LOGINChapter 4
She had bright green eyes, the one that would have been pretty to look at if it did not carry so much bile and ugly hatred in them, but then, what the Fuck did I care, she was offering me my freedom just so I would leave her blood thirsty demon Alpha for her... That is a deal I would willingly take.
"Do you think I want to be here? Do you think they could ever pay me enough to leave my pack and stay in this bloodthirsty place?" The rage I felt was bubbling as I spoke, as my brain filled me up with all the bad memories I had tried to push aside, my father’s dead, and the feeling of his pack link snapping till it fell silent, the blood of my pack members that soaked the ground we used to gather around to play...
"Look here, Alpha's daughter, I would rather die than be here, within this walls, constantly reminded of what your Alpha took from me." I said, venom leaking into every word.
"Great. It is settled then. That means you will be accepting my help. I don't want your crooked hands all over my alpha, either. Its a win-win situation." With those final words, she pulled put a key from the leather trousers she was wearing, and picked up the heavy padlock that was connected to the chains on my ankle.
With a snap, she clicked and freed the chains from the padlock and then proceeded to freeing the shakles on my feet.
"There. Don't say I never did something good for you in the future. You may go, and never let me catch your weak, dilapidated body around my pack or Alpha, understood?"
I was too shocked to respond to her insult. I just kept staring at my free legs. They were red bruises around where the shakles had been, but I was free. Morgana must have gotten tired of standing in the room, because she walked out of the cell, leaving the doors open.
I stared at my feet, and then at the door over and over and over trying to understand if this was real. When I finally convinced myself I was real and I had a true chance to escape this horrible place, I jumped from the bed and bolted out of the large, open door. Leaving my mate behind, and not fucking caring...
But I should have known that the moon goddess was probably munching on whatever fucking snacks she ate while making sure my life was a living hell because my freedom lasted exactly three seconds. Three fucking seconds before I slammed full force into something solid, and warm. I gasped as the impact knocked the air straight out of my fucking lungs.
My feet skidded backward on the tiled floor, pain shooting up my bare legs. I smelt him before I even saw him.
"Fuck" I whispered, tears already forming in my eyes... before I could even look up, a deep, dangerous growl vibrated through the space between us. I didn’t need to look up to know he was very very angry.
I’d know the sound of that angry, territorial growl anywhere. Alpha Cassian. His strong hands shot out, gripping my arms before I could stumble or even fucking recover. His hold wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t crushing either.
It took me a while to realize that the fucker was withholding his strength. It was controlled, possessive, but still very very furious. I could feel his rage wafting all over his body. Not that I cared. He could boil the whole damn earth with his anger for all I cared. I was getting the hell out of there.
I lifted my head slowly, but instead of his face, I was staring straight into his chest. “Oh,” I breathed, bitterness flooding my voice. “Of course.”
His scent hit me all at once. He smelled like steel, blood, smoke, everything wild and dominant. My wolf surged inside me, slamming against my ribs, but I shoved her down viciously. Damn this mate bond bullshit. She was literally not helping!! Cassian’s chest rose and fell heavily and I could feel the restrained violence in him, like a storm being held behind iron bars.
“You've been naughty, little Princess...You were trying to run, weren't you?” he said quietly. It did not even sound like a question.
“Let me go,” I snapped, shoving against him. My hands hit solid muscle and went nowhere. He didn't even budge.
“Didnt I tell you I would kill you myself if you tried anything stupid? Looks like you're looking for ways to die quicker...” he growled, grabbing my hands and holding them together firmly with just one of his hands. “Get your filthy hands off me.” I yelled but his grip tightened just enough to warn me.
“Careful, you don't want to rile me up more than you've already done with this stupid stunt you've pulled” he said quietly.
“I’m not scared of you, Alpha.” I seethed
That was a lie...A fucking big one. He made my skin crawl after everything I saw him do to my pack...my people. But I refused to take it back.
His gaze slowly dropped briefly to my mouth, my throat, then back to my eyes.
"You're not scared of me... yet,” he said, ",but when the time is right, you'll come to know me, and fear me. But it would be too late..."
My stomach twisted at his words. I hated the way he sounded.
“I’ll never be scared of you,” I snapped.
He gave another small smile... clearly he did not believe me.
He pulled me back into the room and secured me right back to the chains as I screamed and kicked.
"Let me go!! Let me go!!! Let me go!!! You demon!!" But it was like I was fighting with a brick wall.
"Princess, you're a terrible liar... If you're not scared of me... Why did you run? Huh? Why has it taken you so long to acknowledge the word rolling around in your heart... the pull you feel banging on the back of your head..., the reaction you have to me, even though you say you hate me so much... that one word..."
Mate.
The word echoed in my head...
I almost swore out loud. Fuck!!
He knew... of course he knew. He was an alpha, those strains and pulls from abond as important and sacred as the mate bond could never evade him.
He knew and he was...taunting me?
"Alpha Cassian, I'll never accept you as my mate. Never!" I said with beads of tears already gathering under my eyes.
“We’ll see.” he responded, that sickening smirk still plastered on his lips.
Why??? Of all werewolves, of all men... why him? Why???
