Chapter 894

It was like living through a recurring nightmare that refused to end.

By the time the first set of humans had been drained completely, the second group was dragged forward and slaughtered in the exact same fashion.

Then another.

And another.

Over and over again until every single human inside those cages was dead and the ceramic tub sat filled nearly to the brim with blood.

Roman watched the entire thing unfold with something inside him slowly breaking apart. The bodies were dumped carelessly to the side afterward, piled atop one another like trash instead of people.

Some of them still had their eyes open and

Roman could not stop staring at them. Those glassy dead eyes seemed to accuse him silently for failing them.

Nor could he escape the sounds. The screaming. The choking. The desperate begging. It all echoed endlessly inside his head now.

“Step in, Alpha,” one of the witches instructed reverently.

Angus Richmond removed his clothes without the slightest trace of shame, completely unbothered by the blood and corpses surrounding him. Arrogance practically dripped from the man.

He stepped one foot into the tub first, then the other before slowly lowering himself inside. The blood immediately sloshed over the edges and spilled onto the ground around him.

Roman nearly gagged at the sight. The air reeked of the metallic scent of blood.

Angus relaxed deeper into the tub afterward until the blood reached just beneath his neck like some horrifying bath prepared for a monster.

The witches circled him immediately and began chanting.

The ritual had started.

Power crackled violently through the hunting grounds. Even from where Roman and Aeron were restrained, they could feel how vile the spell was. It slithered across their skin like dark oil. Everything about it felt wrong. It repulsed something primal inside their souls.

Still Roman remained frozen there unable to do anything. Had this been Asher or Alaric, they would have figured something out already.

They would have escaped and protected everyone. But him? Here he was kneeling helplessly while innocent people got butchered right in front of him.

Weak.

Pathetic.

Useless.

“You’re not useless,” Aeron immediately shot down.

Only then did Roman realize he had spoken those thoughts out loud.

But he was tired. So fucking tired.

Tired of being the one Violet would have to rescue like some helpless child.

Tired of being the weak link among the Cardinal Alphas.

Tired of being vulnerable!

His hand suddenly reached for the collar around his neck and pulled hard.

“What are you doing?” Aeron demanded, alarmed now.

Roman ignored him completely. Instead, he gritted his teeth and kept pulling against the metal restraint with brute force alone.

His face reddened violently from effort. Veins bulged visibly against his neck and forehead while the muscles in his arms tightened hard enough to tremble.

The collar immediately activated in response. Electricity exploded through Roman’s body. He screamed from the pain but refused to let go. The current ripped viciously through him, enough to make smoke nearly rise from his skin.

Still, Roman kept pulling.

The nearby guards immediately noticed.

“Hey! What the hell is he doing?!”

But Roman no longer cared. The pain mixed together with fury and desperation until they became impossible to separate.

The electricity meant to weaken him only enraged his wolf further. His eyes suddenly ignited bright green.

The wolves surrounding him exchanged confused looks.

“What do we do?!”

They could have shot Roman, but Angus had specifically ordered him kept alive. Unfortunately, Angus himself remained fully immersed in the ritual and unable to issue new commands.

That hesitation became their mistake because Roman roared and with one final violent pull—Crack! The collar shattered apart.

Every wolf froze in disbelief. Even Aeron stared.

Roman lifted his head, breathing heavily, those eyes glowing with vengeance. At last, he was free.

One of the guards finally recovered from the shock enough to panic.

“Fuck it!” he shouted. “Get rid of him!”

Gunfire erupted instantly but Roman moved quickly. Without the collar suppressing him anymore, he flowed between the bullets almost beautifully, his movements smooth and deadly like a hunting cat.

The wolves barely had time to react before Roman closed the distance. He knocked the gun aside effortlessly, then his claws punched straight through the wolf’s chest.

Blood sprayed across Roman’s face as his hand burst out through the other side gripping the man’s still-beating heart. The wolf looked down once in horror, right before Roman ripped it out.

