LOGIN"I wasn't ready to speak before," she admitted, reaching out to take my hands in hers. "Even after I could, I needed time to remember how, to feel safe enough to try. But today felt right. Today, I wanted to use my voice to tell you how proud I am of you."I laughed through my tears, pulling her into an embrace despite the expensive gown and elaborate hair. "You couldn't have chosen a better day for this gift."She hugged me back tightly, and for a moment we simply held each other—two women who had survived impossible darkness and found our way back to the light.When we finally pulled apart, Lyra studied my face carefully, reading me the way she always had."You're nervous," she observed.I nodded, not bothering to hide it. "I fought rogues and demons without shaking like this," I admitted with a shaky laugh. "I walked into Selena's stronghold knowing I might die. But this?" I gestured vaguely at the mirror, at the gown, at everything waiting beyond these walls. "This terrifies me in
Chapter 210 Aurelia's POVThe sound of children's laughter drifted through the courtyard, clear and bright as bells on a winter morning.It was the first thing I heard when we returned home, and the sweetness of it nearly undid me completely.My knees threatened to give out beneath me right there in the entrance hall. I gripped Dominic's arm instinctively, steadying myself as tears already began to blur my vision. For weeks, I had imagined this moment—the sound of my children's voices, the proof that they were alive and safe and whole. But hearing it now, in reality rather than in desperate dreams, was almost more than my battered heart could bear."They're in the east garden," one of the maids whispered as we passed through the corridor. Her voice was thick with emotion, and when I glanced at her, I saw tears tracking down her cheeks as well. "They've been asking for you constantly, my Luna. Every day since you left."The words sent a fresh wave of longing through me so powerful tha
Dominic's pov For three days and three nights, I tore through rogue lands like a storm given flesh. We tracked them across burned forests, through abandoned settlements, into ravines thick with the stench of blood and rot. Every camp we raided gave us fragments, abandoned crates, coded maps, whispers from captured rogues too terrified to lie convincingly.“She’s alive,” Ezekiel said the second night, crouched beside a half-dead scout we’d cornered against a cliff. “They need her alive.”I grabbed the rogue by the collar and lifted him off the ground.“Where,” I growled.He shook, blood running from his nose. “North ridge… old iron mines… underground compound…”I didn’t wait for more.We moved before dawn.By the time the mountains came into view, I could feel her.A faint pull in my chest. Not the mate bond exactly. Something deeper. More primal. Like the air itself was humming with her defiance.“They’re fortified,” my Beta muttered as we crouched along the ridge overlooking the rav
Aurelia's pov Pain woke me before consciousness did.It crawled through my body slowly, deliberately like something savoring its work.My wrists burned first. Then my shoulders. Then my ribs.I inhaled sharply, and even that felt wrong. The air was damp. Heavy. It smelled like rust and mildew and something darker beneath it, old blood soaked into stone.I forced my eyes open.Thick iron shackles clamped around my wrists, bolted into the wall behind me. My ankles were bound too, stretched just far enough apart to make standing impossible but sitting unbearable.A low chuckle echoed through the chamber.“Well, well,” a familiar voice drawled. “The queen finally wakes.”My head throbbed as I lifted it.Liam.He stood a few feet away, leaning casually against a stone pillar, arms crossed. He looked… older. Harder.“You,” I whispered, my throat raw.His smile widened. “Miss me?”I pulled against the chains instinctively. They didn’t budge.“You’re behind this,” I said, piecing it together
Aurelia's pov Smoke crawled into my lungs as if the palace itself were choking.Dominic was already in the courtyard when the second explosion shook the western tower. I saw him shift mid-stride, bones cracking, fur tearing through skin as his wolf burst free and launched into the swarm of dark rogues pouring through the broken gates.Then another blast thundered somewhere behind me, and the world became chaos.“Protect the inner corridors!” Ezekiel barked.Warriors rushed past me. Rogues snarled. Someone screamed.I drew the blade strapped to my thigh and stepped into the fight without hesitation.A rogue lunged at me from the left. I ducked, slashing across his ribs. Another came from behind, I pivoted and drove my elbow into his throat before finishing him with a clean cut across the neck.Blood splattered across the marble.This wasn’t random.They were moving with intent. Cutting through weaker sections.“They’re splitting us!” one of the warriors shouted.And he was right.Befo
Dominic's pov The truth did not come all at once.It bled out slowly, like a wound that refused to clot.For days after Selena’s arrest, I lived in the war room. Maps spread across the table. Letters. Seized ledgers. Testimonies from rogues Ezekiel had captured. Wolves came in and out at all hours, their faces pale as they delivered piece after piece of rot.And with every new revelation, my fury sharpened.“She didn’t just pay them for the kidnapping,” Ezekiel said one night, tossing a bloodstained journal onto the table. “She’s been financing dark rogue factions for years.”I flipped through the pages, jaw tightening as I scanned the coded transactions.Payments. Names. Locations.“She’s been building her own network,” I muttered.“Not just building,” Ezekiel replied grimly. “Feeding it.”We uncovered more graves than I could stomach.Wolves who had “disappeared” over the years. Guards reassigned and never heard from again. Servants accused of theft and quietly executed without pro
Selena’s POVThe altar screamed.Not aloud but through me, straight down my spine, sharp and sudden, like a blade dragged between my bones. I gasped and staggered back as the runes carved into the stone flared bloof, pulsing once… twice… before collapsing into darkness.My hands trembled as I press
Madeline’s POVThe whispers started before I learned how to count properly.Before I learned which forks were for which meals. Before I learned that crying too loudly made the maids angry. I was seven, but then it felt like I had lived in this world for a long time.They came from everywhere and no
Aurelia’s POVThe message came at dusk.Not through the usual channels, it was not barked by a cruel steward or tossed at me like an afterthought by a guard who barely remembered my name. This one was deliberate. Formal. Carried by a palace runner who wouldn’t meet my eyes when he spoke.“You are r
Aurelia’s POVSelena didn’t raise her voice when she gave the order.She never did when she wanted to hurt me the most.“Take her to the ritual chambers,” she said calmly, sipping her wine as if she were discussing the weather. “They need to be cleaned. Thoroughly.”The guards stiffened. Even they







