Chapter 276 Surprise Attack
_Rowena’s POV_
I felt a few rogues around me and minutes later, I saw them. "Northeast," Kyra guided, her voice alert inside my mind. "There. Behind the ridge, they’re at least a dozen of them holding positions there."
I turned toward Alaric, who was already shifting beside me, his shirt tearing away as bone and fur took over. "Rogues, northeast ridge, waiting to flank us."
He barked the order after I told him without breaking stride, and I watched a line of our fighters come out to intercept before the ambush could happen. Kyra’s senses reached further than mine ever had before Virella tore her from me, further than I even remembered from years ago.
I could feel every heartbeat moving through the trees around us, sort them by distance and by threat.
She was even more efficient than before.
"We need to go now," Kyra said. "Let me out. Fully out."
I hadn’t shifted in a long time, and since before everything with Virella, not since I’d lost the ability entirely.
My body remembered how, somewhere underneath all the fear of trying and failing, and when I finally let go and let Kyra take the change, it didn’t hurt the way I expected it to. It felt like coming home.
Fur the color of moonlight spread over me, silver white and shining even in the dark.
I heard someone nearby gasp, and when I looked down at my own reflection in a puddle of water on the ground, I understood why. My wolf was larger than I remembered, she looked more powerful. She was marked with patterns along my flank that hadn’t been there before. Kyra had changed in whatever place she’d been sealed away, and she’d brought that change back with her.
"Beautiful," Kyra said, satisfaction filling her voice. "Now let’s fight."
She moved through the bushes faster than I thought possible, closing the distance to the ridge before the rogues even realized we knew they were there. I heard fighters around me murmuring as I passed, their voices dropping into something like awe.
"That’s her. That’s the Luna."
"She’s fighting, she’s actually fighting."
I didn’t have time to think about what that meant, not with claws and teeth already meeting mine here in the dark. The rogue closest to me lunged, and I sidestepped him easily, Kyra’s instincts guiding my body in ways my own training never had. I took him down fast with no wasted movement.
More came, they attacked with their full strength and I fought through them, aware of Alaric somewhere ahead of me doing the same, aware of Pierre and Kasper rallying fighters around us, the battle spreading across the forest like fire through dry brush.
After the fight went halfway, I felt a more wicked presence suddenly. Kyra felt it first and paused.
“Someone’s coming, this one is much stronger.”
Could it be....
I turned and saw him step out from the treeline, a massive gray wolf, scarred along one shoulder, eyes burning with something that went far beyond simple bloodlust.
“Drake,” Kyra finished and I swallowed.
He shifted back to human form, standing tall in the moonlight butt naked, his voice deeper and loud as he smiled at me and said hello.
Every other fighting paused around me.
"Rowena Ashthorne," he said. "The one woman who ruined my family."
"I don’t know you," I said, shifting back as well, needing my voice for this. "I’ve never even met you before tonight.”
It was a smooth necessary lie.
"Oh you little liar.” Drake laughed. “Anyways, your business. You actually didn’t need to meet me," he added. "Your bloodline did enough on its own. Generations ago, your family destroyed mine, took everything we built, left us with nothing but scraps and a title we could never reclaim. I’ve spent my whole life hearing about what your family took from us. And my father decided to use your family to reclaim what we lost, but what did you do? Killed him.”
"That’s not me," I lied again, maintaining my calmness. "Whatever happened generations ago, has nothing to do with either of us. Also, I had no part in it."
"Doesn’t matter," Drake waved his hand dismissively. "Blood is blood. And tonight, I end yours."
I understood, standing there, that this conflict had never really been about just me me at all. It had been passed down through bitterness and grudges for longer than I’d been alive, an inheritance of hatred neither of us had chosen but both of us were expected to carry.
Someone had to be the one to put it down
I didn’t even know until now that Drake’s family and mine had a history. But it didn’t matter to me since he hurt people close to me.
"Let’s end it," I said. "Here and now. No more generations carrying this forward."
He attacked without warning, and I met him head on, Kyra’s speed carrying me faster than I’d ever moved in my entire life.
Around us, I was aware of Alaric engaging Drake’s strongest fighters, cutting through them with brutal attacks, while I led another section of our fighters against the rest of the rogue force pressing in from the east.
The fighters started calling to each other as they watched me move, watched me hold my ground against attackers twice my size, watched me direct our people with a calmness that surprised even me.
"Fight for the Luna," someone shouted. "Fight for Rowena!"
I felt something swell in my chest at that, pride and purpose tangled together, and I fought harder because of it.
Drake and I circled each other, testing, striking, each exchange faster and more vicious than the last. He was strong, stronger than I expected, of course I didn’t underestimate him too.
But Kyra matched him, move for move, and I could feel Alaric’s eyes on me from across the clearing even as he fought his own battle, I looked over and caught a glimpse of the disbelief and pride in his gaze.
Then Drake did something that made every ounce of my composure shatter.
He went low and struck toward my stomach.
"NO," Kyra screamed, her rage exploding through me so violently I nearly lost control entirely. I twisted at the last second, his claws catching my side instead, tearing through fur and skin but missing everything that mattered.
"That’s what I thought," Drake said, breathing hard. "That’s your weakness. That child inside you. Maybe I don’t need to kill you at all. Maybe I just need to take what you’re carrying."
Something in me went past fear entirely, into a place that was pure fury. Kyra surged forward with a strength I hadn’t felt from her yet, and I let her have full control, trusting her completely.
"You will not touch my child," I said, and my voice didn’t even sound like my own anymore.
I hit him with everything I had, every ounce of strength Kyra carried, every bit of rage that had been building since Kyle first poisoned me, since Drake sent his people to try and destroy my family before it even had a chance to exist. Drake staggered, blood pouring from a wound along his ribs, and I didn’t stop.
He tried to rally, tried to strike back, but he was already losing, and we both knew it. I drove him to the ground, my claws at his throat, close enough that one movement would end everything.
He looked up at me, breathing hard, hatred still burning in his eyes even in defeat.
"Finish it," he said. "You’ve already won."
He wanted me to stain my hands with his dirty blood just like his father’s. Too bad I didn’t plan on doing such.
"I could kill you," I said with a creepy smile. "And maybe I should. But I refuse to let this hatred pass to my child the way it passed to you. This ends here. With your defeat, not your death. Whatever comes after is up to the courts, not my claws."
I pulled back, leaving him alive but wounded deeply.
Finally, everyone also stopped fighting.
I stood there, breathing hard, blood running down my side as I shifted back to my human form.