Eleanor stared into those silver eyes...
"I don't know what kind of life we'll have after this."
Jedrek turned to her, silver eyes gleaming in the half-light. "We don't always get a happy ending Eleanor."
She nodded slightly. "But we have this moment, and right now, that's more than enough."
And in that battle worn citadel, surrounded by a kingdom lost to fire and blood, Jedrek kissed her.
It wasn't like the first time- desperate, breathless.
This kiss was intense yet slower and Full. Like a promise made without words. His palm cupped her cheek, her slender fingers gripped the fabric of his shirt, and their souls pressed together in a silence too loud.
The bond pulsed- wild, golden, ancient and breathing.
Something inside her opened, not just love. Power.
Raw. Pure. Her blood hummed with it.
Jedrek pulled back, stunned. "What was that?"
"I…I don't know."
And then the wind shifted.
Jedrek rose, eyes scanning the distance. "The air just changed."
She stood beside him.
Far off- so far that it could've been thunder-a low "doom" echoed.
Then another.
Doom.
Doom.
The drums had begun.
Jedrek's jaw clenched. "He's coming."
And just like that, the stars blinked out. The moon turned red.
Eleanor's fingers slipped into Jedrek's.
She didn't say …don't let go.
Because her heart already knew he would not.
The ruins pulsed with ancient energy, their cracks glowing faintly beneath the blood moon's eye. Eleanor paced a wide hall that had once been a war room-now bare, save for a dusty map carved into the stone table at its center.
Jedrek stood across her, his fingertips dragging across its faded etching. "This is where my ancestors planned their last stand. And where I plan ours."
Eleanor's gaze drifted across the crude carvings- mountain ranges, border lines and claw-marked territories. Most of it was already under Kael's control.
Jedrek's voice dropped low. "He moved like a tide- slow at first, but inevitable. He burns villages not for victory…but message.
"What kind of message?" Eleanor asked.
Jedrek's eyes turned cold. "That resistance is death. That he is the new tyrant of the realm."
She shivered- not from fear, but from something worse- understanding. Kael wasn't just a tyrant, he was a believer. A man who saw conquest as destiny.
Jedrek pointed to a small clearing west of the ruins. "They'll come from here. The old Black Path. His war hounds will hit first- mutated Lycans bred to tear through stone and steel. Then come the Bone Riders- His elite assassin. Silent. Unseen."
"And Kael?" she asked
Jedrek was quiet. When he finally spoke, his voice held the weight of myth.
"Kael was once the youngest Alpha under my father's command. Orphaned. Raised in fire. He clawed his way through blood and betrayal, and my father took him in like a brother."
"What happened?"
"He fell in love with my aunt. A vale witch. And when she chose peace over the war he proposed, Kael killed her for weakening him. My father banished him. He returned with fire."
Eleanor's throat tightened "And now he wants her bloodline_ my bloodline."
Jedrek nodded "To merge Lycan strength with ancient witchcraft, if he sacrifices you under the moon, the prophecy says he'll ascend beyond mortality."
"And if he fails?"
"The curse will turn on him. He'll lose everything. Mind. Body. Soul."
Eleanor traced a cracked line just across the map. We can't face him with just the two of us."
"We won't."
Jedrek opened a hidden chamber in the floor, revealing a stack of aged, glowing communication crystals from the ancient packs.
"I've called for those who still remember my bloodline. Rogues. Exiled Alphas, war broken packs. they won't come for me…"
He looked at Eleanor
"They'll come for you. The girl who carries vale's fire. The one who dares kiss the last wolf prince beneath a dying moon"
A low howl echoed outside.
Not one.
Many.
The crystal pulsed.
"They're coming," he said. "Some to fight. Some to kill. All to bleed."
Eleanor stepped beside him. Her hand in his.
The wind outside changed.
And in a citadel of Stoneblack, far across the land. Kael knelt naked in a pool of blood- chanting in an ancient tongue, carving Eleanor's name into his chest with a blade forged from shadows.
He smiled as he bled.
"The moon has chosen," he whispered "And so have I."
_The night was no longer still.
The air around the ruins had turned thick- charged with the scent of blood and ash, with the cold breath of war.
Jedrek stood on the ancient battlefield, staring into the treeline, his sharp eyes scanning shadows that slithered like serpents. The moon hung like a ball ready to fall- full, bloody, unblinking.
"They're close," he muttered.
Eleanor stood behind him, the silver pendant around her neck humming faintly. A gift from Iria, enchanted with vale magic. It burned against her skin like it knew something she didn't.
Then…they heard it.
The horns!
Three short blasts. Then one long one.
Not Kael's war horns-but a different sound.
An older sound.
Jedrek's breath caught. "They came."
From the western woods emerged the first army – The Ravenord clan. Dark armor, black cloaks, silver lined axes on their acks. They moved uniformly as one, silent as the grave.
Their leader stepped forward, removing his mask- a tall man with stormy -grey eyes and a deep scar running from his face to his throat.
Commander Zaryn.
"Jedrek Thorne," he said, voice like a rusted blade. "I vowed never to fight again. But for her…" he looked at Eleanor "I make an exception."
"They once served Kael," Jedrek whispered to Eleanor, "until he burned down their sacred forests and killed Zaryn's mate"
From the east, came another sound- hooves.
The Duskblood Riders, mounted on nightbeasts with eyes like dying stars. Outcasts. Cursed Lycans who were never allowed to completely shift again- marked by Kael himself.
The Alpha, Lucas, removed his helm, revealing a face half covered in iron to mask the deformities Kael branded on him.