Dax watched along with the rest of them.
The figure standing at the infirmary threshold was his Alpha... but he looked anything but like Kieran.
He was death incarnate.
He stood there in his wolf form...a rare sight in itself...however there was more. His wolf was much larger than Dax had ever seen, muscles coiled like steel cables beneath singed black fur...and he literally towered over the battlefield.
His muzzle was pulled back in a snarl, revealing fangs that gleamed more like daggers under the moonlight than actual teeth. But it wasn’t just his size that froze the Bloodfangs mid attack.
A suffocating, crushing dominance rolled off him in waves, pressing down on every wolf present. The weaker warriors...both Blackmoon and Bloodfang...staggered under the weight of it. Dax looked around. Everyone could feel it.
Dax’s own knees nearly buckled, his wolf whimpering in submission before he forced himself to stand.
This wasn’t just an Alpha aura.This was something older.Something hungrier.
"KIERAN...KIERAN STOP!"
Mango’s voice cut through the silence.Her voice trembled, raw with panic. She stumbled out of the infirmary, her face pale, hands still flickering with fading blue embers. "Your wound isn’t closed properly! You are not stable yet!"
Kieran did not even glance at her.
His burning golden eyes were locked onto the Bloodfang wolves...and then it drifted towards the fallen Blackmoons. The slit in his pupil narrowed and then he focused back on the ones who had dared step onto his land, who had torn into his pack...Who had made his pack bleed.
A low, guttural growl ripped from his chest, vibrating through the earth itself. No sound,just the eerie purr of the upcoming disaster.
The nearest Bloodfang...a wiry male with a melted face...flinched, his bravado cracking instantly.
One second, he was at the infirmary steps.
The next, his jaws were clamped around the melted faced wolf’s skull.
Bone shattered. Brain matter sprayed. The Bloodfang did not even have time to scream before Kieran shook him like a ragdoll, whipping his body side to side until his spine snapped. Then with a sickening rip he tore the corpse in half and hurled the pieces into the trees.
"WHAT THE FUCK ?HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE UP!"
A Bloodfang warrior, the female with the claw marked arms ,staggered back, her eyes wide. "That’s not...that’s not just an Alpha! That’s..."She made the mistake of yelling it out loud what they were all thinking!
His claws raked downward, splitting her from collarbone to hip. Her intestines spilled onto the mud before she hit the ground. Another Bloodfang tried to flank him, dagger raised...
His paw caved in the wolf’s chest, ribs snapping like twigs. The force sent the body flying, crashing through three trees before it crumpled.
"ALPHA FOCUS!" Dax roared, throwing himself between his Alpha and the sly Bloodfang who thought he could sneak behind the majestic beast.
Kieran’s massive head swung towards him, lips peeled back in a snarl. For a heartbeat, Dax thought he was about to be torn apart as well. He gulped, " ALPHA...IT’S ME! YOUR BETA! DAX!"
Then recognition flickered in those feral eyes.
A growl. A warning growl maybe.
It screamed...’Step aside’!!!
Dax barely dodged as Kieran launched past him, barreling into a group of Bloodfangs like a hurricane of claws and teeth. Limbs flew. Blood fountained. One wolf tried to run...
Kieran pounced, landing on his back.
"NO...PLEASE...MERCY!"
Mango stood there frozen, her staff trembling in her grip. "This isn’t healing rage," she whispered...more like murmured to herself."This is something else." Her eyes looked gloomy and she had worry etched on her face.
Dax, panting, wiped blood from his mouth. "What the hell did that blade do to him?" He mindlinked Mango.
Kieran wasn’t just fighting.
He was shredding them... and enjoying it every single bit.
One Bloodfang, braver (or stupider) than the rest, charged with a roar...
Kieran caught his throat in the middle of a leap.
Kieran did not stop. He stomped down, crushing the skull under his paw like a rotten melon.
And this carried on till every single one of them fell... minced and mutilated....till only one Bloodfang remained.
A young male, barely more than a pup, his eyes wide with terror. He stumbled back, tripping over a corpse. "I...I didn’t...I didn’t want to...I didn’t agree to this...they forced us..."
Kieran stalked forward.
