Episode 5 – The Wolf Who Challenges

The howl came again—closer this time.

It was deep, commanding, and laced with something Kael recognized instantly.

An alpha’s call.

His steps quickened, instincts sharpening. “It’s one of mine.”

Lucien followed, silent but alert. “Yours? You mean another wolf cursed like you?”

Kael shook his head. “Not cursed. Not yet. But he’s calling me out.”

Lucien’s smirk was faint. “And you plan to answer?”

“That’s what alphas do.” Kael’s tone was clipped, his muscles tense. “When challenged, we meet it. We fight. We end it.”

Lucien stopped walking, his voice turning low and dangerous. “You mean you fight, while I stand by?”

Kael shot him a glare. “This isn’t your fight, demon.”

Lucien’s crimson eyes glowed faintly in the moonlight. “If it’s yours, then it’s mine.”

Kael scoffed and turned away, but Lucien’s hand shot out, gripping his arm—not hard enough to hurt, but enough to stop him cold. “I don’t share what’s mine, Alpha.”

The words hit Kael like a physical blow, freezing him in place. “I’m not—”

“You are,” Lucien interrupted, his tone final. “You just haven’t realized it yet.”

Before Kael could snap back, the ground trembled under the heavy approach of another predator. A tall, broad-shouldered wolf stepped out from the treeline—dark brown fur streaked with silver, golden eyes burning with challenge.

Riven.

Kael’s jaw tightened. They had clashed before—more than once. Riven was ambitious, always circling Kael’s territory like a vulture.

“You’ve gotten slow, Kael,” Riven said, shifting into his human form. His bare chest glistened with sweat under the moonlight, scars crisscrossing his skin. “Maybe it’s time you handed over your pack.”

Kael stepped forward, every inch of him radiating threat. “Over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged.” Riven’s grin was feral.

Lucien moved before Kael could, placing himself slightly at Kael’s side—close enough to brush against him, but angled like a shield.

“This is between us,” Kael hissed under his breath.

Lucien didn’t look at him. “You’re mine. Which means no one lays a hand on you unless I allow it.”

Riven’s gaze flicked to Lucien, his smile fading. “A demon? Kael, since when do you hide behind outsiders?”

Kael’s claws flexed at his sides. “I don’t hide.”

Lucien’s voice dropped to a purr that still somehow cut like a blade. “Funny, because from here, it looks like you’re the one about to die, wolf.”

Riven’s eyes narrowed. “Try me, hellspawn.”

The air between them crackled, heat and danger mixing until Kael’s pulse thundered in his ears. He should have told Lucien to step back, to let him handle it alone—but when he caught the faint curl of the demon’s smirk, something in his chest tightened.

Because he knew, deep down, that Lucien wasn’t just interfering to win.

He was interfering because he refused to see Kael fall.

The first strike came fast—Riven lunging at Kael in a blur of movement. But Lucien’s hand caught Riven’s throat mid-leap, slamming him back into a tree with enough force to shake the branches.

Kael stared, breath caught, as Lucien leaned in close to Riven’s face. “Touch him,” Lucien said softly, “and I’ll rip your spine out through your mouth.”

Riven snarled, but the golden fire in his eyes faltered.

Lucien released him abruptly, stepping back with the same lazy confidence he always wore. “Go on, Alpha,” he said to Kael without looking at him. “Finish what he started.”

And for the first time in years, Kael’s curse wasn’t the loudest thing in his head.

It was the echo of Lucien’s words—low, certain, and unbearably possessive.

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