MasukThe air inside the High Hunter Citadel’s topmost sanctum did not circulate; it pressed down like a physical slab of cold iron. The smell of sulfur and centuries of damp stone was entirely overwhelmed by the sharp, toxic tang of molten silver. Every column in the massive, domed chamber was wrapped in heavy silver chains that hummed with a low, agonizing frequency, sending sharp spikes of pain straight through Gabriel’s alpha senses the moment he stepped across the threshold.Gabriel kept his left hand clamped tightly around Gina’s wrist, his touch the only grounding force keeping her standing as her Moonborn aura clashed violently with the anti-magic runes etched into the volcanic floor. In his right hand, his black-steel broadsword dragged along the ground, leaving a light, metallic scratch on the stone. Beside them, Lucien walked with his jaw clenched, his forearms radiating a fierce, localized heat that hissed whenever his sweat hit the cold air."You're late, Alpha Knight," Selene’
The roaring tension of the Citadel’s war room seemed to linger in the air long after Selene’s laughter faded, leaving a heavy, chilling silence inside the volcanic fortress. High above the jagged northern peaks, the sky continued to bleed its unnatural neon-green fractures, casting an eerie, phosphorescent glow over the endless sheets of mountain ice.Inside the grand hall of the Nightfang pack house, the atmosphere was no less tense, but it was driven by a desperate, calculating focus rather than fanatical ambition. The grand mahogany table in the center of the strategic briefing room had been cleared of its usual documents, replaced instead by a massive, hand-drawn map of the northern territory.Gabriel stood at the head of the table, his broad shoulders squared, his large hands planted firmly on the dark wood as he stared down at the layout of the High Hunter Citadel. The golden-crimson light of his Alpha eyes simmered with a quiet, lethal intensity. Beside him, Gina sat in a high-
The cosmic roar echoing inside Gina’s mind wasn’t just a sound; it was a physical force that shattered her mental barriers like cheap glass. For a terrifying, suspended second, she wasn't standing in the blood-soaked courtyard of the Nightfang pack house. She was floating in a vast, suffocating void, staring at the northern horizon of the spirit plane where the sky was literally cracking open.Two massive, skeletal hands made of starlight and cosmic dust were gripping the edges of the reality rift, pulling a monstrous, ancient entity into existence.*“The Consumer of Lineages,”* a primordial whisper echoed in the depths of her soul. It wasn't her wolf speaking; it was the ancestral memory of the Moonborn bloodline waking up in pure, unadulterated terror. *“The entity that hunted the first gods. The Key did not unlock the well... it summoned the end.”*"No!" Gina gasped, her consciousness violently snapping back into her physical body.She reeled backward, her boots skidding across the
The crimson-eyed woman perched on the windowsill didn’t just command the darkness; she seemed to be woven directly from it. The suffocating aura of the Moonborn Queen washed over the corridor, pressing down on the rebel wolves and hunters alike until several of them fell to their knees, gasping for air.Gina stood her ground, though every instinct inside her screamed that she was standing in front of an apex predator. The silver light from her own forehead flared defensively, casting a pale, defiant glow against the creeping black fog."Mother," Gina whispered, the word tasting like ash on her tongue."A biological technicality, dearest," the Queen purred, stepping off the windowsill with a weightless, lethal grace. Her bare feet didn't make a sound against the glass-strewn floor. "You may call me Evangeline. Though 'Your Majesty' also suffices.""You sent Julian to kill us," Gina said, her voice shaking with a volatile mix of grief and rage as she thought of Lucien lying cold in the
The ground didn’t just shake; it groaned as if the island itself were being ripped apart at the seams. Fissures tore through the sacred grove, glowing with a deep, primordial crimson light that bled from the chasm below. The freezing air clutched at Gina’s lungs, but the ice in her veins had nothing to do with the temperature.Lucien lay motionless beside her, his skin rapidly graying as the corrupted black veins reached his jawline."Lucien... no, please, wake up. Look at me," Gina choked out, her hands hovering over his chest. She tried to channel her spirit energy, desperately forcing the white light into his wound, but the ancient king’s presence in the grove was so suffocatingly heavy that her magic felt like a flickering candle in a hurricane.A few feet away, the monstrous shadow-beast that had been pinning Gabriel down paused, its multi-eyed face twisting toward the newcomer. Even a creature born of dark magic recognized a predator that sat at the very top of the food chain. G
The air inside the shattered sanctuary was thick with the acrid scent of ozone and freshly spilled blood. The terrifying revelation of the man standing in the doorway—the brother Gina hadn't known existed, an exact mirror of Lucien but dressed in the dark armor of the High Hunters—still hung heavily over the room."Step away from my sister," Lucien snarled, his voice dropping an octave into a register of pure, lethal malice. He didn't hesitate. With a lethal grace, he drew his twin blades, the silver metal humming as he stepped directly between Gina and the impostor. "I don't know what kind of dark magic Selene used to fashion your face, puppet, but I will carve it off."The hunter brother—Julian—let out a dry, chilling chuckle that echoed off the crumbling stone walls. "Puppet? Oh, Lucien. Mother always did say you were the slow one. You ran away to play guardian wolf, while I stayed behind to inherit the real power.""Enough talking," Gabriel growled.The Alpha didn't just attack; h







