A Queen's Rise From The Flames

Episode 5

Just Who….Are You?

Gideon POV

I’ve hunted monsters my entire life. None of them ever made my wolf lower its head.

I stood hidden in the highest tier of the underground arena shadows, motionless as a statue. I had tracked Jax's highly suspicious movements to this ring earlier tonight, fully intending to shut down his little side operation before it compromised the academy's security. But the moment the rival faction staged their amateur takeover and threw Darbie into that cage, my priorities shifted.

Down in the dirt, the executioner wolf bared its stained fangs, its muscles bunching as it prepared to tear the seemingly helpless girl to pieces. I reached for the hilt of my blade, stepping toward the railing to vault down and end the beast myself.

Suddenly, a loud hiss cut through the air. The main breaker was severed by an unknown entity.

The entire arena plunged into pitch-black, darkness and hundreds of wolves began shouting, snarling, and scrambling blindly in the dark.

Through the thick blackness, no one could see a single thing. But what we couldn't see, we could hear with terrifying clarity. The progression of sounds inside that cage was something I would never forget.

First came a sickening snap—the unmistakable sound of dense bone fracturing under immense pressure.

Then came a low, abyssal growl. I was damn sure it wasn't the frenzied bark of the executioner wolf. It was something different. A sound so deep and so dominant that it vibrated straight through the floor and rattled the marrow in my bones. In that exact second, a wave of power flooded the cavern, making even my own ancient Alpha wolf instinctually tighten its chest and want to bow in submission.

It was a feeling I had never experienced in my entire life—the terrifying realization that a true predator had just entered the room.

Then, a silence fell over the cage.

The frantic shouting in the stands died down to a breathless whisper as the backup emergency lights finally flickered back on, casting a dim, eerie red glow over the arena.

The crowd collectively gasped.

The executioner wolf was crumpled dead in the center of the ring, its heavily armored throat crushed inward. There were no claw marks, no signs of a prolonged struggle. It was a beautifully clean delete.

Darbie was kneeling perfectly still in the middle of the blood-splattered dirt, just a few feet away from the corpse. Her hood was slightly torn, revealing a few strands of messy hair, and her chest rose and fell as she breathed softly, calmly, as if she hadn't just been locked in a cage with a death machine.

The dark, thick blood coating the floor around her definitely isn't hers.

Nobody saw what happened because it had happened in less than five seconds during the blackout.

I slowly stepped out of the shadows, my boots silent against the walkway as I walked toward the central control podium. My eyes never left the fragile-looking girl kneeling in the dirt below.

She was supposed to be a nobody. An unawakened maid with forged papers and no family. But what I just felt in the dark was a power that could bring the entire Council to its knees.

I reached down, my gloved fingers wrapping around the arena's master microphone. I switched it on, the static feedback cutting through the stunned silence of the cavern.

I locked eyes with her through the bars, staring straight down at the terrifying mystery of a girl who just obliterated an apex monster in pitch black darkness.

"Just who... are you?" I whispered into the microphone, my voice ringing through the red-lit arena.