All Chapters of Against All Odds: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

* Zeina *The crack of her bones was the thunder.Celine's wolf exploded from her human form, sleek, jet-black, unnaturally tall. Her fur shimmered like obsidian, her limbs built for killing, not for running. Eyes, still hers, still void of warmth, locked on mine like a curse spoken in a forgotten tongue.I let her come. And I shifted.Fire didn't burn as hot as what tore through me. My spine arched with the scream of transformation, bones stretching, snapping, reforming into a creature older than the bloodlines they'd tried to bury. My coat wasn't white or silver like prophecy had whispered, it was molten gold streaked with ember black. A queen's flame and a warrior's scars. My fangs glinted like forged iron as I stood tall on four limbs, tail high, hackles raised.She lunged first.Claws scraped stone as she surged toward me, teeth bared. I met her head-on, jaws crashing into hers in a collision that echoed across the ridge like a war drum. Pain lanced through my neck as her teeth c

* Cerberus *The last of the flames danced across the altar like a dying god's whisper. I stood at Zeina's side, her scent burned into my lungs, blood, ash, defiance. She was more than an Alpha now. More than the heir of old power. She was ours. Chosen not just by bloodlines, but by battle. By bond. By survival.I looked at the ridge, the battlefield stretched wide beneath the twilight sky. Wolves limped, some carried, some stood still in silent grief. The dead were honored, not just buried, not discarded. They were remembered.And the silence? It wasn't hollow anymore. It was sacred.My shift back into human form had left muscles aching, but I stood tall, the old warrior in me still burning. I watched Zeina lift her voice, call the world to know her name. And when she howled, it wasn't the cry of a wolf mourning the fallen, it was a declaration. And the pack answered. Across the ridges. Beyond the trees. A rising chorus from wolves that were once scattered, afraid, leaderless.They

* Alpha King Zed *The throne room of Blackstone Keep was carved from obsidian and silence. Light slanted through the stained glass like judgment, and the scent of smoke lingered from the torches lit by trembling servants. Around me, the Council sat in their half-moon of shadows, ancient men and colder women, their robes whispering of old power, older laws, and blood spilled to protect both.My crown sat heavy on my brow, but not as heavy as their eyes."Your sister has overstepped," said High Chancellor Roen, voice crisp as frost. "She flaunts power she was never meant to wield. The wolves on the outer borders no longer heed your summons, they wait for hers. They chant her name.""Princess Zeina," spat Lord Hadric, the oldest of them. "They call her the Phoenix Alpha. They whisper that fire follows where she walks. You know what must be done."I leaned back slowly, fingers steepled before me, face a mask of calm carved over turmoil."She is my sister.""She is your rival," Roen snapp

* Zeina *The descent toward the Circle of Stone was quiet, too quiet. Even the wind seemed to draw back in deference or dread. My bare feet touched the cold, ancient steps carved into the mountain centuries ago by those who had once held power without question, without love. Their bones were dust now, buried beneath the soil they once bled to rule.Let mine join them if it meant I never became like them.Donna waited at the base, her gaze shadowed but unshaken. She did not speak as I passed, only bowed, not in submission, but in solidarity. Beta Kael gripped the hilt of his sword as if resisting the urge to follow me in, as if he could carve out the path with blood and will. I felt their loyalty like armor I could not wear, but would carry into that circle all the same.The stone ring loomed ahead, its edges lined with sigils scorched into the earth, thrumming with ancient magic, binding, blood-bound, brutal. The center was bare except for a single silver blade driven into the stone.

* Zeina *The moment the doors sealed behind him, something inside me splintered.Not in fear. Not in helplessness. But in fury. A quiet, steady kind. The kind that burns slow and permanent beneath the ribs. My hands trembled at my sides, not from doubt, but from restraint. From the battle it took not to scream, not to tear the mountain apart stone by stone until he came back to me.Cerberus. My mate.He'd always been flame and steel and thunder, but now... he was sacrifice. He was loyalty. He was everything I had ever fought to protect, and everything I never believed I deserved.Donna moved beside me, silent as always. Her hand ghosted over mine but didn't press. She knew. She had always known. We stood as still as sentinels, watching the ancient doors like they were a wound carved into the mountain itself. The Circle murmured around us, voices like vultures, some in awe, others in disbelief, some still blinded by tradition. But none of them mattered.Because he was in there. Burnin