Semua Bab The Omega Queen: Bab 81 - Bab 90

The path from the twentieth mountain to the twenty-first felt like the longest road I had ever walked. My body was tired, aching from every trial I had faced. My spirit was heavier still, weighed down with the voices of the guardians, their demands, their tests and their truths. Yet I walked on, guided by Jasmine’s steady paws and the warmth of her presence at my side. Oh! How I enjoyed her company!The wind was sharp against my face, carrying with it the cold sting of the last trial. Even now, my arms remembered the chill of Syrenthia’s frozen embrace; the ice that had seeped deep into my skin when I held my sister’s statue. I could still feel the ache in my bones from keeping my tears inside. I had wanted to cry. I had wanted to scream. But I had endured, because breaking was not an option. Not when Thompson’s essence still waited for me, locked away beyond this final mountain.The ground shifted beneath my boots as we climbed, stones crunching, dirt giving way to gravel. I leaned

The sun became intense as I kept walking. The sweat coming out of my body was like water from a fountain. As I approached the pack house, I heard some pack members at the clearing training. The moment they saw me, some greeted me happily and waved at me while the others seemed indifferent. All the while, I was looking out for Drey. I was looking forward to hearing his voice and I became tense when I couldn't even perceive his smell.As I got to the entrance, I heard light footsteps rushing toward me, quick and familiar. The air carried Tessy's scent before her voice did. It was like the scent of lavender soap.“Clarissa!” Tessy’s voice broke with disbelief, and then with joy.“Tessy?” My lips trembled as I spoke her name, and then her arms wrapped tight around me. She held me so close I almost forgot I couldn’t see her face. The warmth of her hug told me enough. She was real and safe.“You’re home,” she whispered into my hair, her voice trembling. “You really came back.”My throat clo

I never realized how heavy something so small could feel until I carried Thompson’s essence in my pocket.The bottle was not bigger than my palm. It was corked tight, with the faint shimmer of his form curled inside like a restless shadow. Every time I touched it, my skin tingled as if the glass wasn’t meant to hold what was inside. I could almost hear his whisper sometimes, like a memory tugging at me from a faraway corner. I knew it wasn’t real or maybe I hoped it wasn’t.The day I decided to go to Camellia’s, the sky was the same color as wet ash. Heavy clouds rolled above Riverside, the kind that looked like they could break into a storm any second. Tessy had been urging me since the night I returned. She’d sat with me, her eyes wide, when I pulled the bottle from my bag. She hadn’t touched it, she just kept staring at it just the way someone might look at fire, knowing it could warm you or burn your whole life to the ground.“You should take it to Camellia,” she’d said, her voi

The morning after the strange night when voices broke into my mind, I woke up with a heaviness in my chest. It wasn’t the ordinary heaviness of exhaustion, though my body did feel weak. It was the weight of knowing something inside me had changed forever. The activation of my mindlink was no small thing, and though part of me should have been glad, but I wasn’t. I had gone so long without it, walking blind in more ways than one, living outside the threads that bound pack members to one another. I had learned to live with the silence. And now, suddenly, I could hear everyone.The walls of my room did little to protect me. Even before I opened my lips to breathe, thoughts drifted in, brushing over me like whispers carried on a restless wind.“...what if he sees me talking to her again…”“...I need to hunt today before the storm…”“...the Alpha’s orders must be obeyed…”I gasped, my hands clutching the blanket around me. The voices weren’t loud, but they were there nonetheless. Layers o

Tessy’s POVThe night Clarissa returned from Camellia’s house, I knew something was heavy in her spirit. It was evident in the way she walked. Her pace was slow and measured, with Jasmine guiding her carefully, the cane tapping the path. Though blind, Clarissa carried herself with a quiet strength I had never seen in anyone else. But that night, there was a heaviness in her shoulders, in the way her chin dipped lower than usual.I had been waiting for her, pacing back and forth in the sitting room like a restless bird. I couldn’t explain it, but I’d felt something stir through the bond I shared with her. Ever since she returned from the mountains, something had changed between us. Perhaps it was her mindlink finally awakening, or perhaps it was just the closeness we had built through all these days of leaning on each other. Whatever it was, I knew when she was troubled.As soon as I heard the faint scrape of her cane on the threshold, I hurried to the door and pulled it open.“Claris