Chapter 86 – Kalias
KALIAS
The wolf padded ahead, ears pricked, nose low to the ground.
I could feel it from the space inside him: the forest felt wrong.
The air was sharp, strange, and unfamiliar.
But that was not what caught our attention—it was the strange smell: burning steel with a sweet undertone. We stopped, hackles raised.
The pack stilled behind us. Azaria’s footsteps were careful and close behind us, with Quinton steady at her side.
She made a small move, and that was when we felt the snap.
We both sensed it—a ripple, like something warm popping over our skin.
Our head snapped back and in a blink, she was gone.
Quin’s hand wrapped around empty air, reaching for her too late.
We forced the shift, bones cracking as we stretched into a man.
“Azaria!” Quin’s roar split the clearing. I stepped closer, dropping to my knees as I analyzed the ground.
“Dimensional trap,” I said.
“What the fuck is that?” Quinton growled. The others clustered around us, forming a protective circle.
“It is a fae trick. It hunts game and scares off predators,” I explained.
“Dravareth can use fae magic?” Kael asked, fear lacing his voice. I did not need my nose to sense it—he had been sceptical about this mission from the start.
“They have fae texts all over their libraries,” Quinton ground out.
“Can you track her?” Dain asked, stepping next to me.
I looked around, forcing my wolf to the surface to help analyze the air. I knew her scent by memory now, so did my wolf. But something was hiding it.
“Not right now. Her scent is not in the air,” I said.
“Concealment magic?” Dain pressed.
“Most likely. But we will find her. The wolf will not stop.”
“He’d better not, because I swear—“ Dain cut off mid-sentence, hand flying to his chest. His face drained of color.
“Dain!” I snapped toward him.
He staggered, clutching at his chest, at the bond. “She…” he gasped. “Something’s wrong?—“
He did not even have time to finish. One step, and he vanished—simply snatched out of existence, like Azaria before him.
Kael’s shout tore through the clearing. “DAIN!!”
“Nobody fucking move!” Quinton’s voice was a raw lash of command. The squad froze.
My own instincts screamed danger. I scanned the clearing, every sense straining. The air still hummed strangely: wrong, muddled, tainted with the residue of concealed magic.
“There are more traps,” I said, voice low and certain. I dropped to a crouch, nose working the air, catching the subtle tang and sweetness around me. Cursed fae traps. I stretched my earth sense, reaching below the surface, searching for anything out of place.
“Stay exactly where you are,” I warned, already reaching for my magic. Thin vines snaked up from the soil at my command, crawling delicately across the ground. I coaxed them forward, each one seeking out that wrongness, the invisible seams in the world where the magic sat heavy.
A heartbeat later, a vine brushed something unseen.
There was a shimmer, a pop, and then the empty air flickered as another trap discharged, harmlessly triggered.
Then another brushed something unseen, and another, until the perimeter crackled and the last of the hidden snares dissolved into nothing.
Only then did I turn inward, reaching for that flicker of connection. It was not agony, nor my pain, but a cold ache thrummed through my chest, raw and insistent. My wolf felt it strongest, not I. Every instinct in me screamed as the animal half of my soul paced inside me.
When the wolf had projected to Azaria, he also forced a pack bond. Now I felt her distress through the link.
I tasted blood where my canines pierced my lip, claws pricking at my fingertips. The wolf pressed against my skin, howling to hunt. To reach her.
Quinton swore low, fear and fury battling in his voice. The squad looked to me—not for rank, not for command. Kael had the mind for it, Reyna the nerve, Quinton the experience. But in this moment, none of that mattered. They needed the wolf’s nose, and they knew it.
I gritted my teeth, fighting for words before the wolf could rip free.
“She is hurt,” I ground out, voice half-wild, half-man. “I can feel it. Not fatal, but close. We do not have much time.”
The ache in my chest grew, urgent and insistent, but not enough to drop me. It was enough to let me know she was out there, and that she needed me. That was all it took.
And I shifted.
Not slowly. Not like I usually did when I chose to. This was instantaneous. Clothing tore. Bones reshaped. My body stretched and reformed in a blur of silver and shadow and heat.
The wolf landed hard on four paws, larger than life.
Then—we ran.
The man slipped away. I surged forward.
Her blood is thick in my nose.
Hot. Sharp. Mine.
I follow. Fast. Faster than ever. My paws hit the ground, limbs devouring distance, trees blurring past. I shouldn’t be able to track through concealment. I can.
Blood.
Her blood.
Thought is gone. Only instinct remains. She is mine. My kin. My pack.
And I will find her.
Her blood is thick in my nose.
Hot. Sharp. Mine.
I find her. Crumpled at the base of the tree. Blood slick on her temple, pooling under her head. Chest barely rising. I see her breathe. It’s not enough.
I howl. The world stops. For a heartbeat—silence.
No mercy. I destroy.
First one—too slow. My jaws crush his throat; my claws rip him open. Blood. He twitches, then nothing.
Second one runs. Coward. I’m faster. I leap, teeth snap, shoulder breaks. His bones crack like twigs. He screams. I bite until he stops.
A third—words, magic, rot. I smell the Abyss on him. He won’t finish the spell. My jaws crush his face. Warm. Wet. His skull caves.
A blade catches my side. Doesn’t matter. Pain sharp, but not like hers.
No mercy. I destroy.
Last one drops his weapon. Begs. Weak. He doesn’t beg when he hurts her. I pounce. His scream tears the air. I end it.
Blood everywhere. On my fur, in my mouth. Not enough. Never enough for what they do.
I stand over the ruin. Chest heaving. Every muscle burning. My wounds leak red. I don’t care.
She is still. Too still.
I go to her. Nose to her skin, snuffling, licking her face. Wake up. Breathe. I press my muzzle to her ribs, listen for the flutter of her heart. Still beating.
I growl. Not at her. At the world.
No mercy. I destroy.
I will kill them all for her.
I will not let her go.
The man inside me claws to the surface. Demands to take over. To hold her, not to guard her.
I fight him. I want to stay. I want to finish the hunt. But she needs more than teeth. More than rage.
Let me in, the man says.
For her.
I let him come.
I shifted mid-motion, bones realigning, form re-knitting until I was kneeling beside her in human skin.
There. A pulse. Weak, but there.
I leaned forward, one hand gently cradling the back of her head, the other checking for broken bones. Her face was battered, her ribs shifted beneath my fingers with that telltale wrongness. I closed my eyes for a moment, letting out a shuddering breath.
“You held on,” I whispered. “Good girl.”