Chapter 40. Ritual of reckoning

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• Against All Odds   Chapter 86. Alpha Kong’s Challenge

  * Zeina *The storm had a pulse tonight. I could feel it in the bones of the mountain. In the air thick with charged silence. In the way the earth held its breath.Cerberus stood beside me, still as a carved god, his eyes fixed on the path that wound up from the valley below. Donna and Beta Kael flanked us, loyal as the blood that had been spilled on this ridge, loyal as the warriors now lined in ranks below, flame-light dancing across their armor.Then came the sound. Not thunder, not the mountain shifting, but hooves. Marching. Metal clashing in ritual rhythm. The High Guard.And behind them, the Council. Their banners bore the mark of Blackstone Keep, a crown wreathed in flame. The irony stung.At their center, he rode. My brother. The Alpha King. Zed.I did not hate him. That was the worst part. I remembered the boy who taught me to read the stars. Who carried me on his back when I twisted my ankle racing wolves. Who took lashes meant for me when I failed in the trials of our fath

• Against All Odds   Chapter 85. Binding of Blood

  * Alpha King Zed *The throne room of Blackstone Keep was carved from obsidian and silence. Light slanted through the stained glass like judgment, and the scent of smoke lingered from the torches lit by trembling servants. Around me, the Council sat in their half-moon of shadows, ancient men and colder women, their robes whispering of old power, older laws, and blood spilled to protect both.My crown sat heavy on my brow, but not as heavy as their eyes."Your sister has overstepped," said High Chancellor Roen, voice crisp as frost. "She flaunts power she was never meant to wield. The wolves on the outer borders no longer heed your summons, they wait for hers. They chant her name.""Princess Zeina," spat Lord Hadric, the oldest of them. "They call her the Phoenix Alpha. They whisper that fire follows where she walks. You know what must be done."I leaned back slowly, fingers steepled before me, face a mask of calm carved over turmoil."She is my sister.""She is your rival," Roen snapp

• Against All Odds   Chapter 84. Power and Loyalty

  * Zeina *The stars blinked above like ancient watchers, uncaring and constant, but I no longer felt small beneath them.The wind tugged at the edges of my cloak, the scent of moss and charred earth lingering, a reminder that even rebirth carried the memory of fire. I stood at the ridge, where once only ghosts walked, and now, warrior wolves trained by torchlight. Where there had been silence, now there was breath and strength and unity.But peace, I knew, was a fragile illusion. And my brother had not crossed that mountain to welcome me home. He had come to remind me that I was never meant to wear power without his permission.Fool.When I turned to Cerberus, his presence at my side was like gravity, anchoring, unshakable. His fingers curled around mine with silent promise, and in that silence, I knew, we were the storm now. No throne could contain us."I see how my brother thinks," I said quietly. "He'll retreat, speak of diplomacy, and let the council circle like vultures. But it w

• Against All Odds   Chapter 83. A threat to the Alpha King

  * Cerberus *The last of the flames danced across the altar like a dying god's whisper. I stood at Zeina's side, her scent burned into my lungs, blood, ash, defiance. She was more than an Alpha now. More than the heir of old power. She was ours. Chosen not just by bloodlines, but by battle. By bond. By survival.I looked at the ridge, the battlefield stretched wide beneath the twilight sky. Wolves limped, some carried, some stood still in silent grief. The dead were honored, not just buried, not discarded. They were remembered.And the silence? It wasn't hollow anymore. It was sacred.My shift back into human form had left muscles aching, but I stood tall, the old warrior in me still burning. I watched Zeina lift her voice, call the world to know her name. And when she howled, it wasn't the cry of a wolf mourning the fallen, it was a declaration. And the pack answered. Across the ridges. Beyond the trees. A rising chorus from wolves that were once scattered, afraid, leaderless.They

• Against All Odds   Chapter 82. End of the corruption

  * Zeina *The corrupted magic had died screaming. Celine's body lay sprawled across the broken altar stone, her limbs twisted in unnatural stillness. The power that had once clung to her like tar had finally bled out, black smoke thinning into nothing, devoured by the ancient mountain's hunger for balance.I stood over her, my breath ragged, ribs heaving, every muscle quivering from the strain of war. But I did not collapse. The fire within me had not dimmed. It had only quieted. Refined.The wind, once filled with howls and snarls, fell into eerie stillness. No more followers came. No more shadows crawled. Because they were already dead.Scattered across the battlefield, the last of Celine's loyal, rogue wolves drunk on her promises of blood and power, lay broken. Some had fallen to Donna's blade, others to Beta Aldin's disciplined command. And others, to my fury.I turned slowly, eyes scanning the ridge.Donna stood tall at the edge of the clearing, her blade dripping black blood.

• Against All Odds   Chapter 81. Celine’s dark awakening

  * Zeina *The crack of her bones was the thunder.Celine's wolf exploded from her human form, sleek, jet-black, unnaturally tall. Her fur shimmered like obsidian, her limbs built for killing, not for running. Eyes, still hers, still void of warmth, locked on mine like a curse spoken in a forgotten tongue.I let her come. And I shifted.Fire didn't burn as hot as what tore through me. My spine arched with the scream of transformation, bones stretching, snapping, reforming into a creature older than the bloodlines they'd tried to bury. My coat wasn't white or silver like prophecy had whispered, it was molten gold streaked with ember black. A queen's flame and a warrior's scars. My fangs glinted like forged iron as I stood tall on four limbs, tail high, hackles raised.She lunged first.Claws scraped stone as she surged toward me, teeth bared. I met her head-on, jaws crashing into hers in a collision that echoed across the ridge like a war drum. Pain lanced through my neck as her teeth c