LOGINShare
Chapter 67: Fires Between Us
Last Updated:
2025-06-30 14:52:43The night air was alive with tension.
Back at their hidden encampment, Serena sat beside the fire, legs folded beneath her, the ancient book resting on her knees. Shadows danced across her face as flames flickered and cracked. Though the forest around them whispered with wind and unseen creatures, the only thing she truly heard was the echo of Elias’s warning. One week. Theron was pacing a short distance away, arms crossed, every so often glancing at her as though trying to measure how close she was to breaking. She wasn’t sure herself. Her fingers traced the strange glyphs on the book’s cover. For all her training, her battles, and her defiance, nothing had prepared her for this kind of decision. Not the palace. Not her past. Not even Elias. Especially not Elias. Theron finally stopped pacing. “You haven’t said a word in over an hour.” “I’m thinking.” He walked to her and knelt, his gaze searching hers. “You don’t have to carry this alone.” Serena blinked. “But I do. Don’t you see? This isn’t just about prophecy anymore. It’s about choice, and Elias is right in one way—I have to make one.” Theron shook his head. “No, Elias doesn’t want you to choose. He wants to corner you. You’re not obligated to him. Or to the prophecy. You’re more than what they’ve told you.” She looked at him, voice barely above a whisper. “You really believe that?” “I do.” His eyes softened. “Because I’ve seen you fight for others when you didn’t have to. I’ve seen you risk everything for the truth. I’ve seen the fire in you, Serena. And I—” He paused, swallowing whatever came next. She leaned forward. “Say it.” He hesitated only a breath before continuing, “I feel things for you I haven’t let myself feel for anyone in a long time.” Her chest tightened. She felt it too—that tension that came alive every time he was near. That pull, dangerous and undeniable, like gravity had decided to bend just for them. “I don’t want to make you choose between duty and…” she trailed off, but he finished it. “Desire?” She nodded, her cheeks warming. “I’m not asking for forever,” Theron said, reaching out and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “But I am asking for now. For a chance.” She looked into his eyes, searching, but all she saw was sincerity. Raw. Honest. Serena leaned closer, slowly, deliberately—and when their lips met, it was soft and electric, a confession without words. His hand cradled the back of her head as she deepened the kiss, the weight of fear and expectation briefly forgotten. When they finally broke apart, breathless, Theron rested his forehead against hers. “Whatever happens next, we face it together.” She exhaled shakily. “Together.” Just then, footsteps rustled in the leaves nearby. Theron spun to his feet, blade drawn, but a familiar voice called out. “I see I missed the dramatic part.” Elias stepped into the firelight, alone this time, arms raised in mock surrender. His cloak was dusted with ash, eyes glinting like a predator stalking his prey. “You’re not welcome here,” Theron growled. “I wasn’t invited,” Elias replied, smirking. “But I thought I’d give Serena a gift before her big decision.” Serena stood, spine straightening. “What do you want now?” He stepped closer, gaze flicking between her and Theron with amusement. “You think kissing him makes this easier? That it makes your path clearer? You think that book holds all the answers?” “You have no idea what I think.” Elias’s smile faded. “I know exactly what you think. Because I know you, Serena. I’ve known you since the palace days. Since before the prophecy tore your life apart.” Her breath caught. “Don’t bring the past into this.” “Why not? It’s all connected.” His voice dropped. “You were never just a chosen one. You were mine. You still are, if you’d let yourself remember.” Theron moved between them, every muscle tense. “Back off.” But Elias’s eyes never left Serena’s. “I’ll be at the Oracle’s Ruins at moonrise in three days. Bring the book. Bring your answer. And maybe, if your knight lets you breathe, bring your heart.” With that, he vanished again into shadow, leaving the fire to crackle and the tension to thicken like fog. Serena stared at the dark woods long after he disappeared. Theron’s voice broke the silence. “He’s playing a dangerous game.” She nodded, heart pounding. “And I’m the prize.”
