Seraphina’s POV
The mont Dorian’s eyes locked onto mine, ice flooded my veins. Terror clawed at my throat, desperate to escape, but my wolf held steady.
’Don’t let him see your fear,’ her voice whispered fiercely in my mind. ’That’s what gives him power.’
She was absolutely right. I watched Dorian’s predatory gaze sweep over , hunting for any sign of weakness, any crack in my armor. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing break.
From the shadows of the towering trees, more figures erged. Wolf after wolf stepped into view, their eyes gleaming with dangerous intent as they ford a tight circle around Caleb and . I felt Caleb’s muscles coil with tension beside , a threatening growl vibrating deep in his chest. Every fiber of his being scread attack.
"Caleb, don’t," I murmured, my voice barely audible but commanding. "Stay still."
His body trembled with restraint, his intense stare never leaving Dorian, but slowly he forced himself to step back. Though every instinct told him to fight, he trusted my judgnt even in this deadly situation.
Dorian’s expression twisted into sothing truly vicious, his lips curling into a smile that made my skin crawl. "Well, well, Seraphina. Never thought I’d see the day you’d abandon the Fang, especially not on your own. What ga are you playing now?" His words dripped with malice and suspicion.
I forced my face into an emotionless mask, eting his scrutiny without flinching. "You told I was defending our father’s killer. You said I couldn’t possibly understand the truth. So I decided you were right." My voice remained perfectly steady, revealing nothing of the storm raging inside . "The only way to truly comprehend what happened is to see the Ruined Fang with my own eyes. To witness the destruction firsthand."
Dorian’s eyes beca slits as he studied my face, searching desperately for any hint of deception. He probed every micro-expression, every subtle shift in my posture, but I gave him absolutely nothing. My emotions were locked behind an impenetrable wall. The silence stretched between us like a taut wire, and surprisingly, doubt began to creep into his features. Sothing almost resembling respect flickered across his face.
"Very well," he said finally, his voice cutting through the oppressive quiet. "Then we accompany you on this little expedition."
A harsh laugh escaped my lips. "Really? Here I thought kidnapping or murdering was at the top of your priority list."
His face darkened with anger. "I would never harm my own sister." Even as the words left his mouth, they sounded hollow, unconvincing. "But teaching you proper respect? Making you understand your place? That’s an entirely different matter. Especially when you insist on betraying your own blood for outsiders."
And so our nightmarish journey comnced. We shifted, our human forms dissolving as bones cracked and reford, skin giving way to thick fur. My white wolf was magnificent and strong, but I had never demanded this level of endurance from her before. For what felt like an eternity, we ran through the endless forest, a grim procession of predators cutting through the darkness. My muscles scread in agony, my lungs felt ready to burst, and each heartbeat sent waves of pain through my exhausted body.
Though my wolf possessed incredible strength, I wasn’t prepared for such relentless physical punishnt. By the ti we finally approached our destination, my paws felt impossibly heavy. Complete exhaustion had settled into my bones like lead.
Then we ca to an abrupt halt.
The atmosphere changed instantly, becoming dense and oppressive with a chill that penetrated far deeper than re cold. This was sothing spiritual, a crushing weight of absolute despair that pressed down on us from all directions. Even after twenty years, the Ruined Fang remained a testant to horror. This wasn’t simply the remnants of an old settlent; it was a gaping wound carved into the earth itself, a monunt to unspeakable brutality.
What had once been buildings now stood as charred skeletal remains, twisted tal and scorched stone reaching toward the sky like desperate fingers.
"Do you sense it?" Dorian’s voice rumbled beside , low and nacing, yanking from my horrified trance. "The evil that saturates this place? The bone-deep cold that never leaves?"
I didn’t need his prompting. Sothing malevolent lingered here, sothing that invaded your very soul and left permanent scars. The shadows seed to move with purpose, the silence was absolute and unnatural, and the wind carried echoes of long-dead screams.
"The monsters you’ve chosen to protect," he continued, his tone becoming harder with each word, "are responsible for every bit of this carnage."
He gripped my shoulders, turning to face the full scope of the devastation. What lay before us was a massive graveyard. Countless burial mounds, hastily constructed and unmarked, dotted the landscape where bodies had been hastily interred. The ground itself was blackened and poisoned, burned down to nothing but ash and permanently scarred earth.
"They transford an entire Fang into a cetery," he stated with chilling matter-of-factness, though I could hear the tremor of suppressed emotion beneath his controlled exterior.
I desperately wanted to argue, but the truth was undeniable. This place hadn’t just been destroyed; it had been systematically obliterated. Even two decades later, the air itself vibrated with residual agony, with the echoes of unimaginable terror and suffering that had been unleashed here. The very atmosphere seed to pulse with rembered pain.
Tears began burning behind my eyelids before spilling over completely. My chest felt crushed beneath an overwhelming weight of grief. The devastation was truly heartbreaking in its completeness.
Slowly, I extended my hand toward Dorian, palm open in offering.
He stared at with deep suspicion, his penetrating gaze seeming to peer directly into my soul. "If you’re planning so sort of trick, Seraphina," he warned dangerously, "it will fail spectacularly. You will never possess enough power to defeat ."
My breath hitched painfully. "I understand that completely," I whispered, the mory still raw and bleeding. "The last ti I attempted to harm you, I ended up killing my father-in-law instead."
"Nothing you’ve done carries any bla," I began, my voice thick with unshed tears, but I forced myself to continue. "The people who murdered our biological father set this entire nightmare in motion. All the hatred, all the endless cycle of revenge. But the person who bears the heaviest guilt of all..." My voice shattered completely. "...is our father himself. For committing the atrocities that led to every single soul in this Fang perishing alongside him."
Dorian started to protest, a defensive growl building in his throat, but I pressed my fingers more firmly against his palm.
"Stop," I commanded, my voice gaining strength despite the tears streaming down my face. "Just stop fighting the truth."
I gazed directly into his eyes, my own overflowing with sorrow so profound it felt bottomless. "I need you to understand," I said, my voice barely audible above the wind, "that I wanted nothing more in this world than to be the sister you deserved." Fresh tears carved hot paths down my cheeks. "It breaks my heart that you pushed things too far. And now there’s no possible way for us to return to what we once were."
With those final words, a terrible sense of finality settled over like a burial shroud. I closed my eyes and surrendered to what had to be done.
My wolf stirred within , not with fury or hatred, but with cold, absolute resolve. A surge of pure energy, brilliant and devastating, erupted from the deepest part of my being. This wasn’t fueled by rage anymore, but by sothing far more dangerous: necessity. My white wolf’s deadly magic flowed through our connected hands, through our joined flesh and bone.
A soundless scream shattered the air around us.
Dorian’s entire body went completely rigid. His eyes, still fixed on my face, widened with shock and then terrible, dawning comprehension. He gasped once, a sound that was cut brutally short, his grip on my hand tightening in one final, desperate mont.
There was no battle, no struggle for dominance. No ti for last words or pleas for rcy. The end ca instantly, before he could even attempt to defend himself against sothing so swift and rciless.
He simply ceased.
Dorian was gone.
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