The first scream didn’t come from Maddox.
It came from the elder whose blade had dared to point at me.
He was dead before the silver could reach Maddox’s skin, throat slashed, chest caved in from the force of the Rogue King’s claws.
His body hit the floor with a sickening crunch, a sound that silenced the entire chamber for a single heartbeat. Then, like a dam broken, everything erupted.
Guards charged. Elders shouted. Chaos reigned.
Maddox wasn’t Rogue King anymore.
He was the beast.
Half-shifted, his limbs elongated, fur sprouting in uneven patches along his spine, arms, and jaw.
His back hunched unnaturally, his shoulders jutting like wings ready to burst. His eyes,once glowing with golden fire, now shimmered with endless black, a void that consumed light itself.
His teeth we
