She was waiting to die.

Chapter 4: The Awakening of the Supreme

She was waiting to die.

The growls grew closer, ripping through the night like thunder, and the omega had decided that waiting for her end was the best she could do.

But she had already suffered so much…

Did she not deserve at least a peaceful death?

Hadn’t a shattered heart and a broken body been enough?

Lyra tried to lift her head, but the weight of her own body crushed her against the cold, filthy forest floor. Every breath was a battle, every movement pure torment.

The wolves were so close now…

Terror gripped her mind, making her entire body tremble when she realized she didn’t want to die like this. Without thinking, only obeying the most primal instinct to survive, she forced herself to move. Her trembling, blood-soaked arms dug into the dirt. Her legs, deadened by pain, dragged uselessly behind her thin, exposed frame.

“Just… a little more…” she whispered, her voice barely audible, as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.

The pounding of paws was deafening now.

They were close.

Too close.

Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face as Lyra dragged herself faster, her skin shredding into raw strips, leaving a bloody trail behind her. Her body begged for rest, but fear pushed her onward.

A few more feet.

Just a few more.

“Please, Goddess, please,” she begged, clawing at the earth, sobbing hysterically, her body broken by pain and exhaustion. “Please, help me, just this once!”

Then, in the darkness of the forest, something shone. A pale shaft of light pierced through an almost invisible opening between the roots of an ancient tree.

Lyra blinked, disbelieving.

An entrance.

A cave.

Without thinking, she forced her body toward it. Each movement was searing agony, every breath a blade cutting through her lungs. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t.

The claws of a renegade wolf sliced through the air just behind her, so close she felt the rush of its strike graze her naked skin. A guttural, starving snarl ripped through the night.

“Please…” she sobbed, a desperate prayer to any force that still heard her.

With one last surge of despair, Lyra shoved herself into the narrow opening, swallowed by the cave’s darkness. The earth and roots closed around her like a natural curtain, hiding her from the predators above.

Her body slid uncontrollably down a slope, a thin scream breaking from her throat before she hit the stone floor, the impact knocking her half-conscious.

Inside, silence pressed down on her.

She gasped, or rather, choked, on the heavy, damp air of the cave. The smell of wet earth and moss filled her lungs. It was pitch black, her back glued to the ground, and the pain now was unbearable. Water seeped beneath her, she could feel it, but she couldn’t move. Something was surely broken.

“Someone… please, someone help me…” But her voice was faint, almost gone, and the only ones who heard her were the wolves above, digging at the soil, trying to widen the entrance. They wouldn’t take long with claws that sharp.

Shaking uncontrollably, she curled up between the water and the blood pouring from her own body. She hugged her knees, trying to shield herself from the cold, from the fear, from the pain. Her whole body trembled, but she no longer had the strength to cry.

Lyra closed her eyes, her exhausted body surrendering. She wouldn’t last much longer awake.

In that strange cave, lost and nearly dead, she did the only thing left to do.

She prayed.

“Moon Goddess…” she whispered, her voice fading into emptiness. “If… if this is where I die… let it be quick. Don’t let me suffer anymore. I… I only want… peace.”

Her words dissolved into the darkness, swallowed by the cave itself.

The cold deepened.

Moisture dripped from the walls, every drop echoing sharply in the silence, broken only by growls and claws scraping the earth above her.

Lyra didn’t know if she would survive until dawn.

Her eyelids grew heavy, her mind drifting between consciousness and oblivion. Each heartbeat was a massive effort. She knew she wouldn’t last.

Maybe it was better this way.

Maybe…

Before the last spark of strength left her chest, Lyra heard it.

They had broken through. Victorious howls filled the cave as the first wolf leapt through the hole, landing just behind her, snarling with delight at its prey lying defenseless on the ground.

Her breathing quickened, terror overwhelming her. She didn’t want to be torn apart alive, didn’t want to feel their fangs shred her flesh while still aware.

So she decided.

