All Chapters of THE ALPHA TRIALS: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

—AVA—The courtyard behind the Rite Hall was eerily silent.Moonlight spilled across the cobblestone, glinting off the jagged statues of the ancient Alpha line. Shadows shifted as contestants stumbled out of the smoke maze one by one—some sobbing, others too broken to speak.But Ava waited.And when she saw Darius emerge—cut across the chest, sweat-slicked and unsteady—she didn’t hesitate.She grabbed his arm and yanked him into the shadows behind the weapons vault.“What the hell was that?” she hissed.Darius’s eyes flicked up to hers—stormy, unreadable. “You saw it.”“You lied to me.” Her voice cracked. “You’ve known who I was this entire time. You bargained with that Alpha—*spied on the others—*for what? To keep me safe, or to control me?”Darius’s chest heaved.“I didn’t lie,” he said through gritted teeth. “I protected you. If the Council finds out what you are—what you carry—”“Say it,” she snapped. “Say what I am.”He flinched.Then whispered, “You’re the Blood Moon’s chosen. T

—AVA—They dragged her into the underground chamber beneath the Council tower.Chains of silver wrapped her wrists.A collar of obsidian stone pulsed against her throat.She wasn’t a prisoner.She was a threat.“You defied the Rite,” one Elder snarled.“You disrespected the Claiming,” said another.“You spit on our sacred bond laws,” spat the third.Ava didn’t flinch.She stood, shoulders squared, head high—even as the walls pulsed with damp, ancient magic meant to weaken her wolf.“I didn’t break the rules,” she said. “I reminded you that I’m not yours to command.”The Elders hissed.“We should strip you of your place. Nullify your bloodline.”“You can try,” she murmured. “But the Moon has already spoken.”—THE COUNCIL’S DECREEAlpha Roran stood at the altar again.The Trials paused.The remaining three Alphas—Cassian, Lucien, Darius—were summoned to bear witness.“Ava Pierce has defied the sacred rites,” Roran declared. “Therefore, she will undergo the Rite of Severance—where the Mo

—AVA—The meeting was held beneath the ruins of the Wolf Temple, a place the Council had abandoned centuries ago—too sacred, too powerful, too dangerous.Now it belonged to her.Torches lined the jagged arches. A fire roared in the center. Around it, wolves from forgotten bloodlines gathered. Rebel alphas. Disgraced heirs. Women marked by the Moon who had survived exile, torture, betrayal.Ava stood at the head of the fire, Selene at her side.And when she spoke, her voice shook the ground.“The Trials were never about strength,” she said. “They were about control. But the bloodlines they tried to silence? We’re still breathing.”She raised her fist.“And we’re not asking for power anymore. We’re taking it.”Howls erupted around her.—THE THREE ALPHASCassian stood behind her, arms crossed, smirk playing at his lips. "Damn, Pierce. You sound like a queen already."Lucien said nothing, but his hand rested lightly on the hilt of his blade—a silent oath.Darius stood to her left, his eye

—AVA—They buried their dead at dawn.The ash from the ridge still clung to her skin, mixing with blood and guilt and fire.Cassian lay unconscious in the healer’s tent, his breathing shallow. Lucien hadn’t spoken a word since the explosion. Darius’s fury simmered just below the surface—cold, dangerous.Selene stood watch at the cliff’s edge, arms crossed, staring down the mountain as if she could will Killian’s head onto a pike.And Ava?She stood alone, gripping the shattered Council seal in her hand.He betrayed us.But Ava wasn’t mourning.She was planning.—THE STRATEGY COUNCIL“We strike again in three days,” she said flatly, her voice hoarse. “No more hesitations. No more trust.”Selene nodded. “Killian is hiding somewhere beyond Hollow Fang territory. His wolves will scatter if we take out the den.”Lucien finally spoke. “He’ll expect an ambush. We need someone who knows how he thinks.”Darius added, “Someone who knew him before the exile.”That’s when a voice echoed from the

—AVA—She’d never heard Selene sound afraid.But as soon as Ava mentioned Moonspire, her mother’s face paled.“It’s a ruin,” Selene said. “It was sealed before the Blood Moon’s first rise. No wolf who’s entered has come out… unchanged.”Ava didn’t flinch.“Then that’s where I’ll go.”Lucien stepped closer, tension rippling beneath his skin. “If the vision Killian gave you came from something older than the Trials, then the Moonspire is the only place where that magic could’ve rooted.”Cassian growled faintly. “And we’re just going to walk into a haunted ruin because Ava had a dream?”Darius shook his head. “Because she had a warning.”Selene finally exhaled.“If you go in, you’ll see what your bloodline left behind,” she said. “You’ll learn what the Council fears. And what they buried to keep it silent.”Ava met her mother’s gaze.“Good,” she said. “It’s time I heard the truth.”—THE ASCENT TO MOONSPIREThey rode in silence.Wolves flanked them on either side, their footsteps muffled