Chronos Raven

Aldric's POV

The bond clicked, only for it to be ripped away in the same second. 

My wolf roared in agonizing torment, screeching at my ribs as the fragile, golden thread connecting my soul to Diana’s suddenly snapped.

The warmth of a second-chance mate evaporated, leaving behind a hollow, freezing void. She was gone.

"Diana!" I choked out, my voice breaking as I cradled her lifeless, pale body against my chest. 

Her beautiful eyes were open, staring blankly into the dark ceiling of the Bloodmoon dungeon. Hot tears streamed down my face and l let it flow.

I had spent months trying to reach her. Despite the rivalry between my pack and the bloomoon pack, I stole my way in, I sent emissaries, begging for an audience, desperate to help her appeal the treason charges. But she took me for a stranger and denied me every single time.

I looked down at the tiny, unmoving form lying in the straw beside her. My heart raced. It was a pup.

With trembling fingers, I reached out and lifted the small, blood-streaked bundle into my arms. I expected the cold stillness of death, but as my palm cupped the tiny chest, a faint, rhythmic lub- dub, vibrated against my skin. He was breathing, he was alive. 

Diana had died believing her child was dead, but the little fighter was clinging to life in the freezing filth.

"I have got you," I whispered, pulling the baby against my chest. I wrapped him tightly in my heavy leather cloak to shield him from the putrid dampness. "I have you, little one,” a bitter smile dangled on my lips.

Looking back at Diana’s serene, tragic face, a blinding, lethal rage completely consumed the sorrow in my blood.

My Alpha aura fluttered so violently my body trembled. “I will burn them to ash. I will dismantle the Bloodmoon Pack brick by brick, and I will tear Zack and Melissa apart with my bare hands,” I vowed to Diana's silent spirit. 

I shouldn't have left her all alone. I had kept my distance for so long, holding myself back only because I knew Zack was Diana’s fated mate. By the time I realized Zack was a dickhead who was openly sleeping with Melissa while his pregnant mate drowned in heartbreak, it was already too late, Diana was behind bars.

“See who we have here." A cold, mocking voice echoed down the corridor. 

I snapped my head up, my eyes glowing red.

Standing in the doorway, with heavily armed royal guards, was Zack. His jaw was set, and an arrogant smirk played on his lips.

"Is this how you sneak into my territory like a rat?” I put up with your constant sniffing around when we were just political rivals," Zack sneered, and stepped into the dim light of the dungeon. "But I didn't know you were interested in my mate.”

Mate? Did he just refer to Diana as his mate? "You framed your own Luna. You let your child rot in the dark… You…” I growled. My wolf pushed to the surface, ready to tear the throat out of the man who had murdered my mate.”

Zack prowled towards me unhurriedly. “You know too much, My Alpha,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue. “...You know secrets that could cost me my head and my crown. I am afraid I won't let you get out of here alive.”

"You cowardly piece of shit," I growled, shifting my weight to shield the breathing pup with my body.

"Kill him!" Zack ordered coldly, and stepped back into the corridor.

The guards lunged forward all at once, with their silver-tipped blades gleaming in the dark. I groaned inwardly, I was outnumbered and I came unprepared.

The shadows of the dungeon erupted into a chaotic storm of blood, and tearing of flesh. I fought back like a demon, but I was outnumbered. Trapped in a narrow space, and severely disadvantaged by the pup I refused to let go of. I kept one arm locked rigidly around the pup, absorbing every slash, every silver burn, and every brutal plunge of a blade into my own back.

But a heavy silver blade plunged deep into my thigh, forcing me to my knees. Another blade sliced across my chest. I collapsed on the floor, right in the pool of my blood.

Zack walked back into the cell, looking down at me with pure disgust. One of his guards pulled back my cloak, revealing the tiny, shivering pup hidden beneath it.

Zack gasped, and then snickered. "Well, look at that, good riddance! I never wanted anything to do with Diana's wretched spawn anyway. Finish them."

The guard raised his blade, and I knew there was no way out. With the last of my fading strength, I rolled over, using my battered, dying body to completely blanket the baby. I cuddled him tightly against my chest, burying his tiny face in the crook of my neck, wishing with everything left in my soul that I could provide him comfort in his final seconds.

"I'm sorry," I choked out, my vision fading into darkness. "I'm so sorry, little one…”

The blade pierced through my back, and a split second later, a sharp gasp left the tiny infant beneath me. The guard's blade had pierced us both.

But as we began to slip away, a sudden, terrifying surge of raw power erupted from the dying pup.

The air in the dungeon instantly froze. The sound of dripping water stopped in mid-air. The guards, and the laughing and retreating form of Zack all froze. With my life slipping away, I watched like a bystander, and it clicked immediately.

The pup had inherited his mother's hidden, bloodline magic, it's the mythical chronos ability that controls time. The sudden, tragic trauma of his death must have violently triggered the dormant magic sleeping within his soul.

Suddenly, a strange, intricate birthmark on the child's small shoulder flared to life. It didn't just glow, it erupted into a blinding white light that illuminated the entire dungeon like a dying star.

.

The light expanded and ripped through the constraints of the present day, and the power humming through the infant’s body shattered the boundaries of space and time

The air was revived and everything unfroze. Zack stumbled backward, shielding his eyes as the guards screamed in terror

The world dissolved into a blinding void of white light, the universe fractured and time began to run backwards.

Without the chance to live, the pup gave us a new chance to live. “Chronos…” the word rang in my subconscious.

“...Chronos Raven… that is your name,” I named the pup with my subconsciousness fast fading.

Then the pup's tiny hand wrapped weakly around my finger. The birthmark on his shoulder glowed brighter.

For one impossible heartbeat… I heard laughter. Not crying, child's laughter. Then a tiny voice echoed through the collapsing world, "Father... save Mother."

White light swallowed everything.