And when she shoved me into the abyss, her fur reeked of excitement–The smell of a predator basking in the moment of a kill.
Outside the funeral hall, Lucas’s father—the reigning Alpha–stood rigid, his silver fur bristling in rage.
+15 Bonu
The old Alpha moved with terrifying speed, his claws whistling through the air before taking across Lucas’s face, leaving three
deep, bloody slashes
“You Unfilial!” The old Alpha’s voice boomed, shaking the snow–laden tree branches above them.
“You still can’t feel that the mate bond between you and Ava is gone.”
Lucas :
cas staggered, his eyes staring at his father unbelievably.
“Gone?”
Since the last full moon, the bond that had once tied him to Ava–an unbreakable link stronger than any vow–had felt… severed,
like tendons cut by sharp fangs.
He had shut out our mental link, convinced I was only playing games. He hadn’t checked,
Now, as he willed the connection open–We felt nothing…Only Silence.
His father’s snarl snapped him back to reality.
“Now, get inside, you moron! And pay your respects!”
Lucas stepped into the funeral hall, and the scent of death clashed violently with his heightened senses.
Then he saw it–The oak coffin.
His vision blurred with rage, his wolf snapping free from his fragile restraint.
His claws gouged into the silver nameplate on the coffin lid, the searing silver burning his fingertips as he tried to claw it away.
The acrid stench of charred flesh filled the air. Inside the casket, I lay motionless.
The coffin was lined with wolfbane–laced branches, meant to suppress shifting. My body… my skin, which should have
shimmered under the moon with the sacred markings of their kind, was deathly pale, drained of all life.
Lucas let out a low, gut–wrenching snarl, and there, entered Sophia, whimpering
She let out a high–pitched, unnatural whine–a sound young wolves make when caught in a lie.
The gathered wolves stiffened, their noses twitching, and their ears perking up.
A new scent wafted into the air, faint but distinct. The sulfuric stench of the mines.
And it was coming from Sophia.
The scent clung to her claws, seeped from the spaces between her pads, and lingered in the fibers of her für.
A scent no one should have carried because the last time Ava was seen alive at the mines. A deep, collective growl rumbled. through the room.
+15 Bonus
One by one, the pack’s wolves tilted their heads back, their howls rising in unison–a thunderous, vengeful symphony that shook
the very foundation of the funeral hall.
Lucas’s howl was the loudest, the most anguished–a sound so raw and broken that even the moon seemed to dim in mourning.
