1. prologue
1112 Words
Rhiannon was holding the newborn in her arms when they came.
The front door exploded.
She screamed and stumbled backward, clutching the baby tightly against her chest as wooden splinters rained across the cottage. Little Arya began to cry, but her fragile sounds were quickly swallowed by the erupting chaos.
The village of Oakhaven was dying. Screams echoed through the night. Wolves howled all around, and the thick, suffocating heat of burning rooftops leaked through the shattered doorway.
Two figures stepped through the ruined entrance.
They wore crimson robes that dragged across the floorboards. Fresh blood dripped from their sleeves with every step they took. golden masks concealed their faces, each crafted in the shape of a serpent devouring its own tail.
The Ouroboros Cult.
Rhiannon backed against the wall. Her breath caught in her throat. She had spent nine months hiding, praying to the Goddess to protect her and her baby. She had prayed these masks would never find them.
The serpent design confirmed her worst nightmare. They were here for the prophecy child. Her baby.
Beside her, Boran grabbed the edge of the wooden table to steady himself. His hands trembled violently. As an Omega wolf, he felt the heavy, suffocating pressure radiating from the two figures. It was a dominating, terrifying force
that paralyzed his ability to shift. He knew that aura. These were high-ranking Alphas.
Boran dropped to one knee, gasping for air. His family was on the verge of being erased.
The Cult Shaman tilted his head, staring directly at the infant in Rhiannon’s trembling arms.
"The silver child," the Shaman rumbled. His voice was unnaturally heavy,
vibrating the very walls "The twenty-four-year cycle has begun. But it will finish with us."
Little Arya whimpered softly.
Rhiannon tightened her grip. "Please. She is only a week old."
"She is not a child," the Shaman replied coldly. "She is the vessel. The reincarnation of the Soul of the Universe."
Something inside Boran snapped. Raw desperation overrode his paralyzing fear.
With a furious roar, he fought past the Alpha aura and lunged across the room.
His claws partially shifted mid-air as he aimed a desperate strike directly at the Shaman's throat.
The Shaman didn’t even flinch. He simply raised one hand.
An invisible force slammed into Boran like a battering ram. He flew backward, his body twisting violently before crashing through the wooden cabinet against the far wall. A sickening c***k echoed through the cottage.
Boran hit the floor hard. Blood poured from his mouth. His neck was snapped cleanly against the shattered wood. His eyes stared wide and empty as the light
completely left them. His scent vanished from the room.
"BORAN!" Rhiannon screamed.
The second robed figure stepped forward. "Hand over the girl willingly, or you will die with him."
Just then, the temperature inside the cottage suddenly plummeted. The air turned freezing cold.
The robed figures froze. A new, terrifying presence had arrived.
A massive shadow passed over the roof. A second later, the remaining ceiling was torn away by a heavy, unnatural wind.
Moonlight flooded the ruined cottage. Massive black wolves prowled across the rooftops above them. Their bodies were unnaturally large, their fur darker than the night sky, and their glowing red eyes burned with a single, murderous intent.
The Gloom Pack.
Rhiannon recognized the massive silhouettes from the old stories. If the Cult wanted to harvest her baby, the Gloom Pack had only come to execute the baby.
"You are late to the party," the Ouroboros Shaman mocked, a cruel smirk visible beneath his mask.
"The prophecy cannot awaken," one of the shadow wolves growled.
"And you think you can stop it?"
"That is exactly what we are here to do."
Everything exploded into violence.
The Cult Alphas shifted instantly. Their human forms twisted into enormous wolves wrapped in glowing crimson magic. They collided with the shadow beasts in a frenzy of claws and fangs that tore the rest of the cottage apart.
Blood sprayed across the walls. Furniture splintered into dust. The floor cracked beneath the sheer, earthquake-like force of their attacks.
Rhiannon crawled through the dirt, shielding Arya against her chest as the massive beasts tore each other apart above her.
"Please," she sobbed into the dark. "Please don’t take my baby."
A massive shadow wolf crashed into the center of the room. Its glowing red eyes locked directly onto Arya.
Rhiannon turned instinctively, trying to push herself through the rubble, but a boot slammed into her ribs. Pain exploded through her side. Her grip failed, and Arya slipped from her arms.
"NO!" she screamed, scrambling for the falling baby.
But an invisible force waved her aside, pinning her to the floor. It was the Cult Shaman. He had partially shifted back to his human form to use his magic.
He caught the baby effortlessly out of the air.
The moment his bare hand touched the infant, a faint silver light pulsed beneath Arya’s skin. It expanded rapidly, glowing softly and illuminating the dark, bloody room.
The battle paused. The shadow wolves hesitated, staring at the blinding silver glow with visible fear.
The Shaman stared down at the glowing infant with reverence.
"The harvest is ours," he whispered.
He pulled a silver wand from his robes and touched it to the baby’s heart.
Immediately, a violent explosion of light erupted from Arya’s body, ripping open a swirling magical portal right behind him.
The radiating shockwave blasted the shadow wolves backward.
The Shaman stepped into the swirling portal, took one last victorious glance at the ruined cottage, and vanished. The portal snapped shut behind him, plunging
the room back into darkness.
The Shaman was gone.
Arya was gone.
The remaining Ouroboros wolves fled into the jungle, leaving the shadow beasts behind. They had gotten what they came for. The war was over.
The silence afterward was absolute.
Rhiannon lay trembling in the dirt, staring at her empty arms. Around her, the village burned. Bodies of her friends and family littered the ground.
The massive shadow wolf that had tried to kill the baby stalked forward. It
stood over Rhiannon, its red eyes burning with bloodthirsty rage.
The prophecy had awakened, and the target had escaped.
The shadow wolf lifted its snout and let out a howl that shivered with primal anger. Then, it drove a massive claw deep into Rhiannon’s side.
Agony tore through her body. Her vision went black.
The wolf left her there to bleed out beside the ruins of her home and her dead mate, melting back into the shadows of the mountains with the rest of the pack.
The target was gone. But the hunt had just begun.
- Writer
