BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 293: THE HOWL OF ASHANAI

Chapter 293: THE HOWL OF ASHANAI

{ "Beware of the Fury of a greedy woman"}

The world cracked open, and a thunderous boom shook the very bones of the Bay shifter pack, rattling windows and sending a deep tremor through the floor. I bolted upright, heart already pounding before I was even fully awake. The air was thick, electric, charged with something ancient and violent. Then I heard it. Gale. My Lycan roared in my skull, primal and furious, a sound so deep it split me open.

Ashanai!

The name tore through me like claws. My vision blurred with red heat. The weight of her presence pressed on the territory like a sickness in the earth. Beside me, Freyr sprang from the bed, already in motion. His eyes flashed as he pulled on clothes, movement swift and practiced. "Get dressed. Now!"

My body trembled, not with fear, but with the rage of something sacred and instinctive waking inside me. My wolf was no longer stirring, it was rising. "She’s here," I growled, voice not fully mine. "Ashanai is here."

Freyr threw my clothes at me, but I barely registered the fabric hitting my chest. My body was already shifting. Bones snapped, fur surged from skin, and the floor cracked beneath my paws as I dropped to all fours, no longer Tor but Gale, in my full Lycan power surged in my veins. I met Freyr’s eyes, and through our mental link I shoved the words, sharp and absolute.

"Ashanai is here. We will end this."

Freyr’s beast pushed to the surface, a flicker of fangs and gold in his eyes. "Then we move now."

He did not waste another second. His energy flared, ancient and wild, shadows coiling around him like armor. I howled deep and raw, and the sound echoed out over the Bay Shifter pack, a call to arms, a warning, and a promise. From the cliffs, distant howls answered.

We ran as one.

Freyr beside me, his presence burning bright and sure in my mind. My claws tore into the earth, lungs full of the sharp scent of the sea, salt, and war. The others were already there when we reached the cliffs overlooking the eastern beach.

The Bay Shifter Pack, dozens strong, wolves in sleek, battle-ready forms, eyes glowing with the light of their beasts. Behind them, the Paradise Bay Coven stood in long dark coats, their skin pale and eyes aglow with the crimson shimmer of blood fire. Regal. Ruthless. Ready.

And then the ground shuddered beneath us. The forest split like thunder, and through it came a figure so massive the trees bowed. Rogourau no longer just a beast, but a god of war forged in muscle and shadow. His enormous form towered above us, fangs bared, the tribal marks of his ancient blood burning silver along his dark fur.

He met my eyes, dipped his head. A silent promise. We stood together now, my Lycan beast and Frery’s vampire beast. The beach stretched before us, empty and eerily still, and then... the ocean began to rise. Not in waves, but in walls. The tide surged unnaturally, a towering swell pushing against the shoreline. Water churned black, the surface boiling with energy that tasted of death and void. The sky cracked open with lightning so loud that it rang in my ears.

And then Ashanai rose from the sea like a queen of the drowned, like the very bones of the ocean had birthed her. Her body shimmered with slick darkness, hair like oil and ink trailing in long ribbons behind her. Eyes glowing with ancient, bottomless hate, and behind her the water split.

And from its depths, the Rogourau creatures came, and they came in Thousands. Twisted forms with glistening hides and blackened claws. Fangs are too long for any natural mouth. Eyes hollow with the light of Ashanai’s control. They marched from the waves in perfect silence, unnatural and relentless, rising like a tide of nightmares behind their queen.

The very sand beneath our feet recoiled, and the air soured with decay and magic. Freyr stepped closer, his hand brushing mine. His voice was steady in my head: "Whatever happens... we hold the line." My beast howled in answer, rage flooding me like wildfire. I lifted my head to the wind, to the rising darkness, to the stench of her evil, and I spoke aloud, low and fierce.

Ashanai’s voice rolled across the beach like a death chant, soft and deadly.

"You should have stayed broken. I gave you mercy once. Now you will beg for extinction."

I bared my teeth and roared out so loud that the beach shook, and I watched as her eyes widened, and then the waves behind her surged again, rising high enough to swallow mountains. And I felt it, in my bones, in the pulse of the land, in the ache of my blood: the final war had begun.

