Chapter 108: TO THE END OF THE WORLD, LUMI

Chapter 109

Ren

The creature standing beside me didn’t look like any wolf I had ever seen in my life.

Her fur was as white as fresh winter snow, thick and shining, and a bright golden light pulsed outward from her skin like sunlight breaking through dark storm clouds.

The light was so strong, so pure, that it lit up every shadow in the massive, rotting timber mill, casting long shadows against the broken wooden walls.

Lumi turned her head slowly, her deep, glowing eyes locking onto mine.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak. For years, the whole pack had whispered behind her back. They called her weak. They called her wolfless.

They pitied her because she couldn’t shift, thinking she was broken inside. But standing here right now, watching the golden aura roll off her body in warm waves, the truth hit me like a physical blow.

She wasn’t wolfless. Her wolf had simply been waiting, hiding its immense, terrifying power until the exact moment when the person she loved was about to die.

"Lumi..." I breathed, my voice barely more than a rough whisper in the quiet room.

I took a slow step closer, my hand moving on instinct. My fingers buried deep into the thick, soft fur at her neck. It felt warm, bursting with a kind of wild energy that made my skin tingle.

"You’re glowing, Lumi," I whispered, looking into her golden eyes with pure awe. "You are so beautiful."

Lumi leaned her massive head into my side, her soft muzzle pressing firmly against my shoulder. She let out a low, deep rumble from her chest that vibrated right through my bones.

The second her skin brushed mine, a sudden shockwave snapped between us.

It felt as if a heavy, unbreakable chain forged from pure fire slammed straight through my heart, binding my soul directly to hers.

I could feel her breath in my lungs. I could feel the powerful rhythm of her heart beating inside my own chest.

We weren’t just two separate wolves standing side by side in the dark. We were completely locked together. Our minds, our spirits, and our strength merged into one single force.

The golden light flowing from her fur didn’t just stay around us. It expanded outward like a wave across the cold concrete floor.

It reached my sister Neve, who was still slumped on the ground, pale and bleeding out from the bullet wound in her shoulder.

The moment the warm, golden light touched Neve’s skin, a miracle happened right before my eyes.

The deep hole in Neve’s shoulder began to close up instantly. The dark blood stopped flowing, the torn flesh knitted itself back together, and the deathly pale color vanished from her face, replaced by a healthy, warm glow.

Neve gasped loudly, taking a deep gulp of air into her lungs as she sat straight up. She looked down at her shoulder, then looked up at Lumi, her jaw hanging open in complete disbelief.

"Ren..." Neve stammered, her voice shaking as she stared at the glowing white wolf. "What... what is she?"

"She’s my mate," I said, my chest swelling with fierce, burning pride.

Lumi raised her head toward the caved-in wooden roof and threw her chin back. She let out a long, majestic howl that shattered the quiet night air.

The sound was so loud, so filled with raw, ancient power, that the dusty wooden beams above us vibrated, and the remaining glass panes in the high windows burst into tiny pieces, falling like rain around us.

Across the room, Callum had scrambled backward onto his rear. His eyes were wide, bulging with total, primitive terror.

The heavy gun sat forgotten on the floor a few feet away from him, his hands shaking so violently he couldn’t even reach for it.

Lumi’s father was cowering right behind him, his back pressed hard against the wooden table.

His face was gray, his mouth open in a silent scream as he looked at the daughter he had spent a lifetime hating and dismissing.

"No..." Callum stammered, his voice high, weak, and shrill like a frightened child.

"No, this is impossible! She doesn’t have a wolf! She’s a useless wolf human! What did you do?!" Her dad yelled in shock and fear.

I turned toward him, taking a heavy step forward.

My broken wrists were completely healed. The three silver bullets that had ripped through my lungs and heart were sitting as flat pieces of metal on the concrete floor behind me.

The heavy chemical poison that had locked my wolf in darkness was completely burned away, replaced by the blazing power flowing straight from Lumi’s bond into my blood.

I tilted my head back and let out my own roar, shifting my body in a flash of dark fur and snapping bone.

