"They've been sniffing their irritating nose around here Ligon" Glacy Vitro reported, her voice tight. "and they are getting sneakier with covering their tracks"
"We should strike first," Wyverge growled. "Bring an end to the disrespect."
"They keep snooping around in the daytime 'cause they know our powers peak at night." Deuce muttered "Some even coat their claws in silver....well, the ones that can afford it"
"It's alright. They are this reckless 'cause they think the daylight will save them," Ligon said, eyes hard as steel. "But we are wolves, our strength doesn't fade with light." Snarls rose in approval "The moon just makes us gods."
The recon team picked up the scent of intruders. Were-hyenas, moving boldly across the mountain borders as if the mountain were theirs. Arrogant. Sloppy. Word reached Ligon that there were only twenty scavengers snooping around..
"Assault team, with me now!," Ligon ordered. In seconds, thirty warriors burst from the dens, bright eyes igniting under the setting sun. Their howls tore through the peaks, sharp and wild, as they sprinted down the slopes.
The hunt had begun.
It was supposed to be swift.
But when they broke from the treeline, fangs bared, the air changed.
Too still. Too quiet.
Then came the laughter.
A chorus of guttural, mocking cackles that bounced through the trees. The sound of madness echoing off the stone. From the shadows emerged not twenty, but more than a hundred hyenas, their twisted grins gleaming beneath war-paint and dust under the evening sun.
The circle tightened around them, hyenas closing in from every direction. Above, crows took flight, scattering like black shards into the reddening sky.
The Tungsten wolves had walked into the trap.
"It's a trap Ligon!" Kleraenys Filze, the head of the assault team, shouted over the chaos.
"A retreat means slaughter," Ligon's loud voice rumbled through the chaos. "We fight like the beasts they fear. The Tungsten wolves don't run from their enemies, not now, not ever. We fight. We tear. We win."
For a heartbeat, silence held. Then the howls came. Wild, thunderous, answering their Alpha's call as the pack surged forward into the storm of claws and steel.
Blood slicked the earth.
Valia fought like fury incarnate. Her claws ripped through hyena hide; her breath, hot and searing, set warriors ablaze two at a time. But the beasts kept coming. Snarling, relentless and unending.
The first blow landed hard. Her vision split. Still, she tore her attacker in half, entrails spilling across the dirt.
"Take the dragon down!" their captain roared, a brute with a sword wound gaping across his chest. At his command, seven were-hyenas closed in.
They hit like a wave.
In seconds she was surrounded, dragged, slammed and crushed into dirt. Six pinned her limbs; the seventh raised his club and struck.
A crack split the night.
Pain detonated in her skull and tore sharp through her vision until the world faded into a blur.
Her body went slack.
Is this how I die?
Pathetic.
A dragon slain by mongrels? The thought clawed at her pride as rage answered.
Get up, she told herself. Stop whoring yourself to the ground and move! But her body refused her. Blood bubbled at her lips.
I didn't inherit this body to host a charity party for death.
I refuse to die.
The hyenas hesitated, snarling to one another.
"She's down," one barked.
"Rejoin the others! Take the Alpha!" their commander shouted.
Pain split her vision once more. She felt her head cave.
I am a beast of myth.
An ancient being undiscovered, different even amongst my species.
I cower before no one!
Not even death itself.
Her heart burned. Flames licked through her veins. The ground trembled.
And from that abyss of agony, Valia's roar broke the night.
Green fog rose from her body, swallowing the battlefield.
Darkness enveloped the clouds.
"What's happening—?" someone shouted. The air itself screamed as the fog turned into gold light.
Her skull knitted itself back together. Her body glowed with emerald flames.
She rose slowly, her lungs filled with power, unfamiliar and violent. Eyes unfocused but burning with ancient wrath.
Then the sky split open.
From the black heavens fell hailstones forged of molten lava and jagged ice, fused into weapons of chaos. They struck the ground like falling stars, each impact burning, freezing, and shattering flesh. Hyenas screamed as their bodies were pierced, burned, and crushed all at once. The earth steamed with blood and fire.
And yet—not a single wolf was struck. They all watched, disbelief clouding their gaze as they shifted to their human forms.
"By the gods" Ligon muttered beneath his breath as they watched her turn the mildly bloodied battle into a full blown nightmare.
When the last hyena cackle died in the fire-scorched silence, Valia collapsed.
The battlefield had fallen silent.
Ash drifted through the evening air like gray snow, settling on fur and fang alike. The pack stood frozen. Stunned into reverence. None dared move.
Valia lay crumpled in the soot, smoke curling faintly from her parted lips. The emerald hue shimmered faintly against the blackened earth.
Ligon stepped forward through the ruin, every stride deliberate and steady. The wolves parted for him without command. He knelt beside her and gathered her into his arms. Her body was limp… but warm. Too warm, as if her blood still burned beneath her skin.
"Secure the borders," he ordered quietly, his voice cutting through the stunned silence. "No survivors."
The command spread like wildfire. Warriors sprang into motion. Some limped, bleeding; others still shook from the shock of Valia's power. But all obeyed.
They swept through the hyenas' dens before dawn. Torches lighting their mountain paths, claws gleaming with vengeance. The scavengers had hoarded food, gold, jewels, weapons from desperate trades and darker bargains.
The Tungsten wolves took it all.
By sunrise, smoke rose from the hyena burrows, and the surviving scavengers fled to the neighboring clans, their laughter silenced.
And amid the ruin, Ligon carried Valia through the falling ash.
Inside her chambers, he laid her on her bed of furs.
Hours passed. He sat by her bedside, wiping sweat from her brow, cooling her fever. He told himself it was duty as Alpha. That he would do this for any warrior.
But when his eyes lingered too long on her lips, when his heart beat faster as he traced the faint glow beneath her skin, he knew that was a lie.
"What are you?" he whispered into the dim room.
No answer came. Only her breathing; soft, uneven.
It wasn't long before exhaustion claimed him too, into a world he never would have expected.