FATED BUT DANGEROUS

Chapter One Cael's pov Blood slicked the ground beneath my boots, from the dead bodies of wolves littering the ground,turning the earth into something black and hungry under the pale light of the moon. The battlefield smelled of iron and wet fur, of sweat and rage. Wolves clashed around me—fangs ripping, claws tearing—while my sword rang in my hands, my only weapon and anchor. And I stood, my wolf senses heightened, watching for any movement around, ready to strike at any second. But I refused to shift. Not for them. Not for this. The moment I surrender to my wolf, I will give them more of me than they will ever deserve. The alpha is the only one I would show my wolf to, and that would be the last thing he saw before I snatch his wretched heart out of him and burn his body, denying the earth of such evil. But tonight, my human strength was enough. My blades sang for me and my body flowed in its rhythms. My senses kicked, my eyes moved swiftly towards the left and I saw it. A wolf lunged for me, saliva dripping from its maw, its eyes glowing amber with bloodlust. I pivoted, silver slicing in a clean arc. Its howl choked into silence as it collapsed at my feet. Another came—faster, stronger. I ducked low, rolled, and drove my sword into its side. My hands were slick now, but I did not falter. I wanted the Alpha. That much was obvious from how much I had done to get his attention. And I see him in their power, their chants and snarls carried one name, their movement screams of their fear, their submission is palpable but he was nowhere. Nowhere. And that gnawed at me more than the blood soaking through my torn shirt. Where the hell was he? Why does he never show up anymore? Why did he show up then? I shoved the thought aside. Survival first. Answers later. Steel met claw again. A wolf in mid-shift—half human, half beast—snarled as I drove my blade between its ribs. Its scream cut across the chaos, high and broken. I didn’t let myself hear it. If I did, hesitation would creep in. And hesitation was sympathy. And on this ground, sympathy was death. “Cael!” someone shouted behind me. It sounds distinctly familiar but I didn’t look. Answering meant distraction, and distraction would kill me faster than any wolf here. I kept moving, kept striking, blades flashing like extensions of my own rage. My chest burned with the effort, but adrenaline numbed the pain. Each kill carved space around me, a circle of bodies, a warning. Still, they came. Still, I fought. Another lunged from my blind side, a hulking gray beast. Too close. Too fast. I dropped my blade, snatched the short dagger strapped to my thigh, and jammed it upward into its throat. Hot blood sprayed my cheek. I shoved the twitching body off me, retrieving my blade from the dirt. The air was filled with howls and screams, with the thundering chaos of a war that should never have happened if it meant failure. And yet—through it all—the Alpha’s absence pressed heavier than the enemy’s number and strength. He should have been here. He showed up that one time and now he can't? He needs to be here, I don't know how long I will keep pushing my people into my personal pursuit. Unless… No. I refused to finish that thought. I gritted my teeth and plunged forward, cutting down another, my arms aching, my body trembling from overexertion. Every heartbeat was war drums in my ears. I could feel the eyes of my enemies circling, assessing, realizing I was not prey. I was the predator. “Where are you?” I whispered into the night, not sure if I meant him… or myself. The name ripped through the chaos again. “Cael!” This time I couldn’t ignore it. Something in the tone—too sharp, too familiar—forced my head to turn. Through the blur of motion and blood, I saw him. My brother. Relief surged, wild and disorienting. He was alive. My thoughts about him got swallowed by the throes of war and Him. I have always failed to worry about him when I'm in this state and after every fight, seeing him relieves an anxiety that was buried under adrenaline. Then the flash came. A shot cracked across the battlefield, louder than the screams, louder than the clash of steel and fang. My body jerked. Heat tore through my abdomen, and the ground tilted beneath me. The world slowed, muted, as if sound itself recoiled from the betrayal. He shot me. My own brother shot me. The blade slipped from my hands as I crashed to the earth. I tried to rise, but my body refused. My legs… they didn’t move. My arms… useless weights. My mind screamed the command to stand, to fight, but my body was no longer mine. Paralyzed. I lay there, blood pooling beneath me, watching him approach. His face was calm—eerily calm—as though this had been decided long before