Lucian’s POV)

The mansion should have been my sanctuary. For centuries it had kept the Wolfe line safe, its foundations layered with blood-oaths and ancient wards. Yet as I stood by the window, the air tasted wrong—metallic, sharp, like lightning before a storm.

Asher shivered on the bed. Her hands curled around the sheets as though anchoring herself against the whispers bleeding from the walls.

I turned to Kael. He had followed me upstairs silently, but his eyes were narrowed, shoulders coiled tight. Ronan lingered in the doorway, a shadow carved from suspicion. Lyra hung back, feigning disinterest, though I could feel her ears straining for every word.

“Something’s off,” Kael murmured.

I nodded. My wolf was pacing, restless. Every instinct screamed that the house was no longer ours alone.

Then

A crack. Soft at first, like plaster splitting. Then another.

Asher gasped, jerking upright. The chandelier above the hall below trembled, glass tinkling like warning bells. My pulse kicked. The wards—our protection—were unraveling.

“Kael,” I growled.

He didn’t need further instruction. He darted from the room, barking orders to fortify the lower floors. Ronan’s blade was already in his hand, the scar across his face twitching as though it too smelled danger. Lyra pressed against the wall, eyes wide with both thrill and fear.

I crossed to Asher. Her pupils had dilated, and a faint glow pulsed beneath her skin, a heartbeat that didn’t belong to wolves or men.

“What’s happening?” she whispered.

I didn’t answer. Because I already knew.

Tobias.

He had been waiting, watching. And tonight, he chose to strike.

The sound came then—deafening. The windows shuddered violently before shattering inward in a storm of glass. Wind roared through the chamber, carrying with it the scent of ash and blood.

Aria screamed as shadows poured across the floor, coalescing into figures. Hunters. Not ordinary ones—these were Tobias’s chosen, wolves twisted by his influence, bound with black magic that stank of corruption. Their eyes glowed red, their claws extended too long, too sharp. Half-wolves, half-nightmares.

“Stay behind me,” I ordered, voice low, edged with the Alpha’s command.

Asher’s wolf flared at the sound of my tone, as though it recognized and wanted to resist. But she obeyed, pressing against the wall.

The first creature lunged. I met it mid-air, claws ripping through its chest. Black blood sprayed, sizzling as it hit the marble. Another came at my flank, but Ronan intercepted, his claws flashing silver before burying deep.

The mansion howled with us. Its walls groaned, portraits rattled, the entire structure shaking as if caught between defending us and tearing itself apart.

Lyra screamed, ducking as one of the creatures crashed into the bannister, splintering wood.

“Kael!” I bellowed.

“I’m here!” His voice thundered back as he stormed into the hall below, already shifting. His wolf form erupted, massive and silver-gray, tearing into the corrupted wolves with bone-snapping fury.

But they kept coming.

Dozens. Too many.

This wasn’t an attack—it was a message. Tobias wanted me cornered, forced to expose my weakness. And worse, he wanted her—Asher.

One of the creatures broke past me, claws aimed for her. My chest seized. In that instant, I was gone—wolf and man no longer separate. The beast inside me burst free, bones breaking, skin tearing as I shifted mid-leap.

My jaws closed around the creature’s throat. Hot, foul blood filled my mouth as I tore it apart, flinging the body across the room. My wolf snarled, golden eyes burning as I planted myself between Aria and the swarm.

She stared at me—not with fear, but something else. Something that tightened the chains I’d tried to keep locked around myself.

“Lucian…” her voice trembled, but it steadied me.

Another wave came. I lost myself to the rhythm—slash, bite, rip. Ronan moved like death incarnate, Kael like a storm unleashed. Lyra had taken a blade from the wall, and though untrained, she fought with desperate ferocity.

But still—the numbers pressed. The wards were collapsing entirely now.

Then the laughter came.

Low. Mocking. Echoing through the shattered windows like poison.

“Brother.”

Tobias’s voice.

I froze, hackles rising. My wolf snarled, snapping at the air, desperate to find him.

But he wasn’t here in flesh. His presence radiated from the shadows themselves, a projection woven with his cursed magic. His form shimmered against the far wall—tall, broad, his features a twisted mirror of my own.

“You brought her home,” he said smoothly. “How generous of you, Lucian. Did you really think you could hide her from me?”

Aria stiffened behind me, her claws trembling.

“Leave her out of this,” I growled, voice raw even through my wolf’s throat.

Tobias’s grin spread, sharp and cruel. “But she is this. She is the center of it all. You feel it, don’t you? The house does. The curse does. Even your precious pack smells it on her. She belongs to me as much as she belongs to you.”

Asher gasped softly, and I felt her flinch.

Rage consumed me. “You’ll never touch her.”

His laughter curdled the air. “We’ll see.”

I will take her from you , just as you took mine from me .

With a flick of his hand—his spectral hand—the creatures surged again, faster, stronger. One slammed into Ronan, sending him sprawling. Another caught Kael’s side, claws raking deep. Blood sprayed across the marble.

“Lucian!” Lyra screamed as two of them closed on her.

I lunged, tearing one apart, but the other slipped past. Many began rushing me and I couldn't hold it any longer, I had almost given up letting Tobias win.

That was when Aria shifted.

Her fear shattered, and something older, stronger, rose within her. Her palms flared with claws, slamming into the creature with a force that cracked stone. It shrieked, its body dissolving into smoke under her touch.

The entire room froze.

Even Tobias’s projection faltered, his grin flickering into something like hunger.

“Ah,” he breathed, voice curling with dark delight. “So it’s true. I knew he wouldn't tell you the truth”.

Aria staggered, clutching her head. She looked at me in horror, as though begging me to explain what she had just entered.

But I couldn’t. Not now.

I tore through another enemy, blood slick on my fur. The mansion shook harder, as though straining under the clash of forces.

Tobias’s voice began to fade, but his final words clung like poison.

“Enjoy your little victory, brother. Every step you take with her leads you closer to ruin. And when the time is right I will kill her”.

His laughter echoed as the projection vanished, the remaining creatures disintegrating into smoke.

The silence that followed was worse than the battle. Blood stained the marble. Ronan’s breathing was ragged, Kael’s side poured crimson, Lyra sobbed quietly against the wall.

And Asher… Asher stared at her trembling hands as she shifted back into human.

She whispered, almost to herself, “What am I?”

I shifted back, body aching, skin slick with blood that wasn’t all mine. I reached for her, but stopped inches away.

Because I didn’t have an answer.

Not yet.

And Tobias was right about one thing

I would put her life on stake , if it does cross paths with what I want to achieve.

And I would kill him if it means letting her live.

The Tobias I once knew is gone.