Beads of tears came from bottom of her eyes after realizing Nortze had teleported them in. For the first time, she cried infront of Rikilda. The house too had an atmosphere for crying.

Almost no sound came in. The only sound of was of Gisella sobbing. Sometimes she shed tears for Gervase and sometimes for Nortze. She left out her own misery whilst lamenting for others. The shattered mother got some attention from Rikilda. Although she had nothing to lighten up her mood, she came and sat beside her – wondering what might be good to say. Gisella resisted as Rikilda tried to pull her palm away from her eyes. She pardoned her for once but couldn’t do the same for the second time.

She said nothing. She was too saddened to say anything. Instead, she gave her daughter a shove. Then she continued weeping again.

Seeing no interference, Gisella reckoned her daughter had chosen to stay away from her. Braden was also not close to her but the family dog would not let her alone.

Gisella got up and headed for the other room. Trov, nevertheless, followed her wherever she went. Gisella had to kick him out of her way several times.

In the end, Trov seemed to have lost his patience. He stood on his hind limbs and put his huge paws on her shoulders. She saw his impolite face looking at her. His expressions grew wilder as he sniffed her.

By the time she freed herself, Trov had stopped wagging its tail. Gisella didn’t need to say a word from there. Trov left the room on his own, not showing any regret on his behavior.

Gisella sat on her bed with her hand resting on her forehead. Her posture led her eyes to Trov’s fallen hair on the floor. She watched the traces of fur going all the way to the door.

When she looked closely, she noticed marks of Trov’s nails on the floor. She also got the wind of something else.

Sound of her daughter cries had Trov’s growl as a companion.

The woman got off her bed and ran to the living room where she saw Trov's rudeness getting worse. He appeared to be smelling air, biting nothing and backing away few steps. During all the time, his gaze switched between Rikilda and Braden back and forth. He came to a conclusion when he stretched his neck and howled.

The howl sent shivers through Gisella. She had never imagined Trov's vocal chords had capacity to make such sound. Neither had she anticipated his audacity escalate to this level.

Trov shook his body, shedding the fur over his old skin. His lower limb muscles tripled in size while his body expanded. Only the head remaining the same size.

Rikilda got off her seat the moment Trov stood upright with his inch long nails clipping out.

"Trov!" Gisella snapped.

The animal did not listen to her and kept marching to where Rikilda and Braden were present. As he walked, his sharp nails came from his hind limbs.

"Don’t even think about it or I will have to kill you."

Trov stopped. He looked at her for few seconds. With the face changed so much, Gisella couldn’t tell what Trov wanted.

"Don’t do this."

Unaffected by Gisella's warning, he leaped for Rikilda. As always, Rikilda remained there petrified.

Gisella hovered her right palm over left, creating a purple haze. It kept getting darker with every movement of her hand. It took a spherical shape in no time. Then she released it.

The light struck Trov on his back. Rikilda dived to her left, seeing an opportunity, but got grounded since she couldn’t see the table on her way.

Trov dealt with his pain and Rikilda dealt with hers. There was Braden for her ease and there was Gisella to worsen things for Trov. She had already started making another sphere.

A green one.

She gave him no mercy and hurdled the light at his direction. The light from the field illuminated the entire room green. Rikilda and Braden had to cover their eyes from their forearms.

Trov vanished before the light could touch him. He left her wondering whether it was the effect of the force on animals - if Trov qualified as an animal, now.

In melancholy, the idea of opening the door visited her head although she dismissed it quickly. She then killed the illumination floating on her hands.

A thrust on the back and Gisella heard her daughter's scream. Rikilda had better idea of the happening than Gisella herself.

The beast had come from behind and taken her out. Gisella's forehead hit the floor so hard that she couldn’t distinguish reality from trails of her fragmented thoughts. Trov, in the other hand, seemed to have gone through a sudden rise in intelligence.

He rose on his forelimb for the first time and pushed the cupboard over Gisella. The cupboard slammed over her along with the utensils and pots in it. Only her extended right palm was out of the rubble which lit dim green and faded away.

