...Blood and Shadows...
The night split apart with screams.
From the balcony, Elena watched shadows writhe along the tree line , too quick, too many, moving like living smoke. The howls that rose from the forest weren't normal. They were twisted, ripped straight from a throat that was no longer fully wolf… or fully human.
Her heart seized.
That sound…
She knew it.
She had heard it before… wrapped in fire… soaked in blood.
The same low, distorted scream that had echoed through her burning village years ago.
Her legs weakened beneath her.
No. Not again.
....
Below, the earth exploded as Lorenzo landed in a blur of golden fur, his massive wolf form towering, a living tempest. His roar shook the ground beneath the castle walls.
Rogues burst from the trees, eyes wild, foam dripping from their jaws as they charged him in a vicious wave.
He met them with pure, merciless power.
One sweep of his claws split a wolf down the middle. His fangs closed around another's throat, ripping it open as blood sprayed across the dirt. Bones cracked. Flesh tore. The battlefield became a blur of red and black under the pale moon.
Yet they just kept coming.
For every rogue Lorenzo tore apart, two more rushed in to take its place.
And behind them… deeper in the forest…
Shadows moved that were not wolves at all.
Elena's breath choked in her chest as she spotted them between the trees, tall, twisted forms, limbs too long, eyes glowing like burning coals.
Not rogues.
Something else. Something ancient. Something that knew her.
...
She staggered away from the railing, clutching her chest as if trying to hold her heart together.
The metallic stench of blood reached her. The echo of snarls, the snap of bone.
Then came the memories.
Fire pouring over rooftops. Her mother's body hitting the ground. Claws dragging her through dirt and ash. Her father's final scream…
And the moment her own voice had snapped into nothing.
Her silence was not chosen.
It had been stolen.
And now the same darkness had found her again.
.....
"Elena!"
Lorenzo's voice crashed through her mind, sharp through the mate bond.
Stay back. Do not come out.
But the command only made the bond blaze hotter inside her veins.
Her wolf surged forward, snarling, desperate.
He is mine. He is in danger.
Before she could stop herself, her feet were already moving.
She tore through the corridors, past shocked guards, through the open gates — straight into the chaos where blood soaked the ground and bodies lay torn apart.
....
Lorenzo turned just as she broke through the battlefield.
For one frozen heartbeat, the world stopped.
His eyes , gold, blazing, terrified , locked onto her.
"ELENA, NO!"
A rogue launched itself at her.
She froze.
The world slowed as its jaws, slick with blood, opened inches from her throat.
Then a golden blur collided with it in midair.
Lorenzo's wolf tore the beast in half with a snarl so vicious the ground shook.
He shifted as he landed, skin streaked in blood, chest heaving, eyes wild as he seized her shoulders.
"Do you want to die?!" he snapped , but his voice broke on the last word. It wasn't anger.
It was fear.
Fear of losing her.
Elena shook uncontrollably, silent tears spilling down her cheeks. She couldn't speak. Couldn't explain the images tearing her apart.
But through the bond…
He saw them anyway.
The fire. The bodies. The beast with ash-white eyes. A little girl screaming into silence.
His grip softened instantly.
"Those monsters…" he breathed. "They're the ones who did this to you."
A deep, distorted growl rolled through the forest.
Both of them turned.
The shadows stepped forward together now ,tall, twisted creatures that walked as men but moved as beasts. Their eyes burned like dying embers.
One of them smiled.
"You were never meant to survive, little mute one," it rasped. "But you smell even better now."
Elena's blood ran cold.
Lorenzo stepped in front of her instantly, his body forming an unbreakable shield.
"You want her," he growled, power rumbling through the ground, "you go through me."
The creature's eyes flicked from him to Elena… and then, slowly, it bowed.
"Not tonight, Alpha," it hissed. "Tonight… was just a reminder."
The forest fell eerily quiet.
Then , just as suddenly as they appeared ,the shadows slipped back into the trees… and vanished.
Leaving blood.
Leaving bodies.
Leaving a promise hanging in the air.
Lorenzo didn't relax. He only pulled Elena closer into his chest, his hand cradling the back of her shaking head.
"This ends with me," he whispered into her hair. "I will destroy them before they ever touch you again."
And for the first time since she had lost her voice…
Elena made a sound.
It was barely a whisper.
Broken. Raw.
"…Lo…"
His name.
His head snapped down to her, shock and something like awe in his eyes.
"You spoke," he breathed.
Her lips trembled… but it had happened.
One word.
One piece of her voice.
And the night that had stolen everything from her…
had just begun to give something back.
.....