Chapter 4 Chapter 4

kael's POV

I leaned against the brick wall at the end of the alley and lit a cigarette. Smoke curled up into the night sky.

This dump was a waste of time. I’d been tracking Damon’s leads for three days with no progress. No evidence, no witnesses. Nothing to prove his conspiracy with Alpha Dorian of the Ashland's pack—the conspiracy that ruined my life.

I took another drag. The cigarette slowly burned down between my fingers.

It had been ten years since Damon's betrayal. Ten years since I was driven out of my own pack like trash. And I was still fighting, chasing the revenge I was owed.

The informant I was supposed to meet hadn't shown up. Maybe he backed out, or maybe Damon found him first.

I flicked the ash to the ground. Time to move on. Vengeance required patience.

Just as I was about to leave, a woman's voice suddenly erupted, angry and sharp. Then came men's laughter, laced with insults.

I didn't move.

Human affairs had nothing to do with me.

Since the pack kicked me out, I learned a fundamental truth: everyone lies, everyone betrays.

Don't trust anyone, don't help anyone. The world is full of people hurting each other, and I am no hero. I just want to live long enough to destroy the one who stole everything from me.

My brother, Damon.

“Kael, wait!” Alec’s voice exploded in my mind. My wolf sounded frantic. “That scent, I know that scent!”

“So?” I replied indifferently. “It’s none of our business.”

“It’s daisies and rainwater. It’s her! The girl by the lake!”

I froze.

The girl by the lake.

When I was 22, I was driven out of the pack. Rogues attacked me repeatedly, and I was severely wounded, eventually collapsing by a lake.

At that time, I thought my time was up, with no chance of recovery.

However, a girl found me. About thirteen years old. She was initially afraid of me but was willing to approach. She brought me water, bandages, and food, and offered a small cabin in the woods as temporary shelter. She saved my life.

Damon's plot blinded me, so I never knew what she looked like. But I remember her voice, gentle and nervous. And her scent, as fresh as daisies after the rain.

She saved my life without asking for anything, took care of me, and then silently left.

I hadn't seen her again in the past decade.

Until now.

Down the alley, the woman's struggling screams mixed with the men's jeering and insults.

“We have to help her,” Alec insisted. “It’s the girl by the lake!”

I took a deep breath.

The scent was there. Buried under cheap shampoo, grease, and exhaustion. That scent—daisies, rainwater, and dirt.

“Kael, it’s her, I’m sure,” Alec said.

I nodded silently. For so long, I had never made unnecessary moves or fought any pointless battles.

But this time, it was different.

“Consider it repaying a debt. Debts must be collected, and debts must be repaid,” I said.

She saved me ten years ago. I save her this time. Fair.

We would be even after this.

I scaled the wall, stood on the high ground, and prepared to strike from above.

Though blind, years of being a rogue had honed my unique abilities.

I casually dropped a coin. The sound bounced off the walls, creating an echo. A mental picture instantly formed in my mind.

The coin flipped in the air, emitting a crisp metallic sound. It hit the iron trash can on the right, making a dull clang—rotting garbage piled there, about fifteen feet away from me. The sound wave continued, becoming hollower as it hit the wooden crates on the left—those crates were stacked against the brick wall with gaps in between. The coin finally landed on the ground, bouncing three times on the damp concrete, each bounce transmitting information back to me.

A picture rapidly formed in my mind.

A narrow alley, about twenty feet wide. Three trash cans on the right, and dilapidated wooden crates on the left. A dead-end wall at the far end of the alley. Three human males surrounding one female—she was cornered against the left wall, about thirty feet from me.

One of the men was reaching out to grab her arm. Another stood by, heckling, his laughter full of malice. The last one, noticeably bigger than the others, a fat man, stood at the back, seemingly keeping watch.

“Ready?” I asked Alec in my mind.

“Been ready,” my wolf growled. “Let me out.”

I leaped off the wall, beginning the shift in mid-air.

The sound of bones breaking and reforming echoed in the night. My body rapidly expanded, muscles twisting, skin covered in black fur. My clothes ripped into shreds during the transformation.

A huge black wolf stood at the entrance of the alley. Under the moonlight, my fur had a dark, ominous sheen, like a nightmare emerging from the depths of hell.

Alec took full control of the body.

“What the fu—” The man closest to me turned around, his words cutting short.

He saw me.

I could hear the rush of his blood in his veins and smell the instant sweat of his fear seeping from his pores.

“Wolf!” he shrieked, his voice sharp like a rat whose neck was squeezed. “Oh god, a wolf! A damn—”

Alec didn’t give him a chance to finish.

We lunged at him like a bolt of black lightning, moving so fast that human eyes could barely track it. My front paws slammed heavily into his chest, the crisp snap of breaking bones clearly audible. The man flew out like a ragdoll, hitting the trash can, his head angled unnaturally to the side.

His neck was broken.

“Jesus Christ!” The second man yelled in terror, trying to pull something from his waist—maybe a knife.

Foolish.

Alec twisted his body, leaping with his hind legs fueled by stored energy. Our fangs sank into his throat, and warm blood surged into my mouth. The man made a muffled gurgling sound, his hands weakly batting at my head. Three seconds later, his struggle stopped. I released my bite, and his body slumped to the ground, blood gushing from the neck wound, a weird black sheen under the moonlight.

“No no no no no—” The fat man, the one standing at the back, was already pale with terror.

He didn't attempt heroism, nor did he try to save his companions. He just turned, running toward the exit at the other end of the alley with surprising speed for his large frame, his fat vigorously shaking as he ran.

“Run, run!” he screamed as he ran, his voice echoing between the brick walls, sharp and terrified. “Monster! There’s a monster! Help!”

His footsteps were chaotic, his heavy body making slapping sounds as he stepped on puddles. The smell of urine diffused into the air with his escape—he had lost control of his bladder out of fear.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it—” His curses faded into the distance, interspersed with heavy gasps and panicked sobs.

Alec watched him run, letting out a low growl, but didn't pursue.

“Let him go,” I said in my mind. “He’ll take the fear with him. No one will believe a fat man's nonsense about a monster.”

Alec licked his blood-stained fangs, agreeing reluctantly.

The whole process took no more than thirty seconds.

The alley was now left with only two corpses, the stench of fresh blood, and the girl.