All Chapters of From Escape To Bound: Her Destined Wolf : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Clara’s POV A heavy silence stretched between us.“Elia, if you know something_“I know that the Council underestimates you. I know Lucas underestimated you. But Dorian?” Her voice dipped. “He never did. He always saw what you were becoming. That’s what terrifies me most.”I clenched the feather tighter. “Then he’s coming not to destroy me—but to use me.”“To twist you,” she corrected. “Or worse, to force your hand.”That idea sat heavy in my gut.Because there were still things I hadn’t told Ryker. Still truths I hadn’t faced myself. About my past with Dorian. About the deal I almost made with him once… back when I was still caged, still begging for someone to see me.Before I learned to see myself. “Elia,” I said, voice low, “if there’s a single noble left who’s pledged to Dorian, I want their name. Their house. Their bloodline. I want them watched.”She nodded. “And if he calls for you?”My answer came without hesitation.“Then I’ll answer. But not as his weapon. As his reckoning.”She left

Ryker’s POVI looked up at him. “You’ll keep them safe?”“With my life.”“And you’ll come back?”His jaw flexed. “Only if you command it.”“I do,” I whispered.He touched my fingers—just once—then disappeared into the dark.By morning, they were gone.And I stood alone again.But not as prey.As Queen.And in the silence before the storm, I prayed not for mercy—but for the strength to burn.The hours after they left passed like ghosts—silent, watchful, always at my back.I should’ve slept. I didn’t.Instead, I paced the length of the war room until the candles guttered low and the wind howled outside the stained-glass windows like the dead were whispering.Kira found me at dawn.“You’ve already memorized every line of those maps, Clara,” she said, arms folded as she leaned against the archway.“I’m not looking at the maps,” I murmured. “I’m watching the pieces move.”She walked to the table, her steps as soundless as a shadow. “You know they might not come back.”I met her eyes. “I know.”And it tore at

Ryker's PovI didn’t reply.Because I wasn’t just going to bring him home.I was going to burn the path there in fire and bone.Let Dorian gather his shadows.Let him play god with ancient magic.Because this time—The Queen wasn’t coming to negotiate.She was coming to conquer Darkness wasn’t the absence of light.It was the presence of weight.That’s what I realized as I came back to myself—beneath stone, buried deep in the shattered veins of the Aether Cradle.Pain anchored me. Thick, molten in my bones. My lungs refused air. My ears rang with silence.Then—a sound. Water dripping somewhere. A slow, rhythmic tap that carved a rhythm into the dark.Alive.Barely.I forced my fingers to move. The motion sent fire lancing through my arm. Broken, maybe. My left leg too. But I could move. I could still fight.“Sora,” I rasped, but the sound was devoured by the stone.Nothing answered.No light.No breath.No heartbeat but mine.Until something shifted behind the silence.A flicker of movement—no, not moveme

Clara’s POVAnd she unleashed hell.A pillar of fire slammed into Dorian, and for a heartbeat, he laughed.Then he screamed.The Rift magic inside him writhed, rejecting her purity. Flames devoured him—not just body, but soul. I watched his shadows tear loose, his form distorting as he tried to cling to something beyond life.He reached for Clara.And I was there.I caught his wrist—and broke it.He shrieked—and vanished into the fire.Gone.Silence crashed down like a wave. The flames receded, and Clara crumpled to her knees.I was beside her before she hit the ground, catching her, cradling her against me as the bond pulsed—whole. Fierce. Alive.She looked up at me, trembling, eyes rimmed with fire.> “You came back,” she whispered.I touched her cheek, burying my face in her hair.> “I never left.”She sagged into me, sobbing—not with weakness, but with release.And far above us, the cavern ceiling cracked—A ray of sunlight pierced through.The Cradle was breaking.But the Queen was whole.And her sh

Ryker’s POVWe left the temple behind, its stones still whispering of old oaths and broken promises. Each step felt like a promise of blood. My wolves fell in behind us—silent, watchful, their eyes reflecting the same fire that had been lit in me.Riven kept pace at my side, his blade still unsheathed. “They’ll be watching for you now,” he warned. “The Aether’s mark—it's not just a gift, it’s a beacon.”I grunted. “Let them watch. Let them know I’m coming.”The path ahead twisted between jagged rocks and tangled roots, each step carrying us deeper into lands claimed by the Forgotten Houses. Shadows moved in the corners of my vision—faint shapes that fled before I could focus. Spirits of the Aether. Echoes of the old world.They weren’t mine to command.Not yet.Ahead, the night opened into a wide clearing, ringed with charred stumps and bones half-buried in the ash. Once, this might’ve been a village—long since burned, long since broken.Now it was just a grave.I paused at the center, droppi