Chapter 10 , The Woman Behind the Fire

"Liar."

The word barely made it past my lips. My throat felt like it was lined with shattered glass. I stared down at the man who had terrorized my entire existence, unable to process the words he had just spoken.

"You're lying," I repeated, my voice growing louder, echoing off the stone walls of the armoury. "I saw the estate burn. I saw the blood on the snow. She died trapping your men inside!"

Mauris didn't flinch. He stayed on his knee, looking up at me with an eerie, composed calmness that terrified me more than his anger ever could. Slowly, he reached into the inner breast pocket of his tailored black coat.

Reymond shifted instantly, a low snarl vibrating in his chest as his claws extended.

"Peace, Alpha," Mauris said smoothly, keeping his movements deliberate. "I carry no weapons."

He pulled his hand free and opened his palm. Resting in the centre of his black leather glove was a heavy piece of solid silver, carved into the shape of a crescent moon wrapped in thorny vines.

All the air rushed out of my lungs.

It was the royal seal. My mothers personal crest. The exact same seal she always wore on a silver chain around her neck. The exact same seal I had seen glinting in the firelight the night the estate burned to the ground.

"A replica," I stammered, stepping back until my shoulders hit Reymonds solid chest.

"You know it isn't," Mauris replied softly. "The fire was a magnificent piece of theatre, Natalia. Staged entirely to convince the council, the syndicates, and myself that the royal line had been eradicated. She didn't burn. She disappeared."

My head was spinning. Seven years. Seven years of suffocating grief, of crying myself to sleep in roach-infested motel rooms, of swallowing poison just to survive the legacy of a dead woman.

"She couldn't have done that alone," I whispered, staring at the silver seal. "The estate was surrounded. She would have needed someone on the outside. Someone to clear the perimeter."

"Exactly," Mauris said, a cruel smile finally touching his lips. He shifted his pale eyes from me to the massive man standing directly behind me. "Someone who had the strength to break the siege line, and the silence to keep a secret for seven years."

I turned around slowly.

Reymond was looking at Mauris with absolute, unadulterated hatred. But he didn't deny it. He didn't roar that Mauris was a liar.

"You knew," I breathed.

Reymond finally looked down at me. His silver eyes were dark, heavy with a burden I couldn't even begin to understand. "Natalia, "

"You knew she was alive!" I screamed, shoving both hands against his chest.

He didn't move, but the impact sent a shockwave of pain up my arms. "I thought she was dead! I thought I was entirely alone! You watched me suffer for seven years and you never told me?"

"I couldn't," Reymond said, his voice a harsh, desperate rasp. "She ordered me not to."

I froze. "What?"

Reymond completely ignored Mauris and the armed guards surrounding us. He stepped closer to me, his massive frame blocking out the rest of the room.

"If you knew she was alive, you would have looked for her," Reymond said intensely. "And if you looked for her, Mauris would have found you both. She made me swear to let you believe she burned. Your genuine grief was the only thing that convinced the northern territories the bloodline was gone. It was the only way to keep you safe."

I stared at him, my vision blurring with hot, furious tears. Everything was a lie. My trauma, my survival, the contract, the man standing in front of me. I couldn't breathe. The air in the underground armoury felt like it was actively crushing my ribs.

I turned and pushed blindly past Mauris, pushing past the syndicate hounds who were too stunned by the revelation to stop me.

"Natalia!" Reymond called out.

I didn't stop. I ran.

I fled the armoury, sprinting back up the dark stone tunnels. My sneakers slipped on the damp rock, but I didn't slow down. I needed air. I needed space. I burst through the hidden doorway in the library and kept running, throwing open the heavy oak doors and rushing out into the sprawling, shadowed corridors of the chateau.

I didn't know where I was going until I pushed through a set of towering iron doors and stumbled into the main throne hall.

The room was cavernous and freezing, lit only by a few flickering torches along the walls. The massive black stone throne sat empty at the far end. I collapsed against the base of a massive pillar, sliding down the cold stone until I hit the floor. I pulled my knees to my chest and buried my face in my hands, trying to hold myself together.

Heavy, familiar footsteps echoed on the stone floor behind me.

I didn't look up. I knew the scent of dark cedar and winter frost.

