "I need you to know something before this all goes to hell."
"Don't... touch me..." I growled through the pain.
"The baby isn't Marcus's." She pulled the blade out in one quick motion. I screamed. "It's yours."
The world stopped.
"What?"
"Six months ago, when Marcus claimed we'd been together? That was the night I realized what he was. What Daemon had made him into." Her ice-blue eyes met mine, and for the first time, I saw genuine emotion there. Fear. Regret. Love. "I came to your room that night. You were drunk, half-asleep. We... we were together."
Memory flashed through my mind. A night I'd thought was a dream. Soft skin. Whispered words. The scent of jasmine.
Elena.
"You... why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Daemon found out." Her voice cracked. "He threatened to kill the baby if I didn't play along. Said he'd cut it from my womb and feed it to the rogues. So I pretended. I let Marcus claim the child. I let you think I'd betrayed you." Tears streamed down her face. "I thought if I could just survive until the baby was born, I could find a way to tell you the truth, to—"
"Elena." Marcus's voice was soft, dangerous. "What are you saying?"
She stood, turning to face him. "I'm saying I never loved you, Marcus. I've been playing you for six months, gathering information, waiting for the right moment."
She pulled something from her dress—a small vial of clear liquid.
"Wolfsbane extract. Concentrated. Enough to kill an Alpha." She uncorked it. "I was going to poison you at the wedding feast. Make it look like an accident. Free Kael from this nightmare you created."
"You bitch—"
Marcus lunged.
Elena threw the vial's contents in his face. He screamed as the wolfsbane burned his eyes, his skin, forcing his body to shift involuntarily between forms.
Then she ran toward me, helping me to my feet. "The baby's hidden. Safe. Human world. I'll tell you where, but first we need to—"
The dagger punched through her chest from behind.
Elena's eyes went wide. She looked down at the blade protruding from between her breasts, then up at me, confusion and pain warring on her face.
"K-Kael..."
Behind her, Marcus stood with his arm extended, having shifted back to human just long enough to draw a second blade. To stab the woman carrying his brother's child.
"Lying whore," Marcus hissed, his face a mask of wolfsbane burns and rage. "Did you really think I'd let you make a fool of me?"
Elena collapsed. I caught her, my hybrid strength barely sufficient to support her weight as we sank to the ground.
"No, no, no—" I pressed my hand over the wound, but blood poured between my fingers. Too much blood. "Elena, stay with me, I can—"
"The baby." Her voice was barely a whisper. "St. Catherine's Orphanage. Boston. Human name... Sarah Moore." She coughed blood. "Find... our daughter..."
"Daughter?" My voice broke. "I have a daughter?"
"She has... your eyes..." Elena smiled through the pain. "Make her... proud..."
Her hand went limp in mine.
Her eyes glazed over.
She was gone.
Something inside me shattered.
Not broke. Shattered. Like glass under a hammer, like ice under the sun, like every restraint I'd built over twenty-three years of trying to be civilized, to be controlled, to be human—
Gone.
The Primordial didn't just rise. It exploded.
My hybrid form dissolved and rebuilt, grew and evolved into something I'd never achieved before. My body expanded to nearly nine feet tall, pure muscle and rage wrapped in midnight fur. My claws extended to foot-long talons. My jaws could crush stone.
And my eyes—I could feel them burning, not amber but pure, blazing white. The color of the original wolves, the Primordial beasts that had walked the earth before civilization, before packs, before anything resembling control.
I threw back my head and howled.
The sound wasn't a howl. It was a shockwave of pure Alpha dominance that rippled across the clearing, that made every wolf—Alpha included—drop to their knees in submission.
Even Daemon fell.
Even Marcus.
Even the Lycan Council members, who'd been watching from the safety of a protective circle, felt their legs buckle.
I turned my white gaze on Marcus.
He tried to run.
I was on him in a heartbeat, my massive paw pinning him to the ground. He shifted, tried to fight, but it was like a puppy trying to fend off a bear. I grabbed his wolf form by the throat and lifted him into the air, watching him struggle and thrash uselessly.
"You killed her." My mental voice resonated with power that made lesser wolves whimper. "You killed my mate. You killed the mother of my child."
"She was lying!" Marcus's thoughts were panicked, desperate. "The baby was mine! She was trying to manipulate you—"
"LIAR!"
I began to squeeze.
Marcus's struggles grew frantic. His mental screams filled the clearing. Wolves turned away, unable to watch.
I was going to kill him. Slowly. Make him suffer for every moment Elena had pretended, every lie she'd been forced to tell, every—
"ENOUGH!"
The voice boomed with power that rivaled even my Primordial rage. I turned to see Aldric, the Council Elder, standing with his staff raised. Ancient runes glowed along its length.
