Chapter 321: _Coward!
Kaelos’ POV
*****
The moment the blood moon blackened, I knew this was no ordinary fight.
The sky wasn’t just dark, it was choking.
That silver-red pulse that had been bleeding across the clouds dimmed into something worse, an emptiness that pressed against my skin like a second, suffocating layer.
And Ryker’s smirk never faltered.
When the orb of black energy swelled between his claws, Damon howled inside me.
Move!
I lunged, wrapping an arm around Odessa’s waist and dragging her back, planting my boots deep in the snow. The air around the orb rippled with heat and cold at once, a contradiction that tasted like blood and ash on my tongue.
Then it hit.
The blast ripped through the field, a wave of force so sharp I felt it shear the top layer of skin from my arms, causing me to snarl with pain. Snow and dirt exploded into the sky.
A black crack split the ground between us, jagged and hissing with smoke like the earth itself was scorched from the inside out.
Odessa’s heart was hammering against my arm. I loosened my grip just enough for her to find her footing, but I never took my eyes off HIM.
Ryker descended slowly, every step in the air like he was walking down invisible stairs. His blood-red Alpha King aura surrounded him like fire, pulsing in time with my own heartbeat... and that’s what chilled me most.
It was too close to mine.
"Still standing, little brother?" He called.
I didn’t answer.
Instead, I let the silver Alpha King aura in me ignite. It rushed out from my core in a flare so bright the snow around my boots steamed. The ground cracked under the pressure, spiderwebs of silver light burning through the frost.
Our auras clashed midair with a sound like steel screaming against steel.
He grinned wider. "There you are."
And then he charged.
We collided with enough force to shake the air.
My claws met his, the impact sparking silver against crimson. His strength was brutal, almost wild, but there was a precision in the way he struck, like someone who’d been training to fight me for years.
I slashed for his ribs; he caught my wrist and twisted. Pain snapped down my arm but I rode it, pivoting and driving my knee into his gut.
He barely staggered in response to my attack.
"Not bad," he rasped, before his boot slammed into my chest, sending me skidding back through the snow.
Damon snarled, and I stopped holding him back, ignoring Janelle’s previous warning about shifting under the blood moon.
There was no blood moon now... so what’s the bloody point?
The shift tore through me — bones snapping, muscles stretching, blood red fur bursting from skin. My senses sharpened to a knife’s edge.
The snow’s scent, the blood in the air, even Odessa’s heartbeat became crystal clear.
To my dismay, Ryker followed suit, his body distorting until the creature before me was a nightmare mirror. Taller than most Alpha Kings, his bipedal form was a wall of black fur streaked with dark crimson, his eyes glowing like coals in the night.
For a heartbeat, the sight twisted something deep in my gut.
But then I leapt.
Claws ripped into fur, fangs snapped inches from throats. His strikes were heavy, meant to break bone, but I gave them back in kind. Every time his blood hit the snow, it steamed like whatever ran in his veins was too hot for this world.
Meanwhile, behind us, the battlefield erupted.
His hybrids surged forward, a tide of snarling rogues with mismatched eyes and the stench of dark magic clinging to them.
The Alpha Kings roared their own war cries — Mwansa tearing into enemies with his massive wolf form, Thorian’s claws flashing silver in the black air, Maddox’s booming commands rallying the last remaining pack soldiers.
But I couldn’t break away.
Every time I tried to glance toward Odessa, Ryker cut me off... a slash across my jaw, a shove that cracked the ice under me. He wanted my attention, and oh he had it.
"You’re holding back," he taunted, his voice a guttural growl even in wolf form.
"I’m not here to impress you," I snapped back. My voice in this form rumbled from deep in my chest, enough to make the hybrids closest to us falter.
"YOU WILL." He said coldly.
He slammed his claws into the ground. Darkness erupted upward like a geyser, swallowing three of my soldiers whole before the earth sealed shut again.
Their screams cut off instantly.
Rage roared through me.
I lunged, driving him back, every strike aimed to maim. My claws found his shoulder but instead of faltering, he laughed.
And then he whispered, so only I could hear: "This is the part where you start losing everything."
Suddenly, lightning — black as void — cracked down from the clouds, striking in a circle around us. The snow boiled into steam, obscuring everything.
I barely heard Althea’s voice cutting through the chaos. "Kaelos! We have to go!"
"NO!" I growled, my claws tightening in Ryker’s fur.
But then I saw it — Odessa, cutting through hybrids with Sirena’s speed, only to stumble as one of Ryker’s artificial hybrids hurled a spear of shadow at her back.
I didn’t think at that moment.
I tore free of Ryker’s grip and bolted across the field, my silver aura blasting apart everything in my path. I reached her just as the spear struck, but instead of her, my arm took the blow, searing pain tearing through my muscle.
Her eyes widened with horror but I ignored it, Damon howling in my head.
"We’re leaving," I snarled.
Althea was already forcing the portal open, the air bending inward like reality itself was being peeled back. Beyond it, my throne room glimmered faintly.
"COWARD!" Ryker’s roar shook the battlefield as I hauled Odessa toward the portal. "Run while you can. I’ll tear everything you hold dear apart!"
I didn’t look back.
The last thing I saw before the portal swallowed us was his silhouette against the black blood moon, his crimson eyes burning like a promise.
We hit the marble floor of my throne room on the other side hard, the portal snapping shut behind us.
The air here smelled clean, but my lungs still burned with the smoke and rot of that battlefield as I slowly shifted back to my human form.
Odessa pushed herself up beside me, her hands on my arm where the spear had struck. Blood dripped onto the marble floor.
I flexed my claws, the silver still glowing faintly at the tips. My heart was still racing, not from the fight but from the fact I’d left the bastard breathing.
Not again.
Next time, I wouldn’t retreat. I’d end him.