Chapter 234: The Reclaimed Soul

Zahliver’s POV

Joshula stopped dead in his tracks mid-step, standing as stiff as a carved statue with his eyes completely vacant. Fate looked down at him, then sharply over at the goddess, his expression twisting instantly into a mask of shocked rage.

"What on earth are you doing to him? Stop this right now," Fate demanded, pure fury lacing every single word that left his mouth.

The goddess Luna slowly turned to face him, her expression serene but heavily tinged with deep disdain. "You are completely under the false illusion that you hold absolute dominion over everything here. You think that I am somehow beneath you. I am a divine goddess, Fate. You may have cruelly manipulated this poor boy for your own selfish plans, but you forget one crucial truth he is only here because I allowed it. I originally lent you my divine power under false pretenses, and now I am simply taking it all back. He is not your mindless puppet. He is a true wolf. My beloved child. And I am officially reclaiming him."

With a single, effortless snap of her pale fingers, Joshula suddenly turned and walked straight toward her like an invisible thread holding him up had been cleanly cut and someone else had just caught him. She placed her glowing palms gently on either side of his head, her fingertips shining with a bright light as she began to murmur in an ancient language I could not possibly recognize fluid, haunting, and terribly old.

Joshula’s blank eyes fluttered shut. Then, as if every cruel string of control had been completely severed from his mind, he sank softly to the floor, looking entirely peaceful for the first time in what felt like a lifetime.

Luna looked up at me then, her gaze remaining calm but deeply cautious.

"When he finally wakes up, your brother will return entirely to you. But I honestly cannot say what the heavy consequences of this magical reversal might be," she warned me gently, before turning sharply toward Fate once more, her entire presence darkening with bitter disappointment.

"I truly cannot believe what you have actually done here, Fate." Her voice was quiet, but the pain woven into it was painfully real like a devoted mother utterly betrayed by her own blood.

Fate’s calm composure finally cracked right down the middle. His frantic eyes darted wildly around the panic-inducing room, his trembling hands gripping the heavy carved arms of his high chair like he was desperately calculating a quick escape route. A total coward.

"Oh come now, Luna. You are being entirely dramatic about this," he said quickly, a sharp edge of sheer desperation bleeding into his tone. "You cannot just leave me completely exposed like this. You know how terribly dangerous he is. I only did what simply had to be done for the greater good. I have done no wrong here. The world moves forward at my sole will because it must."

Her facial expression sharpened into a lethal glare. "And I explicitly warned you never to lay a single finger on my precious children. Yet you deliberately hurt one of them. An innocent one, at that. And all for what petty reason?" Her voice cut sharply through the heavy silence like a razor-sharp blade. Then she turned her head directly back to me. "You should also know that it was Fate all along. He is the exact reason your mate was violently attacked. He intentionally distracted you so you would not be there to stop it. So you could not protect her from harm."

I froze completely in place.

She turned back to Fate with a smug, deliberate flick of her wrist. "Yes, I told him the truth. You completely deserve everything that is about to come crashing down on you."

Her words shattered something deep and fragile inside my chest. Something dark, ancient, and far more vicious than simple blind rage.

Normal fury was not nearly enough. Intense hate did not even come close to what I felt. The emotion that suddenly overtook me was so raw, so heavy, and so consuming that it felt like it could have torn worlds apart. This man this arrogant thing had actually dared to touch what belonged to me. He had dared to target her the only pure soul on this cursed earth who remained completely untouched by cruelty, and yet somehow still willingly tethered to my dark heart.

He had reached his filthy hands into a field of delicate wildflowers and tried to defile the single, perfect bloom I had ever claimed the only true beauty I had ever called my own.

My entire physical body began to tremble violently, but it was certainly not from any kind of fear. My strict mental control the heavy leash I had so tightly bound around the savage beast living inside my soul loosened entirely and slipped away willingly. I finally gave in to the dark urge.

The full transformation overtook me completely. No more half-human form. No more holding back. No more restraint of any kind. Only the raw, unbridled beast.

Still staring directly into Fate’s wide, terrified eyes, I walked slowly across the chamber toward a solid wall lined with hard, sharp elements iron, rough obsidian, and even unbreakable diamond. With one heavy hand, I raked my long, black claws downward across the stone, and then dragged them upward again in a vicious motion. A loud, metallic screech echoed harshly through the room, sharp and piercing.

I was standing there, calmly sharpening my deadly claws.

Fate flinched hard at the horrible sound, but stayed frozen in his seat. Perhaps he foolishly thought that absolute stillness would somehow spare him from my wrath. Perhaps he genuinely hoped it would stop me from ripping him apart.

Hope.

That pathetic stench clung heavily to him beneath the thick waves of raw fear pouring off his sweating skin. The sheer audacity of the man.

He raised his shaking hands up in the air like a desperate man who still mistakenly believed that clever words could save his life. "I admit it. I did what I had to do to survive," he stammered, trying desperately to keep his voice steady. "But Zalvius, do you not yet see the bigger picture? I was the one who originally gave you a mate. Without my divine hand, you would still be wandering this miserable world entirely alone. I gave you purpose. I gave you true love. I gave you power. Everything you possess right now, you ultimately owe to me. I gave you a future and even successfully returned your past."

His voice grew more pointed and shrill as his rising desperation bled back into blinding arrogance the sickening kind of arrogance that only ever comes from cowardly gods who truly believe themselves to be completely untouchable.

I stepped away from the scored wall, each one of my heavy steps deliberate, slow, and entirely final.

I approached the high throne where he sat looking pale, trembling uncontrollably, but still pathetically trying to hold himself up like some kind of proud king. Utterly pathetic.

He shrank back as I drew near, pushing his body deeper into the cushioned throne like he hoped the wooden chair could swallow him whole. I lowered my massive, shadowy snout until it was mere inches away from his trembling face, the deep, rumbling growl in my chest shaking the solid stone floor violently beneath our feet.

The overwhelming scent of his pure fear almost drowned out everything else in the room. Almost.

But I could still smell that faint, lingering trace of hope underneath it all.

What on earth was he actually hoping for at this point? A divine miracle? A shred of unearned mercy?

There would be none of that here today.

Not after what he had done to my life.

And certainly not after what he had dared to do to her.