The city never looked the same after a fight.
By morning, Arclight's usual noise had returned—sirens, honking cars, the drone of airships—but Kael felt the quiet underneath it all. That heavy silence that came after blood had been spilled.
From the rooftop of an abandoned factory, he watched the sunrise cut through the skyline. The orange light touched the wet rooftops, painting the metal in fire. It should've been peaceful. It wasn't.
He was still bleeding. Not from the fight, but from what he'd seen.
Lucien wasn't just gathering wolves. He was building monsters.
And somewhere beneath the city—under Kael's own territory—Lucien was hiding.
A low growl rumbled in Kael's throat. He couldn't let that stand.
He jumped down from the roof, landing softly on the cracked pavement. A motorcycle waited at the curb, matte black, engine still warm. Selene leaned against it, chewing gum, eyes half-hidden behind dark shades.
"You're late," she said without looking up.
"You followed me."
"Call it insurance," she said, flicking her gum away. "You're unpredictable."
Kael smirked. "Says the woman who brought silver bullets to a pack war."
Selene's lips twitched. "Those bullets saved your fur last night."
He stepped closer, eyes narrowing slightly. "You sure you're not working for someone else?"
"Please," she said. "If I were, you'd already be dead."
They stared at each other for a long second, the sound of waves crashing faintly in the distance. Then Selene handed him a tablet. "You'll want to see this."
The screen flickered to life—maps of Arclight's undercity. Layers upon layers of tunnels and forgotten subway lines that ran beneath the streets.
"Lucien's been operating down here," she said. "There's an old biotech lab beneath District Nine. Abandoned decades ago after a fire. My contact says he's using it to run hybrid tests."
"On wolves?"
"On anything that bleeds."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Then we end it tonight."
---
They reached the tunnels before midnight.
The air was cold, damp, and heavy with the smell of rust and decay. Their footsteps echoed softly, the sound swallowed by darkness. Broken pipes leaked thin streams of water down the cracked walls.
Selene held a flashlight, its beam slicing through the black. "You sure you want to walk straight into this?"
Kael's voice was low. "I'm done waiting for him to make the first move."
"You sound like you've got a death wish."
"Maybe I do."
She glanced sideways at him. "Then make sure it's not contagious."
They moved deeper. The deeper they went, the stronger the metallic scent became—blood. And something else. Something… wrong.
Then they heard it.
A faint sound, somewhere ahead. Wet. Animalistic.
Kael signaled for silence. He crept forward, claws half-extended, eyes glowing faint silver in the dark. They turned a corner—then froze.
The tunnel opened into a massive underground chamber lit by flickering fluorescent lights. Dozens of glass tanks lined the walls, each filled with murky fluid. Bodies floated inside—some human, some not.
Selene stepped closer, her voice barely a whisper. "He's mixing them…"
Inside one of the tanks, a creature twitched—a wolf's head fused to a humanoid body, veins pulsing under translucent skin.
Kael clenched his fists. "Lucien's making soldiers."
Before Selene could answer, a voice echoed from above.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
They spun around. Lucien stood on a catwalk above them, flanked by two guards. His grin was cold, proud.
"I told you, Draven. Strength without vision is wasted. But me? I'm building perfection."
Kael's growl rolled like thunder. "You're building corpses."
Lucien laughed. "You still don't get it. This world isn't big enough for our kind anymore. Humans will hunt us, vampires will exploit us, and your precious pack will rot trying to survive. I'm giving us evolution."
"By turning wolves into lab rats?" Selene shot back, raising her gun.
Lucien's eyes glowed red. "By turning them into gods."
He snapped his fingers.
The tanks hissed open. One by one, the hybrid creatures stepped out—half-wolf, half-human, skin glistening, eyes empty. They moved like machines, silent and cold.
Selene cursed under her breath. "We need to move—now."
Kael cracked his neck. "No. We finish this."
The first creature lunged. Kael met it head-on, claws tearing through muscle and glass shards. Selene fired rapid shots, blowing holes in two more, but they kept coming.
The room became chaos again—claws, bullets, blood, and steel.
Kael ripped through one hybrid, but another slammed into him, pinning him against a tank. The glass cracked behind his head. The creature's jaw opened, teeth jagged and unnatural.
A gunshot echoed. The hybrid dropped dead. Selene stood a few feet away, smoke curling from her pistol.
"Don't thank me," she said.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Kael replied, tearing into another.
For every one they killed, two more replaced it.
Lucien watched from above, laughing. "You can't stop evolution!"
Kael's eyes burned silver-white. He threw his head back and howled—a sound that shook the chamber to its bones.
The hybrids hesitated. For the first time, something like fear flickered in their dead eyes.
Kael charged, faster than any of them could track. Claws flashed, tearing through the line. Selene followed close behind, her movements sharp, precise.
Within minutes, the floor was slick with blood and smoke.
When the last hybrid fell, Kael looked up—but Lucien was gone.
Only the echo of his voice lingered.
"This is just the beginning, Draven. The moon will favor the strong. And you're not strong enough."
The speakers crackled out. Silence returned.
Selene holstered her gun, breathing hard. "He's right about one thing," she said. "This was just the start."
Kael stared at the broken tanks, the twisted bodies inside. "Then we end what he started."
Selene looked at him—really looked at him. The exhaustion in his eyes. The anger that burned deeper than blood.
"Kael," she said softly, "you can't fight this war alone."
He turned toward her. "I wasn't planning to."
They stood there in the flickering light, surrounded by death and glass. Somewhere above them, the city kept breathing—unaware of the war that had already begun beneath its streets.
And as the full moon faded behind storm clouds, Kael Draven swore an oath to the darkness.
To protect his pack.
To hunt his enemy.
And to never stop until Lucien Vargan's empire burned to ash.