[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave":3,"chapter-the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-chapter-405":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The Lunar Curse: A Second Chance With Alpha Draven",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},923827,1212,"Chapter 405: The War (VI)","the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-chapter-405",405,"\u003Cp>(Third Person).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In that agonizing moment, Meredith felt the surge before she saw it—the old power coiling under her skin, a heat that was not the lab’s fire but something ancestral and furious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It rushed through her limbs and centred in her chest, a tide that sharpened every sense. Her fear cleaved into a single, hard blade of purpose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a sound like a breaking tree, she moved. The five soldiers fell inward to the sweep of her sword—not as a bloody mess, but as one immaculate, devastating motion that left them disarmed and incapacitated within a breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had not thought the strike through; it had come through her as inevitability. For a second, the corridor held only the hiss of breathing and the settling of dust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, she turned and ran to the nearest cluster of warriors. Two lay motionless where they had fallen, bullets having found flesh before hands could reach them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meredith’s breath hitched; something inside her snapped like a taut wire. She dropped the sword, anything that let her be nothing but human at that instant, and fell to the one nearest, hands moving with a healer’s reflex despite the blood and her own shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No—no, hold on,\" she whispered, pressing fingers to a bleeding shoulder, kneeling on the cold concrete as if the heat of the lab could not touch the ice in her chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A second corpse lay a few feet away; the warrior’s face was already slack, eyes vacant under the harsh light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A soldier, the last three of them still alive, staggered forward, rifle raised, their faces a mask of fury and fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rasped something like a curse and fired. The shot cracked; Meredith felt the sting as the bullet found her. Pain exploded across her side instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a second, the world tilted. She tasted metal in her mouth and the scent of smoke and old grief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then, she twisted, rising through the white-hot shock, and stared at the three men blinking at their guns as if nothing had happened to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around her, the wounded groaned; the remaining warriors braced, wounded but alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her voice, when it came, was not pleading. It trembled with the grief and the red-hot fury that had been built into her these last hours.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Today,\" she said, each word a strike, \"I will have your souls.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without waiting for a second, she hauled herself to her feet. Valmora hummed under her skin like a promise. A\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>round them, the lab collapsed into thunder—screams, the roar of the fire, the distant hammer of boots.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meredith planted her feet, every tendon clenched, and advanced. The three soldiers aimed again, but they no longer felt like the end of anything; they were merely the next thing she had to pass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first lurch of her forward motion blurred the corridor into a flash of steel and movement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next second, the scene fractured into the sound of orders, the thud of bodies, and the single, terrible clarity of what had to be done.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>---\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The marble floors trembled under the weight of panic. Smoke, gunfire, and the sharp metallic tang of blood filled the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven’s hand clamped around Brackham’s collar, dragging the struggling man out of his shattered office and into the burning corridor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The once-polished halls of the government house now echoed with screams, gunshots, and the inhuman snarls of vampires.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brackham stumbled and fell to his knees, gasping. \"Draven—Draven, wait—!\" he wheezed, trying to pry the Alpha’s hand away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven ignored him. His expression was carved from stone, his eyes blazing with restrained fury.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hauled the mayor upright again, forcing him forward through the chaos. Jeffery followed behind them, claws half-bared, keeping a wary watch for incoming threats.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All around them, chaos reigned. Vampires darted through the halls, overpowering human soldiers. A body slammed into the far wall and slid down, leaving a trail of blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chandelier above had long since fallen, glass crunching underfoot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven finally stopped at the edge of the grand lobby, where the fighting was fiercest. His grip shifted, and he shoved Brackham hard against a cracked marble pillar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mayor hit it with a grunt, barely keeping his balance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven’s voice was cold and calm, the kind of calm that promised destruction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You wanted this war,\" he said, his tone quiet enough that only Brackham could hear. \"You built it with your own hands. Look around you, Mayor. This is your masterpiece.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brackham’s eyes darted wildly over the burning hall. \"No—no, this isn’t—this wasn’t supposed to happen! You said you would protect us—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I said I would drive the vampires away,\" Draven cut him off sharply. \"But it’s your actions that brought them here again. You captured one of their own—their leader, Brackham.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mayor froze. His mouth opened, but no sound came. He paled even more, realizing what Draven meant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That can’t be true,\" he whispered, shaking his head. \"That can’t. But you brought him—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven stepped closer until their faces were inches apart. \"You thought you could play god,\" he said, his voice low and dangerous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You burned forests, spilt blood, and experimented on my people. You even considered using vampires as your next weapon. Now, your weapons have come to collect their debt.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brackham swallowed hard, trembling as gunfire echoed closer. \"Then—then help me, Draven,\" he stammered. \"We can still fix this—save the city—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jeffery scoffed behind them. \"Save it? You already buried it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven’s lips curved in something between a smirk and a snarl. \"Save it?\" he repeated. \"No, Brackham. This city is your punishment.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He slammed his fist into the pillar beside Brackham’s head, hard enough to crack the marble. The mayor flinched violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You will live long enough to watch it burn,\" Draven said, voice deep and steady. \"That’s mercy enough.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brackham shook his head in disbelief, the fear finally cracking him open. \"You—You’re not going to kill me?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Draven’s eyes burned like coals. \"No,\" he said simply. \"Death is too kind for men like you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, with a sudden, violent jerk, he released Brackham’s collar only to drive his fist hard into his stomach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brackham doubled over, gasping, blood spilling from his mouth. Another punch caught him in the jaw, snapping his head sideways.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He fell to the ground, wheezing and half-conscious.\u003C\u002Fp>",1054,"2026-06-03T06:41:07.525Z","2026-06-03T06:41:13.871Z",1,"novelbin.me","015b1aecb3f407594d5361dd2acecd6e4fc94c11834957b666485752db7d300a","the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-chapter-406","the-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-chapter-404",685,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-lunar-curse-a-second-chance-with-alpha-drave-cover.jpg"]