Chapter 15: The Blood We Choose

The first silver blade cleared its leather scabbard with a sharp, metallic ring that echoed off the damp stone walls of the ancient temple.

My mother’s elite warriors didn't hesitate. They flooded into the circular chamber, their boots slamming against the floor, yellow wolf eyes locked entirely on the man standing beside me.

"Get back," Reymond snapped, his arm shooting out to haul me behind his broad chest.

He didn't draw his weapon. He didn't unleash the terrifying dual-toned growl that usually made rival packs drop to their knees. He just stood there, massive and completely unmoving, taking the brunt of the assault while refusing to swing a single blade in return.

It took me three heartbeats to understand why.

I was standing directly in his line of fire. If Reymond swung his claws or drew his tactical knife, the arc of his movement would put me at risk in the tight, chaotic crush of bodies. He was holding back his entire apex strength simply to keep me safe from crossfire.

"Attack him" my mother commanded from the doorway, her voice ringing clear and cold above the clashing of steel. "Leave the girl, Cut down the Alpha"

The lead warrior lunged forward, his silver sword aimed squarely at Reymond’s heart.

I didn't think. I stepped past Reymond’s shoulder, planting my feet squarely in the centre of the path, and threw my hands out.

"Stop" I screamed.

The warrior tried to check his momentum, his boots skidding across the stone floor, the tip of his blade stopping a fraction of an inch from my throat. Behind him, the rest of the Walker soldiers froze instantly, their weapons lowered.

They weren't just obeying orders. They were terrified of hitting me.

My mother pushed through the wall of armed men, walking slowly up to the edge of the crystal pool. Her face was an unreadable mask of iron and old grief.

"Move aside, Natalia," she warned, pointing her sword at Reymond’s chest. "You are standing in the way of a war that was finished seven years ago."

"You lied to me," I fired back, my voice shaking with a cold, terrifying fury. "You staged your own death. You let me live in terror for seven years. And now you walk in here demanding I watch you murder the only man who actually kept me alive?"

"He is a Smith," my mother snapped back, her eyes flashing gold. "He is an Apex Alpha whose entire syndicate was built on the blood of our house. Come with me right now, and I will tell everything you need to know . I will give you the life you were meant to have."

I looked down at the floor, then back up at the woman who had birthed me, only to realize I didn't know her at all.

"No," I said softly.

My mother’s eyes widened in genuine shock. "You're choosing him over your own blood?"

"I'm choosing the truth," I answered. "And for the first time in my life, I'm choosing for myself."

"Kill them," my mother whispered, her face hardening into stone. "Kill them both."

The temple erupted into absolute chaos. ..The Walker warriors surged forward again, but before Reymond could pull me out of the line of fire, a deafening explosion shattered the back wall of the cavern. Chunks of stone rained down into the water as a second, heavier wave of soldiers poured through the breach.

They didn't wear silver crescents or the red markings of the Smith Syndicate. They wore the tailored grey coats of the Tunner faction.

Aubert walked smoothly through the settling dust, a heavy tactical rifle slung over his shoulder, a sickeningly pleased smile plastered across his face.

"Well, well, well," Aubert called out, his voice echoing over the ringing of steel. "Family reunions are always so messy."

Reymond shoved me behind a massive stone pillar, dodging a wild slash from a Walker enforcer before burying his fist into the man's chest guard. The enforcer crashed to the ground, unconscious.

"Aubert" Reymond roared, blood dripping from a fresh cut along his jaw. "You sold out the valley"

"I didn't sell it out, brother," Aubert laughed, sidestepping a flying dagger and shooting an advancing rogue in the shoulder with a suppressed sidearm. "I just managed the inventory. Mauris wanted his daughter back, your mother wanted her throne, and you wanted your little caged bird. Everyone got what they paid for."

It hit me like a physical blow. Aubert hadn't come to stop the war. He had orchestrated every piece of it. The leaked relay logs, the framed encryption codes, the timing of my mother's return, he had engineered a three-way collision between Mauris, my mother, and Reymond so they would tear each other to pieces while he picked up the crown.

And his true target wasn't the throne room. It was me.

Aubert’s eyes locked onto my position behind the stone pillar. He drew his sidearm, pointed it straight past the fighting guards, and started walking toward me.

Before he could take three steps, a heavy black mass slammed into his side.

Reymond had broken through the line of fighters. He caught Aubert by the throat, driving him backward into a stone pillar with a sickening crunch.

