All Chapters of Marked by Fire & Fang: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

LillyWhen Logan returned, he didn’t run to me like I hoped. He walked—calm, focused, flames still licking off his shoulders like they were part of him. He looked older. Not just physically, though yes, his legs were longer, his voice slightly deeper, his presence weightier. He looked like he had seen things. Things a mother shouldn’t imagine her child facing.But still—he was mine. And when he stepped into my arms, I felt him tremble. I buried my face in his smoke-scented curls and whispered, “You’re home. You’re safe. You’re still my baby.”He nodded, silent. His hands clung to my shirt like he might drift away if he let go.We stayed like that for what felt like hours. I hadn’t noticed the Bloodhowlers leaving, hadn’t seen the sun rise. All I cared about was the heartbeat against mine, steady and alive.LinkThe house was too small for everything we felt. So I took Lilly outside while Logan napped in the great bed—his fire dimmed for now, but never gone. Calla stood watch, a sentin

LillyI knew the moment the wind changed.It wasn’t just the sudden hush in the trees, or the way the sky dimmed despite the afternoon sun. It was something ancient—a pressure building in the marrow of my bones. A warning without words. A storm without thunder.Logan felt it too. He stood at the window, his fingers pressed against the glass, eyes narrowed on the treeline beyond the field. “They're watching,” he whispered.“Who, baby?” I asked, already clutching my stomach as if it might help me protect the unborn child inside.“The others. The ones who don’t like what I became.”My spine went cold.Link entered then, his shirt still clinging damp to his chest from training in the field. One look at Logan, then me, and the fire in his veins lit behind his eyes.“Talk,” he said.“They’re circling,” Logan said. “They don’t want to fight us yet. They want to see what we’ll do.”Link growled low. “Let them watch. They’ll regret it.”LinkThe packs had remained quiet since Logan’s trial, bu

LillyThunder cracked overhead like the sky had finally torn open. Rain hadn’t touched the soil yet, but the air was charged, thick with warning. I stood on the back porch, watching clouds churn above the treeline, violet and bruised. The storm wasn’t natural. Not even close.Behind me, the manor creaked in the wind, every board and stone humming with magic we’d laced into its bones for protection. Ember had fortified the wards with her own blood last night. Still, I could feel something scratching at the edges.“They’re coming again,” I whispered.Logan appeared beside me, barefoot, pale. He didn’t speak, just stared at the sky like it whispered things only he could hear. He reached out and rested a hand on my belly.“She’s not scared.”“No,” I agreed, heart pounding. “But I am.”He looked at me, serious in a way no three-year-old should be. “She said to stay inside the circle.”“What circle?”He pointed. The grass in the yard had blackened in a perfect ring around the manor.I hadn’

Chapter Forty-One: Blood in the RootsLillyThe silence after the scream was deafening. Even the trees held still, their branches frozen in mid-twist like they'd been caught breathing. The ferals lay motionless on the forest floor—some whimpering, others unconscious, none dead. My daughter hadn't killed them. She'd stopped them.I clutched Logan to my chest, heart pounding like a war drum. Ember crouched near us, her hands outstretched, eyes wide in awe.“She used the land,” she whispered. “She reached into the roots.”Link padded over in his wolf form, blood trailing from a gash across his shoulder. He shifted as he knelt before me, panting. “What the hell just happened?”I placed his hand over my stomach. “She protected us.”He leaned in, forehead against mine. “She's not even born yet.”Ember stood slowly, brushing dirt from her palms. “No. But she’s ancient. This child isn’t just yours, she’s theirs. The earth. The flame. The moon. She remembers them.”“What do we do now?” I asked

Chapter Forty-Four: The Whisper TreeLillyThe next morning, the woods were humming. Not with birdsong or wind, but with something deeper—like the earth was breathing beneath us. The whisper tree had grown thicker overnight. Its bark gleamed silver in the early light, and its branches swayed even though the air was still. Every time I passed it, I swore I heard my name.Logan was chasing fireflies that shouldn't exist in daylight. The cabin’s protection sigils had held through the night, but the stillness didn’t bring peace. It brought awareness.Our daughter was watching.I stood barefoot in the grass, hand on my belly, the weight of her presence warm and electric. “You really shook the world last night, didn’t you?” I murmured.Link stepped up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. His stubble scratched against my shoulder as he pressed a kiss there.“She’s got your fire,” he said.I leaned back into his chest. “No, she’s got ours.”He chuckled. “Remind me to thank the stars