Betrayed by My Ex, Marked by His Alpha Emperor Brother novel Chapter 272

Chapter 272: Chapter 272

Elara’s POV

The shift came like breathing.

No pain. No resistance. One heartbeat I stood on two legs, silver hair whipping in the night wind. The next, I was running on four.

My paws hit the ground and the world exploded into sensation. Every scent sharpened to a blade’s edge. Every sound—the crack of twigs, the distant rush of the river, the hammering heartbeats of dozens of wolves shifting behind me—rang crystal clear in the darkness.

I was enormous.

The realization hit me mid-stride. My shoulders stood level with the mounted knights’ saddles. My fur blazed silver-white in the moonlight, bright as fresh snow on a mountain peak. Muscles I’d never known existed coiled and released beneath my hide with effortless, devastating power.

And beside me—him.

Alex.

Kaelen’s wolf was a thing of nightmares. Jet black. Massive. His pelt swallowed light the way a void swallows stars. But his eyes—those impossible, burning gold eyes—cut through the darkness like twin suns. They radiated dominance. Primal, ancient authority that pressed against every living thing within range and said kneel.

I didn’t kneel.

I matched him. Stride for stride. Shoulder to shoulder. My silver to his black. My ice to his fire.

Perfect. The thought rose from somewhere deep. From the wolf. From the blood. From a truth that had always been there, buried beneath years of lies and self-doubt. We are perfect.

He felt it too. I knew because he turned that great dark head toward me, and those molten gold eyes softened. Just a fraction. Just for me.

Pride. Love. A fierce, savage joy.

I pressed my flank against his. Felt the heat of him. The raw power humming beneath that midnight fur. My equal. My mate. My partner.

Behind us, the pack fell into formation. Dozens of wolves. Knights who had shed their armor and given themselves over to their beasts. Their paws thundered against the forest floor like war drums. Gray wolves, brown wolves, tawny and black—all of them smaller than us. All of them following.

Waiting.

I looked at Kaelen. He looked at me.

We threw back our heads and howled.

The sound split the night. Two voices. Two Alpha voices woven together into a single, devastating command that resonated through bone and blood and ancient instinct.

Hunt. Kill. No mercy.

The pack erupted behind us. Dozens of answering howls tore through the trees. And then we were moving. All of us. A tide of fur and fang pouring through the forest like floodwater.

The blood trail was easy to follow.

Malakor’s scent cut through the damp earth and pine like a wound—copper and rot and something darker. Something dying. The drops were fresh. Thick. Still warm where they splattered against fallen leaves and exposed roots.

He was close. The smeared drag marks on the earth showed he was crawling, bleeding out.

The first rogue appeared from behind an oak.

Thin. Scraggly. Ribs showing beneath patchy fur. He lunged at us from the shadows, teeth bared in a desperate snarl.

Alex didn’t slow.

His jaws closed around the rogue’s throat with a sound like snapping branches. One shake. Brutal. Final. The rogue’s body hit the ground, his throat effortlessly crushed. Alex never broke stride.

I caught the spray of blood against my muzzle. Tasted it. Kept running.

The trail curved north. Deeper into the forest. The trees grew thicker here, their canopy blocking the moonlight. It didn’t matter. My wolf’s eyes cut through the darkness like the world was lit from within.

Three more rogues.

They burst from a ravine to our left. Larger than the first. Coordinated. One aimed for Alex’s flank, one for mine, one tried to circle behind.

No.

I hit the one coming for me mid-leap. My jaws found his shoulder, and I twisted. Bone snapped. He screamed—a high, animal shriek—and then Alex was there, crushing the second rogue’s skull beneath his massive paw. The third hesitated. Just a heartbeat. A knight surged from the pack behind us, steel-gray and snarling, and together we tore into the last one. Three bites. Three wolves. Three corpses steaming in the cold air.

I pressed my shoulder against his. Firmly. Deliberately. Together. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

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