CHAPTER 185: CHAPTER 185: CLASH OF MONSTERS

Lorraine’s POV

I didn’t see it coming. None of us did.

One heartbeat, The Leader had Kieran pinned, his claws digging mercilessly into his flesh. The next heartbeat, a blur of blonde and fury smashed into him

Aveline.

She hit him with such force that he was torn off Kieran, crashing into the dirt. My mouth fell open. My breath caught in my chest.

"Aveline!" Adrian’s scream split the air, raw and panicked. "No!"

But she wasn’t listening. She wasn’t Aveline anymore.

Her body trembled, her eyes burning bright with that inhuman gleam, her teeth bared in a savage snarl. The ghosthound was fully unleashed, and I could feel the weight of it in my bones.

The Leader staggered to his feet, looking more shocked than furious for once. His arrogance faltered as Aveline lunged again, claws slashing for his throat. He barely dodged, his movements sharper than lightning, but even he looked unsettled.

"No...." Adrian bolted forward, desperation in every line of his body. He grabbed her arm, his voice breaking, commanding, pleading all at once. "Stop this instant, Aveline! I command...."

He never finished.

Her hand snapped out like a whip. I didn’t even see her touch him, just the sound of his body crashing through the air before he slammed against a jagged boulder with a sickening crack. Blood sprayed. Adrian went limp, sliding down stone until he collapsed into silence.

"Adrian!" I screamed, but my voice was swallowed by the violence around me.

Aveline didn’t even turn. She only lunged at The Leader again.

I struggled against the ropes binding me, fury and terror clawing my insides raw. My wrist burned, skin split from struggling, until, finally, something shifted inside me. My claws shot out, not fully, but enough. Sharp. Deadly. They tore through the restraints with a ragged slice.

I was free.

I scrambled across the broken ground, straight to Kieran. He was still on the floor, his body a map of wounds, blood soaking into the dirt. I dropped beside him, hand shaking, heart splitting in two.

But he was moving.

Even as I touched him, his torn flesh was knitting together, muscle pulling tight, skin mending faster than any wolf I had ever seen.

Just how strong is he?

How powerful must he be that after the beating he endured, he was already healing before my eyes?

Tears broke free and spilled hot down my cheeks as I knelt there, helpless. I had never felt so small, so useless.

"Kieran...." I whispered, my voice shattering.

And then he opened his eyes.

His hand came up, steady, deliberate, and brushed the tears from my face with a gentleness that undid me.

"I won’t let anything happen to you," he murmured, voice rough but resolute. "I promise."

The words ripped something open inside me. A sob caught in my throat, but I swallowed it down, pressing my forehead to his for one stolen second before the crashing of the world around us demanded my attention again.

Because Aveline was still fighting.

The sound of her ghosthound snarl rattled the yard as she clashed with The Leader, her movements a blur of unnatural speed. Every strike was brutal, efficient, a predator’s kill pattern meant for ending life. And for the first time, The Leader wasn’t sneering. He was fighting for his life.

Their claws sparked in the air as they met, each impact louder than steel. The ground cracked beneath their feet. Dust and fragments of rock spun upward from the sheer force of their blows.

I could barely follow them with my eyes. They were everywhere and nowhere at once, a whirlwind of violence circling too close, too fast.

But then I saw it.

A shift. A crack in The Leader’s perfect rhythm.

Because Aveline was winning.

Her body moved faster, her strikes more ruthless, her snarls more savage. Every clash left him reeling, his precision faltering, his arrogance stripped away. She drove him back step after step until his foot slipped, just for a breath, just enough.

Her claws raked across his arm with a wet snap and the bone splintered.

The Leader howled as his body crumpled, his arm bent at an impossible angle. He hit the ground hard, dirt and blood spraying as he collapsed beneath her shadow.

Aveline loomed over him, chest heaving, eyes burning with ghosthound fury. Her claws glistened crimson, and she looked ready to strike again, ready to end him.

But the air shifted.

Because his soldiers surged forward instantly, a wave of crimson uniforms forming a barrier between him and Aveline. They surrounded his broken body, a wall of snarls and bared teeth, weapons drawn, waiting for her to make another move.

