"Let's move to wolf combat," Rex said. "Has your wolf ever taken a life?"
Nova's eyes widened. "No."
In truth, she'd shifted maybe a dozen times in her entire life—nowhere near enough to call it experience.
"I'm told you're cleared to shift today. More than once. Can you confirm?"
"Yes. I'm safe to shift as many times as we need," Nova said.
Rex's gaze flicked to Fin for verification. Fin gave a single nod.
"Good. We'll begin with one opponent. Let your wolf take full command."
A warrior stepped forward at Rex's signal.
"Basic level," Rex told him. Then he looked to Nova. "We'll begin on your shift."
Seraphine initiated the shift before Nova had time to think.
The warrior barely had time to blink. He hit the ground flat on his back, pinned, his own shift stalled halfway from sheer shock. Seraphine didn't even break breath. She stepped off him with the regal disdain of a queen dismissing a challenge she found mildly disappointing.
Nova shifted back in a shimmer of silver.
"Apologies if that hurt," she said softly to the soldier who looked like he'd just watched a ghost eat the sun.
He scrambled upright, shaking his head quickly. "Don't worry about that. You won't hurt us, Queen Shadowclaw."
Nova didn't see the row of warriors behind him with their jaws hanging open—none had seen a white wolf. Let alone a wolf practically glowing moonlight white.
She also didn't see Rex's eyes flare from gold to molten gold, his wolf shoving hard against his skin.
Fin's lips twitched. Jax fought a grin.
Of course she apologized. Of course she was polite about annihilating someone in three seconds.
Neither male particularly enjoyed the soldiers staring at her wolf form—possessiveness rippled off both of them like heat—but they understood the necessity.
Alpha Redmoon had entered quietly, taking a place beside Fin and Jax. They hadn't heard him arrive, but the faint flicker of gold in his eyes made it clear he'd been listening to the mindlinks about Nova's wolf — and wanted to see exactly what they were working with.
"Advanced level one," Rex said, skipping intermediate entirely. His voice held that low, focused edge he used only when assessing lethal skill.
"We start on your shift, Nova."
She didn't even nod.
Seraphine took over before Nova had the chance.
The white wolf burst forward at alpha speed — a streak of moonlit fury — slamming the warrior onto his back before he could shift. The soldier wheezed, stunned, while Seraphine's tail wagged once, proud and pleased, before she shifted back to Nova in a ripple of silver.
Rex said nothing for a long second.
Not because he was unimpressed — because his own wolf slammed against his ribs, snarling to meet hers.
He took a deep breath, forced it down, and gave the warriors a sharp nod.
Three more stepped forward to replace the first.
"Advanced level two," Rex said, voice rougher than before. "Defensive opening. Shift on my mark."
All three warriors shifted into wolf form — claws scraping the stone, hackles rising as they faced the only living white wolf.
"We'll start on your shift, Nova," Rex said.
Nova didn't get the chance to nod. Again. Seraphine surged forward, shifting in a burst of light and the arena went dead silent.
The three wolves lunged at once.
Seraphine didn't bother meeting their momentum. She redirected it.
One hooked paw slammed the first wolf off balance, throwing him into the second. Seraphine spun, jaws grazing the third's scruff just enough to flip him head-over-heels. All three hit the ground within heartbeats.
Five seconds.
Maybe less.
She shifted back, hair falling over her shoulders as if she hadn't just flattened three trained warriors like loose parchment.
Rex seemed to be mindlinking someone.
He was. But what she didn't realize was he was also fighting his wolf, who was clawing upward, trying to reach the white wolf who'd just wiped the floor with three elite soldiers in under five seconds.
Five additional soldiers entered the arena, for eight total.
Rex cleared his throat sharply, shoulders stiff.
"No alpha speed this time. I'm looking for technique." Rex said. "On your shift."
Nova shifted in a ripple of white-silver light, Seraphine taking over with a controlled precision that was almost eerie. No Alpha speed — she honored Rex's command — but even restrained, her wolf moved like a blade sliding through silk.
The first warrior lunged.
She didn't meet him head-on. She sidestepped, hooked her foreleg behind his, and slammed him sideways with a brutal, efficient twist of her neck. Down.
The second came from her right. She pivoted, using the fallen wolf's body as a shield. The attacker crashed into his own comrade, stunned for a heartbeat — just long enough for Seraphine to strike. Her jaws clipped his scruff and dragged him to the ground.
A third tried to flank her.
She feinted left, then blurred right — not Alpha speed, just pure instinct — sweeping his legs out from under him with her hind paw before he could adjust.
The two left circled, smarter than the others. She broke the circle first, snapping forward, forcing one to dodge — and when he dodged, she used him as momentum, springing off his shoulder to crash into the last.
Both went down in a chain of efficient impacts.
Nineteen seconds.
Nova shifted back, hair tousled, looking almost apologetic as five seasoned warriors groaned on the floor behind her.
At this point, Jax was now fighting his wolf who wanted to shift.
Talon: Let me out. I want to chase her. Then I want to pin her. Then I want to mate her. In that order.
Jax: Try it and I will personally enroll you in obedience school.
"Master Level, Lethal-Form Simulation." Rex said as more came out. They nodded, and shifted scattering throughout the field. Twelve total.
"No alpha speed again. We'll start on your shift."
Nova's wolf shifted again for her.
