All Chapters of THE LOST WEREWOLF PRINCESS: MATED TO THE RIVALS: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

RHEA’S POV:I don’t run. I walk in slow, deliberate steps, drawn deeper into the woods as if the night itself has coiled fingers around my wrist, urging me forward. The glowing eyes are gone, but the pull remains. Stronger now, heavier. It hums beneath my skin, not painful, but ancient. Familiar in a way that makes no sense. Leaves crunch beneath my boots, damp and fragrant. A single branch snags my sleeve, but I don’t stop. I should turn back, I know I should. Whatever is ahead isn't safe. I can feel the magic thickening in the air like fog, clinging to my lungs, my thoughts.Still, I press on. Then I see it. A dip in the forest floor, almost hidden beneath a canopy of twisted roots and sagging vines. A hollow, sunken like a forgotten cradle. And curled inside, gods help me, is a creature I’ve only read about in whispers of old texts, seen sketched in the pages of fae prophecies I never believed were real.A dragon. My breath catches, hitching painfully in my chest.

RHEA'S POV: Kaia managed to convince me to speak to the Guen Pack Elders. I really hope they don't say something that will make me regret my decision. The storm hits just after dawn. Not in the sky, but in the air, in the energy that ripples through the packhouse walls. It's in the way Rowan's jaw tightens as he thinks. Probably of a way out of this situation. In the tremble of Kaia's fingers as she laces her boots. In the silence that follows every question she can't bring herself to ask. We sit in the largest room of the packhouse. The meeting hall. Windows open to the forest, letting in the scent of pine and smoke and something relaxing. Rowan sits at the head, arms folded across his chest, his Alpha energy pulsing in low waves, steady but tense. I'm beside Kaia, wrapped in a thick wool blanket that does little to stop the cold crawling under my skin. It’s not the weather. I feel so sick honestly. It’s the magic. The bond. The dying dragon bonded to my soul like a th

RHEA’S POV;The forest feels different now. A bit more welcoming, I guess. Not wild or hostile like before, though the fae wilds never really lose their bite, but reverent. Like it knows what we’re about to do. The wind has dropped, the leaves barely stir, and there’s a hush that presses against my skin like a breath held too long. Kai clears the way ahead, his blade drawn but lowered. Axel walks beside Kaia, who hasn’t said much since we left the last clearing. She keeps glancing at me, like she’s afraid I’ll collapse again. Maybe I will. Because I’m running on borrowed time.The dragon’s voice is barely a whisper now, like the ember of a song dying in a hearth. My bones ache, my skin burns and my magic flickers like a candle gutted by wind. But I keep walking because this is the only path left. We reach a slope cloaked in dense mist. Vines dangle like nooses. The soil pulses faintly with fae magic, and every step feels like it might turn on us. I pause, heart knocking

AUTHOR'S NOTE: SO THE BOOK TWO WILL BE STARTING IN THE NEXT TWO CHAPTERS. IT WILL BE ABOUT RHEA AND LUCIEN. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER!RHEA'S POV: It takes so much longer for me to find sleep now. Ever since the dragon tore the sky apart, my dreams have shifted. They aren’t peaceful or empty anymore. They are full of whispers and ancient melodies I don't recognize, etched in the spaces between sleep and waking. It's like I can feel her magic curling through my veins, flickering like candlelight that never fully goes out. The bond between us hasn't dulled with distance. If anything, it has deepened and stretches farther than it should, like she's planted herself in the marrow of my bones.Tonight, the dream doesn't drift, it's vivid. One moment, I'm in bed, curled beneath the covers Rowan forced me into after I passed out from training too long in the woods. The next, the air around me changes. It sharpens and it smells of crushed petals and old books, of something age

AUTHOR'S NOTE: SO BOOK TWO MIGHT BE A SLIGHT BIT DIFFERENT FROM THE SITUATION THAT HAPPENED WITH LUCIEN BECAUSE OF THE PLOT. NOTHING ELSE CHANGES. NOW, LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!!RHEA'S POV: Ash still clings to the wind, stinging my lungs as I run. The battlefield lies behind us like a nightmare unspooling into daylight, but there’s no waking from this. Not yet. "Kaia!" I scream, my boots slipping in the mud slicked with blood and magic residue. I skid to a stop, heart punching against my ribs as I spot her... kneeling.I hope she's not hurt or worse stabbed. Her auburn hair is tangled, her face streaked with dirt and tears. She’s cradling something. No, someone.Lucien. My breath catches. He’s limp in her arms, black veins crawling like vines up his neck. His eyes, usually so sharp, so guarded, are closed, his mouth slightly parted as if he fell mid-word. A sickly shimmer of dark magic dances across his skin, pulsing with each slow, dragging heartbeat. “No, no, no,” I w