the first strike of the night. He knelt, his shadow falling over me. His eyes—those same eyes that once looked at me with laughter, with loyalty, with love—were hard now, flat as stone. “I’m sorry,” he said, voice low, steady. “But I can’t let you be brighter than me, I can't let you be the sun and leave me behind.” The words struck deeper than the bullet. “I didn't…..I didn't do that. I promise, that wasn't …. wasn't what I was doing. I was fighting for us, for our family, or what's…..what's left of it. Why did you do this?, I stuttered out, a tear slipping past my hooded lids. He watched me struggle to drag air into my lungs, my brain churning with thoughts, commands, and something close to panic. “You were fighting for you, not us, not our long-gone family, just you and your denied need to show that you are the better siblings, the stronger feeling, and I am done with that. I am done hiding in your shadows, I am done following your instructions, I am done being second in command and I need you gone to take my place. And you are going, either by the alpha’s hands or on this ground. Don't worry, I will celebrate your death in a big way”, He said, his face masked in disgust. My heart almost gave up on me, as the hurt from the betrayal tightened around it and threatened to rob it of every hope it had. “Please…. Please, don't do this to me. I am…am your sis…sister and you can't ..do…do this to me. Please, don't leave me here…don't let him have me.. don't let me end up the same way as … mom and dad”, I begged, forcing the words out, hoping it would pierce a tiny hole in the fabric of his hate and make him take me from here. I would rather die somewhere else, anywhere but the alpha's hands. He chuckled low, a dark type of satisfaction in his eyes as he watched me slowly lose myself, “How do you feel being totally useless? Being unable to do anything in the chaos of life? Uh? How does that f*****g feel? Oh wait, I know because I lived it for years, watching you take charge, take the praises being thrown at you with ‘humility’. I know how it feels for so long that it became my nature to be unseen and now, that's over. You are over and this is my beginning, my time to shine without you in the picture”, He finished with a smirk, and I wondered how I had never noticed how he felt for so long. I was so focused on exacting revenge that I ignored every other warning that something might be wrong. I tried to speak again, to choke out his name, to ask why? But nothing came. My lips parted; no sound. My throat closed around the plea I could not release. Inside, my thoughts clawed at me. Why would you betray me? What did I do, brother? Was my existence enough reason to kill me? Was fighting to avenge everything we lost a crime? Was trying to bring peace to our wailing hearts a reason to be shot? Is blood nothing to you, anymore? Am I nothing to you? Tell me! Tell me why you did this? To me? To us? To our bond? To our shared grief? Fucking tell me why? He stood, no hesitation, no regret in his stride as he turned his back on me. My own blood. My own flesh. And he left me there, broken, paralyzed, and heartbroken. The battlefield raged on around me, but I was no longer part of it. All I could do was listen. Wolves howled, steel clashed, screams rose and fell. And then, slowly—agonizingly—the chaos dimmed. The noise drained from the night until only silence remained. Bodies littered the earth. My body is among them. But I was not gone. Not yet. I waited. I listened to the quiet. And for the first time in my life, I wondered if my need for revenge was worth the cost of what I had just lost. Or discovered. The silence pressed in, heavy and merciless. My body felt like stone, the cold seeping into my bones, numbing me from the inside out. I couldn’t tell if it was the night or the wound—or maybe betrayal itself that froze me more than the blood loss ever could. My brother’s shadow was long gone. I was alone. Alone with the ache, the disbelief, and the taste of iron on my tongue. I closed my eyes, if only to pretend the world had ended with me. But the crunch of boots, coming towards me, shattered the stillness. A presence loomed above me. Too close. My instincts screamed danger, yet my body refused me, leaving me a prisoner in my own skin. The figure crouched, their breath ghosting against my ear as they studied me. A hand brushed against my arm—not gentle, but deliberate. Testing if I could move. I couldn’t. “You’re coming with us.” The words slithered into my frozen state, a promise and a threat in one. I tried to summon rage, tried to fight, but all I managed was a shallow breath. The last thing I saw was their shadow folding over mine, before I let the darkness of death envelope me.