The last embers of the fire in the middle of the cave flickered softly, sending up tiny bits of warm ash that floated through the night air before fading out on the cold stone floor.
The whole place suddenly felt tighter, heavier, more threatening, as if the cave walls themselves had closed in after the painful truth that had just been revealed.
In the corner of the cave, Captain Vane had gone back to sleep.
His breathing was heavy but steady now, thanks to the strong pain relief Valerie had given him a while ago.
Across from the almost dead fire, Caleb still sat upright.
His golden eyes stared sharply at the dark shadow on the stone wall.
“We need to get ready to leave as soon as Vane is stable enough for dimensional travel,” Caleb said all of a sudden, cutting through the silence with a voice that was cold and absolute.
“And I’m coming with you,” Valerie answered immediately.
Her tone was calm, but there was zero room in it for argument.
Caleb snapped his head toward her so fast it was almost rude, staring at Valerie like the girl in front of him had just lost her mind.
“Don’t joke around, Valerie!
This isn’t some picnic trip through your human forest!” Caleb snapped.
He stood up at once, his face hardening with anger.
“I’m not joking, Caleb!
And I’ve never been more serious in my life!” Valerie fired back just as hard.
She stood up from her flat stone too, matching his height as best as she could.
“You’re just a human, Valerie!
You could die in seconds before you even see the outer gate of my palace!” Caleb barked, stepping closer and puffing out his broad chest to intimidate her.
“So what?
I’m supposed to just let you go back there alone when your body is still half wrecked like that?!” Valerie shot back.
That bold answer made Caleb hold his breath in shock.
Valerie stepped forward one more time, not letting Caleb’s Alpha aura scare her down even a little.
She knew exactly how brutal the werewolf world he had just described really was, but her mind could not accept that kind of naked injustice.
General Lyca’s betrayal and the brutal slaughter in the Crimson Palace had lit something hot inside Valerie’s chest, a deep anger at cruelty that reminded her of why she had run into this forest in the first place.
“Our world is full of fangs, claws, and cruel black magic, Valerie,” Caleb said, his voice softening now, trying to make her understand in the most reasonable way he could.
“I know your world is cruel, Caleb!
But I also know you two will never win this war if all you rely on is muscle and a bunch of hot anger!” Valerie snapped, folding her arms across her chest in a stubborn defensive stance.
“We are pure wolf people!
We are born to fight on the battlefield from our very first breath!” Caleb declared, pointing at his own chest full of horrifying battle scars.
“And that brainless fighting is exactly why you ended up stranded in this forest with a black magic dagger stuck in your chest!” Valerie shot back.
That hit Caleb hard.
Her words sliced straight through his pride and left him silent.
The prince, who had always considered himself the strongest thing in the room, could not answer for a second.
His jaw tightened so hard it looked painful.
From the corner of the cave, Captain Vane shifted slowly.
He opened his eyes, still hazy from the herbal medicine, but his gaze immediately locked onto the fierce argument happening near the fire.
“This human girl…
has incredible courage, my lord,” Vane whispered, his voice rough and dry, trying to break the tension.
“Quiet, Vane!
Stay out of this!” Caleb cut in quickly, not taking his eyes off Valerie’s brown ones, which were burning with stubborn fire.
“I am only stating facts, my lord.
The guerrilla tactics we used before always needed a cool head, something we often lose when clan rage takes over,” Vane replied, trying to sit up properly on the mat of dried leaves, though it was clearly painful.
“I will not let some human who can’t even protect herself from a snowstorm walk into a rebel wolf nest!” Caleb half shouted.
He was trying to hold his ground because he did not want to risk the life of the girl who had spent months caring for him with so much patience.
“I can protect myself, Caleb!
And I already proved it for months by staying alive alone in this wild forest before you even showed up!” Valerie snapped, her eyes shining with trapped emotion.
“Avoiding a few wild animals on Earth is nothing like facing Jarek’s bloodthirsty troops, Valerie!” Caleb said, trying to keep his voice lower so it would not sound too terrifying.
“I hate injustice, Caleb!
