The battlefield spilled into sacred ground.
The ancient council arena, an age-old circle of stone and history, lay just beyond the ritual site. It had been a place where alphas had settled disputes for centuries, where wars had been prevented or, in some cases, decided by single combat. Now, under the cursed glow of the Blood Moon, it bore witness to something far greater.
Layla strode forward, her aura ignited with raw power, her every step sending a ripple of energy across the trembling earth. The chains were gone. The old world, the one where she was merely an Omega, a pawn in her father’s ambitions... was gone. She was something else now, something neither prophecy nor bloodline had dictated.
She was her own.
Ronan moved beside her, bloodied but unbroken. His body bore the brutal e
