Kaelen’s glowing red eyes loomed over me as his claws traced a deadly arc towards my heart.

I knew from Veyron what would happen if I tried to block such a powerful attack, so I merely stepped back and watched it whiz past my face.

His knife-like claws cut a few strands of my hair, but that was all it did. But he didn’t relent. He followed up the attack nearly instantly.

This time his claws were aimed for my midsection, but I ducked below the attack at the last second and clashed upwards towards the beast’s chin.

My claws danced across his skin as he howled in pain. Slicing through his skin was as easy as cutting through butter with a hot knife.

That one attack with my hellfire skill activated siphoned a good chunk of his life force.

Its attacks were smooth, almost coordinated. It wasn’t fighting like a wild beast, which told me Kaelen must’ve had some level of control in the way he fought.

Kaelen was formidable, yes. But there was a world of difference in our strength. I felt it in just this short exchange of blows.

For his age he was formidable, yes, but he wasn’t even close to as powerful as Roran, much less Danzo.

When I looked at him, all I saw was a rabid beast that needed to be put down. On the side his sisters were screaming his name while his mother watched with a neutral expression on her face.

Maybe he could’ve grown to be a powerful alpha in a world where monsters didn’t rain from the sky. But sadly fate was cruel.

All the people watching us saw was a blur as Kaelen suddenly clicked his throat and began staggering backwards. I bet he himself didn’t even see what happened.

It was only a matter of time before his legs gave out and he fell to his knees. Gurgling sounds escaped his lips as he tried desperately to speak, but with a slashed throat, that was nigh impossible.

The moment he fell, his sisters were the first to rush to him. Lannan was in tears. I expected that reaction from Kaela, but maybe I was wrong as to who was the softer of the two.

They held their dying brother in their arms as he slowly returned to his true form. They tried their best to coax him and tell him that everything would be fine, but this was the end.

Even if he had a healing factor, it would be impossible for someone of his level to heal from a fatal wound inflicted by me.

His mother watched the scene unfold from the sidelines and then turned to leave. But just as she turned, I saw a single tear roll down her face.

In the end Kaela and Lyanna were left to see their brother off on their own as they watched the life slowly drain from his eyes and his body fall limp.

Suddenly Lyanna’s gaze turned to me.

"This is your doing!" She screamed as she charged at me with claws extended.

I easily restrained her, and instead of taking my life like she planned, we ended up entangled together.

"You killed him!" She cried.

"I had to. You saw what happened; he lost himself. If I didn’t do it, he would’ve hurt people."

"I know that, but still! He was my brother."

I held her firmly as she began sobbing uncontrollably.

"I could’ve saved him."

"No one could’ve saved him. Ever since his father’s death, the curse has been taking over his mind. There was nothing you could do."

I tried to console her, but she was too devastated to even listen to a word I said. Instead, she merely cried in my arms.

They didn’t even have time to grieve properly as soon as Eira had returned. She had a bag slung over her shoulders. Her eyes were a little red, but apart from that, she had the same elegant, noble-woman demeanor she always wore."We have to leave," she urged. "My son is dead, and Veyron is injured. There is no one left to protect us from the Nyx pack."

Lyanna looked at her with blood-red eyes, but my mother was the first to respond.

"We can’t leave."

"And why not! Did you hear me? There is another pack coming here to slaughter us. Nothing we have here is more important than our lives!"

"We can’t leave because the Nyx pack is already here." I said.

"What?"

"There are roughly two hundred of them, and they have the entire village surrounded."

Eira’s eyes widened as she staggered backwards and nearly tripped over her own feet.

"You said they would get here on the night of the full moon. That still gives us 2 more days."

"I said they would attack on the full moon, not when they would get here. They’ve only surrounded us so we don’t escape. They still plan on attacking on the full moon."

Just as I said this, the bag Eira was holding fell from her shoulders, and she dropped to her knee.

"This is it," she said dejectedly as claws grew from her fingertips. She looked as if she was about to take her life.

I somewhat understood her reaction. She was the wife of an alpha. For lesser werewolves she’ll be seen as a prize. She would be kept alive for weeks.

The logical thing for her and her daughters to do was take their lives. But I can offer her and the other another alternative.

"Before you do anything rash, let me suggest another option:

Eira and the others, including my own mother and father, looked at me with hopeless eyes.

"What option is that?"

"I want you and everyone here to join my pack. If you do, I’ll personally hand you Danzo’s head."

"Ha! You? A child. You’re no older than my son, and look how he ended up."

"What do you have to lose?" I asked, "You saw me take down your son when not even the great Veyron could. I am promising you with absolute certainty that I can lead you to victory in this battle."

This was it. This was how I planned to make them submit to me. By putting them in a situation where they would have no choice but to.

I was a little disappointed that Selthia wasn’t here to see how everything I had planned fell into place, but that was a minor issue.

"He’s right. We just saw it. He defeated Kaelen without even breaking a sweat," one man shouted, and others started to speak up.

"What do we have to lose? All of our main fighters are dead."

"Yeah, but he’s just a child."

"Maybe he’s what we’ve really needed all along."

Suddenly Eira jumped to her feet and walked over to me.

"My special trait allows me to detect when someone is lying, so don’t bother trying," she said, staring me in the eyes, and her eyes glowed a bright shade of yellow. "How positive are you that you can win this?"

A defining silence ensued as everyone awaited my answer.

"I’m 50% sure I can win."

Eira said nothing, only stared at me intensely. The two of us were locked in each other’s eyes until her lips finally parted and she said her answer.