I hate seeing people with power use that power to crush the weak!” Valerie’s voice suddenly shook.
Her eyes began to shine with tears as flashes of her own past in the human city suddenly slammed through her mind.
Caleb froze when he saw the drastic shift in her emotion.
He realized there was a deep hidden wound behind the girl’s stubborn front.
During their life together in the cave, Valerie had never really explained the details of her family troubles, but Caleb could feel it.
She had run because she refused to kneel under unfair cruelty.
“This is not your war, Valerie…” Caleb said softly.
His voice had turned gentle now, almost like a plead.
“It became my war the moment I decided to save your life that night in the storm, Caleb!” Valerie answered, stepping closer until the toes of her shoes were nearly touching his leather boots.
“Why are you so damn stubborn, fragile human?” Caleb muttered, dragging a hand over his face in frustration.
Dealing with her was exhausting in all the worst ways.
“Because I do not want everything I did to save your life that night to go to waste,” Valerie whispered.
That answer made the corner of Caleb’s mouth lift slightly.
It was barely there, but it was a bitter little smile.
Silence came down again between them, leaving only the sound of the night wind outside the cave slipping through the opening covered in vines.
Caleb stared at Valerie with a complicated expression.
He could see very clearly that there was no fear in those brown eyes.
Only pure determination.
Only a desperate need to help.
“If you come with us, you follow every order I give without arguing, Valerie,” Caleb said at last, his voice serious.
His resistance had finally started to crack in front of the human girl’s stubborn heart.
“I’ll obey, as long as your orders make sense and don’t walk us straight into one of Lyca’s stupid traps,” Valerie answered with a satisfied smile, even though her chest was still pounding hard from the argument.
“You are really the most troublesome creature I’ve ever met in two dimensions,” Caleb muttered.
Valerie gave a small laugh in the cold silence of the night.
“And you are the most stubborn patient I’ve ever treated in my entire life!” she shot back, fixing her cotton blanket around her body with a much calmer movement than before.
Captain Vane watched the whole exchange from the corner of the cave and could only shake his head slowly.
He was amazed and confused at the same time, seeing how the feared First Prince of the pure wolf clan had been forced down to one knee by the will of a human girl who did not even have fangs.
“So, what is our first plan after we get through that dimensional portal, my lord?” Vane asked, trying to steer the conversation back toward the military strategy that mattered most.
“We cannot head straight to the capital.
Lyca has definitely placed thousands of guards around the ancient portal point in the Forbidden Forest,” Caleb answered, sitting back down and folding his hands over his knees.
“That’s right, my lord.
They probably built a watch fortress around the area too, just to make sure no loyalist tries to escape or return,” Vane agreed with his tactical analysis.
“This is where my part begins,” Valerie cut in, pulling both wolf men’s attention toward her.
“What can the brain of a human possibly come up with when it comes to wolf clan war tactics, Valerie?” Caleb asked, looking at her with a curious frown.
“You wolves always rely on your super sharp sense of smell to track enemies, right?” Valerie asked, clearly having thought this through while observing Caleb’s body for months.
“Correct.
Our tracking sense is our best weapon and our strongest defense in the wild,” Vane replied with a small nod.
“Then that tracking sense is exactly what we’ll destroy first to blind them,” Valerie said, her eyes gleaming with a new plan forming neatly in her head.
Caleb’s eyes went wide.
He had never imagined that someone would think to turn the wolf race’s greatest strength into a deadly weakness against itself.
“How do you plan to do that, Valerie?
Even black magic can’t erase our scenting ability permanently,” Caleb asked, leaning forward with intense curiosity.
“We don’t need black magic, Caleb.
We just need basic chemistry from my world!” Valerie said with a wide grin, clearly enjoying the shock forming on the handsome prince’s face.
That night, under the shelter of the cave walls sealed off from the outside world, a very strange but incredibly strong alliance was finally born.
A betrayed wolf prince, a badly wounded guard captain, and a normal human girl with frightening tactical intelligence were now ready to build a plan to take back a kingdom throne lost behind an endless dimensional rift.