Beside the glowing white wolf, my dark Alpha wolf took form, larger and stronger than I had ever been in my life. The golden light from Lumi wrapped around my dark fur, weaving through us like a protective suit of armor.

We walked forward together, stepping in perfect rhythm, our boots and paws heavy against the concrete.

Callum backed up until his spine hit the edge of the wooden table. He desperately reached down, his fingers clawing frantically at the floor to grab his dropped pistol.

Before his hand could touch the metal, Lumi moved. She didn’t just run; she moved like a flash of blinding white light across the room.

She hit Callum full in the chest, her massive weight slamming him hard into the wooden table.

The heavy furniture splintered into a dozen sharp pieces with a loud crash. Callum hit the floorboards hard, the wind knocked completely out of his lungs in a wheezing gasp.

Lumi’s father let out a shriek of terror, abandoning Callum instantly and sprinting toward the dark back exit of the mill.

I didn’t let him take three steps.

I leaped across the broken wood, my massive jaw closing tight around the back of his jacket, dragging him backward through the air and slamming him heavily onto his back right beside Callum.

The two men lay on the wet floor, bruised, bleeding, and trembling in the shadows beneath us.

Callum looked up at me, tears of panic streaming through the dirt on his face.

"Ren... please!" he begged, his hands raised in a desperate gesture. "It was his idea! Lumi’s father planned all of it! He wanted the money, he wanted the territory! I was just helping him!"

"You lying snake!" Lumi’s father screamed, coughing up blood as he tried to crawl away. "You approached me! You said you’d kill them both!"

I stepped over them, standing directly above Callum, while Lumi took her place beside me, her glowing white fur casting a blinding shadow over both of their terrified faces.

"You came into my home," I growled, my voice deep, rough, and vibrating through the floorboards.

"You put your hands on my sister. You tried to murder my mate. And you thought you could walk away."

"Please..." Callum wept, shrinking as far into the floor as he could go. "Have mercy!"

"Mercy is for men," I said coldly. "Not for monsters who hunt helpless women."

Just then, the wooden side door slammed open again.

Darren and Julian burst in, their rifles raised and ready for a fight. But as soon as they stepped inside, they froze dead in their tracks.

Their eyes swept over the shattered table, the two defeated men groveling on the floor, and finally landed on us.

Darren dropped his gun slightly, his eyes wide as dinner plates as he stared at the glowing white wolf standing at my side.

"What... what in the world...?"

Julian stared at Neve, who was standing up completely uninjured, before his eyes shifted to Lumi.

"Is that... is that Lumi?"

Neve walked up to Julian, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and resting her head against his chest.

"Yes," Neve whispered, her voice full of emotion and tears. "She saved all of us."

I looked down at Callum one last time. I didn’t need to rip his throat out with my teeth. The absolute terror in his eyes, knowing he had lost everything to the very person he thought was weak, was a punishment worse than death.

"Darren," I commanded, my voice echoing through the quiet building. "Tie them both up. Use silver chains. Take them to the lowest dungeon in the estate and lock them down. We will deal with their trial tomorrow morning in front of the entire pack."

"Understood, Alpha," Darren said, snapping out of his shock and moving forward with heavy zip-ties and chains to secure the two weeping men.

I turned my head back toward Lumi.

The blinding white light surrounding her fur began to soften, turning into a gentle, warm glow. Slowly, her massive white wolf form faded away, and Lumi knelt on the floor in her human body, breathing softly.

I shifted back to my human form instantly, dropping to my knees beside her. I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist, pulling her close against my chest, burring my face into her hair.

She was warm. She was breathing. She was alive.

Lumi wrapped her arms around my neck, holding onto me with a surprising amount of strength, her face buried in the crook of my neck.

"You came for me," she sobbed softly into my skin, her tears hot against my collarbone. "You broke your hands, you took those bullets... and you still came for me."

"I will always come for you," I whispered, pulling her even closer, feeling her heart beating in perfect time with mine. "To the end of the world, Lumi. Always."