The world froze as Seraphina met the eyes of the one she had trusted with every unspoken fear. Her breath caught painfully in her throat, her heartbeat pounding louder than the screams around her. The face that emerged from the shadows was not a stranger. It was someone woven tightly into her story, someone whose loyalty she had never questioned—Calen, Kael's younger brother. His once warm eyes were now rimmed in silver darkness, the mark of corruption swirling like a storm in his veins. "Why?" Seraphina whispered, the word cracking like ice across the space between them. Calen tilted his head slightly, as if the question amused him. "Because power chooses the bold, Seraphina. And I was tired of being nothing in your story." A sudden pain lanced through her chest—not magic, not physical. It was the pain of betrayal so close, so personal, it cut deeper than claws ever could. Around them, the corrupted wolves circled. Kael was still fighting, unaware that the true enemy stood just behind him. Seraphina took a breath, her mind torn between revealing the truth or holding it until the moment struck right. She didn't know what Calen planned. But she knew this—he had waited for this moment, and he wasn't done yet.
As the chaos pressed in, Seraphina tapped into the power still burning inside her from the unfinished ritual. The moonstone pulsed with hot urgency, but without the final verse spoken, the magic trembled on the edge of control. Ruvan appeared again, blood streaking his face, his eyes flaring with recognition the moment he saw Calen. "So it's you," he growled, and for the first time, Seraphina saw raw hatred in his face. "You were the one feeding them—the corrupted. You were the whisper in the woods." Calen smirked. "Clever. But too late." His voice twisted, becoming inhuman as the darkness fully claimed him. Silver-black veins surged through his arms, and in a blink, he shifted—not into a wolf, but something far worse. A monstrous hybrid, claws like spears and eyes like voids. The corrupted alpha. "Seraphina, now!" Ruvan shouted, and she acted without thinking. She leapt forward, channeling what power she had, crashing into Calen with light and fury. Their bodies collided, magic and madness clashing in a dance of fire and shadow. The ground cracked beneath them. For a heartbeat, it felt like she was winning. Until Calen grabbed her wrist and whispered in her ear, "You were never meant to survive the ritual." The words hit harder than his claws, because they confirmed what she'd feared—someone had tampered with the ritual itself. Someone wanted her dead before she ever awakened.
Everything shattered.
Seraphina fell backward, landing hard against the cold stone, the air knocked from her lungs. Kael was at her side in an instant, bleeding and wild-eyed. "Seraphina—what happened?!" Before she could speak, Calen vanished into the forest, taking half the corrupted with him, the rest scattering like ash in the wind. Silence returned, but it wasn't peace. It was the kind of silence that comes after something sacred has been broken. Back at the village, healers gathered the wounded, and fires were lit to keep the shadows at bay. Seraphina sat beneath the silver moon, her hands shaking. Ruvan joined her, quiet at first. Then he spoke. "The ritual was sabotaged. Someone inside your own pack altered it. Calen was just the blade. Someone else forged it." Seraphina felt her stomach twist. The betrayal ran deeper than she thought. But one thing burned brighter than the fear now. Determination. She stood, slowly. "Then we finish it. The right way. And I find out who in my own bloodline wants me dead." Ruvan nodded. "You'll need more than courage. You'll need to embrace the beast inside you." She turned toward the ruins once more, moonlight on her face. "Then it's time I stop being afraid of what I am."