Trial of Fang and Fury

The circle erupted in chaos.

Kade and Cassian met in a thunderclap of muscle and bone, claws raking, fangs flashing beneath the swollen moon. The impact shook the earth, torches whipping sideways as if the fire itself flinched.

Cassian’s strike came first—savage, precise. His claws slashed across Kade’s ribs, blood spraying into the dirt. The pack roared as one, their fury echoing the wound. But Kade didn’t stagger. He twisted, teeth snapping, tearing into Cassian’s shoulder. Flesh ripped, hot blood splattering across the sigils, staining the circle crimson.

The duel was not a dance. It was war compressed into seconds, each strike a promise of death, each howl a claim to power.

Lena’s breath caught. She gripped the stone at her feet so hard it cut into her palms, but she barely felt it. Every movement in the circle pulsed through her veins. Every slash, every wound—she felt it in her marrow, her blood burning, her wolf shrieking with each impact.

Mine. Ours. Protect.

The bond was a brand inside her, searing hotter with every heartbeat.

Cassian’s laughter broke the clash, ragged and cruel even as blood soaked his chest. “You’ve slowed, brother!” He lunged, jaws snapping for Kade’s throat.

Kade met him with a roar, their bodies colliding midair, rolling across the dirt in a snarl of fur and fang. Dust and blood churned, the circle rattling with the force of it. Wolves along the edges strained forward, teeth bared, but none dared cross the boundary.

Law bound them. Only the Alphas bled in this circle.

Lena’s wolf howled, clawing to be loosed, to join, to tear Cassian apart for daring to lay claim to her. Her body trembled, heat surging through her limbs. She pressed a hand to her neck where Kade’s mark burned, the wound smooth but alive with fire.

Cassian pinned Kade, driving him into the dirt, claws gouging his chest. “See how your pack watches you fall?” he spat, voice dripping with venom. “See how weak you’ve become? All because of her.”

He snapped his gaze toward Lena, his fangs red.

Her wolf snapped back with a growl so loud it tore from her throat before she could stop it.

The pack’s heads whipped toward her. Their eyes widened. Some gasped. A human’s voice should not have carried the timbre of a wolf.

Cassian’s grin widened. “There it is. The mistake.”

Kade surged upward with a roar so violent it split the air. He ripped free, teeth sinking into Cassian’s arm, crunching through bone. Cassian howled, blood spraying across the circle, but Kade didn’t stop—he drove him backward, slamming him into the stones so hard the sigils cracked beneath them.

“Don’t speak her name!” Kade thundered, his voice half-wolf, half-man, reverberating with something older than flesh. His golden eyes blazed as his jaws closed again, ripping flesh from Cassian’s shoulder.

Blood poured.

The pack howled, frenzy rising with the scent of it.

Lena staggered back, chest heaving. Her wolf clawed harder, harder, begging to be free, begging to fight. Her nails lengthened into claws before her eyes, her teeth ached, her vision split into gold and dark. She gasped, clutching her face as her body threatened to fracture beneath the pull.

Cassian shoved Kade off, panting, blood slicking his body. “You can’t win. Not with her as your weakness. The bond will break you, and when it does—” His eyes snapped to Lena again, hunger in them. “She’ll beg me to end her.”

Kade’s snarl shook the clearing. He launched himself at Cassian, claws raised, teeth bared in a death strike—

The moon surged overhead, spilling silver fire across the circle.

Lena screamed as the bond flared, burning her alive from the inside.

She felt it—Kade’s rage, his pain, his determination. She felt Cassian’s hunger, his fury, his drive to kill. And her wolf… her wolf howled with a single truth.

Choose.

The duel was not only theirs anymore. The moon had bound her into it.

The Trial of Fang and Fury had claimed her too.

The moon’s fire seared through Lena, every vein a conduit for silver flame. She doubled over, clutching her chest, but the pain wasn’t hers alone. It was Kade’s. Every torn muscle, every drop of blood spilled onto the earth—she bore it too.

Her scream bled into a howl.

The sound silenced the clearing.

Every wolf’s head whipped toward her. Shock rippled through the circle, but no one moved. Even Cassian froze for the span of a breath, his lips curling into a snarl of disbelief.

“A wolf?” he spat, spitting blood onto the dirt. “Impossible.”

Kade’s chest heaved, blood slicking his torso, but his eyes—his burning gold eyes—snapped to Lena. Not with fear. Not with surprise. With recognition.

“Lena,” he rasped, voice shredded by the shift. “Don’t—”

But her body was already unraveling.

Bones cracked, claws split skin, her scream twisted into the full-throated cry of a wolf breaking its cage. Heat consumed her, fur bursting from flesh, muscles reforming, her vision blazing gold as the world sharpened into scents and sounds. Every heartbeat was a drum, every drop of blood a beacon.

When she staggered upright, the earth was no longer beneath human feet. Paws met stone.

Gasps echoed through the pack. Some backed away, others pressed forward, awestruck.

Lena stood in the circle—her wolf revealed at last.

And the moon crowned her.

Cassian’s eyes widened, fury and hunger colliding. “So this is your secret.” His grin twisted, blood dripping from his teeth. “Then she dies here too.”

He lunged, not at Kade, but at her.

Kade roared, throwing himself between them, claws tearing into Cassian’s chest. The impact rattled the stones, their snarls ripping the night apart. Blood sprayed, hot and coppery, but Lena was no longer a spectator. Her wolf surged forward, instincts sharp, vision red. She launched herself at Cassian’s side, fangs sinking into his flank.

Cassian howled, thrashing, his claws raking her shoulder, but she held fast, tasting his blood, her wolf exulting in the kill. Kade seized the opening, driving his claws across Cassian’s throat.

The pack erupted, the circle a storm of sound. Howls shook the air, some for Cassian, some for Kade, but none could deny what they witnessed: the moon itself had chosen.

Cassian staggered, blood pouring from his wounds, rage still burning in his eyes. “You think this changes anything? You think fate is kind?” His voice gurgled with blood. “The bond will destroy you both. If I cannot kill you tonight, it will.”

Kade’s answer was a snarl as he ripped Cassian to the ground.

The fight ended in a blur of claws, teeth, and finality. Kade’s jaws closed over Cassian’s throat, the snap echoing like thunder. Blood fountained, and then—silence.

Cassian’s body stilled. His eyes glazed, his last sneer frozen on his face.

The circle shuddered with the weight of it.

Kade rose, blood-drenched, chest heaving. His golden eyes lifted to the pack, then to Lena. She stood opposite him, her wolf panting, blood streaking her muzzle, silver light burning across her fur.

Not prey.

Not weakness.

Chosen.

The pack bowed, one by one, their heads lowering, their howls rising in unison—not for Cassian, but for the Alpha who had killed him and the mate who had revealed her wolf under the moon’s gaze.

Kade’s gaze locked with Lena’s across the blood-soaked stones. He did not smile. He did not speak. But in the bond, through the fire still pulsing between them, she felt it.

Mine. Forever. Chosen.

And for the first time, Lena’s wolf answered back with certainty.

Yours.

The Trial of Fang and Fury was over.

But the war it unleashed had only begun.