She didn't wait for them to move.
Seraphine lunged first.
The nearest soldier barely had time to brace before she slammed into him, flipping him onto his back with a precision that looked almost surgical. She didn't linger—she used his chest as a springboard, launching off him so hard he skidded across the floor.
She sailed over the second attacker mid-lunge, twisting in the air and landing behind him. Before he could turn, her jaws locked around the scruff of his neck and yanked him down.
Two down.
Another wolf came from her left—she spun low beneath his swipe, hooked his foreleg with hers, and sent him crashing sideways into a fourth wolf who had been preparing to leap. They fell in a tangle of limbs.
Seraphine was already moving, crossing the distance in a blur of white and silver light.
She shoved another him flat with a strategic strike to the shoulder pressure point. The remaining hesitated. A fatal mistake.
Seraphine darted straight toward the largest one, then veered at the last second and ran up his side, using him as a ramp. She launched herself off his back and collided full-force into the wolf behind him.
They both rolled, but she came out on top, pinning him with both paws before vaulting off again.
She landed in front of the last two at once.
They attacked together.
Seraphine met them head-on, paws striking in a flurry of controlled ferocity. She hooked one wolf behind the knee, sweeping him down, then turned in the same motion and shoved the final wolf onto his side with a shoulder slam that cracked against the arena floor.
The room went silent.
Thirty-five seconds. Twelve wolves flat on the ground. No alpha speed.
Seraphine stood in the center of them—white, radiant, tail lifted proudly, fur glowing. She wagged her tail.
Then she calmly stepped back, with perfect composure, and let Nova return.
Rex—who had only just shoved his wolf back down into submission a heartbeat before Seraphine yielded the shift—exhaled once and gave a curt nod.
"Stand down."
The warriors shifted and moved off the field slowly, like men waking from a dream they weren't entirely sure was real. Every one of them stared at Nova as they passed—disbelief written plainly across their faces, awe etched in every line of their posture. A few looked… intrigued in ways Rex, Jax, and Fin absolutely noticed.
Nova didn't. She was lost in the lingering hum of her wolf.
Her eyes flashed gold as she spoke with her wolf.
Nova: I am proud of you.
Seraphine: I should be saying that to you.
Rex's voice cut clean through her conversation with Seraphine.
"Have you gone against an alpha wolf before?" he asked.
Nova shook her head. She hadn't "gone against" anyone outside of Helga in wolf form.
Fin and Jax already knew that answer—both feeling the same stab of regret. They should've trained with her wolf long before this, but she'd barely had time to breathe between wars, curses, and near-deaths.
"I'll go against her," Fin said, stepping forward. His voice was steady, but Jax felt the tremor beneath it—the strain of Xeon clawing for control. Xeon wasn't hostile; he was proud. Proud of Seraphine. Observing her. But he also wanted—very badly—to get to her. Fin had been holding him back the entire session.
Rex nodded once. "Let's do that."
Fin didn't bother taking the stairs. He vaulted clean over the rail, and Xeon forced the shift midair, unwilling to wait another heartbeat. Xeon hit the sand in a controlled slide and moved toward Nova at alpha speed. The moment he reached her, he licked her cheek.
Nova burst into laughter and petted his massive ruff. Xeon pressed into her hand like an overgrown wolf pup starved for affection.
The soldiers watching all froze.
An Alpha behaving like that—and not just any Alpha.
Finric Shadowclaw, the cold-blooded commander, war hero, terror of the battlefield, nuzzling someone with absolutely no shame about it.
"True love," one warrior whispered with a grin.
Rex exhaled through his nose, fighting a smile.
"Alpha speed allowed. On your shift, Nova."
Nova hesitated, just for a heartbeat, her gaze flicking to Xeon. Seraphine felt it too. Then a voice slid into her mind, deep and warm, unmistakably his wolf's.
Xeon:You won't hurt us.
Nova drew in a breath, and Seraphine surged forward. The shift ripped through her in a blaze of white and silver light.
Seraphine launched forward at Alpha speed, and Xeon met her head-on, sand exploding beneath their paws.
She feinted left. Xeon followed.
Seraphine twisted under him, using his own weight to pivot him off balance. He corrected, but too late.
She leapt, fast and precise, catching him across the shoulders. They collided again, power slamming against power, two titans crashing together.
Then Nova's wolf used his momentum against him, redirected it cleanly, and brought the Alpha wolf of Shadowclaw down onto his side in a textbook submission hold.
Three seconds.
Maybe four.
Seraphine huffed once, triumphant. She licked his snout before hopping off.
Nova shifted back in silver light. Fin, stunned, followed. He was behind her in the next heartbeat, lifting her clean off the ground, arms locked around her waist.
She let out a startled, high-pitched scream, nothing like the fierce queen who had taken down an Alpha wolf only moments before.
Fin's grin was boyish and bright, just as out of place against his lethal reputation.
"Xeon demands a rematch," he said, voice low in her ear.
Nova laughed, head dropping back against his shoulder.
Jax and Rex both smirked. Soldiers stared. And Xeon, the giant, ruthless wolf, was currently pouting like a child denied a sweet.
"The only weakness I'm seeing is the fact she's never directly killed anyone by blade or wolf," Rex said.
Jax nodded once.
"Alright then. Let's get this done before Fin starts purring."