Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 77: Caine: Unnatural Silence (I)

CAINE

I stalk through the banquet hall, my vision tinged with crimson rage. The Fiddleback wolves cower against the floor tiles, submission rippling through their bodies as my dominance rolls over them. But I don’t care about their fear.

I need answers.

"Halloway!" My roar shakes the crystal chandeliers. "Face me, you coward!"

Jack-Eye’s voice cuts through the mess in my head. Hospital says there’s no patient registered under Grace’s name. No blonde human female admitted in the last 48 hours. She’s gone.

The world stops.

Everything narrows to a pinpoint of blinding rage. My chest constricts. My skin burns.

Grace. My Grace. Gone.

Where is she?

"Halloway!"

Movement flickers at the edge of my vision. The wolves on the floor—supposedly flattened by my dominance—spring to their feet with impossible speed. Eyes gleam with malice, not fear.

Chaos erupts.

Bodies twist and contort. Bones snap and reform at unnatural speed—alpha speed, and yet too many. Their shifts should take longer. They don’t.

I barely dodge the first attack, and claws graze my shoulder. The wound burns like silver, hindering my natural healing.

As expected, something’s deeply wrong with this pack.

Fenris appears beside me, a colossus of midnight fur and crackling blue energy. This was a trap.

The blessings of the Lycan Throne are manifold; my tattoos allow Fenris a body of his own, but they also give me control of mine.

Lycan. Wolf and human. I can use either form at will.

is black, I

by the gods.

let the shift take me, welcome the split

for my throat. I catch him midair, claws ripping through his ribs. Blood sprays across my muzzle as he

and I

others hit Fenris; he snaps a spine in

he keeps this up, he’ll burn out before we

get through this, he growls. Now

Ten. Twenty.

out, a tidal wave of power capable of stopping a heart. It slides

voice eerily calm in the havoc.

leg. I grab her by the scruff and slam her into the

arrival as he tears through the back ranks, but there’s something more important for him to

hospital,

I can’t leave you—

touch him with dominance, but there’s no time for hesitation.

then vanishes

Fenris snarls, leaping over the pack. He crushes wolves like ants under his paws, drawing attention as Jack-Eye slips

right, then drive forward. He pivots fast—but not fast enough. My

More come.

crush the leg of one attacker in my jaws—bone splinters. But the wolf doesn’t scream.

feel it?

Indeed.

no yelps. No howls of pain. Only the mechanical rhythm of

like wolves. They fight like machines. Like puppets

throat. Blood mats my white fur crimson. My wounds throb, but adrenaline overrides pain. How

Less than half.

weight of four wolves drags me down, their jaws locked deep.

my shoulder. Her teeth grind

flash of blue light and Fenris towers above, a mountain of snarling fur with wolves clinging like ticks. He shakes. Bodies

He barrels toward me.

one sweep of his paw, he flings the wolves off me. One slams into a pillar. It

taking too long. My breath is ragged,