Semua Bab Against All Odds: Bab 61 - Bab 70

* Zeina *The Seer's sanctum was a vault of ancient breath and buried secrets.Deep beneath the Western Alpha house, far from the reach of wind or sunlight, it breathed with a rhythm older than language. Behind silver-etched obsidian doors, the chamber pulsed with a slumbering power, the kind that hummed low in the bones and made your skin itch with memory you didn't know you had. Walls of dark stone curved inward like ribs, encasing the space like the hollow of some ancient god's chest. Candles flickered in the mouths of skulls, casting restless shadows on the frescoes of forgotten rituals.Five Seers circled me, robed in twilight silks, their faces hidden behind veils the color of bruised dusk. Their voices were already whispering, low and layered, like water falling backward.Cerberus stood just beyond the sigil ring, a dark shape against the glow, arms folded tight across his chest. His jaw clenched and unclenched with each passing second, the muscle ticking near his temple. The a

* Cerberus *The Hollow Mountains gave nothing for free.Even now, as the Godrender thrummed against my back, strapped there with leather and wolfhide, still warm from the altar, it wasn't triumph I felt. It was the weight of something final. Something that had already started to feed.Dirus didn't speak for a long time after we left the Black Altar. The silence between us felt sharp, brittle, like one wrong word could fracture the space itself.We walked until the tunnels grew less alive, until the air stopped humming. Only then did he break the silence."She won't survive a second failed ritual."I stopped walking. "This one won't fail."Dirus turned to me, his expression something between exhaustion and warning. "You still don't understand. The Godrender doesn't just cut. It changes. It takes from the wielder, yes, but it also takes from what it severs."My brows furrowed. "What are you saying?"He stepped closer, voice lowering, harsher now, like he was done playing the old, crypt

* Cerberus *The Hollow Mountains had taught me many things, how to survive with nothing, how to break a man with my hands, how to pray with blood instead of words. But it never taught me what it meant to love.Not until her.The mark I'd left on Zeina still pulsed beneath her skin, as alive as the bond now tethered between us. I could feel her heartbeat even now, echoing faintly within my own chest. Steady. Strong.Mine. But peace was short-lived. The scent of him carried in the wind long before the scout returned. I knew it like rot. Like poison.Robert. He came not as a lover reclaiming what he'd lost, but as a tyrant demanding what he believed he still owned. I rose, bare-chested and silent, from the tangle of furs and warmth. Zeina's hand caught mine."Don't go alone.""I won't," I said, pressing my forehead to hers. "You're with me now. In everything."She nodded, her eyes luminous with power and memory. Then I left her behind in the chamber that still smelled of salt and sweat

* Cerberus *The path up Mount Hollow was cruel.Not in the way battle was cruel, with blood and fire and the sharp taste of steel in your mouth, but in the way old things are cruel. The mountain didn't care that I had fought for her. That I had bled for her. That I had burned myself hollow just to keep her free.The mountain demanded more.Every stone I stepped on felt like a judgment. Every gust of wind carried whispers that might have once been words, or curses. I stumbled once, knees buckling on loose shale, catching myself with a hand skinned raw days ago. Dirus didn't slow. The bastard barely turned his head. His voice drifted back through the cold like smoke winding through a dying fire."You won't survive this climb on rage alone."I bared my teeth and dragged myself upright, my breaths coming ragged and sharp. "I've survived worse.""Not like this, boy." His staff struck the ground once, echoing in the thin air. "Not without your wolf."That hit harder than the cold.The sile

* Zeina *I woke with his name on my lips."Cerberus..."The warmth of the dream still clung to me, thick as velvet, his hands, his voice, that golden tether between us pulsing with desperate promise.But the moment I opened my eyes, I knew peace had already fled the room.My chamber door was ajar.Heavy boots echoed down the corridor, muffled voices carrying an edge I recognized too well, urgency. Trouble. A storm waking.By the time I sat up, Beta Kael was already standing at the threshold. His usually unreadable expression was cracked with concern, and behind him, a royal courier bowed low, visibly shaking."What is it?" I asked, rising to my feet in one smooth motion.Beta Kael stepped forward. "Your brother. The Alpha King. He sent word from the capital. It's urgent."My stomach clenched. "Speak."Kael's jaw tightened. "Celine has escaped."The room tilted slightly. The name hit like a blade."What?""She was in solitary confinement under enchanted wards, but when word of Robert'