"Kael Blackclaw, or Ash, or whatever you call yourself—you will release Marcus now."
"Or what?" My voice was a growl that shook the earth.
"Or I reveal the truth you've been searching for." Aldric's eyes were hard. "The truth about who you really are. About what Daemon has done. About the lie that started this all."
I hesitated. Daemon had gone pale, his wolf form trembling.
"Don't listen to him!" Daemon shouted. "The Council has no right—"
"The Council has EVERY right!" Aldric slammed his staff into the ground. "You violated sacred laws, Daemon Blackclaw. You committed crimes that would have you exiled or executed. And we've known about it for thirty years."
Silence fell across the battlefield.
"What?" I dropped Marcus, who scrambled away, coughing. "What do you mean you've known?"
Aldric's expression was grim. "Thirty years ago, the Eclipse Clan was destroyed. We were told it was a territorial dispute, that they'd violated pack law. Daemon presented evidence of dark magic, of forbidden rituals. The Council sanctioned the attack."
"But?" I could feel it coming, the revelation that would change everything.
"But three years ago, we discovered Daemon had fabricated the evidence. The Eclipse Clan was innocent. They were keepers of ancient knowledge, yes, but they never violated our laws." Aldric looked at Daemon with disgust. "You wanted their power for yourself. So you slaughtered them and took what you wanted."
"Including their children," another Council member added, stepping forward. An elderly female named Morwen. "Two infant boys, born under the Blood Moon to Eclipse's last heir. Boys who carried both Silverfang and Eclipse blood—the perfect combination to access Primordial power."
My heart stopped.
"You stole us." I looked at Daemon. "Marcus and I. We're not your sons."
"You're Eclipse's stolen children," Morwen confirmed. "We've known since the moment Daemon presented you as his own. The timing was too convenient. The resemblance to the Eclipse Matriarch too strong." She paused. "But we let it slide because we believed he would raise you honorably, that perhaps some good could come from tragedy."
"Instead," Aldric said, "he sealed one brother's power, turned the other into a weapon, and used you both as pawns in his quest for dominance."
I turned to Marcus. "Did you know?"
He was still on the ground, his wolf form reverted to human, naked and bleeding. "I... I found out two years ago. In father's study. Documents. Bloodline records." His voice was hollow. "I confronted him. He said... he said I could either accept it and rule at his side, or I could end up like you—exiled, broken, worthless."
"So you chose power." I felt cold. "You chose to become his puppet."
"I chose to survive!" Marcus's voice cracked. "You don't know what he's like, Kael! The things he made me do, the wolves he made me kill to 'prove my loyalty'—" He looked at Elena's body and something in his face crumbled. "I didn't want to kill her. I didn't want any of this. But he said if I didn't, if I showed any weakness, he'd do to me what he did to you."
"What about the baby?" I stepped toward him. "Did you know the child was mine?"
Marcus shook his head. "Elena never told me. She played the role too well. I thought..." He laughed bitterly. "I thought she actually wanted me. That I'd finally won something from you." He looked up at me with eyes that mirrored my own. "We're Eclipse, Kael. Both of us. Brothers not by Daemon's blood, but by the blood he spilled to steal us."
"Then we're heirs to nothing." The realization was crushing. "Everything we thought we were, everything we fought for—"
"Was built on murder and lies," Aldric finished. "Daemon Blackclaw is guilty of genocide, theft of heirs, conspiracy, and violation of sacred laws. By the authority of the Lycan Council, he is hereby—"
"WAIT!"
Another voice. Female. Powerful. Familiar.
Raven emerged from the forest, no longer wearing the tattered rags from the tomb. She wore ceremonial Eclipse robes—midnight blue with silver runes—and her golden eyes blazed with triumph.
"Before you pass judgment, Council, there's one more thing you should know." She walked past the frozen warriors, past the bodies, past the blood, until she stood before Daemon.
"Hello, uncle."
Daemon's face went white.
"You remember me, don't you?" Raven's smile was sharp. "Your brother's daughter. The one you imprisoned in that tomb for thirty years because I was the only one who could read the Primordial seals."
"You—" Daemon's voice shook. "You were supposed to be bound. The spells—"
"Wore off months ago." Raven circled him like a predator. "You got sloppy, Daemon. Too confident. You thought I was broken, that I'd serve you forever." She stopped in front of him. "But I've been planning this for years. Every seal I placed on Kael, I made sure there was a backdoor. Every spell you asked me to cast, I twisted just enough to serve my purposes."
She turned to address the Council.
"I am Raven Nightshade, last living heir of the Eclipse Clan. My mother was Selene Nightshade, Matriarch of Eclipse. My father was Daemon's older brother, Mikhail Blackclaw—murdered by Daemon so he could claim the Alpha position."
