Chapter 5 - The First Battle
Chaos erupted in the ballroom as werewolves shifted and hunters advanced.
Ivy found herself shoved behind a marble pillar, her heart racing as she watched the supernatural battle unfold.
The Order moved with military precision, their silver weapons glinting as they cut through fur and flesh alike.
But the wolves were fighting back with primal fury, their claws and fangs tearing through the hunters' ranks.
"Stay down!" Damian shouted as he ripped a hunter's head from his shoulders.
But Ivy couldn't stay down.
Because there, in the midst of the battle, she saw a familiar face.
Marcus.
Her former fiancé was standing at the back of the hunter formation, his cold eyes scanning the chaos for something.
For her.
When their gazes locked, she saw the truth in his expression.
He hadn't just betrayed her for Elena.
He'd been working with the Order the entire time.
"Little wolf," he called out, his voice carrying over the din of battle. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."
Ivy felt the wolf inside her surge with rage.
She stepped out from behind the pillar, her body trembling with barely contained fury.
"Marcus," she said, her voice eerily calm. "I should have known you'd show up eventually."
"Did you miss me?" he asked, his smile as cruel as the day he'd watched her face being carved.
"Like a cancer," she replied. "I thought you were happy with Elena. Why come after me now?"
"Elena was a means to an end," he admitted. "She was the one who knew how to trigger your inheritance. Without her, I never would have awakened the Sterling blood."
"She cut my face open to awake my inheritance?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Marcus shrugged. "The Order wanted you alive, of course. But they also wanted you broken. It's easier to control a broken wolf."
Ivy's claws extended without conscious thought.
The transformation was happening—slowly, painfully, but undeniably.
"You're a monster," she hissed.
"I'm a survivor," he corrected. "Just like you. The difference is, I know which side I'm on."
Marcus drew a silver blade from his belt, and Ivy knew he meant to finish what Elena had started.
But he'd made one fatal mistake.
He'd assumed she was still the same weak, trusting woman who had fallen for his lies.
He'd forgotten that the wolf had awakened.
Ivy lunged, her transformation accelerating as she moved.
Her body shifted—bones cracking, muscles stretching, fur sprouting where smooth skin had been.
But instead of a wolf, she became something else entirely.
Something ancient.
Something with silver claws and golden eyes.
Something that had been sleeping for thousands of years.
Marcus's face went white with shock. "That's impossible. The Lycan form is extinct."
"Apparently not," Ivy growled, her voice deep and resonant with power.
She struck with lethal precision, her claws tearing through his silver armor like paper.
Marcus screamed as she carved a path of destruction across his chest—a mirror of the scars she'd borne.
"Tell the Order that the Sterling heir is no longer hiding," Ivy snarled. "Tell them I'm coming for them."
She left him bleeding on the marble floor, his eyes wide with terror.
The battle was over.
The hunters were retreating, carrying their wounded and dead with them.
But Ivy knew this was only the first skirmish.
The real war was just beginning.
Damian approached her carefully, his wolf receding as he returned to human form.
"You just made a lot of enemies," he observed.
"I already had enemies," Ivy replied. "Now they know what they're dealing with."
"And what exactly are you dealing with?"
May you like
Ivy looked down at her silver claws, at the golden eyes reflected in the polished floor.
"I don't know yet," she admitted. "But I'm going to find out."
