CHAPTER 26

LILLIAN’S POV

The mountain road was narrow and dangerous, but Andre drove with a calm confidence that soothed my disturbed nerves.

“Tell me about the tattoo,” he said calmly after we had a gone a mile in silence.

I traced the design through my jeans. “My father said it was a family tradition. That the moons would protect me.”

“And the vines?”

I hesitated. “He said they represented bonds that couldn’t be broken.”

Andre’s fist stiffened on the steering wheel. “Do you believe that?”

Before I could answer, a deafening explosion rocked the mountainside.

Andre swore and swerved the wheel as debris rained down around us. “Eastern Pack. They found us.”

Through the dust and smoke, figures emerged suddenly—wolves with eyes glowing like lit logs in a fireplace.

Andre held my hands tightly and said, “Whatever happens, know that I meant every word.”

Then he shifted, his golden wolf bursting from his clothes with a roar that shook the earth.

And as the Eastern Pack closed in, I made my choice.

I reached for the bond between us…not the desperate, hungry thing I shared with Drake, but the steady glow Andre had offered…and poured every ounce of my will into it.

Come back to me.

And I took his answering howl as a promise.

Andre’s golden wolf stood between me and the advancing Eastern pack wolves, his powerful body

tensed for an attack. The air crackled with tension, the scent of pine and aggression thick around us.

Four against one. The odds were impossible.

One of the Eastern wolves lunged forward and Andre met him mid air with teeth snapping menacingly. The sound of tearing flesh made my stomach dropped.

Think, Lillian. Your father didn’t raised a hopeless damsel.

My fingers found the hidden dagger at my boot—Lucas’s gift. The cool metal calmed me as I reached for the bond I shared with Andre, pouring every ounce of my will into it.

‘I am here. We fight together.’

His response was so determined that it flooded our connection just as another wolf charged. Andre swerved, but I was already moving….I drove the dagger deep into the attacker’s neck.

The wolf yelped and stumbled back. Andre finished him with a swift, brutal snap of his jaws.

Two remaining.

They circled us now, more cautious. One—a massive gray with spiky hairs spoke in a throaty growl. “Just give us the formula, girl. No one else has to die.”

Andre positioned himself protectively in front of me, a low warning rumble in his chest.

The bond between us buzzed with a new intensity. Where before it had been a quiet glow, now it burned bright with a shared purpose. I could feel Andre’s muscles coiling, his strategy forming…

‘Distract the gray, I will take the black.’

I nodded slightly.

As Andre lunched at the gray, I thee my dagger and it pierced the black wolf’s shoulder, buying precious seconds.

But the gray was faster than we anticipated. He dodged Andre’s attack, and his huge claws pierced Andre’s side.

The scent of Andre’s blood filled the air. Rage, hot and primal, surged through me.

No.

My vision suddenly focus on one thing. The bond wasn’t just a connection anymore…it was a channel. Power, raw and untamed, flowed from me to Andre as his wounds began knitting itself closed.

The Eastern wolves froze with their eyes wide in shock. “The cure….she is activating it!”

Andre didn’t hesitate. He moved with renewed strength and purpose and took down the black wolf in one fluid motion before turning on the gray.

Soon, it was over in seconds.

Every where went silent, only our ragged breathing was heard. Andre shifted back, his hand pressed to his now healed side and looked at me in shock, “How did you…?”

I stared at my hands, trembling and muttered, “I don’t know. I just… needed you to be okay.”

The sound of approaching engines cut through the stillness. Drake’s black SUV skidded to a halt, followed by two pack trucks overflowing with warriors.

Drake was out before the vehicle fully stopped, his eyes wolf bright as he scanned me for injuries. “Lillian—”

Andre stepped between us and said calmly, but firm. “She is unharmed. We handled it.”

The tension between them was like a physical thing that one could hold…Alpha and Beta, brother and rival, united only by their concern for me.

Drake’s gaze dropped to the dead wolves, then to Andre’s blood stained but healed side. With his eyes narrowed, he asked, “What happened here?”

“The tattoo,” I whispered. “It is not what we thought.”

Back at the pack house, the war room felt smaller than usual. Drake paced from side to side like a caged animal, while Andre stood stiffly by the door. Lucas leaned against the map covered wall, with a serious look in his eyes.

“Start from the beginning,” Drake commanded with a chipped voice.

I took a deep breath to steady myself and began, “When Andre was hurt…I felt this surge through our bond. Like energy flowing from me to him.”

“And his wound healed instantly,” Lucas finished, fascinated. “The Eastern pack called it ‘activating the cure.”

Drake stopped pacing and turned. “So it is true. Your father’s research….it was about healing.”

“Not just healing.” My mother’s voice came from the doorway, startling us all. She entered, her seer’s eyes glowing faintly. “It’s about restoring balance. The eastern pack’s experiments perfected shifter nature…making wolves stronger but stripping their humanity. The cure reverses that.”

She placed a hand on my shoulder and said calmly, “But it requires an agent. A living bond between two souls who genuinely care for each other.”

The room fell silent instantly as the words settled.

Drake’s gaze met mine, with a pained look in his eyes. “So when you and Andre…”

“The bond doesn’t have to be romantic,” my mother said calmly. “But it must be selfless. Willing to sacrifice for the other.”

Andre tightened his jaw. “The Eastern pack wants to destroy it because it could undo decades of their work.”

“Worse,” my mother said. “They want to corrupt it. Use severed bonds to amplify their soldier’s power without balancing humanity.”

Drake finally sat down, ran a hand through his hair and said slowly, “All this time we thought we were protecting a weapon…”

“We were protecting hope,” I replied calmly.

His eyes found mine, and for the first time, I saw not just an Alpha shouldering a burden, but the boy I had fallen in love with…..overwhelmed but unbroken.