Awakening The Silver Wolf

RAVENNA POV 

I have never felt rage like this in my entire life. It was mixed with anger, fear, heartbreak, hate, and love. It made the deadliest strength, a force that could tear through anything in its path.

And that was what it made me do. I tore through enemies like they were files. I took them down one after the other. But it did nothing to calm that raging storm in me. It did nothing to scratch that itch deep in my bones.

Kill. Kill. Kill. 

That was all I could hear, all I could taste, all I could feel. 

We couldn't give my grandmother the perfect burial because those bastards had seen it fit to attack.

I was going to fucking kill them all. 

At one point my wolf broke through. She had been at the surface, wrestling with me for control. And I lost the fight.

She broke through with a brutal force but I barely felt the pain.

She tore through enemies like they were nothing. I should have let her out since. Maybe we could–

I hesitated when I saw a familiar figure. She moved familiarly, her strikes were familiar. And she was… cutting down my people. 

I shifted back even though my wolf fought me. I dragged the control back. The cold air slammed into my nude body but I barely felt it.

"Lilith?" My voice was barely above a whisper but she heard me loud and clear. 

She turned to me, then her eyes grew wide. God, it was really her. One of my people charged at her and she drove a sword into him before her eyes returned to me. 

She just killed one of my own. She was here, alive, and she was killing my people. My people!

Whatever emotions I had felt seeing my former best friend alive were gone, and rage-filled in that gap. I took a step towards her and she took a step back, fear flashing in her eyes.

"Y-you were that silver wolf?" she stammered, swallowing hard. 

I didn't answer her and continued advancing. Pain tore through my fingers and I looked down to see my claws coming out. I let them. 

I stopped at a small distance from her. If I took any more steps I would kill her, and I needed answers. "What the fuck are you doing here?" I growled. 

"I should be asking you the same," she shot out, her eyes now hard.

"Are you daft, Lilith? You just saw me shift and you're asking that question? What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm fighting with my people!"

"Your people," she repeated. 

I took a step forward but stopped myself. I clenched my fists and pain burst through my hands. My claws were still out. I didn't bother with the pain because it healed soon. The battle raged around me but all I could see was Lilith. 

"Yes, Lilith," I ground out. "My people. My people that you're killing. My people that you've been hunting!" 

"Ravenna, listen–"

Her words cut off when someone placed a shirt around me. I knew without looking back that it was Darius because Lilith's face became twisted with rage.

"You bastard!" she screamed so she moved to attack my mate.

"Take another step, Lilith, and I would slit your throat before you could blink." Lilith stopped and looked at me with wide eyes. 

"You're taking this bastard's side?" she asked furiously.

Darius came to stand beside me, not sparing a glance at Lilith, and just checked me with worried eyes. I took his hand and faced Lilith again. "This bastard, Lilith, is my mate." 

Lilith's face looked like she had swallowed something bitter. "Him? Your mate? This savage, heartless piece of–"

"Insult my mate again, Lilith, and I will gut you where you stand," I gritted through clenched teeth. 

She kept her mouth closed but her eyes remained hard. If Lilith was here, that meant Rowan and Joseph wouldn't be far off. 

As if summoned by my thoughts, the men came out of nowhere and stood at Lilith's sides, their wide eyes fixed on me. 

"It was nice for you to finally join us," I said, my voice filled with venom as I looked at these two men I was once close to. "Want to tell me what the fuck you're doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Joseph asked instead, his eyes flicking from me to Darius.

"Have you all become stupid?!" I burst, ripping my hand out of Darius' to throw them up in frustration. "I am a Lupinarian! Do you hear me? A Lupinarian! And I want to know why the hell you're all here!" 

"What does it look like we're doing, Ravenna?" Rowan asked, his voice and expression blank.

I turned with him with my eyes filled with hate. "It looks like you're killing my people. It fucking looks like you've been hunting them. Are you one of those bastards?" 

"Yes," he answered without hesitation, without any show of emotion.

I faltered then. I didn't expect it to be true. I was still trying to deny it even though it was right in front of my face. The people I had once called friends were one of those packs who hunted my people, took our women, and killed our men. Have they been doing this even when I was with them? Had a Lupinarian been in his pack house when I was there?

Darius' arm came around my waist and he pulled me back to his side. Some of the tension left me and I sank into his warmth.

Rowan's eyes zeroed in on the place where Darius was touching me. An emotion finally broke through his mask—hate.

"You've always been a bastard, Rowan," Darius said, his voice calm, his eyes fixed on Rowan. "But I never knew how much you were."

Rowan glared at my mate. "You're one to talk." 

Before Darius could answer, I said, "Leave, Rowan." I looked around at the battle that was dying down to see we were winning. "You've already lost." 

A smile curled Rowan's lips, a smile that I never thought I could see on his face once upon a time. "Have I?" he asked with an air of finality, and before I could respond, the ground beneath us seemed to shake with the arrival of new threats.

Figures emerged from the shadows, blending seamlessly with the chaos that still raged around us. Their movements were swift and precise. Too swift. 

Before I could even react, something sharp pricked my neck. My vision blurred in an instant as the pain shot through my bloodstream, a cold, invasive numbness spreading quickly.

I spun around, a growl slipping from my throat, but before I could focus, a second sharp pain came from Darius's side. He staggered beside me, his body locking up as his eyes went wide with confusion. The strength of his grip on me faltered, and my heart skipped a beat.

He tried to move, tried to stay on his feet, but his legs wavered beneath him. A dark, cruel laughter echoed around us. I could barely focus as another surge of pain shot through me. The poison was sinking deeper, spreading through my veins.

But Darius... Darius wasn't going down without a fight.

With a guttural roar, he swung around, his body moving despite the weakening effect of whatever poison they had injected into us. 

His eyes blazed with fury, his hand grabbing one of the attackers by the throat. He lifted the man off the ground with one hand, the sheer force of his anger making the air around us crackle.

"You think you can take me down like this?" Darius growled, his voice low, dangerous. He threw the man across the field, sending him tumbling into a pile of debris. 

But they came for him again—two more figures rushed at him, injecting him with another dose of the poison before he could react.

Darius's roar echoed across the battlefield, but this time, it wasn't the roar of a wolf—it was a roar of sheer defiance.

I tried to move, but my legs felt like they were made of lead. My claws extended, but everything was sluggish as if the poison was drowning every ounce of my strength.

But Darius—Darius wasn't stopping. 

He fought back, even as his body trembled, his movements slower with each passing second. He took on another attacker with a brutal swipe of his arm, knocking them to the ground, but more kept coming. 

More figures, more needles, and soon, Darius's body wasn't moving with the same speed or power. His strikes were faltering, his breath labored.

"Darius!" I cried out again, but my voice was barely a whisper.

His head turned to me, eyes locked on mine, and I saw something there that made my heart stop. Fear.