Semua Bab Against All Odds: Bab 71 - Bab 80

* Zeina *The Western Front. Moments Before the Storm. The world was fire and fang.I stood on the blood-soaked earth of the battleground, wind slicing through my fur like knives. My wolf form towered above the fallen, silver fur matted with blood, some of it theirs, more of it mine. The moon, high and indifferent, watched from behind black clouds as if even it feared what was to come.Across from me, Celine.She was no longer the woman I had once remembered as weak in the dungeons of the Alpha King. Not even the woman I'd known in the West with Robert. She was a creature now, cloaked in robes spun from shadow, her wolf mutated, longer, leaner, glowing with the same dark red magic that pulsed like veins of poison beneath her black pelt. Her eyes no longer blinked. They glared, glassy and possessed.Wolves of her twisted army circled the field like vultures, their empty sockets leaking smoke, undead enchantments crawling up their limbs. Behind me, Beta Aldin limped into a defensive sta

* Zeina *I floated. At least, I think I did.The pain had become background noise, muted, distant. Like a storm rumbling from another world. I could feel it dragging at me, a dull, throbbing anchor behind my ribs, in my leg, across my shoulder where Celine's shadow blade and fangs had sunk in. But none of it mattered.Because something else called me. A voice. A heat. A memory I refused to let go. Cerberus.His scent was the first thing that pulled me back, a mixture of ash, pine, blood, and something wild and ancient. I could taste it on my tongue before I could even feel my body again. Then came the heat of his hand, calloused and strong, pressing against my cheek. The warmth was not of fire, but of him. I chased it blindly."Zeina...sweetheart."His voice, low and frayed. I would know that voice anywhere. I would run through fire to reach it.My lips moved. I tried to speak his name, but it came out as little more than a breath."...Cer...""I'm here."Those words. Gods, I needed

* Zeina *We found him just past the ridge, collapsed beneath the outstretched arms of an ancient pine, its limbs heavy with frost. The snow had softened around him, melted in a strange circle that pulsed faintly with old, wild magic. A ward. A last desperate barrier, flickering and fading as if it had devoured the last of his strength.Cerberus lay still in the center, half-shifted, caught between man and beast. His claws had gouged the earth, steam still rising faintly from where his blood had met snow. The silver in his fur shimmered with frost, his breath shallow but steady, the pulse at his throat barely visible beneath his torn collar.I dropped to my knees beside him, the cold forgotten. My fingers brushed his jaw, tracing the angle of it, the stubble rough against my skin. His body was warm, too warm."Donna!" I snapped, not caring how wild I sounded. "Help me break the ward. I think it's draining him now."She was already moving, Beta Kael right behind her. The two of them cr

* Zeina *Cerberus slept, but it wasn't the fitful sleep of a wounded beast. It was deep, untroubled, the kind of sleep that only comes after a soul has been restored.I remained curled against his side, my head rising and falling with each breath he took. His chest was solid beneath me again no longer sunken with exhaustion, no longer shaking from the effort of staying conscious. There was life humming in him now. Wild and free. Mine.And gods help anyone who dared try to take him again.I shifted carefully and pressed a lingering kiss to his collarbone before rising from the bed, wrapping myself in a silk robe. The spell circle still shimmered faintly across the stone floor, charged with what we'd done, power and love woven into the very air.Cerberus was no longer broken. But he was still a rogue.The thought turned cold in my stomach, even as I pressed my palm over my lower belly, over the bond still tingling beneath my skin. We had chosen each other. Against fate. Against politic

* Zeina *I was drowning.The throne room was ablaze, not with fire, but with screaming light. Blinding, divine, merciless. It poured from every crevice of the marble floor, bleeding from the carved eyes of statues, licking up the pillars like holy judgment.And in the center stood Celine.Celine, Firstborn of the Rogue Alpha father of Cerberus, Celine, the blade the Council kept sheathed in ceremony but forged in punishment. Now my executioner.She wore her ceremonial robes, silk as white as bone, stitched with silver runes that shimmered like frostbite. Her eyes were no longer the dark night I remembered when she was with Alpha Robert. They were lightless now. Starless. Eyes hollowed by prophecy and power and the Council's cruel favor."You were the jewel," she said. Her voice rang like bells underwater, muffled, warped, choking. "You were supposed to end the bloodline wars. Not ignite a new one."My body felt frozen in place, knees half-buckled, my hands wrapped in chains I couldn'