The air shrieked as Kaelen's massive form carved through the night. To any other human, he would have been a blur of fur and death, a force of nature that ended lives before the brain could register the threat.
But I wasn't any other human.
My vision slowed. The Republic's neural-enhancers kicked in, overclocking my perception until I could see the individual droplets of saliva flying from his gnashing teeth. I saw the ripple of muscle beneath his black coat, and most importantly, I saw the jagged, pulsing shadow near his heart. It was the rot I had planted there three years ago.
I didn't retreat. I stepped into the strike.
I dropped low, the soles of my tactical boots skidding on the blood-slicked grass. As his five hundred pound frame sailed over me, I drove the talwar upward. The silver-nitrate blade didn't just cut. It hissed as it met his fur, the holy alchemy of my ancestors reacting to the cursed blood of the Alpha.
A howl of pure agony ripped through the valley. Kaelen crashed into the jet dais, shattering the stone. He shifted back to his human form mid-tumble, clutching a searing, cauterized wound across his ribcage. He looked at his hand, covered in his own smoking blood, with a look of utter betrayal.
"You... you poisoned the blade," he gasped, his voice thick with fluid.
"I consecrated it," I corrected, standing tall as the dust settled. "There is no healing from a wound dealt by the hand you bit, Kaelen."
"Sura, stop!" Jax screamed, stepping between us, his claws extended but his eyes pleading. "He's the Alpha! If he falls, the pack falls! Think of the children! Think of Leo!"
I looked at Leo. My son was standing by the high altar, his small hands gripped into white-knuckled fists. He wasn't crying. He was watching me with a terrifying, silent intensity. It was the look of a wolf cub realizing the moon wasn't a god, but a target.
"I am thinking of Leo," I said, my voice cold as the mountain stream. "I'm thinking of the man he'll become if he stays in this den of thieves. I'm thinking of the life he'll have when he doesn't have to watch his mother bled dry for the greater good."
The collective thoughts of the pack began to swarm my mind again. The Link was trying to re-establish itself, sensing the Alpha's weakness. Kill the human witch! Protect the King!
Lyra saw her opening. While Kaelen struggled to stand, she shifted into a lithe, golden wolf with eyes full of murder. She didn't go for me. She went for Leo.
She lunged at my son, her jaws snapping shut inches from his throat as she pinned him to the stone.
"Drop the sword, Sura!" Lyra's voice projected through the Mind-Link, a jagged, mental screech. "Drop it, or I'll tear the heir to pieces! If I can't be the Luna of a living pack, I'll be the Queen of a graveyard!"
The world stopped. The fire seemed to freeze in mid-flicker. Kaelen looked up, his face pale. "Lyra... no... put him down."
"Shut up, Kaelen!" Lyra snarled through the Link. "You're weak! You've been mourning a ghost for three years while I did the work! I won't let her take everything!"
I lowered the talwar. My heart was hammering against my ribs, a wild, frantic bird. "Let him go, Lyra. This is between us."
I activated the comms. "Now."
A high-pitched, ultrasonic frequency suddenly blasted from the hidden speakers in my tactical suit. It was a sonic disruptor, tuned specifically to the sensitive inner ears of a shifting wolf.
Every werewolf in the valley clutched their heads, howling in pain as the sound vibrated through their skulls. Lyra collapsed, her golden form thrashing on the dais as she lost her grip on Leo.
In that split second, I moved.
I wasn't a woman. I was a kinetic strike. I covered the fifty feet in three strides, my boots hitting the stone with the sound of thunder. I grabbed Leo by the collar of his tunic and swung him behind me, my blade coming up just as Lyra recovered.
She lunged, her claws raking across my shoulder, tearing through the reinforced fabric of my suit. I felt the burn of her venom, but my blood neutralized it instantly.
I didn't use the sword. I dropped it, grabbed Lyra by the throat with my bare hands, and slammed her into the inky pillar.
"You touched my son," I whispered, my voice vibrating with a power that wasn't human. My eyes began to glow with a faint, amber light. The mark of the Moon Goddess's true lineage was finally surfacing.
I didn't kill her. That would have been too merciful.
I pressed my palm against her forehead and spoke the word that had been the key to my escape.
"Ephphatha."
I didn't open a gate. I opened her mind. I flooded Lyra's consciousness with every ounce of pain, every liter of blood, and every cold, lonely second I had endured in the High Tower. I gave her my memories. Not as stories, but as a lived reality.
Lyra's eyes rolled back. She let out a soft, whimpering sound before sliding to the floor, her mind shattered by the weight of my suffering. She wouldn't die, but she would never shift again. She was wolf-less now.
She was the very thing she had mocked me for being.
I turned back to the crowd. The sonic disruptor had stopped, leaving a ringing silence in its wake. Hundreds of wolves stood frozen, watching the human who had just neutralized their Alpha and destroyed their Beta.
I looked at Kaelen. He had managed to get to his knees, his hand still pressed to his side. He looked at me, and for the first time, he saw me. Not the resource. Not the wife. The Goddess.
"Sura," he wheezed. "Please... stay. We can fix this. I'll give you everything. I'll step down. Just heal the pack."
I looked at the people I had once called family. I saw the rot in their eyes, the physical decay of a society built on the theft of life.
"The pack is already dead, Kaelen," I said, reaching out a hand to Leo. "It died the day you decided my life was a currency you could spend."
Leo looked at my hand, then at his father. He saw the broken King in the dirt, and then he looked at the warrior standing in the firelight. He reached out and gripped my hand. His palm was warm. His grip was firm.
"Is it time to go, Mommy?" he asked, his voice clear and steady.
"Yes, Leo," I said. "It's time to go home."
"Extraction team, move in," I commanded into the comms.
The sky above the valley erupted. Three Republic gunships uncloaked, their spotlights bathing the Grand Ballroom in a blinding, artificial noon. Ropes dropped, and armored soldiers descended like vengeful angels.
I picked Leo up, cradling him against my chest. As we were winched toward the hovering craft, I looked down one last time.
Kaelen was screaming my name, reaching upward as the wind from the rotors whipped the fires into a frenzy. He looked small. He looked pathetic.
I didn't feel triumph. I didn't feel joy. I only felt the quiet, cold peace of a debt finally settled.
"Goodbye, Kaelen," I whispered as the bay doors began to close. "Try not to bleed too much. There's no one left to catch it."