เข้าสู่ระบบXavier’s POV“ALARA!”My roar splintered the air, a jagged sound lost in the symphony of collapsing stone and the wet snarls of a hundred wolves.But the space where her light once had been was empty. One heartbeat, I could feel the thrum of her soul against mine, and the next, there was only a terrifying silence.The bond wasn’t severed. That would have been a mercy. This was worse. It had turned into a muted, muffled echo, as if someone had dragged her behind a leaden veil I couldn't tear through.I could recognize the scent of the man who had done it — shadows and cold rot.Something inside me didn't just crack, it snapped. The restraint I had spent years cultivating disintegrated in nanoseconds. Marcus didn't just surface; he erupted like a volcano that'd been bubbling quietly for decades. ’Mine.’The word wasn't a thought. It carried the physical weight of instinct and possession. It was the only law left in the room.The controlled wolves sensed the change. They turned in unis
Alara’s POVI could feel the masonry dying beneath my feet. Every fissure snaking through the stone, every structural tremor that rattled my bones, every necrotic pulse from the corrupted network — it all bled into me.The shattered psyches of the controlled wolves hammered against my own in jagged bursts of anguish and forced obedience, while the silver crescent fire beneath my skin grew into a liquid inferno.A wolf lurched from a collapsing corridor to my left, its movements twitchy and desperate. I barely had to think; the crescent mark burned hotter on my wrist as silver light erupted from my palms on instinct. The wolf dropped instantly.My breath came in ragged shudders. Every time I reached for that power, it answered more easily. And that ease terrified me more than the monsters did.“Alara!”Xavier’s voice cut through the din just as a massive tremor heaved the floor upward. I turned toward the sound instinctively, desperate for the sight of him.That split second of distrac
Rylan’s POVThe entire stronghold was shaking.Stone cracked overhead while distant, hollow roars echoed through the collapsing corridors above us. Dust poured from the ceiling in heavy waves as another violent tremor ripped through the structure.As the corrupted rogues dropped dead, more poured in. But amidst that chaos — I noticed one flaw.“Rylan!” Ronan shouted, his voice strained as he tore through another controlled wolf. “Little busy here!”“I know.”But my attention was already elsewhere. My gaze was fixed on the deep fracture splitting through the chamber floor. Beneath the roar of battle, I could hear something.A pulse — low, rhythmic.Another tremor shook the chamber, more violent than the last. The crack widened, and for one brief second, the silver light from Alara’s crescent powers illuminated a descending staircase hidden beneath the broken stone.My stomach tightened instantly. “There’s something under us.”Xavier was locked in a brutal dance with Aurelian across the
Xavier's POVThe chamber was falling apart.Stone cracked beneath our boots as the force of the collision shook the stronghold to its marrow. Dust rained in thick sheets from the ceiling, shadows flickering like dying flames across broken pillars. The controlled wolves kept coming in mindless waves of teeth and patched fur.But the rhythm had shifted.I saw it in their hesitation. The wolves were no longer moving as a single, perfect entity. The network was fracturing.And at the center of the storm was Alara.She stood there, glowing like a damn crescent moon in the heart of the void. My breath hitched as silver light erupted from her again in waves of violence.The crescent mark along her skin burned with a ferocity I had never witnessed, spilling sharp pulses of radiance through the chamber. Each wave sent a visible tremor through the link. One wolf convulsed mid-lunge; another turned abruptly, snarling. A third froze entirely, its body vibrating as if it could no longer interpret
Xavier’s POVThe impact cracked through the chamber.Aurelian caught my strike before it fully landed, the force of it sending a violent shockwave through the stone beneath our feet. The floor splintered, dark jagged cracks shooting outward like a web, but neither of us moved back.Marcus roared inside me, fully unleashed now, every instinct sharpened into one singular, lethal purpose that was to destroy him.Aurelian’s eyes darkened as he held my wrist in place, his grip like iron. “Ever so predictable,” he murmured.I drove my other fist straight into his ribs. This time he moved, though barely, but it was enough. The force sent him sliding several feet back across the platform, his boots scraping against the rough stone.The moment distance opened, everything exploded.The chamber erupted into chaos. Shadows poured from the surrounding corridors — not in form of illusions, but in the form of controlled wolves. There were dozens of them. And only more came. Ronan swore sharply, his
Xavier’s POV“You don’t belong here,” I said.The words were out, but they didn’t feel like enough. They didn't change the reality of the shadow standing in front of us.Aurelian’s gaze didn’t waver. He stood with the kind of stillness that belonged to the dead. “You’re still clinging to a version of the world that was built after I was removed, Xavier.”“This world stands because of that decision,” I snapped.“No,” he said, his voice horribly calm. “This world stagnates because of it.”Ronan shifted slightly to my right, his presence a heavy weight of muscle and irritation. “You call this evolution?” He gestured toward the horizon — toward the corrupted land and the twisted, hollowed-out wolves that followed the shadow.“Yes.” There was no hesitation. Rylan’s voice cut in, colder and sharper than the rest. “You’re creating instability.”Aurelian exhaled slowly with genuine disappointment. “You’re still thinking in limits. Control is not the goal.”“Then what is?”Alara’s voice cut t
Alara’s POVI felt the blood before I saw it. Not physically. Not in the way scent carries iron through air. I felt it in the bond, like a tremor beneath the surface — subtle, controlled, deliberately restrained.Ronan, he returned at dusk, quieter than I had ever known him to be.The private estat
Xavier’s POV‘Preparation does not always roar.It tightens.It sharpens.It makes quiet adjustments that only become visible when it’s too late to undo them.’Three days after Midnight bled, the estate no longer felt like a sanctuary. It felt like a command center.Scouts rotated in disciplined si
Ronan’s POVThe first sign of retaliation was not a howl. It was silence, absolute.I was at the private estate when it happened, reviewing patrol rotations with Xavier, adjusting border contingencies in case the council moved faster than expected. The air inside the war room was steady, controlled
Xavier’s POVThe summons arrived at dawn. It did not come by messenger. It came by mark.The council’s crest burned into the outer ward stone as the sun crested the horizon, silver fire carving precise lines into ancient granite. Warriors scrambled to defensive positions before they realized what i