"You're done, Aubert," Reymond snarled.

Aubert didn't panic. Instead, a bloody, triumphant grin spread across his face. He didn't try to pry Reymond's fingers off his neck. He simply raised his left hand and clicked a small detonator button clipped to his tactical vest.

Above us, the domed ceiling of the ancient temple groaned. A massive fissure split down the centre of the bioluminescent moss, and a three-ton block of obsidian stone broke loose from the roof, plummeting directly toward where Reymond stood.

"Reymond" I shrieked.

He looked up just in time. He shoved Aubert hard out of the way, but he couldn't clear the zone. The falling stone clipped his left shoulder, driving him down hard onto the stone floor with a horrific thud.

Dust and debris choked the air.

"Reymond" I cried out, scrambling past the fighting guards and dropping to my knees beside him.

He was pinned under the massive slab of rock, his left arm trapped, his chest heaving as blood poured rapidly from a deep, ugly crush wound near his collarbone. His silver eyes were growing dangerously dim, fighting a losing battle against unconsciousness.

"Natalia... get out of here," he rasped, his hand twitching against the stone, trying to reach for me. "Run..."

"Shut up," I sobbed, pressing both of my bare hands directly over the jagged wound on his chest, trying to stem the flood of blood.

A shadow fell over us. I looked up, it was my mother standing over us, her heavy silver sword raised, her face twisted in a mixture of grief and absolute, cold resolve.

"It has to end, Natalia," she said, raising the blade for a downward strike. "If he lives, the bond seals. And if the bond seals, the bloodline is lost."

"Don't you touch him" I screamed, the sound tearing straight out of my soul.

I didn't just feel panic anymore. I felt an overwhelming, volcanic rage. The ancient blood inside my veins, the raw, dormant magic of the first Walker Luna ignited.

My hands, pressed against Reymond's bloody chest, began to glow with a blinding, pure white light.

The air in the cavern instantly went dead silent. The fighting stopped. Every single warrior, whether Walker, Smith, or Tunner, dropped their weapons and fell involuntarily to their knees, crushed by the sudden, suffocating weight of royal authority.

Reymond’s eyes snapped wide open. The dim silver instantly flared into blazing, unadulterated gold. The crushing weight of the obsidian stone on his shoulder seemed to vanish as a surge of raw, electric power flooded straight from my hands into his body.

The blood seal hummed under my skin, bursting into a brilliant, interconnected web of silver light that bound our pulses together.

I looked up at my mother., She stared down at us, but her face wasn't filled with triumph or anger. It was a mask of devastating, heartbreaking horror.

"No..." she whispered, her hands trembling as she backed away. "It's too early... the bloodline isn't ready."

I held Reymond's hand tightly in mine, the two of us kneeling together in the centre of the glowing temple.

"What did you know?" I demanded, my voice carrying the absolute, commanding ring of a true queen. "What are you hiding from me?"

Before my mother could answer, a loud, mocking round of applause echoed through the vaulted entrance of the temple.

Aubert was standing near the shattered doorway, leaning casually against a pillar, entirely unbothered by the crushing royal pressure that had dropped every wolf in the room to their knees. He had two of his elite snipers holding a prisoner between them.

My breath caught.

It was my mother. Aubert's men had slipped through the smoke and captured her while we were locked in the centre of the room.

Aubert pressed the cold, razor-sharp edge of a hunting knife directly against the side of my mother's throat. A thin bead of red blood welled up against the silver steel. He then looked straight at me, his pale blue eyes gleaming with absolute triumph.

"A magnificent display, Princess," Aubert called out, his voice smooth and dripping with poison. "Truly. You've awakened the ancient power. But let's see how much of a queen you are when you have to watch them both die."

Aubert pressed the blade slightly deeper, drawing a wince from my mother.

"Come with me willingly, Natalia," Aubert smiled, his eyes locking onto mine. "Or I'll make Reymond watch his greatest weakness bleed out right here in the dirt."

I looked down at Reymond. He was back on his feet, his body radiating a terrifying, molten aura of pure gold power, his claws fully extended, ready to tear the mountain apart. But one false move, and Aubert would slit my mother's throat.

The choice hung in the freezing air between us.

The royal magic inside my chest began to hum, swelling into a blinding, destructive storm that I could barely contain. For the first time, even Reymond looked at me with a fraction of fear, not of what I might do to him, but of what I was about to become.