Chapter 10 The Bound by Fire

Layla's POV

A Wolf Reborn. Blood. The smell of it filled the clearing... metallic and warm, rising with the morning mist.

Kade's blood painted the ground beside my feet, and the copper taste of it twisted in my neck.

My ears rang with war cries, the roar of wolves, and the clash of claws against steel.

But above it all... was the sound of my own heart. Fast. Unyielding. Wild.

Kade stumbled, growling low as Elias's blade missed his throat by inches. "You still think you can protect her?" Elias spat, his voice twisted with rage. "You don't even know what she is."

"I know enough," Kade growled and lunged again.

My wolf surged within me, tearing at my insides with a power I barely understood. It wanted out. Not for fear. Not for flying. For power. For retribution.

The pain came next-sudden, seizing. My bones cracked, my spine arching as silver fire exploded under my skin. My vision blurred, then sharpened. The world snapped into raw, primal color.

And then I was no longer standing; I was running. Four legs. Silver fur. Eyes like burning fires.

The battlefield was quiet for one frantic beat. Elias stepped back, eyes wide. "So it's true," he whispered. "The silver wolf lives."

I didn't give him time to think.

I lunged. Our bodies struck mid-air, and we fell through the mud and blood, my jaws snapping for his throat.

He rolled beneath me, claws out, trying to hurt me.

But I was faster. Stronger. Every nerve in my body was fire and rage.

He kicked free and stumbled back. "You don't even know what you are," he growled, his chest heaving.

I shifted back mid-stride, standing naked and panting before the pack. I didn't flinch. I didn't look away.

The moon still hung, a sliver of silver in the dawn. I stood beneath it like a reckoning.

"You came to break me," I said to Elias, "but you only set me free."

He sneered. "This isn't over."

"No," I said, raising my head. "It's only just begun."

He fled, his rogues following behind him, looking back with confused, wary eyes.

The Girl They Couldn't Kill.

The conflict quieted.

Wolves moved back slowly.

Warriors stared at me. Some with awe. Some with fear. Grayson stepped forward first, blood on his fingers, one eye swollen shut. He nodded-once, gravely.

"She's the Alpha's blood," he said to no one and everyone. "You saw it." Whispers rippled like wind through grass. "She's the silver wolf..."

"She survived the bite... the prophecy..."

"She fought Elias. Alone." I turned in a slow circle, naked and unafraid. The blood on my skin wasn't mine; it was the old Layla's.

The broken, silent Layla. She was gone.

"I'm not your omega," I said, loud and clear. My voice cracked, but I stood tall anyway. "I'm your future."

The earth felt different beneath my feet. The air was heavy. The world was watching.

And for once, I didn't shrink beneath it.

The Snap of Teeth. I barely saw her coming... just a flash of hair and rage.

Celeste charged with a snarl, her eyes burning with rage. "You think you can take this from me?!"

But she never reached me. Ivy moved like a ghost, blade flashing in the light. Steel kissed Celeste's throat, stopping her mid-strike.

"Touch her again," Ivy growled, "and you bleed." Celeste froze, shaking against the blade. "You'd kill me for her?"

Ivy didn't blink. "I'd kill you for breathing, Celeste." Celeste's eyes flicked to me, wide and wild. "She's not one of us..."

"She's more than you'll ever be," Ivy hissed. Then she shoved her back, hard enough to send her falling into the dirt.

For the first time, Celeste looked small. Not powerful. Not beautiful. Just... sad.

She scrambled to her feet and fled, holding her throat as if the truth might still cut deeper than Ivy's blade.

Between the Burning and the Bruised, the fighting was done.

The pack licked its wounds in silence, unsure of where to stand-between fear and awe, between old rules and something new.

I found Kade half-collapsed near the northern hill. His arm was still bleeding, soaked through with red, his jaw clenched against the pain.

I dropped to my knees beside him, tearing fabric from my cloak to press to the wound. "You're such an idiot," I whispered, binding him as best I could.

His eyes fluttered open, dark with tiredness and something softer. "I thought he'd kill you."

"You thought wrong," I whispered. He laughed once, wincing. "You're terrifying."

"Good."

His hand found mine, rough fingers curling around my wrist. "I'm sorry," he whispered, eyes glazed. "For everything. For the rejection. For not seeing you sooner."

I stared at our hands. "I don't forgive you,"

I said quietly. "Not yet. Maybe not ever."

His eyes dimmed a little. "I know." "But I'm still here," I said. "And I'm not leaving."

I didn't pull my hand away. We sat like that for a long time, surrounded by ash and ruin, wrapped in a strange and dangerous peace.

The moon had set. The sun was rising, and somewhere inside me, a fire still burned.

Not just for life now, but for fairness. For truth. For a future no one could steal from me again. But peace never lasts. Not in this world. Not when power shifts like sand underfoot.

The silence after the battle was suffocating, thick with unspoken questions and watching eyes.

The pack wasn't just stunned-they were waiting. For Marcus. For Kade. For someone to declare what I now was.

But I beat them to it.

I stood again, even as blood dried on my skin and my muscles trembled from the shift. "If any of you doubt what you saw today," I said, "step forward now."

No one moved.

I heard a wolf whimper. Someone shifted back and lowered their eyes. That sound wasn't submission-it was awakening.

"You've lived under the rule of cowards," I continued. "Wolves who killed to keep power. Who lied to you. Who called me nothing because they feared the truth I carried."

A few heads turned to Marcus, who hadn't emerged since the fight ended.

The Alpha, silent in his stone house, as his pack bled for secrets he created.

Grayson stepped forward again. "What are you saying, Layla?"

I met his gaze. "I'm saying it's time to tear out the rot. From the root." I expected resistance-maybe a growl, maybe a challenge-but Grayson nodded. Slowly. Thoughtfully.

Then another warrior knelt beside him.

Then Ivy. Then three more. Until half the warriors in the clearing knelt-not to beg, not to obey... but to acknowledge.

I looked to Kade, who sat now, leaning against a boulder, lips bloodied but eyes... different. Not soft. Not bitter.

Just honest. "You'll make enemies," he said. "I already have."

"They'll come for you," he said. "Celeste. Elias. Maybe even Marcus. You think this is over?"

"No," I said. "I think this is the beginning."

He laughed again, weaker this time. "Gods. You really are her."

"Who?"

He didn't answer. Just closed his eyes, letting his head rest back against the stone, but the way he said it sent a chill down my spine. Her. As if I wasn't Layla anymore... but something reborn.

I walked to the edge of the clearing, where the grass still bore signs of fire and claw.

The air smelled of change, of fear, of dawn.

I raised my voice, speaking not just to the warriors here... but to the ghosts of the past, to my parents, to my wolf.

"My name is Layla Blackthorn," I said again, louder this time. "And I am the last daughter of a true Alpha. I carry the blood they tried to erase, the fire they couldn't drown. I will not hide. I will not kneel.

And if war is what comes next..."

I looked to the forest, to the sky, to the smoldering world behind me.

"...then let it come."

The wind stirred, and somewhere deep in my soul, my wolf growled.