ログイン122ISABELLAThe moment the six witches finished the first stanza of the ancient Latin siphon, the mud beneath my boots turned into a sheet of pale, crystalline frost. The white coven light snaked up my ankles like glowing vines, and a sudden, violent numbness slammed into my lower back. It felt as if someone had driven a hollow needle directly into my spine, drawing out not just my physical energy, but the very marrow of my soul."Selene, please!" I choked out. My breath billowed in front of my face in thick, white plumes as the temperature inside the circle plummeted. "He's dying! If you drain me, you kill him too!"Selene didn't blink. The curved silver dagger in her right hand remained perfectly level with my throat. "His heart is already failing, Isabella. The Northern Eclipse coven does not risk the world to save a broken Alpha wolf. We do what must be done to keep the old parasite dead."Behind my eyes, Rose went completely feral. Let me out! she shrieked, her voice a piercing,
121ISABELLAThe three enforcers didn't wait for a second command. They lunged simultaneously, their massive, partially shifted bodies cutting through the thick white fog like incoming artillery."Isabella, get behind the truck!" Rohan roared.He didn't have his Alpha shield, but he still had the tactical mind of a commander. Instead of meeting them head-on in the open driveway, he threw himself sideways, intercepting the two largest wolves just as their claws cleared the porch steps. He used his sheer mass to slam them both into the gnarled trunk of the nearest apple tree. The wood cracked under the impact, a shower of dead leaves and rotten fruit raining down on them as Rohan bared his fangs, his left arm wrapping around the throat of a gray-furred enforcer while his right fist drove repeatedly into the ribs of the second.But he was fighting at a massive deficit. The moment he swung his right arm, the fresh scabs across his left shoulder tore completely open, a spray of dark red bl
120ISABELLAMy right arm felt like solid lead, the muscles twitching with a cold, kinetic energy that didn't belong to me. Below the jagged piece of glass clamped in my fist, Rohan was perfectly still. The pale moonlight caught the sharp edge of his jaw, the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and the faint, pale scars on his neck. He was entirely defenseless, sleeping deeply because he trusted me more than anyone else in the world.Drive it down, Rose’s voice commanded, a heavy, suffocating pressure slamming into the back of my skull. Show him what happens to Alphas who think they can outrun their bloodlines.I fought back with everything left in my empty core. I didn't try to pull my arm away—Rose’s grip on my motor nerves was too absolute for that—but I redirected every ounce of my willpower to my lungs, to my vocal cords, to the tiny space in my throat that she wasn't actively monitoring.My chest heaved. The effort felt like swallowing hot coals, the dry lining of my throat teari
119ISABELLA"Isabella."Rohan’s voice was the only thing that kept me from screaming out loud. It was a low, rough rasp, thick with the exhaustion of a body that had just used every ounce of its wolf stamina to survive a magical blast.I violently slammed the door to the dark vault of my own mind, trying to lock Rose’s echoing laughter behind it. My fingers trembled against my collarbone, my thumb desperately smoothing the fabric of my heavy flannel shirt upward to hide the necrotic black veins I had just seen in the mirror shard."I'm here," I said, my voice shaking as I turned back to him.He was pushing himself up against the brick hearth, his face pale and tight with pain. The burns across his chest were angry and weeping, but his amber eyes were fixed entirely on me, bright with that fierce, protective instinct that didn't need an Alpha crown to exist. He reached out with a bloody, clawed hand, his fingers catching my wrist and pulling me down beside him on the ruined carpet."A
118ISABELLAThe cold iron of the nightstand dug into my spine as Ravena—or whatever was left of her—stared down at me. The air in the room didn’t just feel hot anymore; it felt heavy, thick with the scent of dried lavender and rotting earth that always followed my mother’s coven."Rose," I choked out, the name scraping against the inside of my bruised throat.Ravena’s head tilted sideways, a sharp, mechanical movement that made the bones in her neck click. The brilliant purple fire in her eyes didn't fade, but behind it, a secondary film of milky white coven magic pulsed, completely swallowing her pupils."She was so proud of herself," Rose’s dry, hollow voice rasped through Ravena’s lips. It was a horrible, double-layered sound—the smooth, youthful ring of the rogue girl fighting against the ancient, gravelly cadence of the elder. "The little wolf thought she could drink the Rogue King’s reservoir and become a god. She didn't realize that when a witch dies with that much spite in he
117ISABELLAMy lungs were completely empty, the air trapped in my throat like solid ice as Ravena’s purple magic held me suspended three feet above the carpet. I clawed frantically at the invisible band around my neck, my fingernails digging into my own skin, but there was nothing to grab. The room was spinning, the dim light of the hallway distorting into long, sickly streaks of gray."Isabella!"Rohan didn't crawl. He didn't hesitate. He was an Alpha heir, and even stripped of his golden reservoir, the apex predator inside him didn't know how to stand down when his mate was suffocating.With a low, guttural roar that tore right through the stitches in his shoulder, he launched himself off the mattress. His hands partially shifted mid-air, thick black claws tearing through the skin of his knuckles as he tackled Ravena around the waist. His momentum carried them both backward, crashing straight through the heavy wooden wardrobe. The old oak shattered with a deafening crack, splinteri
9ISABELLA In the silence, my anger wavered leaving my chest hollow. I believed it resonated with the fact there was some sense in what he said. Anyone with his view would have the same cruel words and there I was again feeling bile rise at the back of my throat.My body was coated in shame and t
19ISABELLA“We… shouldn't be doing this.” I muttered in between biting and sucking tentatively on his lips.A part of my mind knew what we were doing was wrong but here, in the dark with only him on me… the rest of my mind was satisfied with the outcome.And when his tongue settled at the back of
20ISABELLA For a second the world came to a halt at his words.The dark haired lady smiled at me before she wrapped her arms on Rohan again, she leaned in to kiss him but he swiveled holding her back for a moment."Why did you come here?" Rohan questioned.While my heart sunk down to my knees.I
10- Teach me.ISABELLAMy eyes scanned Derek’s face searching for a trace of humour but he was dead serious.The irony was suffocating.I stepped in to confess my sins, plead that it would never happen again and promise to stay away from him but he was asking me to do the opposite.To bond with a ma