If this was the end, she wouldn’t see it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to conjure any beautiful place, any good memory to take with her.

The footsteps grew closer.

She held her breath.

And waited for death.

“Please… at least let it… let it be quick…”

But while a brutal death loomed in the shadows, deeper within the cave, something that would change everything lay asleep, bound by ancient magic.

Thick chains clasped its wrists and ankles, etched with silver runes glowing faintly with containment spells. They bound the massive beast with black fur and monstrous claws.

Time did not exist here. Its soul was trapped in the abyss of its own mind, a place without light, where silence crushed like stone and only the eternal void remained.

Until… something broke through the silence and the dark.

A frail, trembling voice, so weak it would have been lost if not for the absolute stillness.

“Please… at least let it… let it be quick…”

The plea echoed through the void.

For the first time in centuries, the colossal creature stirred.

Inside his prison, his eyes opened, confused, but alert. The beast’s human form guided those burning red eyes through the shadows, searching for a crack, for a glimmer, while the monstrous body strained helplessly against the chains.

Then another voice, stronger now, echoed within his mind:

“It is time, son of the moon. The world needs the Supreme Alpha, the one reborn from innocent blood to bring order to chaos. Awaken, River.”

The ground trembled.

The enchanted chains groaned, a sharp crack splitting the silence. The eyelids of the slumbering body flew open, his eyes burning like live coals in the cave’s darkness.

He sucked in air violently, his chest heaving as though breathing for the very first time.

The scent sliced through him like a blade.

Blood.

Fear.

Despair.

And something more.

Something that made every hair on the lycan’s body stand on end.

Her presence.

Her pain.

River roared, the chains vibrating around him.

A deafening, primal roar shattered the silence, its fury so immense the cave walls cracked.

With a brutal pull, River broke the first chains.

The runes flared one final time before crumbling into silver dust.

Wild-eyed, frenzied, he tore apart the last restraints, the sound of snapping metal booming like thunder.

The cavern shook.

The Alpha was free.

Dazed, he staggered, gasping as though the world itself spun around him. Then the scent hit him again, hot, strong, irresistible.

And he ran.

His bare feet pounded against stone, muscles coiled in perfect violence, air whistling past his massive frame. He was enormous, larger than any wolf, his black fur thick, matted with the cave’s dampness.

And then he saw her.

In the center of the cavern, collapsed on the ground.

Small.

Bloodied.

Naked.

Broken in ways even he could hardly comprehend.

His chest tightened with something he hadn’t felt in centuries, a violent mix of rage and… bloodlust.

But she wasn’t alone.

In front of her, three wolves, tiny compared to him, snarled, baring teeth, ready to finish off the girl who had awakened him.

“Mine…” The guttural, monstrous voice echoed through the cavern, reaching the invaders.

The renegades froze, hesitating, recognizing the scent, hearing the voice of the beast. But it was already too late.

River charged like a storm of fury.

His massive body moved with terrifying speed, his red eyes holding no mercy, only the savage will to rip them apart.

The first wolf lunged, but River snatched its throat, lifting it with one hand. The creature’s eyes bulged in terror before his monstrous grip crushed its windpipe with a grotesque crack.

Blood sprayed across the cave walls.

The second tried to flee, but River leapt and caught it, sinking his teeth into its shoulder before slamming it against stone. The sound of bones snapping echoed, followed by a strangled yelp drowned beneath River’s roar, now fully consumed by savagery.

The third renegade cowered, trembling, showing its belly in a pitiful display of submission, whimpering like a weak pup.

But River had no mercy.

After all, hadn’t she been sobbing just moments ago too?

With one strike, he tore open the last wolf’s throat, spilling more blood across the sacred stone.

The cries ended. Silence returned, but not the same silence as before.

This one was heavy.

Charged.

The lycan, panting, drenched in blood, his crimson eyes burning, turned to the girl lying on the ground. Still alive. Unconscious. But breathing.

And the only thought that consumed him was that he had to protect her.