Scales of Rot
Aurora POV?
The thrill of the spar vanished from my blood in a single, icy heartbeat.
Torrance dropped his defensive stance immediately, his massive head swiveling east towards the sound. I was completely frozen, the pads of my paws rooted to the dirt as that high, soul-shredding shriek echoed through the city again.
I knew that sound.
My heart slammed against my ribs, a cold, suffocating dread clawing its way up my throat. I prayed to the Moon Goddess, to the stars, to any ancient deity that would listen, that I was wrong. But the metallic, grinding vibration of that roar was burned into my very marrow.
Four years ago, deep within the canyons of the Forbidden Lands, I had heard that exact same shriek.
I had been hunting, young and overconfident, when I stumbled into it.
It had probably been a dragon once, before something had twisted it into a nightmare.
It was a colossal, pitch-black abomination of jagged scales, oozing dark corruption, with eyes red like blood.
I would have died that day. I should have died.
It was only thanks to the Wyverns, the fierce, winged beasts I had befriended and fought alongside, that I survived.
They had swarmed the monster, tearing at its wings and blinding it long enough for one of them to scoop me up and retreat into the clouds.
We had left it broken and bleeding black ichor in the bottom of the canyon.
I had genuinely thought it died from its injuries.
But as the smell of sulfur and burning stone rolled over the training grounds, I knew it hadn’t.
‘Kieran,’ I snapped through our mate bond, my mental voice slicing through his rising unease with the sharp, unquestionable authority of a Luna. ‘Evacuate the eastern district. Evacuate the city. Now.’
Before he could even process the command, I bolted toward the towering stone wall that enclosed the training grounds.
“Aurora!” Kieran roared behind me, his voice a thunderclap of Alpha command. He was ordering me to stop, his instincts demanding he shield me, but I couldn’t obey. If that thing breached the central market, hundreds, maybe even thousands, would be slaughtered in seconds.
I didn’t break my stride as the stone wall loomed closer.
Instead, I called upon the magic in my body.
A localized, violent cyclone of wind erupted beneath my paws.
The moment I hit the vertical surface, the wind magic propelled me upward, defying gravity as I literally ran straight up the forty-foot stone barrier.
I crested the wall and launched myself into the air, landing heavily on the slate roof of the nearest barracks.
I didn’t pause. I became a blinding white blur, bounding frantically across the rooftops of the city, my claws tearing through shingles as I raced directly toward the billowing pillar of black smoke.
Through the bond, Kieran was a chaotic storm of frustration, desperation, and confusion. ‘Aurora! What is going on?! Come back! Let the Vanguard handle it!’
‘They can’t!’ I projected back, leaping over a narrow alleyway and landing smoothly on the roof of a tavern.
Below me, the streets were already descending into chaos as citizens screamed and ran.
‘If it is what I think it is… then we need more than just the soldiers. Kieran! I’m going to stall it.
I have to keep it away from the civilians!’
‘Stall WHAT?!’ he demanded, his mental voice shaking the foundations of my mind.
‘I fear it is a corrupted dragon… if it is…’ I replied, my breath coming in sharp, rhythmic pants as I closed the distance to the outer wall. ‘Then we might have a massive problem.’
Another cataclysmic crash shook the city, sending a shockwave that nearly knocked me off my paws. I scrambled to the peak of the highest watchtower on the eastern edge of the market district, digging my claws into the stone to anchor myself.
The thick, black smoke parted, swirling away in the wind.
The breath completely left my lungs.
It was clinging to the shattered remains of the outer defensive wall, its massive, pitch-black claws dug deep into the crumbling stone.
Dark, corrosive slime dripped from its jaws, sizzling as it hit the cobblestones below.
Slowly, the beast unfurled its massive, ragged wings, blocking out the midday sun, and turned its bleeding, crimson eyes directly toward the heart of the city.
‘Oh, no’, I thought, my chest tightening with an absolute, paralyzing dread as I stared at the Corrupted Dragon. ’This is bad. This is so, so bad’. It was supposed to be dead.
‘What the hell is it even doing here?’
----
Kieran POV
The absolute shock that had gripped the training grounds shattered the instant Aurora’s white form crested the forty-foot stone wall and vanished from sight.
I didn’t have the luxury of freezing. The agonizing terror violently thrashing through my mate bond acted like a physical whip, snapping my Alpha to the surface.
“MOVE!” I roared, the sheer force of my voice cracking the splintered oak railing completely in two. I whirled on the frozen lords of the council, my eyes bleeding into a solid, luminescent gold. “Every Alpha, every Beta! Every Guard! We move! NOW!”
Silas was already in motion. My Beta didn’t even need the command; his hand was off his blade and tearing at the clasps of his tunic before the echo of my roar had even faded.
Through the frantic, chaotic static of my mind, Aurora’s voice sliced through our private bond, sharp and breathless as she bounded across the slate rooftops of the city.
‘Kieran,’ she projected, her mental voice trembling with a dark, primal unease that made my own blood run cold.
‘It’s a Corrupted Dragon. From the deepest canyons of the Forbidden Lands.
