Kiril's fur was soft and immaculately white. His beast form was painfully beautiful and Mila felt her heartbeats accelerating from the proximity.

The fear and the cold made her hug his back and neck even tighter.

It was dark and the atmosphere was somber when they arrived in a small forest on the slopes of the mountain. It looked like they were going to meet in the clearing close by.

Kiril stopped and signaled her to get down; he would be going alone from that point on. Mila obeyed and hid behind a tree. She followed him with her gaze, a white dot in the pitch-black surroundings, till he disappeared in the darkness.

She waited for some minutes but it felt wrong; she wanted to see what was happening so she marched slowly and carefully in the direction where Kiril disappeared. After some time, she reached the clearing.

On a silver throne in the middle of everything sat the Moon Goddess. Her beauty, if something, got even more astonishing. She was radiating, besides light, sublime happiness. But Mila was disregarding her completely; her whole attention was captured by the man sitting on the adjoined throne holding her hand.

Erik was looking into the darkness. His features seemed even more handsome than she had in memory. He was dressed in white and a simple, spiked silver crown was resting on the top of his head. It was him, but his gaze was empty. He was looking into the void with a blank expression.  Then he blinked and his eyes filled with an ardent, foreign passion.

For seconds Mila forgot how to breathe and dizziness clouded her brain.

She inhaled sharply. Lucius didn't have a body; there was only his soul that needed to be bound to one, to Erik's body. Kiril told her that, but somehow it didn't click in her head. For what felt like a long time she just stood there looking at his face and feeling how a thousand daggers were piercing her heart.

She wanted to run to him and sink into his arms but that was madness and that man was not him. She had to repeat that to herself over and over again to not succumb to her pain and do something stupid.

A wolf emerged from the darkness. Mila didn't recognize him. He was neither of the alphas she knew. That meant that one of them had died. The question was which.

The brown wolf bowed his head in front of Erik and the Moon Goddess.
The goddess greeted him with a smile and a nod, but Erik didn't move; he did not even as much as look in his direction.

Next, Kiril emerged from behind the trees, his white fur unmistakable against the darkness.

Same as the first wolf, he bowed in front of them. This time Erik moved his head and frowned at him slightly.

Lucius and Kiril had met before. If Lucius took over Rasputin's body, he and Kiril must certainly not have been friends. Or was the sixteen-year-old Kiril smart enough to not let his hate shine through? Mila doubted that. What sixteen-year-old would be?

They waited several minutes but nobody came. After yet another while Michael made his way out of the forest. He was limping slightly and when he arrived he bared his fangs at Kiril before lowering his head in front of the goddess and Erik.

Michael was alive. That was good.

Light as the wind itself, Nodin came forth. He was missing an eye and a slight howl escaped his chest before he bowed his head, looking utterly broken.

With twigs cracking under his paws, Amaru came along shortly after. Michael bared his fangs again and growled. Those two would never be friends, rather one the death of the other.

Mila counted and noticed they probably came following the order from east to west, judging by the ones she knew. That meant a few things. Cohen was dead and was replaced by the unknown wolf. Michael was indeed the European Alpha as Erik predicted and Africa... the African Alpha was totally missing.

Regardless of what that meant, that couldn't be good. Without Dahiru, his one ally, Michael was totally outnumbered. Running to him and asking for protection would probably mean his death. Mila couldn't picture at the end of the day where his alliances lay. Not with the Moon Goddess. But with who else?

The earth started quacking suddenly and after a few minutes, Samira emerged in human form from the forest, rocks, and trees trembling as she passed. She was dressed in some tribal ethnic clothes Mila didn't recognize and on her face were several markings also foreign to Mila. She was holding a spear in her right hand and on her cleavage, Mila could see the familiar alpha markings converging into a half-moon.

Her gaze was displaying pure rage and hate.

"You took everything from me!" she thundered at the Moon Goddess, threw a look brimming with pain at Erik and one probably really hateful at Kiril.

"Dahiru was a good man, Samira. Who is the new Alpha of the African pack?" asked the Moon Goddess.

"I am!" she thundered and let the earth quake again all around her.

The goddess smiled at her mockingly.

"Was there no wolf capable of claiming the pack?" asked Erik.

Erik. That is certainly not Erik speaking. He would never say that. 

"There were dozens. I won against all of them," answered Samira.

"And now?" he asked.

"Now I came to revenge my husband's death." She leaped forward unexpectedly. Her spear scratched the goddess' arm and a thin line of back blood started flowing.

That was the only thing Samira managed to do before Erik stood up and broke her spear in half with Anima Mundis, sending her flying backward and hitting the ground with a loud crack.

Mila ran towards her not caring anymore that she would be discovered.

"Samira? Are you okay? Why did you do that? You knew you had no chance," asked Mila with tears in her eyes.

"Mila?" she sighed.

Mila caresses her tear-stained face.

