EPISODE 5 — The Power That Answered Me
1063 Words
The ground didn’t just crack.
It split.
Dark fissures tore through the forest floor, glowing faintly with a sick crimson light — as if something beneath the earth was waking in response to the King’s rage.
The Carrion Wolves circled wider now.
No longer cautious.
No longer hesitant.
They had multiplied.
Dozens of decayed bodies emerging from the trees — limping… dragging… snarling with jaws that unhinged too wide.
Their hollow red eyes never left me.
Hunger.
Not for flesh.
For the bond.
My bond.
I felt it suddenly — like claws scraping against the mark on my neck.
I gasped, stumbling back a step.
Pain flared violently through the bond — sharp, invasive, wrong.
“They’re pulling at it…” I whispered, panicked.
The King’s head snapped toward me instantly.
Rage detonated across his face.
“They dare—”
A Carrion Wolf lunged from the side.
He didn’t even turn fully.
His arm lashed out blindly — claws tearing the beast apart before it reached us.
Black blood splattered across the trees.
But more rushed in.
Three.
Five.
Ten.
They moved faster now, drawn by the fresh spill of royal power saturating the air.
The King stepped forward, placing himself fully between me and the swarm.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
I nodded — but my legs were shaking too badly to move far.
The bond pulsed erratically.
Not stabilizing anymore.
Agitated.
Provoked.
The wolves felt it.
They began howling in unison — a grotesque, broken sound that made the forest recoil.
“They’re summoning the Rift,” the King growled.
The cracks in the earth widened instantly at his words.
A gust of freezing wind tore upward from the fissures, carrying the stench of death and ancient rot.
My wolf whimpered inside me.
Not weak.
Alarmed.
“What is the Rift?” I asked, voice trembling.
“Where failed bonds rot,” he said coldly.
“And if they drag your mark into it before it stabilizes…”
He didn’t finish.
He didn’t need to.
I felt the answer in the bond.
Severance.
Corruption.
Death.
Fear spiked sharply through me — and the bond reacted instantly.
Power flared from the mark without warning.
Gold light burst outward in a violent pulse.
Every Carrion Wolf froze mid-movement.
The King stilled too.
Slowly… he turned his head toward me.
Not alarmed.
Stunned.
The light radiating from my neck spread across my skin in glowing vein-like patterns — ancient symbols flickering beneath the surface.
I stared at my hands in horror.
“I didn’t do that…”
Another pulse exploded outward.
Stronger.
The Carrion Wolves shrieked — smoke rising from their decayed flesh wherever the light touched them.
The Rift fissures recoiled slightly… like wounds resisting fire.
The King’s golden eyes darkened with something deeper than surprise.
Recognition.
“So it awakens early…” he murmured.
“What’s awakening?!” I cried.
But the wolves attacked again before he could answer.
This time they didn’t leap for me.
They leapt for him.
Twenty bodies colliding at once — claws, teeth, rot.
The King met them head-on.
His roar shattered the trees.
He tore through them like a storm given flesh — claws ripping, fangs crushing, power detonating with every strike.
Black blood flooded the ground.
But more kept coming from the Rift cracks.
Endless.
Unnatural.
I staggered back another step — heart racing — bond flaring uncontrollably.
The light around me intensified.
Hotter.
Brighter.
Pain shot through my spine.
I screamed.
The King’s head snapped toward me mid-battle.
Our eyes locked.
And the moment they did—
The bond surged violently.
Power ripped out of me in a blinding wave.
Not outward randomly.
Toward him.
Into him.
The King froze as golden light wrapped around his body like living chains — merging… amplifying… feeding his aura.
His power exploded tenfold.
The forest bent under it.
The Carrion Wolves howled in terror now — no longer hunters…
Prey.
The King looked down at his glowing claws… then back at me.
Realization burned in his eyes.
“You’re feeding my strength…”
“I don’t know how to stop it!” I cried.
“You don’t,” he said.
His voice had deepened — layered with something ancient… awakened.
“You let it happen.”
He turned back to the swarm — now retreating toward the Rift.
“Because this,” he growled, power shaking the forest canopy—
“Is what a King and Queen’s bond was always meant to be.”
He moved once more.
But this time…
He wasn’t fighting alone.
My power moved with him.
Every strike he made carried golden light.
Every beast he touched disintegrated instantly.
The Rift fissures began sealing shut under the combined force.
The forest roared with the sound of dying corruption.
Within moments—
Silence fell.
The last Carrion Wolf collapsed into ash.
The cracks in the earth sealed completely.
And the golden light around us faded… slowly… reluctantly… like a heartbeat returning to rest.
The King stood in the aftermath — chest rising steadily — claws retracting.
Then he turned back to me.
His expression was no longer just protective.
No longer just possessive.
It was… awed.
Reverent, even.
“You felt it,” he said quietly.
I nodded weakly, still shaking.
“Yes…”
He stepped closer slowly — as if approaching something sacred.
“Do you understand now why you were never meant for an Alpha?”
My throat tightened.
“What… am I?”
He stopped in front of me — eyes glowing beneath the Blood Moon.
“The first Queen born in centuries,” he said.
“And the only one whose power can awaken a Beast King’s full throne right.”
My breath caught.
But before I could speak—
A distant horn echoed through the forest.
Deep.
Ancient.
Not from his kingdom.
From somewhere far older.
His expression darkened instantly.
“That sound…” I whispered.
His jaw tightened.
“It means they felt your awakening.”
Cold dread slid down my spine.
“Who is they…?”
His gaze lifted toward the horizon — where the Blood Moon hung heavier now.
“The ones who hunt Moon-Bound Queens.”
The wind howled suddenly through the trees.
And for the first time since he claimed me—
The King looked… ready for war.
To Be Continued…
- Writer
