Then came Gravis, limping heavily with Lekyi supporting him.
Collin waited with his friends. The silence between them was heavy, breathless. Then Clive appeared, staggering into their midst. As one, they reached for him, drawing him into their circle, holding him tightly within the grief they now shared.
Last came Niall.
His body, shrouded and still, was carried into the square by two guards. Collin turned his face into Dragonfly’s hair. He would not look—not at Niall’s shape beneath the cloth, not at the truth etched in silence.
When he lifted his head again, Captain Sol stood before them.
A wave of rage coursed through Collin’s veins—but it broke just as quickly. He had no strength left to give it life. Around him, the others stood hollow-eyed, heads bowed. Not in submission—but in a weight beyond weariness. They were emptied.
“It is unfortunate that one amongst you had to die,” Sol said, voice as sharp and cold as steel left in snow. “He defied orders. And he paid the price.”
Sol let the words settle like ash.
“As for the rest of you—your duties are done. You may return to the lives you left behind. You are no longer wolves.
You are dismissed.”
Fire Caught in Glass
Nic didn’t shout—he roared. His fist crashed into Gravis’s jaw, and the two men went hurtling across the sitting room, locked in a tangle of fury. They fought like beasts—teeth bared, eyes wild, the brutal momentum of two alphas battling for blood.
An armchair slammed against the wall. The windows shook in their frames. A painting fell with a sickening crack, frame shattering on impact.
They rolled over Collin’s mother’s trunk—mugs, an old candlestick, glasses—all shattered under the chaos. Shards sprayed across the floor like ice.
Aries dove in to stop them but caught a knee to the jaw and crumpled back with a grunt of pain.
Clive grabbed Gravis’s arm—only to get elbowed square in the face. Blood splattered the braided rug, deep red soaking into the threads.
In the corner, Helen sobbed uncontrollably. Hadria and Dragonfly were shrieking. Uriah and River shouted over the bedlam, but their voices were drowned out by the sounds of fists meeting flesh.
And then the fight spilled into the dining room.
One of Collin’s mother’s precious chairs toppled and splintered.
That was it.
He stormed into the fray, not seeing who he grabbed—didn’t care. Hands, limbs, someone’s shoulder—he yanked hard, blind with fury.
“Enough!”
Aries and Lekyi lunged in, dragging Gravis back and pinning him to the wall. Uriah and Arion wrestled Nic upright, shoving him back, though he twisted violently in their hold. His chest heaved. Blood streaked his knuckles.