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Without Gisella on his way, the monster went to get Rikilda. Braden tried to pull her but his grip slipped over her cotton sleeves. As a result, he appeared like a coward who was pretentious about being helpful.

"Use some magic." Braden roared.

Rikilda had made her mind on using the knife instead. She plunged the knife from the top of the dog's snout. The blade tip emerged from its lower jaw, locking the mouth from opening.

Rikilda could see the animal's pupils expanding in pain. Trov swung his muscular arm and sliced a big chunk of flesh from her arm. Had she been any closer, he would have spilled her vital organs out.

He had torn the flesh of her arm to its bare bone. Trov jolted his hand and the piece of meat slapped near to Braden.

Trov opened his jaw while the dagger was still sunken on his snout. He left wounded Rikilda and hasted to decide Braden's fate.

Somehow, Braden found guts to lock horns with the werewolf taller than him. He clutched the dagger hilt and pulled it down his nose. When he removed the blade, halves of Trov's upper jaw was moving independently like a leaf split in half in wind.

"Hide." Braden said to the girl who had just got up holding her arm.

Trov glanced at Rikilda but it didn’t take long for him to look back at Braden. Terrified Braden aimed his knife at Trov while walking sideways. He froze when as he discovered a bloodied smile crippling on Trov's face. His pointy ears twitched, listening to Rikilda's footsteps.

Braden noticed Gisella's hand move underneath the rubble. It could have been a spasm but he took the mild movement on a positive note.

Trov tackled him down even despite of Braden's eyes being away from him for a mere fraction of the second. The impact loosened his grip and sent his dagger to the other corner of the room.

The animal raised its paw, aiming for his neck. Braden also raised his arm in his defense. His eyes were closed as the paw descended towards him with immense strength.

The paw landed on his hand and did not go down any further. Somehow, he had blocked the blow. Both were in disbelief because of the happening. Braden took the advantage of confusion and twisted the paw.

He heard a crack. Trov felt it.

Braden applied all of his strength to break the paw iron like paw. It behaved like iron until it broke completely and rotated to Trov's chest.

Braden shoved nails into his chest. The nails went in his flesh like butter only stopping because of the bones. He punched on the paw, piercing the nails underneath the rib cage. Trov jumped backwards and removed his paw from the chest with great effort.

Meanwhile, Braden clutched the dagger, jabbing it into Trov's chest.

The beast whimpered like a puppy when Braden stabbed him again.

Realizing a need for change, he aimed for the space between Trov's bulging eyes and pushed the dagger through it. At first, Trov's eyes looked at him. Then they focused on something else and got lost in itself.

Braden pulled the dagger, slicing the hard skull, creating a sound of tearing a sack. Trov fell on his feet, motionless, as the knife left its head.

"Braden!" Rikilda cried.

She walked over Trov and hugged him. Braden also couldn’t stop himself from hugging her in return. He even went past the tender hug and kissed her, forgetting all the things he had gone through. At the moment he neither feared Nortze nor Wernh'An.

"I don’t want to marry Tudor." she said.

Braden gazed her straight in her eyes, "You never wanted to."

She hugged him as tight as she could. Rikilda didn’t even let her injured arm stop her from doing so. With all the chaos happening outside, she did not want to leave his company. She let go of her insecurities while Braden appeared to be struggling to do it. As far as she could tell, they were escalating in him.

Soon he sniveled and trembled. Rikilda patted his back but couldn’t ease things for him.

"Don’t be scared, Braden." Rikilda breathed, "Father will kill Wernh'An."

Braden chose silence.

"When all this is over. I will tell father about us -"

Rikilda felt something sharp pierce her upper back. She pushed Braden away immediately and touched the cold knife planted on her back.

"Braden." she saw his yellow eyes and expressionless face. During the melancholy, she had failed to notice that Trov never had yellow eyes like other werewolves they had seen on their way. Trov was not possessed by Wutke. He just wanted to guard the family from the man being grasped by Wutke's aura.