Chapter 61Aurelia’s POVThe chamber of the High Sanctuary quiet, so quiet it was suffocating, except for the soft, rhythmic hum of liquid gold swirling within the wide obsidian basin before me.I stood with my palms resting on the cool, dark stone rim, my fingers trembling slightly. For nineteen years, this scrying pool had given me nothing but cold gray shadows, bitter silences, and the hollow echo of a mother’s unending grief.Now, the water burned bright. It has life, it made more meaning. Through the eyes of Commander Corvus, standing at the edge of the northern courtyard, the vision flared into crystalline clarity.The Northern Vane was a dazzling, beautiful place of rough granite, frost-dusted timber, and towering stone ramparts built to withstand centuries of ice and iron. Fifty pack warriors surrounded Corvus’s small party, their broadswords drawn, their heavy wolf fur cloaks snapping wildly in the biting mountain gale.My heart hammered against my ribs, an ache so raw and
Chapter 60Lilith’s POV"Am I okay Cassian? Are you sure I didn't ruin everything? "Shhhhh. Its okay my lady, Master Vane is come, I am sure there is a better explanation to earlier..." while he was still.speaking, Master Vane's iron staff clicking haggedly on the rough stony floor, put the entire in the casstle into absolute dead silence.The high, sharp ringing of Master Vane’s iron staff against the flagstones was the only sound that pierced the roar of the dying blaze."Step away from the perimeter, Alpha!" Vane’s gravelly voice bellowed through the smoke, his sightless eyes fixed unerringly on the pulsing column of solar heat. "She is in feedback! The celestial line is drawing back through her own body; if you do not break the circuit, the fire will consume her from the inside out!"Cassian didn't hesitate. He reached down, wrapping his heavy arms completely around my waist, lifting me clear off the scorched dirt."Vane, tell me what to do!" Cassian roared, holding me tigh
Chapter 58Lilith’s POVThe white-hot celestial fire roared like an angry beast, the heat so intense that the stone cliffs beneath my boots groaned and began to liquefy into glowing slag. Dry brush along the eastern ridge ignited in a blinding chain reaction, throwing towering plumes of white smoke into the cold morning air."Pull back! Fall back from the boundary!"Brandon’s frantic shouts echoed down from the eastern watchtower as pack warriors scrambled down the wooden ladders, their faces scorched black, their heavy iron shields glowing red-hot from the sheer proximity of the solar blaze."I can't stop it!" I gasped, my voice swallowed by the deafening crackle of burning ozone. I slammed my hands together, trying to force the light back into my chest, but every pulse of my panic only fed the inferno, sending violent lances of golden fire shooting fifty feet into the sky.Suddenly, a massive shape tore through the smoke.Cassian didn't hesitate. He didn't draw a blade, and he didn'
Chapter 57Lilith’s POVThe morning air carried the sharp bite of early autumn, frosting the glass-pane windows of the high keep. I needed to get away from the heavy oak doors and stone corridors, away from the silent, watchful sentries Cassian had posted along every castle wall since our visit to the archives.I walked down toward the lower village tucked behind the fortress wall, where the pack’s winter crops sat in neat, dark rows.The frost had hit the lower fields hard last night. Row after row of sweet barley and winter rye lay limp, withered into brittle, blackening husks against the mud. Master Brandon had mentioned at supper that if the cold held on any longer, half the grain stores would be lost.I stopped at the edge of the field, my heavy wool mantle whispering against the dirt. I pulled off my leather gloves, exposing my bare hands to the freezing breeze."Let's see what we've got..."Devotion, Master Vane had said. It only responds to devotion.I knelt in the damp soil,
Chapter 56Lilith’s POVI held onto Cassian's hands, sitting through the suffocating silence in the private study above yhe armory. Meanwhile, outside, the northern wind hit the stone walls violently, but inside, only the crackle of the hearth fire broke the tension hanging between us in the room.Master Vane sat across the heavy oak desk, his weathered hands resting flat on an ancient, velvet-wrapped ledger he had pulled from his personal chest. His eyes; milky white with age and blind to the physical world, were fixed precisely in my direction, as if he could see the radiant golden light humming beneath my skin clearer than anyone else.Cassian stood up, walked towards the hearth, leaning his broad shoulder against the stone mantle. His leather tunic was unbuttoned at the neck, his posture deceptively still, but the low, territorial rumble vibrating deep in his chest filled every corner of the room."You summoned me to speak of the celestial grimoire, Lord Alpha," Vane murmured, hi
Chapter 53Aurelia’s POVThe heavy golden incense burned low in the high terrace chamber, its sweet, amber smoke curling upward into the immortal twilight. I stood before the tall arched window, looking out over the endless marble spires of Aethelgard.My father’s words still echoed in my mind like a low, persistent drumbeat. "Think like a sovereign, not just a grieving mother".He was right, much as my blood boiled against the delay. Marching two hundred celestial warlords across the Northern Divide without warning would ignite an all-out war. The wolf packs were territorial, proud, and quick to draw steel against outsiders. If I brought fire and glass to their doorstep, I risked putting my daughter directly in the crossfire of a bloody siege.I needed eyes in the North. I needed to know who held her, what state her power was in, and whether she walked among those wolves as a captive or something else entirely."My Lady."I turned slowly. Commander Corvus of the High Reconnaissance