"PLEASE!" the boy screamed. "IT WASN’T MY CHOICE! HE MADE US DO IT! HE..."
Now, a rationale Kieran would have taken that guy captive and tortured him till he gave them all the intel. But this one could only see blood.
His jaws closed around the Bloodfang’s head.
Silence.Pin drop silence in the middle of the battlefield...it was a slaughterhouse.
Kieran stood in the center, chest heaving, fur matted with gore. His golden eyes scanned the trees, the bodies, the stunned Blackmoon warriors.
And then... he collapsed.
"ALPHA!" Dax sprinted forward, catching him before he hit the ground. The Alpha’s massive form shuddered, his fur receding as he shifted back to his human form.
The wound on his chest...the one that should have killed him...was bleeding again.
Mango rushed to his side, her hands glowing blue. "I told you, you idiot! You weren’t completely healed yet!"
Kieran’s breathing was ragged, but his voice was a growl.
"Worth it.What a treat! "
Then his eyes rolled back.
Dax stared down at his Alpha, then at the carnage around them. "This was not normal by any means, Healer Mango."
She did not meet his eyes. "No. It wasn’t."
"What the hell is happening to him?"
Mango’s fingers tightened around her staff. "I don’t know. But we need to find out. Before whatever that was... consumes him."
Dax’s jaw clenched. "And the girl?"
"She is still sleeping. We might need to ask her a question or two," Mango whispered. "Whether she knows the answer or not,I don’t know."
Dax’s jaw was tight as he turned to Mango, who was crouched beside Kieran, while calling her healers to come out with a stretcher.
"Keep an eye on both of them," he said, voice low but firm. " Alpha... and Autumn. I want them watched round the clock till they get back to proper consciousness. Don’t let anyone near unless I have cleared it."
Mango gave a sharp nod, not looking up. "Understood. But Dax..." she glanced at Kieran, whose unconscious form was limp against the stretcher now being slid beneath him, "there is something dark festering all around here. In him. Around.I can feel it. And not just ..."
"I know," Dax said, glancing at the slaughtered field. "I saw it too. The Bloodfangs... they did not look right either. The way they moved. The look in their eyes. They weren’t just here to fight. They were driven. Like rabid dogs. Like something had twisted them."
He turned as the stretcher lifted, Kieran’s body carried carefully by two Healers. His chest still bled, the bandages from earlier were now soaked through.
Dax muttered something to himself.
Just then, a sharp gust of wind blew through the trees, bringing with it a low rumble...steps drawing near. Heavy ones.
Dax turned, his hand instinctively going to his blade.And his gun!
There was movement at the edge of the trees.
And then they emerged.
Elder wolves. Cloaked. Hooded. Robes of grey and white. Regal, but dangerous.
Dax’s brow furrowed. "Shit! I didn’t call them... who the hell tipped them off?"
The lead wolf stepped forward, a tall figure with a silver stripe through his beard and sharp cobalt eyes. He inclined his head with a slight bow. "Beta Dax."
Dax returned the gesture with a stiff nod. "Councilor Fenric. What brings you here?"
Another wolf stepped forward. "We received an emergency signal. A distress beacon from Blackmoon territory."
Dax’s brows shot up. "From us? I haven’t sent any message."
"Someone did," Councilor Fenric said quietly, glancing at the carnage. "What happened here?"
Dax exhaled and gestured behind him. "Bloodfangs attacked. Unprovoked. We repelled them. As you can see... it got messy."
Another Councilor,a woman with narrow eyes and a raven black braid,looked around with a deep frown. "Messy indeed. But..."
She raised a hand, and Dax followed her gaze.
Not even a single limb.
It was just the bodies of the Blackmoons that littered the entire stretch.
"Where are the Bloodfangs?" she asked flatly. "You say there was an attack, but I don’t see any fallen enemies. I see your injured pack mates. All Blackmoons. Your deads. But them?" Her eyes narrowed.
Dax’s heart dropped along with his jaw. She did not have to repeat the same question that he himself was repeating in his head!
Where were the Bloodfangs? Did the earth eat them up or the sky swallowed them whole? Where the hell were their bodies???