The tension in the Great Hall was thick enough to choke a man. Fenrir's silver blade was a hair's breadth from Elena's throat, the cold metal radiating a lethal hunger.
"The moon decided?" Fenrir hissed, his golden eyes burning with a mixture of fury and something Elena couldn't quite name—fear? "The moon doesn't pick sides, human. It only watches the hunt."
Elena felt the pressure of the blade. A single twitch from him, and her jugular would be painted across the obsidian floor. Yet, as the blood trickled down her neck, a strange sensation flooded her mind. It wasn't pain. It was a rhythmic pulsing, like a second heartbeat synchronized with her own.
[NOTIFICATION: Beast-Tongue Insight Active.] [Target: Fenrir (Alpha King) is experiencing: Confusion (Level 4), Primal Lust (Level 2), and Desire to Subjugate (Level 9).]
The text floated in her vision, semi-transparent and glowing with an eerie blue light. Elena's lips curled into a bloody, defiant smirk. She could see his internal state. She had a cheat code for a god.
"Then why are you shaking, Fenrir?" she whispered.
The hall erupted in gasps. No one called the Alpha King by his name. Not unless they wanted their heart ripped out through their ribs.
Fenrir's hand tightened on the hilt. "I am not shaking. I am deciding which part of you to feed to the omegas first."
"Your pulse says otherwise," Elena said, leaning her neck into the blade, forcing him to either cut her or pull back. "It's racing. Faster than mine. Is it the kiss? Or is it the fact that for the first time in your life, you feel like you're the one on a leash?"
"ENOUGH!" a voice boomed from the sidelines.
A massive werewolf, scarred from brow to chin, stepped forward. This was Silas, Fenrir's Beta and the pack's most brutal enforcer. "My King, let me crush this maggot's skull. She has desecrated your throne with her filth."
Fenrir didn't look at Silas. He was staring into Elena's eyes, searching for the source of her sudden arrogance. "Wait," he commanded, his voice trembling with suppressed power. "There is something... wrong."
Elena felt it too. The [Lunar Strength] she had just unlocked wasn't just a stat boost; it was a physical transformation. The iron shackles on her wrists began to feel light, almost brittle. The heavy gravity of the Great Hall, designed to crush the spirit of human tributes, no longer weighed on her chest.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Hostile Intent Detected.] [Quest Update: Survive the Hall of Shadows.] [Objective: Neutralize Silas without killing him.] [Reward: 500 XP, Skill: 'Shadow-Step Dash']
Silas didn't wait for Fenrir's second command. He saw Elena's smirk as a personal insult. With a roar that shook the torches, he shifted mid-air, his clothes tearing as grey fur sprouted from his bulging muscles. He was a mountain of meat and teeth, hurtling toward her with the speed of a freight train.
"Elena, move!" someone shouted from the human cages—probably her brother, Elias—but she didn't hear them.
Everything slowed.
The [Beast-Tongue Insight] flared. Silas's movement wasn't just a blur anymore; it was a series of predictable muscle contractions. She saw the shift in his weight, the lean of his shoulder, the way his claws prepared to rake her chest.
Now.
Elena didn't run. She dropped low, her body moving with a grace that felt foreign, driven by the System's invisible strings. As Silas leaped over her, she grabbed the heavy iron chain connecting her wrists and swung it upward like a flail.
CRACK.
The iron chain caught Silas right in the solar plexus. The sound of metal meeting enchanted wolf-flesh echoed through the hall. Silas's momentum worked against him. He let out a choked wheeze, his massive body flipping in the air before slamming face-first into the stone floor at Fenrir's feet.
The silence that followed was absolute.
A human girl. In shackles. Had just grounded a Beta werewolf.
Elena stood up, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Her hands were raw and bleeding from the force of the swing, but the System was already buzzing, numbing the pain.
[Mission Accomplished: Silas Neutralized.] [XP Gained: 500. LEVEL UP: Level 3.] [Skill Learned: Shadow-Step Dash (Rank F).]
She looked at Fenrir, who was looking down at his unconscious Beta with an expression of pure, unadulterated shock.
"The hunt is over, King," Elena said, her voice echoing in the dead silence. "I am no longer your tribute. I am your problem."
Fenrir slowly turned his gaze back to her. The golden fire in his eyes had turned into a dark, swirling storm. He stepped over Silas's body, his presence expanding until the very walls of the hall seemed to groan under the pressure of his Aura.
"You think a lucky strike and a strange trick make you an equal?" Fenrir growled. He was inches from her now, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his chest. "You are a human. A plaything. A grain of sand in the gears of the wolf empire."
He grabbed the chain between her wrists and snapped it with a single, effortless jerk. The iron links shattered like glass.
"I will find out what you are," he whispered, his hand snaking behind her head, his fingers tangling in her hair. "And when I do, I will break every bone in your body until you beg me to finish what that kiss started."
He leaned down, his lips brushing against her ear. "Until then... welcome to the North Ridge, Elena. You'll find the dungeons are much colder than my bed."
[NOTIFICATION: Favorability Updated.] [Fenrir: -40 (Hostile/Obsessed)] [Hidden Quest Unlocked: 'The Alpha's Bedchamber'.] [Description: Surving the night in Fenrir's private quarters without being 'claimed'.]
Elena swallowed hard. The thrill of the victory faded as she realized the true scale of the game she was playing. She had the System, but she was still in the heart of the wolf's den, and the King was no longer looking at her as food. He was looking at her as a challenge.
"Take her to the Obsidian Tower," Fenrir commanded, not looking back as he returned to his throne. "And Silas... throw him in the pits. He needs to remember what it feels like to lose to a rabbit."
As the guards grabbed Elena's arms, she didn't struggle. She kept her head high, her eyes locked on Fenrir until the heavy oak doors shut between them.
She had survived the first hour. Now, she just had to survive the night.