( At the other side - at Kieran’s end)

The mighty Alpha Kieran was panting hard.

Blood and sweat slid down his muscular body in slow, viscous trails, dripping from his jaw, his ribs, his forearms...each drop hitting the ground like it carried weight.

His legs were stretched far beyond comfort, muscles trembling as they fought to keep him upright. Every breath tore through his chest. His arms were locked forward, shaking violently as he struggled to hold back the raging beast in front of him.

The beast lunged again.

Kieran barely managed to block it...his forearm screamed as claws scraped along bone, the impact driving him back inch by inch. His feet dragged through the dirt, carving helpless lines into the ground.

Pathetic, a cruel voice whispered somewhere in his mind.

The beast snarled, foam dripping from its ruined mouth, eyes clouded and wild. There was no recognition in that gaze. No memory. No mercy.

But Kieran recognized him... obviously he knew him too well... he knew from his scent... but there was no way the beast in front of him was the mighty Alpha...the wrath of the Old world... the mighty Thorgar.

The realization sat like poison in his veins, slowing his reactions, dulling the instinct to fight back properly. His heart twisted painfully, not with relief...well there was momentary relief but that was it...it was momentary...then it filled with utter shock. With confusion. With a hollow grief he had no time to process... Obviously not for himself... but for his Autumn. And to know that the cause was his own mother... though he did not want to recognise that relation.

Autumn’s father was alive.

The thought should have brought hope. Some twisted victory.

Instead, Kieran felt empty.

Too drained to feel joy. Too battered to feel relief. Too horrified to understand how survival could look like this.

The beast roared again.Its breath fell on him, hot and rancid...against Kieran’s face, and slammed its weight into him.

Kieran’s knees buckled.

"Ghh..." A broken sound tore from his throat as he dropped to one knee, one hand slamming into the ground to keep himself from collapsing entirely.

The beast seized the opening.

Claws raked across Kieran’s shoulder, tearing through flesh. Blood sprayed, warm and blinding. Kieran gasped, the world narrowing to pain and the pounding of his heart.

Thorgar was definitely not himself. He seemed to have forgotten his past. Seemed to have lost all rationale. But his fighting skills were intact. Muscle memory perhaps.

So it had the brute strength and the tactics but it would definitely not last too long if Kieran actually wanted to attack him.

But how could he? How could he make him bleed when he had promised Autumn that he would look for him together with Autumn. How could he hurt him knowing how much Autumn longed for her father.

Another violent shove and Kieran felt the ripple all over his tattered form!!

"So this is how it ends?" he muttered hoarsely, more to himself than to the monster towering over him.

The beast cocked its head, confused by the sound of his voice, then snarled and raised its arm again.

Kieran lifted his own trembling arm to block...too slow, too weak.

"Alpha Thorgar..." The name slipped from his lips before he could stop it. "For Autumn’s sake...for the sake of your daughter...please. Stop. You don’t need to fight me. I am not the enemy here. Autumn wouldn’t want us to fight. Please.You need to stop this. You need to help us."

The beast hesitated.

Just for a heartbeat.

Its claws hovered in the air, shaking, as if some distant echo fought to the surface.

Kieran looked up at the grotesque face looming above him...mutilated, twisted, barely resembling the rugged but handsome Alpha it once was. Spittle hung from broken lips. One eye twitched uncontrollably.

"This isn’t you," Kieran continued, voice cracking, breath hitching painfully. "You are an Alpha. You are a father. If anybody can fight this, it’s you...you made packs shiver just with your name..."

The hesitation shattered.

The beast roared in rage, as if the words themselves were an attack, and slammed its claws down with renewed fury.

Kieran was thrown backward, skidding across the ground like a discarded weapon. He crashed hard, the air knocked from his lungs, vision blurring as he lay there...bloodied, shaking, utterly exposed.

Pathetic.

He tried to push himself up. His arms gave out.

The beast advanced slowly now,as if savoring it. Each step was heavy. Deliberate. Its eyes seemed full of cruel intent.

Kieran dragged himself back inch by inch, nails scraping uselessly against the earth.

"I won’t kill you," he rasped, tears stinging his eyes despite himself. "Even if you kill me...I won’t lay a finger on you...for Autumn...and you must fight too...for your daughter...Alpha Thorgar you have it on you...I know you are in there...fight it...fight this urge...you don’t need to do this...we are on the same side..."

The beast raised its head and roared to the sky.

It was a sound so broken it felt like a scream torn from a soul that no longer knew how to suffer properly.

Kieran closed his eyes, chest heaving, waiting for the blow... that was yet to come...

...and wondering, in that frozen stretch of time, how he was ever supposed to tell Autumn that this was what remained of her father...

And then- SLAM!!! It seemed like he was trying to tackle himself.

The beast did not stop.

Even after that broken roar to the sky,and futile self tackling effort...it turned back to him...eyes burning, chest heaving, strength somehow refilling its ruined frame. As if pain did not register. As if exhaustion was a foreign concept.As if it’s survival depended on that attack.

So it attacked again.

The impact sent a violent tremor through Kieran’s already shattered body. Something inside him gave...a sharp...a final warning...and suddenly his limbs felt distant, unresponsive. His vision blurred at the edges, the world slowing even further, stretching thin like it was about to tear apart.

"So this is it..." He murmured again.

He tasted blood. Copper and dust filled his mouth as he hit the ground again, this time unable to even brace himself. His ribs screamed. His heartbeat thundered once... twice... then staggered, uneven.

Life felt like it was slipping.

Not dramatically.

Not all at once.

But quietly. Like warmth draining from his veins.

The beast loomed over him again.

It rose slowly, shadows swallowing its grotesque form as it lifted its arm...muscles bunching, claws dripping, breath rattling through broken lungs. Its energy wasn’t spent. Not yet. Not when it mattered.

Kieran didn’t try to move this time.

Honestly ,he couldn’t.

Instead, he closed his eyes.

"Autumn..." came a rasp.

The word echoed silently through his mind as he reached for their mate bond...the sacred thread that tied their souls together even after everything they had been through. It flickered weakly, strained, almost drowned beneath pain and distance.

"I don’t know if you can hear me," he thought, clinging to it anyway,knowing full well there was no official pack mindlink between them anymore...even if there was, it was nonfunctional in that place. "But I need you to know..."

His breathing slowed.

"I kept my promise. I found him. But this is how I found him, love. I am so sorry about that."

A faint tremor passed through his chest.

" And I am sorry this is how it ends. That I am leaving you in the middle of this ugly battle. And I am sorry I couldn’t bring him back to you the way you must have dreamt."

The rancid breath grew closer. He could smell it now...rot, blood, something ancient and wrong.

"But loving you..."

A ghost of a smile tugged weakly at his lips.

"That was worth everything that ever happened. I am so grateful for this life where I found you... "

Then all of a sudden the air shifted.

An abrupt pressure change...sudden, violent...rushed in from both sides of him like a wall collapsing inward.

" STAY AWAY!!!"

The yell split the air.

Power surged.

Kieran felt it tear past him in a blinding force, lifting dust, blood, and earth as it slammed into the beast and hurled it sideways with a bone crushing impact.

The weight above him vanished.

Before he could even open his eyes, arms wrapped around him.

Too tight. Almost crushing him. That scent... he knew that too...Selene... unmistakable.

She hugged him like a hurricane...too intense...as if afraid he would disappear if she let go, not even bothered whether she crushed his bones in the process.

Her body trembled against his. She seemed scared. Her breath was uneven as she pressed her forehead to his temple.

"Kieran," she whispered...too urgent...right into his ear, voice breaking, "are you alright?"