The moment the wolf dropped to the ground lifeless, the others finally snapped out of their shock.

The wolves opened fire again.

However, Roman was not alone. Aeron used the distraction to strike. He moved before most of the wolves could properly react, taking them down one after another with ruthless efficiency.

“The prisoners are free! Send help! Send reinforcements!” one of the wolves shouted into his communicator right before Aeron smashed the blunt edge of the rifle across his face hard enough to send teeth flying.

Angus heard the chaos ringing out behind him and his brows furrowed in irritation.

What in the world was happening?

Unfortunately, he could not interfere, not while in the middle of the ritual. Nothing mattered more than restoring the vitality of the runes.

Howls tore through the hunting grounds alongside the constant sound of gunfire. Some of the wolves had shifted and Roman did the same. His massive green wolf burst into the battlefield while bullets ripped through trees and dirt around him.

Aeron was nowhere directly visible anymore, but every now and then another wolf suddenly dropped down dead. The assassin was hunting.

Meanwhile, Roman had only one target in mind. Angus.

He could not allow that bastard to finish the ritual. Not even if stopping him would cost his life.

So he charged. Unfortunately, the enemy wolves understood his objective too. They threw themselves directly into his path without hesitation.

Even against three wolves at once, Roman remained terrifying. His green wolf lunged viciously between snapping jaws and claws, mauling them with brutal aggression worthy of an Alpha.

One wolf managed to bite into his side. Big mistake. Roman twisted and sank his teeth deep into the wolf’s throat and ripped it open violently. Blood sprayed across his muzzle. The wolf collapsed instantly.

Another lunged for him only for a bullet to suddenly pierce through its side and the wolf dropped with a howl of agony.

Aeron.

Roman did not waste the opening. He descended on the remaining wolf and clawed viciously across its face, shredding one eye completely.

Victory was right there when suddenly another wolf crashed into him from the side hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.

Roman skidded violently across the dirt before lifting his head with a growl. More wolves had arrived.

Standing before him now was a massive brown wolf with cold eyes filled with violence.

It was Jericho, Angus’s beta.

He snarled lowly at him and Roman looked around quickly. More wolves were closing in. Worse, his body was weakening, the torture, blood loss and exhaustion, slowly catching up to him.

Still Roman rose back onto his feet anyway.

Never again would they collar him like some helpless animal.

Never again would anyone call Roman Draven the weakest among the Cardinal Alphas. If he was going down today, then he was doing it in style.

And he knew exactly how. Hell, Roman was not even entirely sure this would work. But Asher once told him, the mind was only a limitation and once you broke past that limitation, anything became possible.

Roman dug his claws into the earth and summoned every ounce of power he possessed. He screamed as he twisted violently. Horrifying snaps echoed through the hunting grounds as his spine arched unnaturally.

Even the wolves staggered backward in alarm.

“What the fuck is happening to him?!”

Roman collapsed onto the ground as his body continued changing. His limbs lengthened and muscles expanded beneath the skin and fur. His wolf form began growing larger and larger. It was strange and unsettling.

He threw his head back with another roar and suddenly emerald scales burst through his skin one after another, spreading rapidly across his body.

The scales carried an iridescent sheen that shifted beautifully whenever light touched them, flashes of emerald, jade and metallic green glinting across his rapidly growing body.

The wolves looked terrified now.

Aeron hiding between the trees muttered, “What the fuck?”

Roman’s body continued expanding until he towered over everyone present. Then massive wings suddenly flew outward from his back with a violent snap powerful enough to send several wolves flying backward from the force alone. Dust exploded across the space.

Then his face elongated into something far more dangerous than a wolf ever could be. Rows of razor-sharp dragon teeth filled his mouth while long curved horns emerged from his skull.

Finally, the creature lifted its head fully and

silence swallowed the place whole. Everyone stared upward in stunned horror and awe at the gigantic emerald dragon now standing before them.