Chapter 18 We Meet Again, Little Wolf!
Finished
When I was a kid, I didn’t understand the need for a lawyer. Mr Grokon was more of a family friend. Now, racing down the path to his estate, divorce papers tucked under my arm. I need him.
“Please, Goddess,” I whispered through gritted teeth. “let me make it in time.”
The Dravens couldn’t take my family’s crown. I wouldn’t allow it. Not after everything we’d lost. Mr Grokon’s estate was in the same pathway to the palace, where I intended to stop the Draven’s from getting my family’s crowil
“We can make it, Seraphine. Emogen whispered.
Mr. Grokon’s estate appeared ahead–five hundred sprawling acres where I’d spent countless childhood afternoons. How many times had I chased my brothers through those stables while our parents met with the old lawyer inside?
This path beneath my horse’s hooves–this was where I’d first killed. I was twelve.
The Dravens had sent assassins even then. I was just a child playing in the stables when I spotted six shadows moving through the trees. As the daughter of a mighty beta, I was trained to act quick. At 12, I’d almost completed combat training while my brothers were still learning how to hold a sword properly.
“Father! My scream had torn from my throat. “Mother! They’re coming!”
My father burst from the house, sword already drawn. My mother was right behind him.
“Seraphine, stay back!” Father ordered.
When the first mercenary came at him, my father fought like a demon unleashed. He was afterall the Alpha King’s most trusted and decorated warrior. He led the other betas and gammas.
Each man who came at him was met with pain. Yet, soon, they attacked him all together. My mother stood guard over me, ready to draw out her weapon any moment. With my father surrounded, it became more difficult for him to fend them off.
“We can’t hold them all,” my mother hissed, blood splattering her face when she stabbed one of them.
“Seraphine.” My mother turned to me, her eyes wide. “Shift. Now,”
I remember staring at her, shock freezing my limbs. “But you said never to
“NOW, Seraphine!” she screamed.
For years, they’d forbidden me from shifting where others could see. My wolf was different. Dangerous. A red wolf was something unseen for centuries. My wolf was fast, too fast even for a 12 year old future beta.
When I shifted, it ripped through me. My bones cracked, my skin tore. Despite it, I enjoyed the agony of becoming something else, of becoming Emogen.
Red fur burst from my skin as I lunged at the closest assassin.
His throat tore like wet paper between my
my jaws.
“What in the goddess’s name?” one of them shouted, stumbling back.
I moved like death among them. Like a phantom. A flash of red here, then gone. Behind one man, then at another’s throat. Teeth sinking into flesh. Claws shredding armor and the soft meat beneath.
When it ended, five corpses cooled on the ground. The sixth fled, screaming about a red demon wolf.
The Red Phantom was born that day.
4:06 PM
Chapter 18 We Meet Again, Little Wolf!
“Something is wrong,” she murmurs.
I stopped my horse at the massive open gates. No guards. No servants Just wrong silence.
I dismounted, sword already in hand.
Finished
Inside the entrance hall, a man lay choking on blood. One of Mr. Grokon’s guards: a man who’d slipped me sweets as a child.
I knelt beside him, and took his shaking hand. “Who did this?”
He tried to speak, but only blood bubbled through his lips. His eyes suddenly widened, looking past me.
Footsteps.
I stood up and turned.
hit me like ice water.
“We meet again, little wolf” The voice hit me
He stood just as I remembered: tall, smirking, his sword dripping red. The rogue assassin who’d slaughtered my family three years ago.
“You,” I snarled.
Emogen clawed beneath my skin. I held her back. I wanted to feel his death with my own hands.
I lunged, my blade slicing where his neck had been a heartbeat earlier. He sidestepped, laughing like we were old friends. “Still quick,” he noted, parrying my next strike. “But not as quick as before. You’ve gotten soft, little wolf.”
Our swords clashed, but I struck with precision. He matched me, reading my body like we’d danced this dance a hundred times before.
“Your father fought better,” he taunted, blocking a thrust aimed at his heart. “An honorable fighter. It took quite a bit of poison to slow him down enough.”
Rage blinded me. I struck faster, harder, letting instinct take over.
“And your brothers, he continued, “they begged at the end. Did you know that?”
“Liar!” I roared, my blade missing his throat by inches.
He laughed–actually laughed–ducking beneath my guard and kicking me hard in the ribs. I stumbled back, flinching at the pain.
“What does the King of the South want?” I demanded, circling him, tasting blood. “Why is Alpha King Caanan sending assassins into our territory?”
The rogue raised an eyebrow, sword held at eye level. “Hasn’t your king told you yet?” He smiled. “Your kingdom stole something from us twenty–three years ago. We want it back.”
I attacked again, feinting left before driving my blade toward his unprotected side. He barely dodged, a thin line of blood. appearing where steel kissed skin.
“And what I panted, “did we supposedly steal?”
“That’s not for me to tell.” He moved with inhuman speed. “Though I’d think you’d know already, Red Phantom.”
“You’re weaker now,” he whispered. “Domesticity has dulled your edge. Perhaps you should unleash that wolf of yours–the one they speak of in whispers around campfires,”
“I don’t need my wolf to kill you,” I growled.
But he was right–I’d grown slower. Three years of forced subservience had stolen something vital. The next ma
406 PM c
Chapter 18 We Meet Again, Little Wolf)
Finished
“Such a waste,” he murmured. “The deadliest beta–wolf, reduced to a housewife. Not to a king either, but a pathetic doctor who has cheated on you more times than you can count. How pathetic”
Suddenly, a blur of white exploded from inside the house.
The assassin barely turned before a massive white wolf jumped at him. It was larger than any I’d ever seen. The assassin screamed as teeth crushed bone.
I scrambled up, watching in shock. This wolf fought with calculated fury, unlike any other wolf I’d watched fight. Each movement was precise and deadly. Not wild aggression but tactical violence.
The wolf released the assassin’s bleeding arm only to lunge for his throat.
The rogue rolled away, clutching his mangled limb. This isn’t over, he spat, then turned and fled, disappearing into the
trees.
I stood transfixed. The wolf before me was impossible–even bigger than Emogen. No ordinary wolf moved with such tactical precision
“Who are you?” I asked, trying to make my voice stronger but failing.
The wolf’s golden eyes met mine, but it didn’t shift.
At that moment. I remembered why I was here.
“Mr. Grokon, I breathed.
I picked up my sword and ran into the house. The mansion’s interior was chaotic–furniture overturned, books torn and scattered, papers floating like dead leaves. I followed the scent of blood to the dining room and froze.
Mr. Grokon lay sprawled across his own table, savaged by claw marks. A wine glass was on the carpet, with drops of wine having stained it. I knelt down to pick up a fragment of the glass, then brought it up to my nose. The second I caught the scent, it was like living the same nightmare from three years ago. The same poison that had weakened my family before the slaughter.
Why kill a lawyer? Mr. Grokon harmed no one. He managed estates, finances, and legal cases. He processed the wealth of commanders and warriors.
Nothing worth killing for.
i looked back at Mr Grokon, his face was filled with claw marks. On his fingers, his nails were torn off. He was tortured.
I looked across the room. Drawers were emptied and cabinets ransacked. The assassin had been searching for something- something important enough to torture an old man to death.
The state of the body told the story. First the nails, then the cuts. The rogue had extracted information with methodical cruelty
But what information? What could a pack lawyer possibly know that would interest the Southern Kingdom?
I rushed back outside, hoping to find the white wolf who had saved my life. Perhaps he had answers. Instead, the courtyard
was empty
“The wolf is gone Emogen whispered.
Send Gifts
