The Spoils of Victory

The scent of battle and war  lingering in the air. The shadows that clung to them were now weak tendrils, just whispers of smoke. The ground still shook under Serena’s paws from aftershocks of the fight: the strange energy that coursed through her body at those last moments. She had been transformed from a thing everyone feared into an unbeatable force of nature itself. Her claws dug into the floor as she panted, her eyes still glowing with the power of victory.

Lucian and Elias, both panting and muscles rippling with effort, stepped out of the shadows. The room was dark, but not as dark as it had been. Now, there was an eerie calm, an insistent pressure on them from every direction. The threat was gone, at least for now, but the price of that victory remained palpable, like the smoke of a still-embering fire.

Each breath they took was a reminder of the power that had coursed through Serena’s body, scalding hot, made of iron. It had revealed the deep darkness that was buried within her, and she had never imagined she would ever feel afraid of something about her. But no longer. She was in control now. And no man, no one, could take that away from her.

 Lucian walked up to her, his eyes sparkled with respect and admiration . Like something that implied years of loyalty, of trust, of something Serena could not name. 

“You did it,” Lucian said with a raspy voice. Her face lit up as her eyes took in her body, and the changes, the strength, the power, that seemed to emanate from within her.

Elias stood by Lucian across the table, keen of eye but soft beneath, something that knew what Serena was now. “We all fought, but this … this was different,” he said, stopping, as if to gather his thoughts. “I’ve never seen you this way. You’ve changed."

Pride swelling, Serena looked between the two. Everyone fight, every struggle, every dark hour. They stood by her in her lowest moments. But now, she was different. They could see it, feel it. And so could she.

“I never would have done it if it weren’t for you both,” she said, her voice still but some other light glittering in her eyes. Gratitude. blooded, quilted bond, their union tighter than theirs confederation, the filed and the strainer; “Lucian, you … really helped me so much to find my strength. 

Lucian smiled, and the grin was real. “Well, I always knew you had it in you,” Lucian said. “I never expected things to turn out like this."

Serena chuckled, but it was not the quick nervous one. It was a lower, more open laugh, one that sounded more liberated than the dark, cold air enveloping her. But it felt right. That weight that was bearing down on her, was drifting up from her feet and that dark was a flame so vivid it burned greater than she ever thought, imagined, dreamed of.

But the battle wasn’t over. This dark thing, the thing they’d just now fought, had been part of something larger. Something far more dangerous. And they all knew it.

“Victory has been achieved in this combat,” Elias said drily. "But there are more coming. We're not even close to the main event yet."

Serena nodded, just barely, and her smile disappeared. Elias was right. One monster had been vanquished, but the war was far from over. What they had suffered was nothing — the end of the world, as it turned out, with all the hurt fluffy stuff — compared to the new level of pain ahead. The Onyx wolf had shown she was strong, but that strength must be tested, over and over, in leading them through whatever evil may come.

“I know,” Serena said, firm and grave. "But we’ll face it together. Whatever comes, we’ll fight.” We’ve suffered too much to turn away now.”

Lucian walked up to her patting her on the back with a big smile already spread on his face. "That’s the spirit. We’ve got your back, Serena. Always."

For a brief moment the three of them stood in the silence of the place, and their bond was as ironclad as the steel running in Serena’s veins now. They had beaten them, they had bested the beast, but the dark shadows of the night were lurking, lurking for blood.

“Let’s get out of here,” Elias at last said. "We’ve earned a break."

Serena nodded and surveyed the room. In the debris around them — crumbled walls, remnants of the beast that nearly devoured them — Serena could still taste the remnants of the fight. And yet there was this feeling under the wreckage, this hush, this calm before the storm.

A flutter in Serena, as they walked toward the exit. It was a soft sound — a muffled voice calling her name. She looked over her shoulder back at the room, scanning the shadowed spaces one final time. For now, the darkness was gone, but she knew it would never abandon her.

But that was okay. She wasn’t afraid anymore. She was the Onyx wolf. She was the leader now.

She and Lucian walked through the door into the hall, his hand on her shoulder; with Elias following closely behind. 

“We have a long way ahead and a lot of pack members to lead” Serena said, her voice resonant. “But together, we will pass through everything.”

"We've faced worse before. We’ll face it again,” Lucian said proudly.

They took another step toward the hall, the sound of the flickering torches reverberating along the walls, casting faint shadows. What had just happened hung in the air but it didn’t seem as if it was supposed to happen. And winning, particularly against an enemy that had robbed them of so much, offered them something none had ever had before: hope. Hope born of their bond and the power of Serena’s leadership

“We have to deal with it,” Elias said, his voice grave. “The world is not going to wait for us to take a break.”

Serena turned to the two of them with a fierce look on her face. “ You're right, let get  going then," she said, low and firm. “There’s no going back now.”

They pressed on, each step saying the fight wasn’t over, but that it was a fight they would face together. It was a dark, stormy night. The future was unpredictable, the threats always there and the unknowable assured. But that no longer frightened her. She had found her strength. And she was not going to let it fade off.

The darkness had passed but was never far. Serena knew that. But while she was at the front, while she was leading as the Onyx wolf, they could never take their place in shadow.

And this? This was just the beginning.