...Blood and Shadows...
Through the walls, through the floorboards, through Elena's bones.
She froze where she sat near the edge of her bed, fingers tangled in the bedsheet. The sound ripped her back to the night she lost her voice, the night everything burned. Her throat tightened instantly, her breath catching in a painful half-sob.
Another howl followed, closer, sharper, too close.
Her pulse hammered.
Before she could process anything, Lorenzo was already on his feet, the tension in his body sharp enough to cut through the air. He moved with the controlled grace of a man who had faced war before, whose body knew battle before the mind even commanded it.
His golden eyes gleamed like wildfire as he stared out the window.
"They've breached the borders," he said. His voice wasn't raised. It didn't need to be. The quietness made it worse,made it feel real.
Elena's heart dropped. Borders. Breached.
Rogues.
Her fingers clenched harder around the sheets until her knuckles burned. She had heard about rogues her entire life… but hearing stories and hearing their howls tearing through the night were worlds apart.
The castle suddenly didn't feel big enough. Or safe enough.
Her chest tightened.
A third howl split through the night, this one laced with hunger.
And the pack's guards howled back ,warning, answering, preparing.
The fight had begun.
Lorenzo turned to her. His expression wasn't just serious,it was something deeper, darker. A look that said he was balancing two instincts: the Alpha who had to protect his people, and the mate who hated leaving her.
"Elena," he said, voice firm, "do not leave this room."
Her breath hitched. She shook her head before she even realized she was doing it.
She didn't want him to go.
Her throat trembled; she wanted to tell him she was scared. That she didn't want to be alone.The darkness felt too heavy tonight, too close to the memories she spent every day running from.
But when she tried to speak, only air came out broken, fragile, useless.
A silent plea.
He saw it. His eyes softened, just for her.
In three steps he crossed the space between them. His hand cupped her cheek gently, as if she were something precious he was terrified to break. Her eyes burned as she leaned into his touch.
"You're safe here," he murmured. "I'll come back."
Her heart ached. Fear wrapped around her ribcage like vines, squeezing painfully.
His thumb brushed her face one last time before he pulled away.
And then...
The Alpha mask slid back into place. His shoulders squared. His jaw hardened.
He turned and left, the door closing behind him with a finality that made her chest cave inward.
...
The world outside exploded into chaos.
Elena rushed to the window, her breath trembling. Below, wolves clashed,massive forms colliding, tearing, snarling. Growls ripped through the air like thunder. The snow on the ground was already stained dark in places.
Rogues.
Her stomach twisted.
They moved differently,too fast, too coordinated. Their eyes… gods, their eyes were wrong. A deep, pitch-black void stared back from each one, as if their souls had been hollowed out.
Something controlled them. Something bigger.
A shiver ran through her.
And then she saw him.
Lorenzo burst from the shadows in his full Alpha form,obsidian fur catching the moonlight, muscles rippling beneath it. He towered over the others, terrifying and beautiful all at once. His growl shook the ground. He lunged at a rogue with lethal speed, knocking it back hard enough to crack a bone.
Elena's breath caught.
He was strength. He was furious. He was everything she should fear.
But she didn't.
She couldn't.
Because beneath all that darkness, she felt him, felt his presence, his fire, his bond tugging at hers like invisible strings made of heat and longing and something deeper than words.
Her wolf stirred restlessly, whining in her chest.
She pressed her palm to the cold window glass, eyes locked on him as he tore into another rogue with a ferocity that made her tremble.
But then something shifted.
The rogues weren't just attacking,they were pushing forward, ignoring the guards, ignoring the defenses. Their path wasn't scattered.
It was direct.
Toward the castle.
Toward her.
A horrible realization punched the air out of her lungs.
They were hunting something.
No someone.
Her breathing turned shallow. The memory of smoke filled her nose, phantom flames licking at her skin.
Her vision blurred.
And then, cutting through her panic.
A rogue wolf broke through the last defensive line.
It was enormous. Its fur was matted, its fangs bared, saliva dripping from its jaws like poison. Its eyes were
Black. Empty. Hollow.
It lifted its head
And looked straight at her window.
Elena stumbled backward, hand flying to her mouth. Her nails scraped her skin as she tried to hold in a scream that would never come.
Her throat seized. Her chest tightened painfully.
Her wolf thrashed inside her, desperate.
But her body… paralyzed.
She couldn't move. She couldn't make a sound. She couldn't do anything but shake.
The rogue growled, a low, vibrating sound that rattled her bones.
It saw her. It wanted her.
Her legs buckled, and she dropped to her knees, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Her silence had never felt so heavy. Never felt so deadly.
---
Out on the battlefield, Lorenzo froze.
In the middle of ripping a rogue off one of his warriors, something hit him across the bond,hard. A wave of pure, raw terror not his own.
Elena.
His head whipped toward the castle window so fast the air cracked. And there she was ,small, pale, trembling, eyes wide with terror.
And behind her
A rogue is climbing the outer wall.
His wolf's rage exploded.
The sound he made wasn't a howl. It wasn't a growl.
It was a roar of an Alpha whose mate was threatened.
He charged.
Every step was a killing promise. Any rogue in his path died instantly. He didn't slow. He didn't think.
He devoured his way forward, the world narrowing to one instinct:
Protect her.
Not the pack.
Not the territory.
Her.
Elena.
His mate.
His silence.
His storm. He would burn the world for everything.
And he would reach her
Or he would tear the world apart trying...