I attacked.

Speed first, the kind of speed that turns the world into slow motion for everyone except the wolf moving.

I came in low, shadows coiling ahead of me, silver moonlight hardening my claws.

Elias sidestepped. Precise. No wasted movement.

His blade carved through my shadow tendrils like they were smoke, scored a line of fire down my ribs.

Anti-bloodline steel.

The pain was wrong.

Not just physical, it cut deeper, into the power itself, disrupting the flow of energy through my body.

My shadow manipulation flickered.

The cut burned silver-hot.

He pressed the attack.

Fast, relentless, each strike targeted not at my body but at my bloodlines.

The...