Untested

The first wolf jumped in front of Rhaevan just as he was turning.

I saw him take the blow meant for me, roll through it, and use the attacker’s own momentum against them — smashing their skull into a rock hard enough to crack stone.

There was no time to be afraid of him.

A second shadow broke away from the chaos and locked its gaze on me.

Instinct took over before I could think. 

This body—only a few hours old in this form—dropped and twisted, claws slashing at empty space where my throat had been just moments before. 

I hadn’t learnt that move. My blood remembered it for me.

[Warning: Combat instincts activating — Bloodline-inherited, not trained]

[Advice: Don’t rely on instinct alone. Instinct without skill fails.]

The system blinked too late. 

The wolf recovered quickly, spun around, and launched a second attack. 

No surprises left to save me now.

Nyra exploded into the wolf’s side—fully shifted now, bigger than I expected, a blur of dark fur and fury that slammed the attacker down into dirt and pinned it there. 

Blood sprayed hot across the soil. 

She didn’t hesitate like I would have.

“Move!” she growled through a throat half-shifted, fur caught in her teeth. 

“You stall, you bleed out!”

I lunged—not gracefully, with raw and clumsily borrowed moves—but I hit the nearest attacker as it dove for one of Nyra’s wolves. 

My shoulder connected with enough force to send it flying into the underbrush. 

The impact shot pain up my spine.

For a brutal second, I understood what Rhaevan meant about arriving instead of dying.

Then the fourth figure appeared from the smoke where the explosion had ripped through the trees. 

This one moved differently from the others. 

Slower. More deliberate. 

Radiating the same eerie stillness Kael had, but heavier, more commanding. 

Not just a soldier. A commander.

“Rhaevan!” I shouted, but two wolves had him pinned, their claws dug into his shoulders, and he couldn’t break free in time.

The stillness-thing locked onto me alone, and dread hammered through my chest.

[CRITICAL WARNING]

[Enemy Classification: Veiled Court Enforcer — NOT a normal wolf]

[Host Combat Readiness: INSUFFICIENT]

[Recommend: Retreat]

“There’s nowhere to retreat,” I spat at the silver text.

The Enforcer closed the distance without running—space folded and collapsed between us. 

I threw myself sideways as claws, unnatural on any wolf, gouged four deep trenches into solid stone like it was wet sand. 

The air smelled like August heat on the Rouge—hot metal, river oil, and ozone. 

The same smell that lingers over Delray when Zug Island’s flares kick in at 2 AM.

I hit the ground hard, breath knocked out, staring up into eyes that held no wolf at all. 

Something ancient. Hungrier. 

Patient in a way that made Kael’s stillness seem merciful.

It raised a claw for the killing blow. 

Slow. Certain.

Then Nyra screamed my name.

“Lunara! Catch!”

Reflex took over. 

I snapped my head around and caught the dark obsidian stone Nyra had ripped from her belt and thrown across the clearing—the same kind Rhaevan had slipped into my palm during my first shift, humming and warm even through numb fingers.

The Enforcer’s claw came down.

I didn’t decide. 

Something older than my body did. 

I slammed the stone against the ground between us and felt a pulse of silver-blue light explode outward from the impact. 

It hurled the Enforcer backwards through the air like it weighed nothing.

The clearing fell silent except for ragged breathing and the crackling of dying torches.

_[Blood Moon System]_

_[UNKNOWN ABILITY TRIGGERED]_

_[Bloodline Synchronisation: 19% — SURGE DETECTED]_

_[Warning: Ability origin unknown. Analysis incomplete.]_

I stared at my trembling hands, at the stone split clean in two, light flickering along the crack. 

No idea what I’d just done.

Across the clearing, Rhaevan froze, staring at me like he had besides the river—recognition mixed with grief.

“That,” Nyra panted, shifting back to human, blood not her own smeared across her collarbone, “was no beginner’s trick.”

The Enforcer didn’t rise where it landed. 

For a terrible moment, I thought I’d killed it—then it unravelled. 

Shadow shredded into smoke and bled into the trees, vanishing as completely as Kael had at the riverbank.

Not defeated. Recalled.

“They’re pulling back,” Rhaevan said, disbelief raw in his voice. 

“Enforcers don’t retreat. Ever. Not without direct orders.”

“Which means someone high up in the Veiled Court’s chain decided tonight wasn’t worth the cost,” Nyra said grimly, eyes locked on me and the cracked stone still pulsing faintly in my palm.

Strength left me. 

My knees buckled.

Rhaevan caught me before I hit the ground, just like he had outside Ashveil Hall—hours and a lifetime ago.

The last thing I heard before darkness took me was his voice, quiet and unsteady, speaking not to me but to his sister.

“She just triggered a Sovereign’s Ward. A work that hasn’t succeeded in three hundred years.” 

A pause, heavy with wonder and dread. 

“Nyra—she doesn’t just carry the bloodline. She’s waking up inside it.”

Then, through the smoke where the Enforcer had vanished, a second pair of eyes lit up—watching me, marking me.

The voice that came with it wasn’t a wolf’s. 

It was female and amused, and it spoke my true name.

“Found you, Blessed.”