Chapter 4 The Price of Strength

Zara's POV

The wind whirled over the trees as I looked down at the blood on my hands. It had dried into my skin and cracked in the lines of my palms, leaving a memory that water could not erase. I had killed someone. Not in defence. This was not by accident. I killed someone knowing full well what I was doing.

And I didn't regret it.

I thought I would. I thought I would fall to my knees and scream into the night, tearing at my chest for the soul I had stolen. But all I felt was this heavy emptiness-and underneath it, a flicker of something I didn't want to admit. Power.

Kael said nothing when he saw me break that rogue's neck. His golden eyes had simply watched. Cold. Proud. Unapologetic.

"You've tasted it now," he said to me that night, sitting by the fire we had built in the woods. "The truth of what it means to survive."

I nodded once, silent, staring into the flames.

"But it doesn't get easier," he added, quieter this time. "The body might forget, but the heart doesn't. Unless you burn that part of you out."

His words haunted me long after he'd gone to sleep.

The days that followed blurred into sweat, blood, and pain. Kael trained me like I was a weapon he was sharpening for war. He didn't hold back, not even when I collapsed from exhaustion. Not when I cried out as bruises bloomed on my arms.

"You want revenge?" he snapped once, circling me in the clearing like a predator. "Then act like it. You can't cry and destroy at the same time. Pick one."

So I chose destruction.

I learnt how to fight with my fists, knives, and the shifting power that flowed through me like a second pulse. My wolf, once quiet and afraid, began to roar inside me, becoming louder with each passing day. She would change. Hardened. And she liked Kael.

Too much.

There was something about him that pulled at me. Not just the way his voice dipped when he spoke my name or the way he moved like a god of war. It was something deeper. A shadow he wore like armour. I saw pieces of myself in him. The broken parts. The angry ones. The ones that whispered, Burn it all down.

One night, Kael eventually confessed the reality as the sky behind the trees turned orange.

My feet were swinging in the frigid water as we sat on the riverbank. A fresh cut on my cheek caused my skin to sting, but I did not mind.

I enjoyed the pain. It kept me grounded.

"You deserve to know," he said, voice rough. "Who I am."

I turned to him, my heart already pounding.

"I'm not just some rogue who hates Lucian," he said, eyes staring straight ahead. "I'm his brother."

My breath caught.

"I was born Kael of Bloodfang," he continued, voice flat. "First son. First heir. But I was never enough for my father. Not cold enough. Not cruel enough. Lucian was their golden child. Obedient. Vicious. Everything I refused to become. So they cast me out."

I said nothing, but my fists curled in the grass beside me.

"My mother died defending me," he said. "Lucian stood by and let it happen. So no, Zara. I don't want to just help you hurt him. I want to bury him."

The hatred in his voice was fire and ice, and I felt it stir something dark inside me.

"I want you to take his pack," Kael said, finally turning to face me. "Take everything he thinks belongs to him. His power. His legacy. His pride. I'll stand beside you when you do."

The idea was madness. Dangerous. Tempting.

And I wanted it.

The next day, I trained harder. Faster. My wolf howled with hunger for vengeance, no longer timid, no longer broken. Each punch I threw carried the weight of betrayal. Every time Kael shouted at me to get up, I did.

Lucian's face haunted my dreams. And so did Seraphina's. Her fake smile. Her delicate voice. The way she clung to Lucian like a snake wearing silk.

Rumors reached us through Kael's rogue network. Seraphina was manipulating the Bloodfang council, pushing Lucian to make brutal choices that drove a wedge between him and his people. Wolves whispered rebellion. Some had already vanished from the pack's territory-gone rogue, or worse.

It was working.

Lucian was unravelling. And he didn't even know I was alive.

Kael and I camped deep in rogue land, surrounded by wolves who had no loyalty to anyone but survival. Some feared me. Some respected me. And a few even followed me. Kael said they were mine now. That leadership wasn't something you were given. It was something you took.

And I had taken their fear and shaped it into loyalty.

Still, late at night, I would lie awake and stare at the stars, wondering what I had become.

Was I still Zara, the girl who once dreamed of love? Or was I someone else now? Someone colder. Sharper. Hungrier.

Maybe both.

One night, Kael spotted me sitting alone by the lake.

He knelt down next to me and said, "You are getting stronger."

I turned away from him. "Strong enough to kill Lucian?"

He tried to smile, but his eyes were closed. "Almost."

There was a long blade of silence between us.

Kael then said, "You know I would follow you into the fire, right?"

My chest got tight.

He said in a whisper, "I do not just want revenge anymore." "I need you."

When I looked at him, my heart beat fast and my breath was short. His face did not show any signs of fun. Only the truth.

But before I could say anything, I smelt something.

Blood.

We both jumped up.

The rogue scout grabbed his side as he fell out of the trees. He gasped, "They are coming." "Patrol of Bloodfangs. Goodbye. There are too many.

Kael's eyes got brighter. "Eighty?"

"Ten." Maybe twelve. Going straight here."

My heart beat fast. "Do they know I am still alive?"

The scout turned his head away. "No." However, they are looking for something.

Kael did not hold out. "Put everything away. "Let us go."

In seconds, the camp was a mess. Wolves moved. Weapons disappeared into their sheaths. There were no more fires.

It was too late, though.

The first arrow flew through the air and hit a tree not far from my face.

Someone was attacking us.

I changed forms in the middle of my run, and my wolf ran through the forest with Kael's huge silver form. Growls came from behind us. They were Bloodfang warriors, who were cruel and violent.

Before I saw him, I could smell him.

Lucian.

It smelt like a storm hit me.

Dark pine. Smoke. And something else-something rotten beneath the surface.

I skidded to a stop on a ridge above the battlefield. And there he was.

Lucian stood in the clearing, his dark hair tousled, his eyes burning gold in the moonlight. His armor gleamed with silver runes. Seraphina was beside him, dressed in white, as if blood didn't dare touch her.

He hadn't seen me. Not yet.

My wolf snarled, begging to leap. To rip. To destroy.

Kael pressed beside me, tense. "We can take him," he growled. "Right now."

But I shook my head. "Not like this."

Lucian turned then as if he felt something. His gaze swept the trees. Paused.

I ducked.

He hadn't seen me. But he'd felt me.

Kael cursed under his breath. "We wait, we lose the chance."

"No," I said, voice cold. "We wait, we destroy him completely."

And then the scream pierced the air.

It wasn't from any of our rogues. It was a child's scream.

I turned, heart stuttering.

Kael's eyes widened. "No..."

We ran.

Through the trees. Through smoke and fire.

And then I saw her-

A little girl, barely ten, pinned under a broken log. Her eyes were wide with terror. And above her stood a Bloodfang warrior, blade raised.

I didn't think. I moved.

One leap. One strike.

The warrior fell, and I stood over the girl, my hands were shaking.

She looked up at me with tears shed in her eyes. "Are you the ghost they are talking about?"

I blinked. "What?"

"The one who survived Lucian."

I didn't answer. I scooped her up, turned-

And froze.

Lucian stood across the field. Alone now. Watching me.

Our eyes locked.

And I knew.

He knew I was alive.

Lucian's lips parted. "Zara?" he whispered, loud enough for only me to hear.

My blood turned to ice.

Kael appeared beside me, but I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.

Lucian's expression shifted-shock, disbelief, and something far worse.

Possession.

"I told you," he said, stepping forward. "You'll always belong to me."

And then-

A silver dart struck Kael's neck.

He gasped, eyes wide, body locking.

"No!" I screamed, catching him as he fell.

Lucian's wolves surged forward.

And I was surrounded.