The moon stretched the pine forest's shadows into icy spears. Garret's boots crunched frozen needles, each snap raising his hackles.
"Fuckin' wrong here," he kicked a squirrel skull, "not even a damn rat."
Serena's wings grazed treetops, shaking loose snow. "Because everything alive," she alighted beside Raine, "is drooling over us."
Ellen yanked Raine's cloak. Her torn glove revealed starlit scales. "Something's... tunneling below."
Howls split the night.
The first wolf lunged from a snowdrift. Raine's scales armored his neck, but fangs sank into Garret's forearm instead. The werewolf dislocated his elbow to snap its spine.
"Left!" Ellen's vial burst among wolves, illuminating twenty green eyes. "Frostfang pack!"
Serena laughed over crunching bones. "Try Frostfang traitors—"
The alpha leaped onto a boulder. Moonlight revealed its notched ear and faded iron tag—Garret's village sigil.
Garret's pupils shrank. "Old Benson?"
The wolf bared its holy-silvered fangs. A paw slammed ground, freezing Raine's boots. Now he saw their collars—each engraved with Church gears.
"Chaining wolves..." Raine melted the ice with dragonfire. "Like they did you."
Garret shattered the ice. "Shut it!"
The pack attacked. Garret's transformation was feral, silver fur matted with ice shards, wolf corpses painting radial bloodstains. But more emerged, targeting his joints.
"They're exhausting him!" Ellen's bolt saved Garret from a pounce. "Garret! Focus!"
A howl froze Garret mid-kill—identical to the night his village burned.
Memory Shard (Massacre) Burning barn beams collapsed. Screams and cries fused. Teenage Garret's vision bled red, his claws deep in childhood sweetheart Martha's corpse. Herman's voice echoed: "Behold the beast..."
The Frostfangs howled in unison.
Garret's spine crackled. Silver quills erupted, fangs piercing his jaw. He lunged at the nearest warmth—Raine.
Serena's wings raised a snow wall. "Kill him!"
Dragonfire lit Raine's face. The Blade grazed Garret's throat, severing the holy chain buried in his fur.
"Garret!" Raine's palm sizzled on the hilt. "Wake the fuck up!"
Claws hovered at Raine's brow. Beast eyes reflected his exposed throat.
Ellen's scales vibrated. A silent scream crippled the pack. Garret broke free, crashing through pines, fur frozen bloody.
"Why..." He stared at the broken chain. "...not kill me?"
Raine flicked blood off the Blade. "You owe me two kegs."
Serena hauled Ellen up. "Where'd you learn that trick, freak?"
"Instinct." Blood oozed from the girl's scales.
Howls turned panicked. Benson's head rolled to Raine, fangs ripped out. Shadows flashed cloaked figures as Church horns echoed.
"Herman's janitors." Serena crushed a fang. "Keep gawking, become taxidermy."
Garret stood, femur protruding. He wrapped chain around the wound. "I'll repay this."
"With aged dwarf ale." Raine tossed him liquor warmed by dragonfire. "No watering."
Surviving wolves turned on each other. Ellen examined Benson's collar. "Modified four months ago... before we hit the lab."
Serena spotted the crescent sigil inside—Night Citadel's mark.
"Amusing..." She eyed Raine binding his smoking arm. "Your junk sword draws fancy pests."
The Blade stood in snow, its draconic eye fixed north—toward the abyss.