Prologue

The battlefield was a wasteland.

 Bodies, both fresh and decaying, were strewn across the ground. A thick, unnatural fog hovered over the earth, masking the stench of death, but not enough to hide the horrors from anyone still standing. 

Still fighting for this war that had gone for more than a week. 

"Hold the line!" Marcus's voice boomed across the clearing, his silver hair matted with dirt and blood. His piercing blue eyes darted from one corner of the field to another. "Don’t let them break through!"

To his left, a Lycan tore through a vampire’s throat with a savage snarl. Blood splattered across his chest, the vampire’s body falling limp before hitting the dirt. The Lycan grunted, his yellow eyes flaring. "This is getting worse, Marcus. They’re faster. Stronger than normal. We can’t keep up."

Marcus spat on the ground, his jaw clenched. “We don’t have a choice, Jax. We either fight or die. You wanna run? Then go. But I’m not going down without tearing a few more apart.”

Jax wiped blood from his face, eyes flicking to the horde still charging at them

 Vampires.

 Pale-skinned, black-eyed, their fangs glinting in the dim moonlight.

 “I’m not leaving. Just saying it like it is. They’ve been hitting us for days. The pack is tired. Hell, I’m tired. Being fighting for weeks without proper food or rest. At this rate we would all die.”

Marcus grunted in response, ducking just in time to avoid a spear thrust from one of the vampires. He twisted, slashing his claws across the vampire’s chest, sending it crashing to the ground. “Then be tired and fight tired. We don’t have the luxury to stop.”

Behind him, a werewolf named Seth staggered, blood seeping from a wound on his side. He clutched his stomach, stumbling over to Marcus. “We’re losing too many, man. This... this can’t go on.”

Marcus turned to face Seth, his expression hard but not without sympathy. “You think I don’t know that? But we can’t let them take what’s left of our land. We lose this ground, and we lose everything.”

Seth’s voice wavered, his face pale. “I don’t know how much longer we can hold them.”

Marcus’s eyes darkened. “Then we’ll die standing.”

Before Seth could respond, a roar shook the battlefield. It was deafening, like the cry of a thousand beasts. Both sides froze. Marcus turned, scanning the horizon. From the edge of the battlefield, a figure approached—a massive, hulking figure. His fur was dark as the night itself, and his red eyes glowed with a terrifying light.

The vampires hissed, retreating slightly, their fear palpable even from across the field.

“That’s him,” Jax muttered, his voice low. “The Blood Alpha.”

Marcus's chest tightened. He had heard stories—whispers of a creature that ruled both night and shadow, feared even by the vampires. He comes to put them in order and then he disappears as if he never existed. 

 But he hadn’t believed it. Not until now. Not until they were almost dead did he show mercy. 

“Fall back!” one of the vampires screeched, retreating. “Retreat!”

They fled into the mist, vanishing as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the Lycans and werewolves standing in uneasy silence. The battle, for now, had ended.

Marcus exhaled, shaking his head. “We got lucky.”

“Lucky?” Jax scoffed, wiping his hands on his torn shirt. “You call that luck? We were damn near dead.”

“Better to be near dead than fully dead,” Marcus shot back, though his eyes stayed locked on the direction the vampires had retreated. “For now, we live.”

Seth limped over, clutching his side. “We won’t survive another attack like that. And you know they’ll come back. They always do.”

Marcus’s gaze hardened. “We’ll be ready. We have to be.”

Suddenly, from the far side of the clearing, a shout rang out. “Marcus! Over here!”

He turned, spotting a werewolf named Tanner kneeling by a small figure on the ground. Marcus’s brows furrowed as he approached, his steps heavy with caution.

“What is it?” he asked, crouching next to Tanner.

Tanner pointed. “Found her lying here. She’s still breathing. Barely.”

Marcus looked down. It was a girl. She couldn’t have been older than ten. Her small frame was caked in mud and blood, water streaming from her nose, and her breaths were shallow and ragged.

“Who is she?” Jax asked, coming up behind them.

“No idea,” Tanner said. “But she’s... strange. This was where the blood alpha stood a while ago. Do you think he brought her here?”

Marcus leaned closer, sniffing the air around the girl. His eyes widened. “Her wolf… it’s gone.”

Jax blinked. “What?”

“I can’t smell it,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “Her wolf’s been destroyed.”

Tanner’s face twisted in confusion. “Destroyed? What do you mean?”

Marcus stood, his eyes scanning the girl’s fragile form. “Someone ripped it out of her. Or worse. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Jax knelt beside her, frowning. “She’s just a kid. Who would do this?”

“Vampires, maybe,” Tanner offered. “They’re twisted like that.”

“No.” Marcus’s voice was flat, his gaze hard. “This wasn’t the vampires. This… was one of us.”

Seth, still clutching his side, groaned. “You’re saying a wolf did this to her? The blood alpha?”

Marcus nodded grimly. “Only a wolf could tear someone apart like this.”

Jax cursed under his breath. “What do we do with her?”

Marcus was silent for a moment, his mind racing. They couldn’t just leave her here. But they also couldn’t afford to take on more burdens. Their pack was already stretched thin. “Put her with the werewolves,” he said finally.

Tanner blinked in surprise. “You sure? If she wakes up—”

“If she wakes up, she’ll be an omega at best,” Marcus cut him off. “She won’t have much of a future. Not without her wolf.”

Jax frowned. “And if she doesn’t wake up?”

Marcus’s eyes darkened. “Then it’s one less life to worry about.”

Tanner and Jax exchanged uneasy glances, but neither argued. Tanner carefully lifted the girl into his arms, her limp form barely stirring.

“She’s just a kid,” Jax muttered again, shaking his head. “How could someone do this?”

Marcus’s voice was cold, emotionless. “War makes monsters of us all.”

As Tanner walked off with the girl, the rest of the pack began to regroup, their faces weary, their bodies battered. Marcus scanned the horizon again, his mind racing. The vampires would be back. And when they came, they’d come harder.

Jax clapped a hand on Marcus’s shoulder, his grip firm. “We’ll figure it out, man.”

“We better,” Marcus muttered, his eyes still on the horizon. “Because if we don’t, there won’t be anything left of us to fight for.”

Seth grunted from behind them, his face pale. “We need a plan. We can’t keep holding them off like this.”

Marcus nodded slowly. “We’ll pull back to the caves tonight. Fortify the entrance. Rest, if we can. Then tomorrow… tomorrow we make our stand.”

Jax frowned. “Against what? The Blood Alpha? The vampires? We can’t fight them all.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Marcus replied, his voice quiet but firm. “We either fight… or we die.”

The others nodded, though their eyes were clouded with doubt. It was clear they didn’t believe they’d make it out of this alive. And truthfully, neither did Marcus.

But he wasn’t going to tell them that.

As the pack began their slow, painful retreat toward the caves, Marcus lingered for a moment longer, his eyes drifting to where the girl had been lying. The thought of her haunted him. Who was she? How had she ended up in the middle of this hell? And what kind of monster would rip a child’s wolf from her?

His fists clenched at his sides, the anger rising in his chest. This war had already taken too much from them. Too many lives. Too much blood.

And now, it had taken something far worse. Innocence.

Marcus exhaled slowly, then turned and followed the others, his mind already planning for the battles to come

. The Great Divide was only beginning.

And if they were going to survive, they’d have to become the monsters they were fighting.