The air felt like it was holding its breath, and Ashanai had not moved, but the ocean behind her trembled, as if even the water feared what she would command next. My claws flexed against the sand, every instinct in my body screaming to launch forward. But something pulled at the edge of my senses’ movement just behind me.

A presence, quiet but heavy with command, and I turned as General Tiger stood at my side, silent as a ghost despite his massive frame. His armor gleamed silver beneath the grey sky, streaked with claw marks and time. His eyes were narrowed on the enemy, but his voice, when he spoke, was for me alone.

"Wave and Spark," he said, low enough only I could hear, "they are in the Royal Garden. Hidden beneath the eastern wards."

I blinked, startled, and he continued, "With Commander Elle, Elder Crystal, and Elder Mercury," he replied. " Rou’s guarding the gate personally, and they are safe for now."

My gut clenched. "They wanted to fight," Tiger added after a beat. "But Rou... he told them no. They need to keep Wave safe, plus the seal of the Omega Chambers." I glanced at the sky, at the beast army rising behind Ashanai, and growled, and General Tiger nodded once. My breath caught in my chest. For a second, I felt the weight of everything: the attack, the blood, the lives we had already lost, and the ones we were trying to protect.

The weight of the silence shattered as the power surged up my spine, and then Gale roared. It tore from my throat like thunder split from the sky, a Lycan’s call, ancient and commanding, echoing across the beach and deep into the bones of every shifter in the Bay. The ground vibrated beneath us as the sound of paws hitting the earth thundered in answer.

All around me, my pack moved, and every shifter answered. Bodies shimmered and twisted, bones cracking and reshaping with the grace of something old, sacred. One by one, they shifted fur bursting across skin, claws ripping from hands, eyes glowing with the fury of our kind. A thousand howls followed mine like a rising storm, wild, beautiful, and deafening.

The Bay Shifter Pack had become a sea of wolves, sleek and strong, their bodies braced and ready. And among them, the Rogourau beast threw his head back and lost a roar so deep it shook the sand, his muscles rippling, eyes glowing like a dying sun. A line had formed. Unbreakable, and I stood at the front, my beast pressing beneath my skin, trembling to be unleashed again.

To my surprise, Aurora yelled. "Vampires prepare yourselves!" She is standing near the cliff rise beside Nessa and Captain Belisont, her cloak snapping in the sea wind. Her long silver braid caught the last light of the morning sun, and her eyes were glowing with the highborn magic of her coven blood.

The Paradise Bay Coven was a wall of black and crimson behind her, eyes lit, fangs bared, weapons already drawn. Aurora raised her hand, and magic pulsed in the air like a heartbeat, and I turned toward her voice as she continued, sharp and calm:

"We strike when the tide breaks. Burn what you can. Sever their lines. Do not stop." Then her voice darkened. "Ashanai falls today."

I felt it then. That sparked the thrum of unity, of purpose, of every soul here knowing what was at stake. I took one step forward, claws digging into the sand, my voice low in the mind-link but strong enough to reach every wolf, every beast under my command. "When the water breaks, we tear through them."

The tide rolled back like a curtain being drawn, revealing the true shape of the sea.

Ashanai stood at the centre of it all, dark, sharp, and ancient. Her body rose from the waves like a nightmare pulled from the deep, seaweed trailing from her wrists, armor clinging to her like a second skin forged in shadow. Her eyes, black as starless voids, locked on ours. Locked on me and behind her, the water churned and rose again, this time not with waves, but with creatures, rising one by one in grotesque harmony. Thousands of them. Twisted Rogourau beasts shaped by her will, their eyes glowing the same foul violet light that bled from her veins.

Instead, Ashanai tilted her head slowly, taking in the wall of wolves behind me, the vampire legion at our backs, and the beast beside us whose growl was shaking the cliff itself. For a moment, just a breath, and her expression faltered.

But she knew resistance and knew what it meant when enemies once scattered stood together.

Her gaze flicked to Aurora, to Freyr, then to me. And then I saw it. The faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth. A sneer? Or uncertainty? She lifted one long arm and snapped her fingers. Behind her, the Rogourau roared an army of shadows screaming to be unleashed. But Ashanai’s voice finally came, low and slicing through the air like a blade:

"So this is the face of defiance?" The water pulsed with darkness, as if the sea itself had turned against us. Her eyes narrowed. "I will break it. Slowly."