Latest chapter
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Epilogue: Ashes and Stars
They say she walked barefoot through the fire, and the flames bowed before her—not out of fear, but recognition.They say the Hollow didn’t begin with her.But it lived because of her.I wasn’t there when Serena lit her first flame.I wasn’t there when she returned from the Place Without Memory, or when she laid her title down beneath the moonroot tree.But I know her.Not from books or statues.From stories told softly over dinner, from the way people pause near the oldest stones, and from the warmth that always seems to linger in the Hollow’s quietest corners.I am the granddaughter of healers.The child of firemakers.And the apprentice of Kael’s last student.They call me Ember—not because I burn, but because I carry what’s left of a long, bright light.And sometimes, late at night, when the wind shifts and the moon hangs low, I ask myself:“What did it feel like… to carry the flame when no one believed?”On the Day of Emberfall, we light the lanterns.Each of us carries one.No f
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Chapter 200: The Fire We Leave Behind
The Hollow was alive.Not loud. Not burning.Just… alive.Like the first breath after a long, silent winter.Serena stood at the balcony of the highest Sanctum tower, her cloak billowing gently in the early breeze. Below her, lanterns glowed in gentle waves, strung from tree to tree, tower to pillar. Children laughed. Apprentices trained with wooden staffs. Flowers—yes, real flowers—bloomed in the center square.No more war cries.No more blood in the stone.Only the future.The Ledger of FlameKael returned at dawn.His hair longer. Eyes tired. But when he stepped through the gate, he carried scrolls—dozens of them—filled with names from the North who had agreed to reunite under the Hollow’s teachings.Serena embraced him fiercely.“Still fighting,” she whispered.“No,” he murmured. “Still building.”Lilith came two days later.Scarred, limping, her voice hoarser than ever—but with a grin that could melt mountains.“I found a library beyond the Silence,” she rasped. “Flamebound texts
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Chapter 199: The Ember Beyond the Edge
No path marked her journey.There were no runes to guide her. No maps traced these lands. Only shadowed wind and an ever-fading warmth behind her.Serena walked without flame in her hand.Not because she lacked power.But because not every fire needed to be seen.The Place Without FlameTwo days out from the Hollow, the air began to shift.Colder.Quieter.Not the silence of peace.But of absence.As though the wind itself refused to remember.The trees grew thinner. Then pale. Then vanished.The sky dulled into endless gray.Here, even the soil felt forgotten.Serena reached into her satchel and pulled free the ember she had saved—one drawn from the central basin, a living shard of all that had come before.It flickered weakly in her palm.Then went still.She closed her fingers around it.And walked on.The Memoryless PlainBy the fourth day, Serena came to a vast plain of slate—miles of cracked, dark stone that shimmered with a sheen of quiet sorrow. It was said that this was where
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Chapter 198: When the Flame Grows Quiet
There was a stillness that only came after flame.Not the stillness of silence—but of completion.The Hollow hadn’t dimmed… it had settled. Like a story told and retold until it no longer needed to shout to be remembered.Serena walked barefoot through the eastern corridor, the smooth stone grounding her as she moved past tapestries, cracked doorways, and burnt-out sconces. The basin of coals in the center square still glowed faintly, like a quiet heart continuing to beat long after battle had ceased.The fire no longer called to her.And for the first time in years…She no longer felt responsible for it.Darian’s MessageDarian waited near the Sanctum archives, his robes slightly wrinkled, hair tied back with a crimson thread, and fingers stained with soot and ink.He looked up as Serena approached, holding out a single parchment—thin, greyed, brittle at the corners.“It came from a forgotten archive,” he said. “A vault we thought was destroyed during the Ebon Siege. No rune markers.
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Chapter 197: The Final Ember
The Hollow had never felt this quiet.Not even during the years when silence was a weapon.Now, it was a hush born of reverence.Like the world itself was holding its breath.Because the fire—the First Flame—was dimming.Not fading.Not dying.But passing.A Slow DescentSerena stood in the stone chamber deep beneath the Sanctum—the chamber only three others had ever entered before her. The last time, she had come here in fear, with Maeron’s betrayal freshly burned into her bones and Atheira’s warnings curled like a fist around her chest.This time, she descended alone, cloaked in midnight blue, the Keeper’s Orb humming gently at her side.The great fire basin stood ahead, dormant but warm—embers curling within like a memory still catching breath.As Serena approached, she whispered, “You’ve burned long enough.”She reached inside the flame—not to extinguish it.But to honor it.The fire rose, briefly, in a shimmer of gold and silver. Not to stop her.But to bless her.The Flame’s Fin
The Alpha King's Forbidden Mate Chapter 196: Even Ashes Remember
Serena stood in the twilight haze that softened the Hollow’s stone towers, her gaze lost in the horizon where the embers of the sun brushed the clouds in streaks of molten gold.She felt them all tonight—memories like ghosts brushing her skin.Not just the ones she'd inherited. But the ones she’d lived.The fire within her orb pulsed quietly, not seeking to command… but to remind.Because even ashes remembered.And tonight, so would she.The Tapestry RoomThe long-sealed Tapestry Room had been unlocked for the first time in generations.Serena walked slowly along its curved walls, each woven panel bearing the faces and flame-runes of those who had once shaped the Order. Warriors. Healers. Betrayers. Peacemakers.And in the center—a half-finished tapestry. Threads still loose. Needles resting silently in a clay dish.It had once been reserved for those who would never be remembered properly. The erased. The shamed. The unnamed.She picked up the needle.And with slow, deliberate motion
You may also like
LOVING THE GAMMA
Cassandra M454.4K viewsMated To Big Brother-in-law
AlisTae884.9K viewsAlpha Gray
C.J. Primer1.2M viewsAlpha Logan
Bryant708.5K viewsBlind Female Warrior
Lino768 viewsSeraphina- The Alpha's Murderer
Sohsah 🤍🤍702 viewsMated to four
Christina c529 viewsTHE REVENGE OF THE WHITE WOLF
Miss Skye537 views