Reymond stopped a few feet away. I braced myself for the heavy, possessive grip of his hands. I expected him to haul me to my feet, to pull me against his chest and force his dominant aura over me to calm my panic.

But he didn't touch me.

He stood there in the shadows, perfectly still.

"I don't know what is real anymore," I whispered into the dark, my voice shaking uncontrollably. "I don't know who you are. I don't know if I can trust a single word you say."

The silence stretched between us, thick and heavy.

"You don't have to trust me tonight," Reymond finally said. His voice was incredibly quiet, completely stripped of the ferocious Alpha command he usually wielded. "You can hate me. You can blame me. But when Aubert and Mauris come for you... I will still stand between you and them."

I lifted my head and looked at him.

He was standing entirely within my space, yet keeping his hands strictly at his sides. The restraint radiating off him was almost violent. He was fighting every single instinct in his blood that demanded he claim me, hold me, and lock me away. He was giving me the one thing no one else in my life ever had.

Choice.

That restraint shattered the last wall I had left. It was more powerful, more devastating than any possessive confrontation could have ever been.

I slowly pushed myself up from the floor. My legs were shaking, but I took a step toward him. He didn't move, though I saw the muscles in his jaw clench tightly as I closed the distance.

"You want to know what the most frightening part of all this is?" I asked, looking up into his molten silver eyes.

He swallowed hard. "What?"

"It isn't Mauris. It isn't the council, or the contract, or the bloodline," I admitted, the truth tearing out of my chest. "The scariest part... is that somewhere along the way, I started wanting you beside me."

Reymond let out a sharp, ragged breath. His eyes darkened into pure, burning gold. His hands twitched at his sides, the iron control he was maintaining visibly fracturing.

He leaned down, his face stopping inches from mine. The heat between us was electric, gravity pulling us together with an undeniable, terrifying force.

Before he could close the final distance, a deafening crash echoed through the hall.

The heavy iron doors of the throne room exploded open.

We both jumped back as a syndicate guard stumbled into the room. He was battered, his tactical vest torn to shreds, blood pouring down the side of his face. He collapsed onto his knees on the stone floor, gasping for air.

Reymond was in front of me in a split second, his claws fully extended. "Report!"

"A messenger... at the southern perimeter," the guard choked out, coughing violently. He reached into his vest with a trembling hand and pulled out a piece of white cloth.

It was soaked in fresh blood. Embroidered in the centre was the crescent moon and thorny vines.

The Walker royal insignia.

Reymond stepped forward and snatched the cloth from the guard's hand.

"She sent it," the guard gasped, looking directly at me. "The true Luna. She breached the valley. She brought an army of rogues with her."

My heart stopped. My mother. She was actually here.

"What is her demand?" Reymond barked, his voice echoing fiercely in the vast hall.

The guard looked terrified. He looked from Reymond to me, his chest heaving.

"She demands the gates be opened," the guard said, his voice trembling. "And she sent a direct message to the princess."

I stepped out from behind Reymond. "Tell me."

The guard swallowed hard. "She said... 'Do not let Reymond complete the bond.'"

The temperature in the throne room instantly plummeted.

I turned my head slowly, looking up at Reymond.

His face had gone completely, utterly still. The furious, protective Alpha from a moment ago vanished, replaced by an icy, unreadable mask. He stared at the blood-soaked cloth in his hand, his jaw locked tight. He didn't look at me.

"Reymond?" I whispered, my heart beginning to hammer a frantic, terrified rhythm. "Why would she say that? What aren't you telling me?"

He didn't answer.

Outside the high, arched windows of the throne hall, a sound rose into the night air.

It started as a single, piercing howl. Then another joined it. Then ten. Then fifty. Within seconds, the sound of hundreds of wolves howling in unison shook the very foundation of the chateau, a terrifying symphony of war echoing off the Alpine peaks.

Then, the PA system mounted in the corners of the stone hall crackled to life with a sharp burst of static.

A woman's voice echoed through the speakers. It was clear, melodic, and chillingly familiar.

"Natalia... come to your mother."

A loud, mechanical thud resonated from deep within the fortress walls.

The flickering torches lining the walls instantly blew out. The emergency red lights completely failed. The entire chateau lost power, plunging the massive throne hall into pitch black.

In the absolute darkness, Reymonds voice whispered right next to my ear.

"She's here."