Chapter 8: The Wolf's Judgment
The adult lightning wolf stepped through the fog with the silence of falling snow.
Its paws made no sound on the mud. Its fur crackled with faint arcs of electric light, casting blue-white glimmers across the marsh. Steam curled from its breath with every exhale, the air around it shimmering faintly from the residual heat of power.
Aiden's breath caught in his throat.
Myra froze beside him, arm still wrapped around his shoulders. Nellie trembled on his other side, clutching his sleeve like a lifeline. All three of them were smeared in mud and blood and ash, and yet the wolf made them feel small in a way the Fangback and the boar-beast never had.
The pup struggled up onto its shaky feet and whimpered softly.
The adult wolf's ears twitched at the sound.
It stepped closer.
Five feet.
Four.
Three.
The world narrowed with each step.
The fog that had always felt like it was watching now felt like it was being pushed aside, forced to make room for something that did not belong to the marsh, but ruled it anyway.
Aiden forced himself to stand. Pain flared through his body from the boar-beast's near hits—bruises blooming along his ribs, cuts burning along his shoulder—but he pushed past it. The pup pressed into his shin, weak but determined.
The wolf's glowing eyes followed the movement.
"Myra," Aiden whispered. "Back up."
"No."
Her voice was small, but firm. She rose with him, legs shaking, and stepped slightly in front of Nellie, who clung to the back of her cloak now, peeking out with wide, terrified eyes.
Behind them, the caravan finally began to push through the fog toward the noise of the fight. Shapes emerged one by one—hunters with spears half-raised, Garrik at their front, caravanners hovering behind them with pale faces and shallow breaths.
They all stopped when they saw it.
"What… in the gods' names…" one hunter breathed.
Nobody answered.
The lightning wolf ignored them completely.
Its gaze was locked on Aiden.
On the pup.
On the invisible line that connected the two.
A crackle of energy rolled down the wolf's spine, sharp enough that Myra sucked in a breath. The hairs on Aiden's arms lifted, as if his skin remembered the feel of the storm from before.
The System stirred inside his mind, not with a neat, square notification, but with a heavy pressure—like someone dragging iron across the inside of his skull.
[High-Class Beast Detected]
[Lightning Wolf — Adult]
[Threat Level: EXTREME]
[Behavior: Non-Hostile… Conditional]
Conditional.
Meaning: not attacking yet.
Meaning: one wrong move could change everything.
The wolf lowered its head—not in submission, not in aggression, but in a slow, assessing motion that made Aiden's heart pound harder. It was the way a hunter looked at another hunter, trying to decide if they shared a trail or a kill.
The pup took a limping step forward, whining.
The wolf surged in front of it instantly—so fast Aiden didn't see the motion, just the result. One moment the pup was exposed; the next it was completely shadowed by its guardian's body.
A deep, rumbling growl rolled from the wolf's chest.
Aiden froze.
Myra whispered, "It's… protecting it."
Nellie nodded rapidly, eyes shining. "Mommy," she breathed. "She's the mom…"
The adult wolf's hackles raised at the quiver in Nellie's voice. Lightning pulsed along its shoulders, not in a sharp burst, but in a slow, warning wave.
Garrik finally shook himself out of his stunned silence.
His knuckles whitened on his spear shaft. "Back," he hissed to the hunters. "Slowly. Keep your weapons ready, but don't throw unless it moves first."
One of the hunters swallowed. "Captain, that's a lightning wolf. We should—"
"You should do exactly what I say if you want to keep your skin," Garrik snapped, eyes never leaving the beast.
Weapons stayed raised, but no one moved.
Aiden took a small step forward.
Myra grabbed his arm. "What are you doing?"
"If anyone attacks her, this gets worse," Aiden said quietly. "She only came after the boar. And for the pup."
"Yeah," Myra hissed back. "Which she clearly loves more than she loves you. Stay put."
The wolf's eyes flicked from Aiden to Myra, then back again. Its gaze was bright and sharp—not mindless, not animal-dull. There was intelligence there. Calculation.
Aiden recognized the look.
It was the same one he'd worn on the subway platform, trying to decide if he had enough time to save the boy or not.
The pup whined again and limped toward Aiden, as if drawn by some invisible thread.
The adult wolf's snarl deepened.
Electricity crawled over its muzzle.
Myra stiffened. "If it attacks—"
"It hasn't yet," Aiden said.
"But it will," she insisted. "You know it will. Look at it!"
He did.
He saw bared fangs and crackling fur and eyes like twin storms.
He also saw terror.
Its gaze kept dropping to the pup's bleeding leg, then flicking back to him. Every time the pup leaned against Aiden's leg, the wolf's body tensed to the point of shaking.
"It thinks I'm taking the cub," Aiden murmured.
Myra blinked. "…You're not. Right?"
He managed a breathless, humorless laugh. "I'm barely keeping myself alive. I'm not stealing a lightning wolf."
The pup, as if in direct defiance of everyone's fear, nudged its head under Aiden's hand.
He froze.
Myra's fingers dug into his sleeve. "Oh no. Oh no…"
Nellie squeaked, "It likes you—"
The wolf moved.
In one crackling, terrifying instant, it darted forward, jaws opening, and snapped its teeth an inch from Aiden's throat.
The sound of its teeth closing was like a bone breaking right beside his ear.
Myra gasped.
Nellie whimpered.
Hunters swore and raised their spears.
Aiden did not flinch.
Because the teeth did not close on his neck.
They stopped there.
A breath away.
Hot air washed over his skin, charged and sharp with ozone.
The pup didn't flinch either.
