All Chapters of Captive Moon: The Alpha's Blood Pact: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The archives smelled of smoke.Not the cozy kind from the hearth, but the acrid, chemical stench of magic—faint, but enough to make Elara’s scar tingle. She’d spent three days buried in Eleanor’s journals, and still, the words “the fire comes next” burned in her mind like a brand.Ellie sat at her feet, sorting through a pile of leather-bound books, her tiny fingers tracing the sigils on their covers. Every so often, she’d pause, tilt her head as if listening to a secret, and tuck a book aside.“Found something?” Elara asked, flipping to a new page. The journal entry was dated 1897, the ink faded but legible: “The fire is not born of shadow. It is born of light. Of blood. Of a Voss who forgets her purpose.”Ellie held up a book, its cover embossed with a phoenix. “Hot bird. Mamma’s blood.”Elara’s breath hitched. The phoenix—a symbol of rebirth, of fire that consumes to cleanse. Eleanor had drawn it beside the wolf-and-thorns sigil in three different journals.She reached for the book

The den’s training yard smelled of ash and wolfsbane.Elara ducked as a fireball sailed over her head, crashing into the stone wall with a shower of sparks. Ellie giggled from the sidelines, her small hands outstretched, the phoenix mark on her chest glowing like a tiny sun.“Not so hard, little one,” Elara called, wiping sweat from her brow. Since the caves, they’d been practicing—her learning to wield the fire, Ellie learning to control it. So far, progress was… uneven.“Sorry, Mamma!” Ellie said, but her eyes twinkled as another flame danced between her fingers.He leaned against the fence, his arms crossed, a faint smile on his face. “She’s holding back. Scared she’ll burn you.”Elara raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And you’re not?”“Terrified.” He pushed off the fence, crossing to her. His fingers brushed her cheek, then the scar on her wrist, which had taken on a faint red tint since the fire magic entered their lives. “But I also know she’d sooner burn herself than hurt you.”Ellie’s f

The fire didn’t burn them.​Elara stared at her outstretched hand, inches from the wall of flame. Instead of searing pain, she felt a strange warmth—like sunlight on skin, like the hearth at the den on winter nights. Behind her, he let out a low, confused growl, his wolf form flickering as if the magic itself was hesitating.​“It’s… waiting,” he said, shifting back to human, his eyes fixed on the temple door.​Elara nodded, her scar still burning but no longer agonizing. “Waiting for Ellie. But why isn’t it attacking us?”​A voice echoed from the flames—a whisper, like embers crackling. “Voss blood. Old pact.”​She froze. The voice was familiar, like a memory half-forgotten. Like her mother’s lullabies, or the stories the elders told of the first witches.​He placed a hand on her shoulder, his touch steadying. “We have to follow her. Now.”​Together, they stepped into the fire.​Inside the temple, the air was thick with smoke and the scent of ancient stone. Torches blazed along the wa

The mountain air bit at Elara’s cheeks as they climbed, sharp and cold enough to make her breath fog. Ellie huddled in the fur cloak draped over her shoulders, her small hand clamped around Elara’s as they navigated the rocky trail.​“Cold,” Ellie muttered, her golden eyes watering against the wind. But when she exhaled, a wisp of silver fire curled from her lips, melting the frost on a nearby boulder.​He appeared beside them, his wolf form moving easily through the snow despite the steep slope. His red brand glowed faintly against his dark fur, a beacon in the gray landscape. “An hour more. The scouts spotted ruins ahead.”​Elara nodded, pulling Ellie closer. The pack had split at dawn—half staying to guard the den, the rest following them into the mountains, their breath visible as they tramped through the snow. Lira led the way, her bow slung across her back, her eyes scanning the cliffs for signs of danger.​“Keep your eyes peeled,” she called over her shoulder. “Ice witches don’

The temple’s training yard glowed with magic as Elara dodged a spray of ice, her scar blazing. Beside her, he lunged, his shadow magic coiling around a practice dummy, while Ellie wove silver fire between them, creating a barrier that turned the ice to steam.“Faster!” the ice witch called, her blue flames flickering as she conjured another wave of frost. “The Ice Lord won’t hesitate. He’ll freeze you before you can blink.”Elara grunted, rolling under a particularly sharp icicle, and retaliated with a burst of fire that melted the dummy into a puddle. “Remind me again why we’re practicing on dummies? Shouldn’t we be tracking the corrupted wolves?”“Tracking won’t help if we can’t fight,” he said, his shadow magic dissolving as he shifted to human form. He brushed frost from his arm, where the red brand glowed faintly. “The witch is right. We need to master this trinity magic before we face the Ice Lord.”Ellie collapsed onto the snow, her silver fire sputtering. “Tired. Magic hurts.”