"Dahiru is dead. Erik is dead. Everyone is dead. Dahiru. I cannot imagine my life without him; neither of us can," she said touching her belly.

Samira was seemingly still pregnant.

On the corner of her eye, she saw Amaru leaping towards them with bared fangs. He was only a few meters away. Mila closed her eyes expecting the unavoidable blow that would probably tear out one of her limbs. But... nothing happened. She opened them again fearfully. Erik was standing before her. He had planted Anima Mundis between her and Amaru.

Mila looked him in the eyes dazzled.

"Who and what are you?" he asked and all the hope that gathered in Mila during those seconds evaporated. She was speaking to Lucius.

"The human toy, my beloved. Let the boys have fun with her," said the goddess touching his arm.

"She is interesting, " was the only thing he said before they both disappeared.

Mila was afraid Amaru would kill her once they were gone. He was again approaching her, but Michael appeared from behind sinking his fangs into his back.

Everything erupted into a huge fight and in her arms, Samira was hyperventilating.

"Try to calm down please," said Mila. "I am so immensely sorry for Dahiru. I really am, but what about your child? You are still pregnant. You owe it to Dahiru and the child to stay alive. Samira, you are a good woman and a good mother. Don't let this tragedy destroy the love for your child," insisted Mila.

"I... I am going to kill her, even if that is the last thing I will do," cried Samira with bright, flaming eyes.

Her pulse was still insanely fast. If she had been human she would have had a heart attack, judged Mila. But as her skirt slowly colored red, Mila understood that the stress did have a price.

"Kiril!" screamed Mila. The white wolf sank at her feet.  "You have to make her calm down. If not, she will have a miscarriage, and my feelings say that since the pregnancy is somewhat advanced it might kill her too. Please. I beg you. Do something. Knock her out if you have to, calm her down as you did with me, but do something," pleaded Mila, taking the white wolf's head between her palms and looking into his eyes.

Kiril just looked at her for a while, then he let his power flow, adverting his gaze towards Samira. Samira's pulse slowed down under her fingers and in the end, she fell into a dubiously calm slumber.

"We have to go, Mila." She heard Kiril's voice inside her head.

A growl made her turn her head. It was Michael. He was bleeding and looked exhausted but Amaru had fled. She wrapped his arms around his neck.

"Michael," she said, crying and burying her face into his fur. "I am so happy to see you. I am so happy that you survived. We have to take care of Samira; she is not good." She sniffed.

Michael moved his head signaling her to get on his back so they could leave.

"No!"  Kiril's voice rang in her head.

She ignored it, pushing him out of her mind, and stood up to leave.

"Don't you dare! If you leave with him I will wake Samira up in the worst way possible," he said forcing himself back into her head. It hurt; it felt like her temples were burning.

"I am not yours to command," hissed Mila but she realized a few things. Michael could not carry both, her and Samira, and if Kiril woke her up as he said, she would indeed lose that baby.

Her face went pale and sad.

"Michael. I have to go with him. Don't worry about me; he is not hurting me. I don't know what will happen now but you have to take care of Samira. I hope Angel is well. Tell him I miss him and that we will meet again," she said resignedly and climbed on Kiril's back crying while hearing Michael's protesting howls.

On the way to the house, her tears wetted his smooth fur. She was not sure why she was crying, if for Samira and her dead husband, for the cruelty of the goddess, or for Erik or what was left of him.

Besides that, she had no idea what to do. She had to convince Kiril to let her leave; she had no idea why he didn't. At least with Michael and Angel, they could take care of each other.

"Why do you keep me with you? I am of no use to you."

"That is your opinion, and I do not agree with it."

"It's creepy to hear you in my head. Can you see what I think too?"

"I could see everything depending on how deep I go, but I do not want to go too deep. I might just find memories that are not fun to watch."

"Why didn't you tell me Lucius will be in Erik's body? I almost died seeing him there."

"I thought you could count one and one together yourself. I see, this time around, Lucius has better control. With my father, he was slipping in and out at first. Like this, it is better for Erik though. He is not a prisoner in his own body watching how Lucius commits atrocities and not being able to do anything about it. It must be the mage blood..."

"What is that? You keep mentioning it."

"Yes. I told you, Erik is, well... was, pretty special, kind of the best shot she had. His father, Heinrich Wittfeld, was a direct descendant of Lucius and Erik's mother as well as Samira's mother were part of a dying breed of mage-wolves. That gave Erik his healing powers and Samira is as close as it gets to a witch."

"If you knew that, why didn't you protect him? Why? You should have done that instead of your stupid, futile revenge plan!" said Mila, starting as a whisper and finishing as a scream, hammering her fist against Kiril's back.

At that point, they reached the house and Kiril shoved her off his back on the grass in the yard. He walked away but returned only after a few steps and started to lick the scratches she got from the fall.

"God dammed mate bond."