POV: Soraya
The last echoes of my magic fade into the dunes, leaving only a trembling hush across the battlefield. Sand hangs in the air like silver dust, glittering around me in a slow, shimmering fall. My chest rises and falls with steady breaths—far steadier than they should be after unleashing something that shook the desert itself.
Every wolf on the field has fallen silent. Ashra soldiers stare at me as if I stepped out of a myth. Saren warriors kneel or cower, unwilling to move under the weight of the lingering power still humming in the sands.
And Zarek…
Zarek slowly pulls himself from the crater my wave threw him into.
His once-gleaming armor is cracked, scorched, and covered in sand. Blood drips from a cut above his brow, tracing down his cheek like a crimson tear. His eyes—dark, maddened, hungry—lock onto me.
“You,” he rasps, voice ragged. “You… were meant to be mine.”
I take a step forward.
The sands hiss under my feet, soft and watchful.
“No,” I say quietly. “I was never yours.”
Zarek’s face twists into rage. He shifts into his wolf form—massive, black, monstrous—and charges. His paws thunder across the dunes, kicking up waves of sand. His growl shakes the very air. Behind him, Saren soldiers scream for him to stop, but he’s beyond logic, beyond reason.
He wants power.
He wants ownership.
He wants me.
I don’t flinch.
Silver energy flickers around my hands, ready to surge again—
But a shadow flashes beside me.
Raevan.
He moves like a storm ripping loose from the earth. His wolf form—huge, dark, towering—meets Zarek head-on with a deafening crash. Their bodies collide, rolling across the sand in a furious, snarling blur.
“Raevan!” I shout, instinct pulling me toward him.
But I stop myself.
His wolf fights without hesitation, fueled by a rage sharpened over a year of loss and longing. Zarek is strong, but Raevan’s fury is something else—raw, unrestrained, terrifying.
Claws swipe. Teeth clash. Sand erupts in great sprays with every impact.
Kaide appears behind me, panting, blade in hand. “Soraya—your magic drained half the field. If you surge again, you’ll collapse.”
“I’m fine,” I breathe.
He snorts. “You’re glowing like a dying star. You’re not fine.”
Before I can respond, Zarek manages to shove Raevan back with a brutal kick. Raevan skids across the sand but quickly regains balance. He lunges again, jaws aimed for Zarek’s throat.
Zarek dodges—but not fast enough.
Raevan’s claws rake across his flank, tearing through flesh. Blood splashes across the dunes.
Zarek stumbles, weakened.
He lifts his head—and his gaze finds me.
“You could have ended all of this,” he snarls. “You could have ended the suffering. I would have given you everything.”
“You would have taken everything,” I say softly. “Including my freedom.”
Zarek roars, shifting back into his human form—bare, blood-slicked, wild. He reaches for a dagger hidden in his ruined belt, his last desperate attempt.
Raevan shifts back in a ripple of shadow and heat—breathing hard, blood streaking his arms and chest. He moves to block Zarek from reaching me.
But I hold out a hand.
“Let me,” I murmur.
Raevan freezes. His body, bruised and trembling, lowers slightly in acknowledgment. He steps aside.
I walk toward Zarek alone.
His lip curls. “You think you can kill me with your little lights?”
“I don’t need lights,” I answer. “I only need truth.”
Zarek slashes at me with the dagger—but he moves too slowly. My hand lifts.
Magic surges.
A silver ribbon of force whips forward and wraps around his wrist. The dagger drops from his hand and hits the sand with a dull thud.
Zarek snarls, struggling. “Witch. Abomination. Zehrael curse—”
Kaide appears behind him at my signal, grabbing Zarek’s arms and twisting them behind his back. The technique is swift, efficient, meant only for dangerous prisoners. The moment Kaide locks him in place, sand rises around Zarek’s feet, binding him in place like molten glass solidifying around his ankles.
Zarek is trapped.
And he knows it.
Raevan stands behind me, chest rising and falling, his presence steady but tense. Kaide tightens his hold on Zarek’s arms.
I step closer until I can see the fear beginning to seep into Zarek’s eyes.
“You killed my mother,” I say quietly.
He opens his mouth, but I don’t let him speak.
“You tortured my people. You hunted me. You lied, manipulated, murdered—and all of it for power you never deserved.”
Zarek swallows, eyes darting across the field, searching for an escape that doesn’t exist.
“You will die for this,” Raevan growls from behind me.
Zarek smirks. “Then kill me, dread wolf. Kill me like the monster everyone says you are.”
Raevan steps forward—
“No.”
He freezes mid-step.
I look directly into Zarek’s eyes.
“You want a glorious death on a battlefield. You want your followers to remember you as a martyr.”
His lips twitch.
“You won’t get that from me,” I whisper. “Death is a mercy. And mercy is something you never gave.”
Zarek stiffens.
Kaide tilts his head. “Soraya… what are you deciding?”
I inhale slowly.
The dunes whisper around us. The moons shine down. And my mother’s voice echoes softly in my chest.
Justice, not cruelty.
I lift my chin.
“Zarek Kharad, Alpha of Saren,” I declare, my voice carrying across the battlefield. “For crimes against Zehrael, Ashra, and the desert itself—I exile you.”
A ripple of shock sweeps the field.
Zarek’s eyes widen. “You wouldn’t dare—”
“You will be stripped of your title,” I continue. “Stripped of your influence. Stripped of your army. You will wander the desert alone, nameless and powerless, never again to command a single wolf.”
Zarek screams—a raw, furious sound.
But the dunes echo back nothing.
Raevan exhales, a long, stunned breath. Kaide nods in quiet approval.
My power pulses once more, lifting the sand around Zarek like a warning.
“You wanted to own me,” I whisper. “Instead, I am the one who ends you.”
And with a flick of my hand—
The sand around his ankles hardens completely.
His exile begins.