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.

Fenris is black,

the gods.

it was." I let the shift take me, welcome the split

I catch him midair, claws ripping through his ribs.

more charge and

underbelly, disemboweling one. The others hit Fenris; he snaps a spine in his jaws and crushes another underfoot as he

this up, he’ll burn

enough power to get

keep coming. Ten. Twenty.

wave of power capable of stopping a

not wolves, Fenris says, his voice eerily calm in the havoc. Only graves

slam her into the marble floor. Her skull

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

hospital, I snap.

I can’t leave you—

touch him with dominance, but there’s no time

then vanishes in

path, Fenris snarls, leaping over the pack. He crushes wolves like

too calm. I feint right, then drive forward. He pivots fast—but not fast enough. My jaws close around his throat.

More come.

my jaws—bone splinters. But the wolf doesn’t

it? I

Indeed.

Only the mechanical rhythm of violence: bone

fight like machines. Like puppets with

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

Less than half.

drags me down,

she-wolf gnaws into my shoulder. Her teeth grind into my

of blue light and Fenris towers above, a mountain of

He barrels toward me.

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

is taking too long. My breath is ragged, coming in