It leaned harder into Aiden's leg, pressing its head against his boot, as if to say: this is fine, this is right, this is where I choose to stand.
The wolf's growl changed.
Less rage.
More… pain.
More fear.
Aiden's chest ached. "You think I'm going to take it from you," he said softly.
The wolf's eyes narrowed.
The System pulsed again, harder now, the text slamming into the back of his vision.
[Lightning Wolf Resonance: ACTIVE]
[Beast Link Potential: Detected]
[Warning: High-Rarity Bond Target]
[The Beast is evaluating your intent.]
Evaluating.
Not just watching.
Not just smelling for blood or weakness.
Testing.
"Aiden…" Myra whispered. "Your eyes. They're glowing again."
He swallowed. "Yeah. I know."
Nellie's grip on his sleeve tightened. "Is… is it the System?"
Before he could answer, the wolf took a single, decisive step forward and lowered its head until its glowing eyes were level with his.
Aiden could see every individual line of fur. Every scar along its muzzle. Tiny burns along its ears from battles with other beasts.
It was close enough to kill him in less than a heartbeat.
He didn't move.
"Easy," he murmured, voice raw. "I'm not hurting your cub."
The wolf's breath gusted across his face.
The pup let out a trembling yip.
The wolf's ears flicked in response.
Another System surge hit:
[Beast Link: Provisional Invitation Detected]
[Warning: Beast Rank — ELITE]
[Chance to Bond: <1%]
[Chance to Anger: HIGH]
[If you proceed, rejection may be fatal.]
Myra let out a strangled sound. "Absolutely not. No. No, no, no. Aiden—this is stupid. Say no."
Nellie's voice shook. "You'll die… if it thinks you're lying…"
Garrik spoke from behind them, voice low but urgent. "Boy. Step away. That's not the sort of thing you make deals with."
The wolf ignored them all.
Its world, for the space of a breath, contained only two things:
The pup pressed against Aiden's leg.
And Aiden himself.
Aiden looked down at the small, trembling body at his side. The pup's fur was matted with blood. Its injured leg shook. Its breathing was shallow, but its eyes were still bright, still fierce.
He remembered it standing between them and the Fangback.
Remembered it sprinting into danger against the boar-beast.
Remembered it, stupid and brave and small, choosing to help instead of hide.
He had no idea why it trusted him.
But it did.
He lifted his free hand slowly, giving the wolf every chance to react, and rested his palm very lightly on the pup's head.
The adult wolf went utterly still.
The air changed.
The fog itself seemed to tighten around them, dense as cloth.
The System's text sharpened:
[Beast Link: Provisional Invitation Detected]
[The Lightning Wolf offers a test.]
[Do you accept?]
His heart slammed once, painfully.
He didn't understand half of what that meant.
He just knew this:
If he refused, the wolf might take the pup and vanish into the marsh forever.
If he accepted and failed, he might die.
If he accepted and succeeded…
He didn't even know what that looked like.
He only knew the feeling that rose in his chest as he stared at the injured cub.
You didn't die once to watch someone fall and walk away.
Myra's hand shook on his arm. "Aiden, please. Think about it."
Nellie's eyes filled with tears. "We—we just got you. Don't let it take you…"
He looked at them.
At the caravan behind them.
At the hunters who were still half-ready to throw, half-ready to flee.
Then he looked at the wolf.
"I won't take the pup from you," he whispered, more to the lightning in the air than the creature itself. "I only want to keep it alive. Let me help."
The wolf's eyes narrowed further, but its growl shifted in pitch. Less threat. More warning.
Lightning crawled along its back.
The System answered:
[BEAST LINK: PENDING]
[The Beast demands your intent.]
[Your words are not enough.]
Aiden's throat went dry.
The wolf stepped even closer, closing the last inch of space between them.
It rested its forehead against his chest.
Every hunter in the clearing sucked in a breath.
Myra clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
Nellie looked like she might faint.
Aiden felt heat sear through his shirt—not burning, but scalding, as if raw electric current was being pressed against his heart.
Lightning flared around them in a sudden, silent ring, wrapping man and wolf and pup in a tight halo of blue-white light.
The marsh disappeared.
There was only that circle of lightning, beating like a second heart.
The System roared:
[WARNING: LINK INITIATION BEGINNING]
[SOUL-LEVEL SCAN IN PROGRESS]
[Your last sacrifice is remembered.]
Images slammed into him.
The subway platform.
The boy's wrist in his hands.
The scream of the train.
The second life he'd been given.
The Fangback.
The pup.
The boar-beast.
The choice to shield the cub with his own body.
The wolf smelled all of it.
Not through nose.
Through something deeper.
Aiden felt naked, stripped to the bone not physically but as a person. Every cowardice, every missed chance, every quiet, small act of kindness—all turned over, weighed, inspected.
He realized then:
It wasn't the System that was judging him.
The wolf was.
[SOUL VERDICT IN PROGRESS]
[Awaiting the Beast's Judgment…]
His knees trembled.
Myra reached for him, hand hovering just outside the lightning ring. "Aiden—"
"Don't," he managed. "Stay back."
He didn't want her anywhere near this.
If it turned.
If he failed.
If the wolf decided he wasn't worthy—
Lightning pooled in the wolf's throat.
It pulled back slightly, jaws parting, glowing from within.
Garrik's voice cut through the stunned silence, desperate. "Everyone, back—"
Myra screamed, "Aiden, MOVE!"
Nellie's voice broke. "Please don't die—"
The pup barked frantically, limping toward them.
The System's final line burned behind his eyes:
[The Beast has seen your heart.]
[Verdict: ???]
The wolf's lightning swelled—
And it lunged.