Chapter 7 - What the Council feared .
The village square had become a graveyard of questions.
Broken fences littered the ground. Splintered wood and shattered stone covered the streets. Smoke drifted from damaged homes while frightened families gathered their children and whispered prayers to the Moon Goddess.
Yet nobody looked at the destruction.
Every eye remained fixed on Jason Anthony Ravencrest.
The young man standing in the center of it all.
The one the monster had hunted.
The one the monster had fled from. Jason hated it.For eighteen years he had dreamed of being noticed.
Now he wished everyone would look away.
The lead enforcer sheathed his sword and motioned toward the surviving guards.
Secure the area, immediately.
The warriors sprang into action.
People were escorted back into their homes.
The wounded were carried away.
Within minutes, the square began to empty.
Only a handful remained Jason ,Elena.
The three enforcers, And a growing sense of dread.
The lead enforcer turned toward Elena.
His expression was grim.
We cannot stay here, She nodded, I know.
Jason folded his arms.
Somebody better explain what's happening.
Neither answered, The silence stretched.
His patience snapped, No.
His voice cut through the night.
Enough, For years I've been treated like an idiot who doesn't deserve answers.
Today a monster tore through our village trying to reach me, The sacred altar shattered.
Something beneath a mountain keeps talking inside my head.
And every person standing here acts like they know why.
His breathing had become uneven.
Frustration poured out of him before he could stop it, Tell me the truth.
The words echoed across the ruined street.
For several moments only the wind answered.
Then Elena looked at him.Really looked at him.
Not as a child.
Not as the boy she had spent years protecting.
But as a man.m, Her son had grown up, The realization hurt.
Because the truth she had hidden was about to destroy everything he believed, Come with me.
She turned toward the forest behind the cottage,Jason frowned, Where are we going?
To the place your father died.
The world seemed to stop, Jason's chest tightened,His father, Nobody ever spoke about him, Whenever Jason asked questions, Elena's answers were always brief,too brief.
Tonight would be different.
Without another word, she began walking.
The lead enforcer exchanged a glance with his companions, then all three followed, Jason hesitated.A cold feeling settled in his stomach.
Every instinct told him his life was standing on the edge of a cliff.
And one more step would change everything.
Still, he followed.
The forest welcomed them with darkness.
Moonlight filtered through the branches overhead.
Leaves whispered beneath their feet.
Nobody spoke during the journey.The silence felt deliberate, Heavy.
As though each person carried memories they wished they could forget.
After nearly half an hour, Elena stopped.
Jason looked around.The clearing seemed ordinary at first, Then he noticed the stone.
A single black monument stood in the center.
Weathered by years of rain and wind.
The name carved into its surface was familiar.
Adrian Ravencrest, Jason swallowed, His father's grave.Elena stepped forward slowly.
Her fingers brushed across the stone.
A sadness entered her eyes.Not fresh grief, Old grief, The kind that never truly leaves.
Jason had never seen her like this.
Not once.Your father wasn't killed by rogues.
Her voice barely rose above a whisper.
That was the story everyone was told.
Jason stared at the monument, Then how did he die?
A long pause followed.Finally she answered.
He was murdered.
The words struck harder than Jason expected.
For a moment he forgot how to breathe.
The lead enforcer lowered his gaze.
Elena continued.
Your father discovered something hidden by the Alpha Council.
Something they believed had been buried forever, Jason felt his pulse quicken.
The ancient bloodline Elena nodded.
The Ravencrest Dynasty.
A name erased from history books.
A kingdom destroyed before modern packs existed.
The rulers weren't ordinary Alphas.
They carried a power no wolf should possess.
Jason thought about the vision he had seen.
The throne.the kneeling armies.
The sea of fire.
Suddenly it felt less like imagination and more like memory His memory,The possibility terrified him.The lead enforcer finally spoke.
Your father spent years searching for answers.
He found evidence proving the Ravencrests were betrayed,Not defeated.Betrayed.the distinction mattered.Jason could hear it in the man's voice.
The Council feared what that truth would do if it became public.So they silenced him.Jason turned sharply.The Council killed my father? No.
The lead enforcer's jaw tightened.
Not the Council.Someone within it.
The answer only created more questions.
Who?Nobody knows the response came immediately too immediately.
Jason noticed it,So did Elena.The lead enforcer looked away.
A sure sign he wasn't telling everything.
Before Jason could press further, a sudden gust swept through the clearing.The temperature dropped.
Every hair on his arms rose.Something was wrong.Very wrong.
The enforcers sensed it too.
Their hands instantly moved toward their weapons.Jason felt it moments later.
That heartbeat,Boom.
A deep vibration rolled through his chest,Boom.
Closer now, Closer still.
The earth beneath his feet trembled.
Birds exploded from the trees branches shook violently.
Then came a sound from the darkness beyond the clearing, Footsteps Heavy, Deliberate.
Something enormous was approaching.
One step.Then another.The lead enforcer drew his sword.Stay behind us,Nobody argued.
The sound continued.Crunch
Whatever was out there wasn't hiding.
It wanted them to know it was coming.
Jason stared into the darkness between the trees.A shape emerged tall,Broad.
Wrapped in black armor older than anything he had ever seen.
The figure stopped at the edge of the clearing.
Moonlight touched its face,Jason's heart nearly stopped.
The stranger looked exactly like the man carved onto the grave behind him,The same eyes.
The same jaw,the same scar above the eyebrow.
Impossible.
His father's grave stood only a few feet away.
Yet the man standing before him was Adrian Ravencrest, Alive.
Or something wearing his face.The figure slowly lifted its head.Then smiled.Jason's blood turned to ice.
Because he recognized the voice that followed.
The same voice from beneath the mountain.
The same voice haunting his dreams.
The same voice calling him north.
At last.The figure took a step forward.
And every warrior in the clearing froze,My son.
