CHAPTER 366: _STILL RULED BY ANGER

’Now can we shift?’ Damon asked with a growl while Ryker wiggled his fingers, as if playing a piano.

The darkness surrounding him hardened into dark tentacles, shooting at us like spears. Each was thicker than tree branches and seemed as though they could break bones upon contact.

Yeah... I’m not letting those touch me.

"Duck and evade!" Janelle yelled out, her eyes glowing with a silver light.

She crossed her palms into an "x" in front of her face, before making a forward slicing motion, ripping a few of the tentacles with energy blades.

Meanwhile, I grabbed one of the tentacles, which was inches away from piercing through my skull, then used my feet to stomp another one to the ground.

The rest of our group split up, avoiding the other tentacles or shielding themselves.

And then there was Althea.

Anger bubbled inside me as I watched the high priestess protect herself with a near-translucent blue energy bubble.

A traitor in our midst.

How long has the betrayal gone on? How come I didn’t notice anything? Was she behind more atrocities we weren’t aware of? Or—

"I thought you wanted a duel, brother." Ryker mocked, forcing me to turn my eyes to him.

His gaze flashed with a blood red glow before he flicked his wrist like he was getting rid of flies.

That motion caused the darkness tentacle I had in my grip to stiffen suddenly, heating up quicker than a metal rod in a hearth.

"Argh!" I didn’t let go of the tentacle, gritting my teeth through the pain.

Claws unsheathed out of my fingers, digging into the tentacle until my hold was firmer than ever.

Ryker watched this with a slow frown furrowing his brows.

"You’ve always been scared of unity..." I grinned. "Haven’t you, brother?"

Then with one fluid movement, I raised the tentacle above my head.

My fingers brimmed with the energy of my Alpha King aura, my ears blurring out the roars, spells humming and battle cries of the army behind me.

When I whipped the tentacle to the ground, the impact caused the marble to split with cracks which shot toward Ryker within seconds.

A burst of silver energy erupted alongside the cracks, obliterating the darkness tentacle in my grip before hurtling at my brother.

However, just when the silver wave could touch Ryker... He disappeared.

BOOM!

The energy wave ended up crashing on the wall behind him instead, sending a tremor that shook the throne room. Dust and debris plummeted from above but I ignored them, my eyes darting in search of the bastard.

"Scared of unity? Really?" His cackle boomed through the throne room, mocking and omnidirectional. "What unity? One of your most powerful high priestesses has helped me for decades. In fact..."

He appeared again, this time levitating several meters above the spot he’d been standing on seconds ago.

Our group came together again but I barely registered their existence.

Damon’s need for blood pulsed through my veins like a time bomb, my bones ready to snap with the force of transformation any second now.

"Let me shock you..." Ryker continued, pointing a finger at us.

I followed his finger until my eyes locked on her. Althea.

Her jaw was clenched but her shoulders fell. She lowered her head—a telltale sign of guilt, while Ryker continued.

"She came to me all those years ago. She had hopes that I would change the world." My brother sniggered. "She thought I’d bring peace between the wolves and witches worldwide because of my hybrid nature. How naïve for someone who’d lived for almost a century."

Althea remained silent through it all.

I glared at her, my fists clenching with barely restrained rage.

"Althea, say something," Caroline mumbled hesitantly, looking between her and Ryker.

Regina, who’d been silent all this while, spoke up. "This is probably mind games from—" before she could finish, the words choked in her throat, her limbs freezing.

She gasped, her eyes widening as an invisible force lifted her off the ground.

"You’ve got some nerves, Regina!" Ryker snarled, his voice cold as he raised his right hand. "You stand there with power I granted you—"

"Leave her alone!" Caroline rushed forward, swiping her arm at him.

A charged blast of silver energy shot out of her palm, spearing at Ryker.

The latter grinned wolfishly, raising his other hand.

"And then there’s you... The ghost she lost herself to." He scoffed. "Pathetic. All of you!"

’Now is the perfect time to pin him with our transformation,’ Damon growled inside me.

I didn’t wait for permission.

Caroline’s silver bolt arced at Ryker like a lance.

It was clean, bright — charged with Silverborn light. For a heartbeat, it looked like it might pierce him.

But Ryker smiled. He cupped the silver in his outstretched palm like a child holding a firefly.

And then the light changed.

The silver flared, black veins stuttering through it. The colour curdled into something alive and ugly — dark energy crackling with the Vein’s chaotic tongue. It sparked, spat little stars of black fire, and then he hurled it back.

It came at us like a comet.

Althea moved before thought. She stepped in front of Regina and the others as the twisted bolt slammed into a powerful force bubble she created glowing with the light of runes.

She planted her feet, closed her eyes, and took the blow.

A sound like a bell cracked the air. Her body bowed under the force and a wet red bead welled at her nostril.

Her hands flew to the staff at her hip—hands that had trembled two breaths ago—and she thrust it up. Runes flared along its shaft.

The runes burned into the force bubble like writing scorched into flesh. It held. The wave broke against it and cascaded around, shredding into smoke.

Althea sagged, a drop of blood tracking over her lip. She blinked once but then she looked up, turning her gaze to me.

I saw it as a signal. A single nod in the storm.

Damon roared in my chest, his bloodlust finally consuming me. And I let it.

My muscles enlarged as crimson fur sprouted out of my skin faster than a spreading wildfire. My face elongated into a snout and a beastly howl erupted from my core.

My claws tore through my fingers as power raged through my veins. The silver energy enveloped me completely, coating my muscles, my bones, even my rage in something almost divine.

The throne room trembled under my howl. Wind surged outward from me like a bomb had gone off.

Every rune on Althea’s barrier flickered in resonance, every loose fragment of marble and steel rose and rattled as Damon came to life in full.

"Finally," his growl rolled out of my throat, layered with my own voice — two beings speaking as one.

Ryker’s grin only widened. "Oh, little brother. I’ve missed that sound."

I didn’t waste another breath. I lunged.

The ground shattered beneath my feet, sending a shockwave through the chamber. The force of my leap sent marble fragments hurtling like bullets and cracked several pillars on impact.

The sonic boom that followed drowned out the screams and war cries of soldiers as I tore through the air.

I landed on Ryker like a meteor.

My clawed hand wrapped around his throat, the heat of his corrupted energy searing through my palm. I squeezed, feeling the air choke out of him, feeling Damon’s hunger tremble through me like a pulse.

But Ryker didn’t fight back.

He laughed.

The bastard laughed.

Up close, his eyes burned red — not the colour of fury, but of something ancient and amused.

"Still predictable," he rasped, his grin stretching too wide. "Still ruled by anger."

The air around us began to warp.

It started as a faint shimmer, like heat rising off metal, then deepened into glowing red fractures spreading outward from our locked forms.

Space itself cracked — splintering reality like glass under a hammer.

"Kaelos—!" Janelle’s voice was distant, echoing through the distortion.

My grip tightened as Damon snarled inside me: ’End him now before—’

But Ryker only tilted his head, the corners of his lips twitching upward. "Let’s take this somewhere private..."

Before I could react, the red glow surged and collapsed in on itself, dragging everything into its centre.

A blinding flash swallowed my vision.

The last thing I heard was Damon’s roar merging with the sound of shattering space as Ryker and I were both ripped from the throne room — gone in an explosion of crimson light and fractured reality.