Chapter 5

The roar of the crowd was instantly silenced, replaced by a collective, horrified gasp. The two massive wolves—one gray, one shimmering black with dangerous, chaotic silver edges—slammed together mid-ice, a vortex of fur, muscle, and raw, unrestrained shifter power. This was not a fight; it was a desperate, primal fusion.

Kael's decision to shift and embrace her, rather than fight her, was the ultimate act of Sacrifice. He hadn't just saved her from the Berserker’s consuming chaos; he had publicly declared their Forbidden Bond to the entire world.

The second their fur touched, the Berserker’s destructive shift was arrested. Elara felt the black fire retract, sucked back into her core, stabilized by the overwhelming anchor of Kael's dominant, but loyal, Alpha-force. The bond solidified, moving from a fragile connection to a steel cable of absolute necessity.

Elara's vision cleared just as a team of armed security shifters, mobilized by Alpha Darius, swarmed the ice.

They shifted back almost simultaneously, a practiced, urgent motion of bone and muscle returning to human form. They were naked, breathless, and terrifyingly exposed, both physically and politically.

Kael stood taller, placing his body between Elara and the approaching security team. His face was a mask of furious defiance, but his voice was steady.

“Stand down,” Kael commanded, his voice carrying the deep, resonating thrum of a true Alpha—a sound Elara realized she had never heard him use before. It silenced the security team instantly.

From the Alpha box, Darius's roar was thunder. “Treason! Kael, you are banished! Elara, you are mine. Seize them both!”

The security team lunged forward.

Elara didn’t wait for Kael to plan. She grabbed his hand and used the momentum to shove him toward the team bench, where Rhys, Cole, Jax, and Zane were already moving.

“Rhys, the locker room,” Kael gasped. “We need to disappear now.”

The team executed the escape flawlessly. Jax and Cole, utilizing their speed as forwards, created a screen, knocking over water bottles and gear bags to block the pursuing guards. Rhys, the strategist, had already opened the gate. Zane shielded them, radiating a powerful, calming pulse that briefly unsettled the nervous security shifters.

They burst into the locker room, slamming the door just as the full fury of Alpha Darius descended upon them.

Darius, now fully shifted into his massive wolf form, tore the locker room door off its hinges. His eyes glowed with pure, murderous hatred.

"You have committed the ultimate offense, Kael! You exposed the Pack, you betrayed your blood, and you claimed a Berserker! I will execute you both!"

“You won’t touch them!” Cole yelled, stepping forward, his body tense. Jax was already shifting, a protective snarl tearing from his throat.

"Stand down, pups," Darius sneered. "This is not your fight. This is the Rival Enforcer defying the Council."

"It's not defiance, Alpha," Kael said, stepping forward. He had pulled on his jersey, the number 08 a symbol of their unity. "It’s the law. The Berserker is unstable. She cannot be left unpaired. If you separate us, you risk the lives of every shifter in the city when her power explodes. You need my anchor."

Elara could hear the calculated logic in his words, the desperate attempt to use the Pack's own restrictive laws against the Alpha.

"I will find another anchor! I will break your bond!" Darius roared, lunging past Kael toward Elara.

He never reached her.

Zane, the quietest, most understated member of the group, was suddenly there. He didn’t fight; he didn’t snarl. He simply stood between Elara and the attacking Alpha, extending his hands.

A wave of intense, silent power—pure kinetic force, vibrating with the earth’s own steady pulse—slammed into Darius. The Alpha was thrown back, hitting the opposite wall with a sickening thud that knocked him back to human form, stunned and shaking.

Rhys rushed to his aid, not to help, but to strike. He didn't use force; he used science. He jammed a prepared syringe into Darius's neck.

"Sleep tight, Alpha," Rhys whispered. "The Rebellion starts now."

The silence was absolute. The five of them—Kael, Rhys, Jax, Cole, and Zane—stood around Elara, their faces covered in sweat and shock. They had not only fought the Alpha, but they had won, fueled by the unexpected power of the Reverse Harem.

“Rhys, the ledger,” Elara commanded, her voice steady. “Now.”

Rhys pulled the encrypted flash drive from a compartment in his shin guard. They had their proof, and they had secured the Alpha.

“The Council will be here in minutes. The exposure on the ice…” Jax started, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

“The exposure is our cover,” Kael finished. “Elara, the mark I left on you is a seal. You are mine, and I am yours. When the Council arrives, you show them the strength of the anchor. We tell them the truth: that we are the only thing that can keep the Berserker from destroying the world.”

Elara looked at the five of them. They were her Found Family. They had risked everything for her, for the pact, and for the greater good of the Pack. She felt the depth of her commitment, an emotion far more terrifying than the Berserker’s rage.

"And when they ask who leads now?" she asked, her eyes meeting Kael's.

Kael's dark eyes were blazing with a newfound, terrifying conviction. He grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her close, his lips brushing her ear.

"You do," he whispered. "You are the center of the anchor. You are the fire. You will be the Queen."

But before they could take another breath, before they could even decide what to do with the unconscious Alpha, the locker room door burst open again.

This time, it wasn't a guard. It was Mother Lunaris, the High Priestess and leader of the rival Ravens Pack, and she was flanked by a squadron of heavily armed, hostile shifters. She looked straight at Elara, her face a chilling portrait of triumph.

"You took out Darius for me," Lunaris drawled, her voice dripping with venom. "How convenient. The Forced Fighting Ring belonged to him, but the Berserker Bloodline belongs to me. You are coming with us, Elara. And your little anchor of boys is useless now."

The Queen of the rival Pack had arrived, exposing her role in the power vacuum and claiming Elara's Berserker power for herself. Could the newly-formed Reverse Harem—now without their strategic leader Rhys, who was still focused on securing the evidence—fight off an entire squad of armed, hostile Ravens, and prevent Elara from becoming the ultimate prize in the inter-Pack war?