Moonlit Vows Of Vengeance-Chapter 32: A Perilous Retreat

Athena

My claws slid free, unbidden. Fur rippled across my arms, my wolf stirring close to the surface. Lucas’s eyes glowed faint gold, his voice now rough with the edge of his shift.

"What if all these don’t work?" I murmured. "No, I shouldn’t be so pessimistic. It should definitely work out in the end."

Lucas’s voice was tight. "We could try negotiating with it. It’s intelligent to understand us. There should be something it might want in exchange of the Kurd."

I nodded. "But what if it turns on us..."

"We’ll try to retrain it the best we can then, in that situation. I just wish we could kill it, that’ll make our mission much easier."

We stepped back from the edge. We were trying to avoid making rash moves.

Lucas tilted his head back and released a low, pulsing howl. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t meant to be. The sound echoed with intent, it was for summoning monster beasts, not a threat. Werewolves called it the Parley.

For a moment, nothing moved. I was starting to have doubts that the beast was really in here.

Then came the answer.

It was a loud growl. Very long and layered, it sounded like part pain and part defiance. The earth vibrated as the sound crept up from the pit like a rising storm. Dirt shifted. Stones rolled inward.

Then the monster beast emerged.

It didn’t leap or charge. It rose step by slow step until its massive form loomed before us. Its fur was patchy, twisted by veins of silver light that crackled beneath its skin. Its eyes glowed violet, not from natural rage, but from something infused. The Kurd fragment pulsed visibly inside its chest, embedded like a second heart.

The beast circled, sniffing the air. It didn’t lunge. It was studying us.

Recognizing us.

Wolves.

I stepped forward, slowly, showing my hands. "We’re not here to hurt you," I said.

The beast’s hackles rose.

"It doesn’t believe you," Lucas muttered. "Hell, I wouldn’t believe us either."

"I think..." I hesitated. "It’s afraid."

The beast snarled. My wolf rose inside me, pressing at my skin, wanting to shift. I held it back, barely.

"We just want the fragment," I said carefully. "The thing inside you. The Kurd. If you let us take it, we’ll leave you in peace. Or you could tell us what you want in exchange and we’ll do our possible best to fulfil it for you."

The beast threw back its head and let out a long, broken howl. The sound shivered through the trees, not a call, but a warning.

Then it charged.

I barely leapt aside as it smashed into the ground where I stood, claws digging trenches into the earth. Lucas lunged, swiping at its flank, but the beast twisted impossibly fast and threw him against a tree.

"Lucas!" I shouted, but he was already rolling to his feet.

I didn’t draw my blade. I didn’t shift fully.

We weren’t allowed to kill it.

That made everything harder.

The beast swiped at me again, catching my shoulder and spinning me into the dirt. The pain flared up but it was manageable. I was tougher than I looked.

I scrambled backward, panting, and Lucas moved beside me, his chest heaving.

"This thing’s not just strong," he growled. "It also has magic in it!."

"And the Kurd’s only making it worse."

We couldn’t kill it.

We couldn’t even fight it head-on.

And the fragment wasn’t coming free on its own. It was fused deep inside, beating with the same rhythm as the beast’s heart.

"We need another way," I muttered, wiping blood from my mouth.

Lucas narrowed his eyes, then glanced at the beast’s hind legs. "We weaken it. Not kill, let’s try to just slow it down."

I knew what he meant before he moved. Together, we circled, staying just beyond its lunge. The beast tracked us with its glowing eyes, huffing like steam through its torn muzzle.

Lucas darted in, fast as lightning, slashing at the tendons behind its right leg. It reared back, snarling in pain, and I leapt forward, raking my claws across its left eye.

It screamed.

The sound tore through the trees, too raw to be natural.

The beast thrashed violently, its front paws digging furrows in the earth as it spun wildly, half-blind now and staggering. Blood seeped from its leg, thick and too dark.

"We can’t hold it for long," Lucas barked, breath ragged.

I could feel it too the wild, unstable energy pulsing in the clearing. The Kurd was reacting, flaring beneath the beast’s flesh like a second heart, twisting its form even more violently.

I lunged again, driving my dagger deep into its shoulder. "Give it up!" I shouted. "You don’t have to carry it!"

The beast roared and—

Something changed.

For a heartbeat, its eyes flickered. Pale. Familiar. Like a soul was surfacing from beneath the madness. A moment of lucidity.

Then— snap.

Branches cracked in the distance.

It wasn’t broken by us.

By others.

Lucas paused. I turned my head toward the sound—ears twitching, heart racing.

More footsteps.

Heavy. Rapid. Coming fast through the trees.

Another howl answered the beast’s cry. They were coming.

"Let’s shift," Lucas growled, his voice hoarse. "Now."

We shifted mid-breath—muscle stretching, bone snapping, heat roaring through us.

My paws hit the earth, and I lunged back, avoiding a sudden strike from the beast’s claws. It’s madness had returned—worse than before. It was flailing blindly now, the pain and rage fueling it.

We couldn’t finish this here.

Not with others closing in.

Not with the Kurd still fused.

Lucas barked once—retreat—and I turned on instinct, tearing through the underbrush, my limbs burning. Behind us, the beast shrieked in fury, smashing trees in its wake.

But it didn’t follow.

It stayed in the clearing, like it couldn’t leave. Or wouldn’t. I wasn’t so sure but I just knew that we had to leave immediately.

The other wolves’ scent was thick now. Closer. I caught a whiff of Genrik’s guards, metal and pine.

We raced through the trail, shadows under moonlight, until the crumbling wall of the estate came back into view. We scaled it and ducked through the hedges, fur soaked in sweat and blood.

Back in our quarters, we shifted again, skin returning in painful waves.

I collapsed near the hearth, clutching my ribs. "Too close."

Lucas wiped blood from his lip. "They must have heard the sounds coming from there. They are aware of the beast’s presence."

I nodded. "We’ll have to move faster."

He looked toward the shuttered window. "We’ve weakened it a bit. But it’s still holding the Kurd. Still bound."

"For now," I said.

"We were so close," I said in disappointment.

"I know," he muttered. "If we’d had just another minute—"

"No," I cut in. "We got the information we need, which is the exact location of the beast.... It’s inside the beast, fused with it. Pulling it out... will kill it. ."

Lucas turned, eyes sharp. "And the King’s orders were clear. Retrieve the Kurd. Don’t kill the host."

"Exactly," I whispered. "Which means we have to figure out a way to separate them. If we kill it, we fail. If we die, the same result."

He sat beside me, rubbing his jaw. "We’re running out of time."

I nodded slowly. "And Genrik knows more than he’s letting on."

Just then, we heard it.

A distant, drawn-out wail, but wrong. Like someone caught between forms. It echoed down the stone corridor outside our room.

Lucas shot to his feet. I unsheathed the dagger under my belt.

Another noise followed—scuffling feet, low growls, a snarl quickly muffled. Then silence.

Dead silence.

We waited, breath held.

Nothing came.

The tension in my chest didn’t loosen, even after we finally set our weapons aside and climbed into the narrow cots Genrik had offered. Sleep didn’t come. I closed my eyes, but every creak of the old wood, every shift of wind outside made my muscles tense.

Eventually, the noise faded completely.

But the unease did not.