CHAPTER 5: Acceptance And Rebirth

"Doesn't this feel nostalgic?" he sneered, grinding his heel into the wound, eliciting a raw scream from me. With a grunt, he hauled me up, his arm a vise around my neck.

"Ohhhh, this brings back memories, Ronan," he whispered into my ear, his breath hot and foul. "Just… no difference."

Then, a devastating blow to my gut. The air rushed from my lungs, and I spat blood, the metallic taste filling my mouth.

"Don't taint me, peasant," he growled in disgust, kicking me away like discarded trash, sending me crashing into a nearby rock.

He gave a curt signal. "It's time to end this. You're such a useless hybrid," he snarled. "You should know by now, even though you're half-wolf, half-demon, you still amount to nothing. I mean, under these circumstances, you ought to be the baddest, like in those folklores.

But this is reality, and you will always remain insignificant!" His words were like daggers, each one piercing deeper into my heart.

Maybe he's right. The thought echoed in my mind, a chilling confirmation of my deepest fears. I couldn't even save my mom… or this little girl. The realization was a crushing weight.

"I'm still weak," the words escaped my lips as a single tear traced a path down my cheek.

"Go, Alpha Thorn, beat him up!" The chants reverberated through the air, fueling the transformation.

It was a horrifying spectacle. Alpha Thorn's bones contorted and snapped, his skin stretching and tearing as a monstrous form emerged. Long, jagged arms burst forth, ripping through his clothing. A hulking, hairy figure took shape, impossibly large—a grotesque parody of a man. His eyes ignited with a malevolent red glow, and his teeth sharpened into deadly daggers as a guttural roar shook the very ground.

He moved with terrifying speed, yanking me from the rock and hurling me to the ground. The world became a blur of pain and disorientation as he slammed me down repeatedly. I could feel the sickening crunch of bone, the tearing of muscle. I was powerless, a mere plaything in his hands. His claws ripped through my abdomen, and a wave of nausea washed over me as my blood spilled onto the earth.

He tasted it—the metallic tang of my life force—then gripped me tighter, his hot breath on my ear.

"DIE," he snarled, the word a final, crushing blow. A sharp, agonizing thrust, and then… darkness.

Alpha Thorn had pierced my heart, leaving me broken and bleeding in the dirt.

The crowd roared its approval, their adulation a sickening chorus.

"Bring out the potion," Thorn ordered, his eyes gleaming with mad triumph.

A vial of thick, red fluid appeared in his grasp. He swallowed it in a single gulp, the liquid seeming to burn its way down his throat.

"If you can still hear me, Ronan," he said, his voice taking on a strange, echoing quality, "she's part of me now. I've taken her in. We're… connected. My metamorphosis… it's done."

He opened his mouth wide, and a horrifying screech tore from his throat, a sound that was both human and something else entirely.

"Anna… you… you sacrificed her?" I managed, each word a painful struggle against the blood choking me.

"Behold, my ascension," Thorn bellowed.

His transformation was complete, the final form a horrifying fusion of wolf and something… else. Spines erupted from his back, leathery wings unfurled—a chilling echo of a memory I had desperately tried to suppress.

The memories flooded back, the night I had become a similar abomination. The spines… the wings… How could I have forgotten? Thorn had achieved his goal: unstoppable power, dominion over all.

"You destroyed my pack, you killed your friend, you killed my mom, and now you even sacrificed this innocent demonfolk!" I cried, my voice raw with grief and rage.

And then, something shifted.

For the first time, my inner voices weren't warring factions but a unified chorus. My wolf howled within, desperate to break free, to be unleashed, to be embraced. My demon echoed the sentiment, its voice a chilling whisper: "Intolerable. Kill. Kill. Kill. Embrace us now."

The wounds that had plagued me moments before vanished, leaving no trace. My eyes burned with a pure, white light. I had finally surrendered to my hybrid nature.

I rose to my feet, the fear that had haunted me gone, replaced by the unwavering resolve of a predator.

"You made the biggest mistake of your life not killing me that night, Thorn," I said, my voice no longer my own, but something deeper, more resonant—a blend of wolf and demon.

