The fire had died hours ago, but the scent of smoke still clung to the ruins of the Silver Fang manor. The pack's home — once filled with laughter, training echoes, and the rhythmic sound of paws — was now silent. Only ash and the faint hiss of cooling embers remained.
Kael stood in the courtyard, his boots pressing into the soot. The morning sun was breaking over the skyline, painting the destruction in shades of gold that did nothing to hide the bloodstains. His eyes burned, not from the smoke, but from something heavier.
Loss.
He could still see their faces.
Jonas. Mira. Dax.
Names carved into his memory like fresh wounds.
Rafe approached quietly, his steps uneven from the night's fight. "We've gathered the survivors," he said. "Most are shaken, a few wounded. No one wants to leave, though."
Kael didn't turn. His voice came out low, rough. "They shouldn't. This is their home."
Rafe hesitated. "Kael, what happened last night—"
"I failed them," Kael cut in, his tone sharp as steel. "Lucien walked through my borders like they were nothing. He took my people, burned my house, and I couldn't stop him."
"You can't blame yourself for—"
"I can," Kael growled, finally turning. "I'm their Alpha, Rafe. Their lives are my responsibility. If I can't protect my pack, then what the hell am I even leading?"
The silence that followed was heavy. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Selene stood a few meters away, arms crossed, watching him quietly. She'd said nothing since they returned. She didn't try to comfort him or offer empty words — she just let him break in his own silence.
When Rafe finally walked off to check on the others, Selene stepped closer. "You blame yourself because you care," she said softly. "That's what makes you different from Lucien."
Kael's laugh was bitter. "Caring doesn't bring the dead back."
"No," Selene said, her tone calm but firm. "But it stops you from becoming the monster you're fighting."
He looked at her then — really looked. Beneath the coldness, beneath the scars she hid behind sarcasm and steel, there was something real. Something human.
"Why are you still here, Selene?" he asked. "You don't owe me anything."
She met his gaze steadily. "Maybe I owe myself a reason not to run anymore."
For a long moment, neither spoke. The only sound was the distant city — horns, wind, life moving on, as if the world didn't just collapse for them.
Finally, Kael exhaled and turned toward the half-burned training yard. "We rebuild. Tonight, we bury our dead. Tomorrow, we start hunting."
Selene gave a small nod. "You have a plan?"
Kael's eyes flickered silver, the Alpha inside him rising again. "Lucien thinks he broke us. But he only gave me a reason to stop holding back."
---
Later that night.
The pack gathered around a long trench carved into the earth — their fallen laid side by side, wrapped in cloth marked with the Silver Fang insignia. The moon hung full above them, solemn and cold.
Kael stepped forward, his hands trembling slightly as he placed his palm on the nearest shroud.
"Brothers. Sisters. I swear on the blood that binds us — you will not be forgotten," he said, his voice carrying through the quiet air. "Lucien took from me what he can never replace. But he also made a mistake. He left me alive."
A low growl rippled through the pack — grief sharpening into resolve.
When it was done, and the earth covered their dead, Kael stayed behind. Selene stood a few steps away, her expression unreadable.
"You ever lose someone?" Kael asked quietly.
Selene's jaw tightened. "Too many."
He nodded slowly, as if that answer made sense of everything. "Then you know. The silence that follows — it doesn't fade. You just learn to live with it."
She stepped closer, her voice low. "Then don't let the silence drown you, Kael. Make it your weapon."
Kael looked up at the moon — the silver light painting his face with a ghostly glow. "I intend to."
He turned to her then, and for the first time, his expression softened — the Alpha fading, the man beneath surfacing for a heartbeat.
"Thank you," he said simply.
Selene didn't reply. She didn't need to. She just gave a small nod, her eyes holding his a second longer before she walked off into the shadows.
Kael watched her go, then turned his gaze back to the city below — its skyline flickering like embers waiting to ignite.
"The reckoning begins," he murmured.
And somewhere out there, Lucien would feel it — the shift in the air, the promise of vengeance coming for him
.