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홈 / Werewolf / Against All Odds / Chapter 32. Quiet Awakening and Refelections

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Chapter 32. Quiet Awakening and Refelections

작가: jengreyy
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-06-02 08:58:35

* Zeina *

I woke slowly.

Not with a start, not with the panic that had haunted the last three nights, but gently, like floating to the surface after sinking too long in dark waters. The kind of waking that feels less like returning and more like remembering, remembering you're still alive.

The room was quiet, thick with the hush of pre-dawn. Shadows draped themselves along the stone walls like soft velvet. Outside, the first hints of light crept in, faint strokes of gold smudging the horizon, casting long, honeyed beams across the floor.

I didn't feel cold. Not this time.

A steady warmth pressed against my back, solid, quiet, unmoving. Cerberus.

He hadn't left. Just like he said.

His arm lay draped around my waist, not possessive, not tight, just there. Anchoring. His breath stirred the strands of my hair, steady and warm against the nape of my neck. I could feel his heartbeat, slow and unbothered, like some deep drum beneath the surface of the earth. His body radiated a quiet heat, c
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  • Against All Odds   Chapter 141. Fighting for his son

    * Cerberus *They tried to sidestep me, quick as a shadow, but I matched them.Steel rang again, sparks flashing between us. I drove them back a step, two, but they didn't falter. Whoever they were, they'd been trained to slip past a guard, not challenge one head-on. Which meant the fact I was still between them and my son was already unraveling their plan."You're not leaving here alive," I said, and I meant it in the simplest way possible, like a fact carved in stone.They slashed for my thigh. I caught the blade on mine, twisted, and nearly wrenched their weapon free. But they were wiry, slippery, and with a desperate feint they broke to my left, sprinting for the low slope that would put them within sight of the Alpha house.My body moved before thought. The knife at my hip left my hand, spinning silver through the dark, and bit deep into their side. They stumbled but didn't fall.That told me more than anything else. They weren't human.I closed the distance, catching them by the

  • Against All Odds   Chapter 140. Both of their struggles

    * Cerberus *She thought I didn't notice how her strikes were turning desperate. I noticed. I always noticed. Every twitch in her grip, every ragged inhale she tried to mask, it was all too loud to me.I wanted to stop her. Every instinct in me screamed that this was doing more harm than good, that letting her burn herself out like this was like handing her the knife she'd eventually drive into her own chest. But the other half of me, the half that had spent the last year watching her fight like hell against things she couldn't see, couldn't bring myself to take that fire away.So I stayed close, close enough to pull her back before she crossed the line but far enough to let her feel she still had teeth.When I left her that night, I didn't go to my quarters. I went to him.My son. He was awake, as usual, little hands tangled in the blanket, golden eyes catching the dim light from the hearth. He wasn't even a year and a half yet, but he already spoke like he'd been alive twice that lo

  • Against All Odds   Chapter 139. She wanted to shift

    * Zeina *Every day my body got a little stronger, but not in the way I needed. The bruises faded quicker now. My legs didn't shake as much after drills. My arms could take the weight of the blade without that deep, bone-deep ache setting in too soon. On paper, I was improving. But the truth was colder, my wolf was still gone.The hollow place inside me where she should have been remained silent, as if my bones had been emptied of something vital and filled instead with nothing. I tried not to think about it. Tried to convince myself that strength in this form was enough, that maybe I could fight like this forever. But the lie was fraying.Cerberus didn't see it, or maybe he did, and that's why he kept stopping me before I burned myself out. He thought I was impatient. I was terrified. Because if this was all I could be now... then I was no longer what I was born to be.The sparring left me breathless, but not in the satisfying way it used to. There was no shift to push me past the li

  • Against All Odds   Chapter 138. Training match

    * Cerberus *I didn't move until her footsteps faded into the Alpha house. The pit felt bigger without her in it, colder somehow, the churned mud already drying into ridges and cracks under the noon sun.She thought she could wear herself down and still hold the line when it mattered. She thought that fire would carry her through everything. But fire burns out faster than it knows. I'd seen too many warriors push past that point, and the end was always the same, not glory, not victory. Just silence.The scent of iron lingered in the air, faint but sharp enough to find if you knew where to look. She'd pushed herself so hard the skin at her knuckles had split under the gloves. And she called that strength.I turned toward the rack of training weapons, running a hand over the cold steel of a short blade. Tempering wasn't about breaking something down, it was about pulling it back from the edge just before it snapped.That's what she didn't understand yet. Footsteps sounded on the porch a

  • Against All Odds   Chapter 137. Cerberus lectures

    * Cerberus *By the time I reached the Alpha house, the last of the frost was gone, and steam rose from the warriors' backs like smoke from dying embers. Zeina stood in the center, shoulders squared, blade still in hand, chest rising too fast for my liking.Too long. Too hard. The warriors drifted toward the mess hall, talking low, throwing her glances that were half respect, half something else. Archer was in Donna's arms, silver hair bright in the sun, little fingers clutching that wolf carving like it was a crown.I stepped down into the pit, boots sinking into the churned mud. "Enough," I said, voice carrying in the quiet.Zeina turned, defiance already sharpening in her eyes. "Training's over.""No," I corrected, closing the distance between us, "you're over. You're pushing past the point where your body's helping you. You think pain is proof you're getting stronger, it's not. It's proof you're tearing yourself apart before you've healed."Her jaw worked, but she said nothing. Th

  • Against All Odds   Chapter 136. Mother and son

    * Zeina *The pit stank of blood and damp earth, the air sharp with the chill of morning. My arms ached from yesterday's battle, but there was no time to let the ache settle. Pain was part of the shaping, part of turning flesh into steel.Today, Donna stood off to the side, a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders against the frost. Archer was in her arms, silver hair catching the dim light, eyes brighter than the sun dared to be this early. His carved wolf toy rested in one tiny hand, the other clutching the edge of Donna's cloak."Again," Beta Kael ordered, tossing me a weighted blade.I caught it, breath even, stance low. The warriors formed a loose circle, their attention fixed on every move I made. The black wolf from yesterday was caged now, chained and snarling in the holding pen near the ridge, but his shadow lingered over us.I lunged, pivoted, and blocked Beta Aldin's strike, the weight of the blade pulling at my shoulders. My ribs still protested each twist, but I didn'

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