In the blink of an eye, a blinding light erupted from my body, engulfing the entire arena, eclipsing even the crimson glow of the blood moon.

I was reborn, this time with full control.

The crowd gasped, their eyes wide with awe as they took in my transformed form.

I wasted no time.

"You have three strikes before I end you, Thorn," I commanded, my voice echoing with newfound power. "Make them count."

Thorn, visibly shaken by my imposing aura, snarled, "Don't you mock me!"

He launched himself into the air, delivering a kick to my temple that reverberated through the entire area. Trees swayed violently, revealing a distant mountain and cascading waterfall.

As the dust settled, Thorn's laughter echoed, tinged with a desperate edge. "Is that all?!"

"ONE!"

I replied, standing unmoved. Not even a scratch marred my skin.

Thorn's bravado faltered, replaced by shock and disbelief. He flinched, but his pride wouldn't allow him to back down. He heaved a massive boulder into the air, throwing it with all his might.

The rock shattered into fragments upon impact with my hardened form.

"TWO!"

I declared, my voice a searing brand on his ego.

Driven to desperation, he charged, screaming, "DIE!"

He plunged his claws into my chest, only for them to curl and break against my skin. He shrieked in pain, his face contorted in agony and fear.

"THREE!"

I said, my voice cold and unwavering.

I seized Thorn by the throat, my silver claws, now darkened with power, piercing his flesh.

"Don't die on me."

I ascended, carrying him effortlessly into the sky, away from the stunned silence of the arena.

"I'll be back… with his head!" I roared to his pack, their answering bellows fading into the distance as I soared away.

Thorn thrashed—a desperate animal caught in a trap—but escape was a cruel illusion. He was pinned, helpless.

"How… how… how are you stronger?" he choked out, his voice a ragged mix of grief and stunned disbelief.

"Because," I said, each word a hammer blow, "these powers are mine. Unlike you, you didn't earn them. You stole them."

My white eyes, cold and unwavering, bored into his very soul.

"These wings," I hissed, my grip tightening, "don't belong to you."

With a brutal, tearing motion, I ripped them free.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" The scream was raw agony, his face contorting into a mask of pure, excruciating pain. Feathers, stained crimson, rained down around us.

"These horns aren't yours either," I continued, my voice devoid of pity.

I seized them, the bone grinding under my fingers, and with a sharp, upward wrench, I uprooted them.

Another scream, this one choked with blood that now streamed down his face, painting him a grotesque parody of his former self.

We were on the precipice.

I released him, letting gravity take over. He plummeted, a broken, falling thing, his head impacting the jagged rocks below with sickening crunches.

The sound of shattering bone echoed up to me. A flicker of surprise, almost disappointment, crossed my features. He wasn't healing.

"Heal!" I roared, the command laced with a primal urgency. "Come on!"

Without hesitation, I launched myself down, landing with bone-jarring force on his already mangled legs.

The look in his eyes… it was beyond screaming. He was beyond anything but raw, silent suffering. Blood poured from him, a dark tide washing over the stone.

I straddled him, a predator over its prey, and unleashed a relentless barrage of punches. Each blow was a hammer strike against his fading life force, each impact a sickening thud.

I felt the life draining from him with every strike.

Finally, I hauled him up, his broken body dangling limply in my grip.

"It's over, Thorn," I said, my voice low and dangerous. "Any last words?"

A weak smile touched his bloodied lips.

"Take c-are of h-e-r for me, Ro-nan."

Without a word, without a flicker of hesitation, I sank my claws into his neck.

The tearing of flesh, the snap of bone, was sickeningly final.

I held his severed head aloft for a moment, the blood dripping onto the rocks below, before dropping his broken, headless corpse into the churning maw of the waterfall.

The water roared, a hungry beast eager to consume its offering.

I held his head in my hand, the weight of it strangely light.

"Mom, I did it! "I muttered, sobbing gently.

Leaning down, I whispered into his ear, a chillingly intimate confession, "Hopefully, in our next lives… we can be friends."