And still, Aveline didn’t back down.

She stood there, shoulders rising and falling like storm waves, lips curled back to bare every fang she possessed. Her entire body shook with bloodlust, but her eyes, those glowing, inhuman eyes, were locked only on The Leader.

I held my breath. My heart thundered. Because Aveline, unleashed, was terrifying.

My legs were still shaking, but I pushed myself upright, my gaze locked on Kieran as he straightened from the ground too. He had been battered and bruised just moments ago, his chest caked with dust and streaks of blood, but now, he rose like something unbroken. Only once did his body falter, a slight limp in his left leg, but it vanished as quickly as it came. His flesh knitted together with that terrifying speed unique to Lycans, muscles reforming under skin that healed before my very eyes.

Beside him, the Leader, who had looked torn apart only minutes ago, rolled his shoulders back. His grotesquely snapped arm gave a sickening crack as the bone realigned itself, the mangled flesh sealing back together until it looked as though it had never broken. The grin that curled his lips made my stomach twist.

"Let’s end this once and for all," he said, voice filled with arrogance.

And just like that, the fight resumed.

Aveline launched herself at him, swift and graceful, her strikes a blur of fire and steel. Each blow carried precision, each dodge laced with the instincts of a warrior who refused to bend. The Leader met her head on, his massive frame absorbing her strikes, his fists hammering the ground with enough force to crack stone.

At the same time, Kieran collided with the nearest cluster of soldiers. His movements were unrelenting, each slash, each twist of his claws ending in shredded throats and broken spines. Blood sprayed across the yard like rain. His eyes glowed, predatory, his every motion dripping with lethal grace. One soldier tried to flank him, only for Kieran to whirl, snapping the wolf’s neck as though it were nothing more than a stick.

I stood frozen at first, useless, just watching. Every bone in my body screamed to do something, but I was a broken feral girl with only one arm. What could I possibly add to a war like this? I clenched my jaw until my teeth hurt, the fury simmering at my own helplessness.

Then one of the soldiers threw his head back and released a long, shrill howl that split the yard. The sound echoed, vibrating through my ribs. My heart sank as shadows moved at the edges of the yard. One by one, more soldiers began to pour in, their eyes glowing as they surged toward Kieran like a tide of death.

His pace didn’t falter, but even I could see the change. The more he killed, the more they pressed in. Claws tore at him from every side, blades sliced through his skin only for it to heal again, but the sheer number of them was wearing him down. Every time he cut three down, five more replaced them.

Across the battlefield, Aveline and the Leader were locked in a dance of fury. She matched him, strike for strike. Her wolf burned inside her, I could feel it from where I stood, defiance, rage, and a strange unyielding pride. But the Leader was learning. He wasn’t just using raw power anymore. He began to anticipate her moves, slipping into her rhythm, countering with cunning instead of brute force

When Aveline leapt high, he didn’t meet her in the air like before. He ducked. His eyes flicked, quick and sharp, calculating. His hand shot out,not toward her, but to the ground. From the corpse of a fallen soldier, he snatched up a silver sword, its blade gleaming under the morning sun

My heart slammed against my ribs. No.

Aveline twisted midair, ready to drive her claws into him, but the Leader spun, bringing the sword up in a deadly arc. I could already see it, the silver plunging into her chest, ending her fight, her fire, everything.

Then a scream tore across the yard.

"Aveline!!!!!"

Adrian.

Before my eyes could even process it, his figure blurred, a flash of movement faster than my thought. He collided with her, shoving her aside with a desperate strength. The sword found flesh, but not hers.

It was his.

The blade sank deep into Adrian’s torso with a sound that made bile rise in my throat. The force of it drove him backward, his body jerking as blood burst from the wound. For a second, his wide eyes locked with Aveline’s, pain and regret swirling in them like a storm.

Then he staggered, and the wet gurgle of his breath broke me. Blood filled his mouth, spilling down his chin as his knees gave out beneath him.

"No...." My voice cracked, useless, pathetic.

The sword slid free with a slick sound, crimson dripping from its edge as Adrian crumpled to the ground. He convulsed once, twice, then lay there in a pool of his own blood.