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
"These two boys," Raven gestured to Marcus and me, "are my cousins, stolen from my clan when they were infants. And I am here to claim my birthright." She looked at Aldric. "By Eclipse law and Silverfang law both, I am the rightful heir to both clans. Daemon's rule is illegitimate. His line is forfeit."
Aldric studied her for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Do you have proof of your lineage?"
Raven pulled a pendant from beneath her robes—a crescent moon wrought in silver, with the Eclipse seal engraved on its surface. "This was my mother's. Every Matriarch carries one. Only true Eclipse blood can make it glow."
She held it up, and the pendant blazed with light so bright wolves had to look away.
"I believe you," Aldric said. "And by the ancient laws, you are indeed the rightful heir." He turned to Daemon. "Daemon Blackclaw, you are hereby stripped of rank, title, and—"
"NO!"
Daemon shifted in a blur, his massive black wolf lunging not at the Council, not at me or Marcus, but at Raven.
I moved on instinct.
My Primordial form intercepted Daemon mid-leap. We crashed into the altar, shattering the white roses, the wood, the symbols of unity and peace.
"You've taken EVERYTHING from me!" Daemon's mental roar was full of madness. "My brother! My pack! My SONS!"
"We were never your sons!" I pinned him down, my claws digging into his shoulders. "You stole us! You cursed us! You destroyed our real family!"
"I MADE you!" He thrashed beneath me, but my Primordial strength was too much. "Without me, you'd be nothing! Weak Eclipse whelps! I turned you into—"
"Monsters." Marcus's voice came from behind me. He stood in wolf form now, his eyes hard. "You turned us into monsters, father. Or should I say, uncle."
He looked at me, and in his eyes, I saw understanding. Acceptance.
"Together?"
I nodded. "Together."
We struck as one.
Two Eclipse wolves, stolen at birth, raised as enemies, now united against the man who'd orchestrated it all.
Our combined attack drove Daemon into the ground with such force that the earth cracked beneath him. He tried to fight back, tried to use his Alpha dominance, but it didn't work on us anymore.
We weren't Silverfang.
We were Eclipse.
And we were taking back what was ours.
When it was over, when Daemon lay broken and bloodied on the ground, the Sacred Grove was silent except for the sound of labored breathing.
Raven approached slowly. She looked down at the uncle who'd destroyed her family, imprisoned her, stolen everything.
"You know what the worst part is, Daemon?" She crouched beside him. "You could have just asked. The Eclipse Clan would have shared their knowledge, their power, if you'd approached us as allies. But you were too proud, too paranoid, too greedy."
She stood and looked at me and Marcus.
"My cousins. My blood." Her expression softened. "The Council will expect you to claim your birthrights. Kael as Silverfang Alpha, since he defeated Daemon. Marcus as Eclipse heir, to rebuild our clan."
"And you?" I asked.
"I'll do what I should have done thirty years ago." She looked at the Council. "I claim the title of Eclipse Matriarch. I will rebuild our clan, restore our honor, and ensure this never happens again."
Aldric nodded. "The Council recognizes Raven Nightshade as Eclipse Matriarch. As for Silverfang..." He looked at me. "You defeated Daemon. By right of combat, you could claim Alpha. But you also hold Bloodfang. No wolf can lead two packs."
I looked at Marcus. At my brother. My real brother, bound by blood and pain and the scars of Daemon's manipulation.
"Marcus." I extended my hand. "Take it. Rebuild Silverfang. Make it something better than what Daemon created."
He stared at my hand, then at me. "After everything I did... you'd trust me?"
"You were a victim too." I meant it. "But now we have a choice. We can let Daemon's sins define us, or we can build something new."
Slowly, Marcus clasped my hand.
"Brothers?" he asked.
"Brothers," I confirmed.
The Council murmured their approval. Aldric raised his staff. "Then let it be recorded. Marcus Blackclaw—or Marcus Nightshade, if you prefer—is recognized as Alpha of Silverfang. Kael... Nightshade... is recognized as Alpha of Bloodfang. And Raven Nightshade is Matriarch of Eclipse."
He paused.
"And Daemon Blackclaw is hereby exiled from all pack lands, stripped of rank, marked as rogue and kinslayer. He will live out his days in the Deadwood, alone, powerless, forgotten."
Fitting. The same fate he'd planned for me.
Warriors dragged Daemon away, his broken body barely conscious. He didn't even try to fight.
The battle was over.
But as I looked at Elena's body, still lying where she'd fallen, I knew my war was just beginning.
I had a daughter to find. A child who'd been hidden in the human world, protected from the wolves who would use her Primordial blood for their own ends.
And I would find her. No matter how long it took.
No matter what I had to become.