I fought it four years ago. It nearly tore me to pieces before the Wyverns drove it off.
It was supposed to be dead. Kieran, its scales are like iron, and it breathes pure, corrosive flaming rot.’
My heart stopped completely. A Corrupted Dragon.
Of all the nightmares crawling through the ash of her fallen kingdom, a corrupted, magic-twisted dragon was probably one of the most dangerous creatures.
And my fiercely stubborn, brave mate was running directly toward it with nothing but her teeth, magic and a sheer, desperate need to protect my people.
“It is a Corrupted Dragon from the ashes of the Forbidden Lands!” I bellowed to the others surrounding me.
The color drained from Alpha Garrick’s scarred face.
Torrance, still shifted in his massive russet form, let out a deep, rumbling snarl of absolute hatred.
Every veteran in this ring knew exactly what that meant.
As Valdorans, our greatest military strength was our Pack Link, our physical regeneration, and our flawless close-quarters combat.
We lacked ranged magic. A massive, flying, armor-plated beast that rained acidic corruption from the sky was our absolute worst-case scenario.
I didn’t waste another breath on words. I tore the heavy tunic from my shoulders, letting my bones snap and restructure in a violent, instantaneous rush of heat and shadow. My black wolf surfaced fully.
A split second later, a dark grey wolf erupted into the dirt beside me. Silas.
All around me, the air filled with the deafening chorus of tearing clothing and snapping bones. The most lethal, battle-hardened Pack Alphas in the kingdom shifted in terrifying unison, their Betas right behind them.
I didn’t wait for them to form ranks. I launched myself over the broken railing, my massive paws tearing trenches into the dirt as I bolted toward the heavy iron gates of the training grounds, Silas perfectly anchored to my right flank as my lethal shadow.
The Valdoran lords surged after us, a thunderous, ground-shaking tide of fur, muscle, and bared fangs.
I threw my consciousness completely open, utilizing the royal Pack Link. I anchored the minds of every Alpha, Beta, and soldier in the city to my own, creating a flawless, instantaneous network of tactical communication.
‘Rhyon! Take the left flank through the market! Clear the civilians!’ I commanded through the network, my massive paws hitting the cobblestones of the city streets so hard the stone cracked.
‘Understood, my King!’ Rhyon’s deep voice echoed in my skull.
‘Dax! Orion! Right flank! Get the archers and the ballistas on the eastern towers! Bring it down to the ground!’
‘Silas, lead the soldiers! I want an outer perimeter locked down immediately!’
‘On it, Alpha,’ Silas replied instantly, his mind an anchor of cold, tactical steel in the chaotic storm of the Pack Link.
But beneath the tactical roars of my commanders, my private bond with Aurora was a bleeding, desperate wound.
I pushed my wolf to the absolute, tearing limit of his speed, dodging overturned merchant carts and terrified, screaming civilians as the shadow of the billowing black smoke swallowed the sun.
‘Aurora, listen to me,’ I pleaded through our private link, abandoning every ounce of my kingly composure. The raw, suffocating terror of a male about to lose his other half bled freely into my projection. ‘Do not engage it. Please. Just stall it from a distance if you must.’
I could feel the violent rush of wind against her face through our bond, the burn of her muscles as she pushed herself closer and closer to the epicenter of the destruction.
‘It’s aiming for the inner market, Kieran,’ she replied, her voice heartbreakingly resolute. ‘If it breathes on those crowds, thousands will die. I have to draw its attention.’
‘Aurora!’ I snarled, my massive jaws snapping at the air as I rounded a burning tavern.
The metallic, soul-shredding shriek of the dragon vibrated through the cobblestones beneath my paws, making my chest ache.
‘Wait for me! I am right behind you! Do not fight it alone! I cannot lose you. I just found you. I will not survive losing you! Please!’
A beat of silence echoed down our bond. When she answered, her mental voice was sharp and vibrating with absolute confidence.
‘I love you, Kieran,’ she projected back, the bright, predatory thrill of her wolf bleeding through the connection.
‘Which is exactly why I have zero intention of dying today. I survived eight years in my fallen kingdom; I’m not about to let an overgrown, rotting lizard take me from you now.
I’ve survived this ugly bastard before. I’m just going to piss it off until you get here.’
‘AURORA—’
‘Just hurry up and bring that big, bad wolf of yours to the party,’ she interrupted with a fierce, breathtaking arrogance.
Then she temporarily severed the mental communication, blocking out my frantic protests so she could focus entirely on the fight.
A deafening, metallic shriek ripped through the air just a few blocks ahead of us, followed instantly by the sickening sound of stone buildings collapsing. A massive plume of black, corrosive fire shot into the sky, painting the midday clouds a sickly, ash-choked grey.
I dug my claws into the stone, launching myself over a crumbling stone wall and surging into the eastern district, Silas and the pack alphas thundering at my back.
I would tear the sky itself down to reach her, my chest burning with a violent mixture of absolute terror and staggering pride.
By the time I reached the outer walls, my fearless Queen would already be looking a god of death straight in the eye.