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CHAPTER 38
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2025-06-26 22:36:41
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The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 52
The eastern wind howled through the valleys that night, dragging with it the scent of brine and burnt lavender. Not many knew the meaning of that scent anymore, but the old ones did. The Hollow was moving.Far from the southern cliffs of the Everglade estate, in the heart of the lower territories, a figure emerged from a covered caravan, boots pressing into the ash-dusted ground of what once was a thriving village. Now it was hollowed, too—walls scorched, windows empty, and silence blooming like rot in a field.The figure adjusted her cloak.No one greeted her. No one had survived.But that wasn’t why she came.Saelin stepped forward, her limbs aching but her eyes sharp. The healer’s daughter—once dismissed, once spared—had followed the pull she’d felt for weeks. The Between wasn’t just stirring. It was bleeding into the world again, leaking through old cracks. Someone had begun calling it.And not someone kind.She pressed her fingers to the ground, whispering a protection rite. But
The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 51
The Everglade estate stood high above the southern cliffs, carved into a hillside where fog never fully lifted. The trees here were older than the council itself, their bark worn smooth by wind and history. The estate had no guards at its gates. It didn’t need any. Not when fear did the work of steel.Inside, the air was warm. Controlled. Polished.The scent of clove smoke lingered from the hearth, mixing with aged leather and old paper.Elder Everglade stood by the window in his study, one hand resting on the carved stone sill, the other swirling amber liquid in a crystal glass. His robes were unwrinkled, his hair combed back in an immaculate line, his bearing effortlessly noble.He didn’t turn when the doors opened behind him.“You’re late,” he said.“I’m cautious,” replied Elder Kion, stepping inside and pulling off his gloves. His tone was clipped, but respectful. “Being seen at your estate this close to a council crisis could raise suspicion.”Everglade smiled without warmth. “I
The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 50
Thea had always believed in structure.In sharp lines. In the law. In the idea that discipline could tame chaos.But as she stood before the Hall of Elders that morning, she felt none of that control. Only the hum beneath her skin—a subtle dissonance, like something ancient was moving again beneath the world she’d built her life upon.“We must speak plainly now,” said Elder Kael, his robes soaked at the hem from the storm that had rolled in at dawn. “If the girl is in the Northwood, then she’s breached the outer veil.”Thea kept her arms folded. “She didn’t breach it. She was called.”Kael scoffed. “Romantic nonsense. We warned you she was unstable.”“She is not unstable,” Thea said, and her voice cut through the room like the edge of a blade. “She is unclaimed. That is different.”Elder Varya leaned forward, her silver hair tied in a knot, her fingers curled around the bone-carved staff she rarely used. “The Between has been silent for decades, Thea. You speak of it like it’s a road
The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 49
Thea did not sleep that night.She sat by the hearth in her private quarters, a cup of untouched tea cooling in her hands, her cloak pulled tight around her shoulders even though the fire burned strong. Outside, wind scratched against the wooden panes like a restless animal. Somewhere beyond the wall, Elise was moving through forgotten lands, and though Thea didn’t admit it aloud—not to herself, not to the council—she knew the girl would not return the same.If she returned at all.A knock came at her door just before dawn. Two short taps, then one long.A warning. And a request.She rose without a word, unlocked the door, and stepped aside to let Kai enter. He looked like he hadn’t slept either—eyes rimmed in red, a shallow cut still fresh on his cheek, his coat dusted with frost.“She’s crossed into the Northwood,” he said quietly.Thea said nothing.Kai continued, “Joren tracked her as far as the ridge. Beyond that, the mist was too thick. He swears he saw something move in it.”
The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 48
Where Silence Begins to SpeakThe forest beyond the northern wall had not been touched in a generation.Most called it cursed. Some said it breathed at night. A few believed it was where the dead went when they were forgotten too quickly.Elise didn’t care what it was called.She crossed into it before sunrise, her boots damp with frost, her fingers still cold from a sleep that hadn’t come. No map, no compass. Just the pull.It wasn’t a voice. Not a vision. Just that now-familiar thrum deep in her ribs, like her body remembered something her mind had forgotten.Branches clawed at her sleeves. Roots twisted beneath the moss like veins. The world was quiet here—not with peace, but with pressure. Like the forest itself was holding its breath.She didn’t flinch.She just kept walking.Back in the settlement, the discovery of her absence caused a tremor.Thea was the first to see the empty cot. She didn’t speak as the guards were roused and questioned, as warriors were dispatched to search
The Alpha’s Moonbreather CHAPTER 47
The days following the council’s decision blurred together like ash in water.Elise no longer woke with purpose. She stirred from sleep because the sun found her through the thin canvas of her assigned quarters. She dressed because she still remembered what it meant to be part of a structure, even one that had rejected her. She ate little, spoke less, and trained alone with wooden weapons in a clearing no one else visited anymore.Thea had not spoken to her since the council meeting. Not once. Not even in passing. And Elise did not seek her out.What was there to say?That the betrayal hurt more than the exile? That she still dreamed of the day Thea found her broken and bloodied at the forest’s edge and whispered, “You’re safe now”? That, despite everything, she still looked toward her aunt’s tent in the evenings hoping—praying—for even a flicker of hesitation in the oil lamp that meant Thea hadn’t slept yet?No.Elise learned silence quickly. It was one of the few lessons that never
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