Chapter 41

ELAINAThe guards yanked Darein backward so hard he stumbled.“Wait!” I said, reaching out, but they were already dragging him toward the door. His feet scraped against the stone floor, leaving marks.“Elaina, listen to me,” Darein gasped, trying to pull free. Blood dripped from his mouth. “Stone doesn’t care about—”One of the guards hit him across the face, and Darein’s head snapped to the side. He went quiet, his body going limp as they hauled him out of the room. The door slammed shut behind them with a sound that echoed in my chest.Raven and Ryker pressed close to my sides, their little hands gripping my dress. I could feel them shaking.“It’s okay,” I whispered to them, even though it wasn’t. Nothing was okay.The door opened again, and this time Melissa stood there. She’d changed clothes since this morning. Now she wore a simple black dress with no sparkles or decorations. Her long hair hung loose around her shoulders. She looked tired, with dark circles under her eyes that I

Chapter 42

ELAINAThe ground shook with the sound of five hundred warriors marching.I stood at the edge of our temporary camp near the Dark Lands border, watching the horizon. The purple sky made everything look strange and wrong, but there was no mistaking what I was seeing. An army. A massive army of wolves approaching from the west, their footsteps making the earth tremble beneath my feet.Stone had come.“Everyone ready!” I shouted, and behind me, our twenty warriors scrambled into defensive positions. It wasn’t nearly enough. If Stone had changed his mind, if this was a trap, we’d be dead in minutes.Marcus appeared at my side, his hand on his sword. “That’s a lot of wolves.”“Five hundred, maybe more,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. My heart was hammering against my ribs so hard it hurt. “Just like he promised.”“Promised doesn’t mean he’ll keep his word,” Marcus muttered. “Could be coming to kill us all.”I couldn’t argue with that. Trusting Stone was like trusting a snake not t

Chapter 43

VALDISThe crystal burned in my hands like holding a piece of the sun.I ran through the castle corridors, my footsteps echoing off the stone walls, clutching Aiden’s soul crystal against my chest. My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst. Guards passed me, but I ducked my head and kept moving. Just Valdis. Just the dark prince going about his business. Nothing to see.But inside, I was screaming.Aiden was alive. Somehow, impossibly, my brother was alive. Trapped in a crystal, his soul imprisoned for who knows how long, but alive. And Mother had lied to me. For years, she’d told me he was dead, gone, erased. But she’d kept him. Locked him away in her vault with all her other failed experiments.Why? Why keep him if she wasn’t going to use him?I burst into my chambers and slammed the door behind me, locking it with shaking hands. The crystal was getting hotter by the second, like Aiden’s soul knew it was close to freedom and was fighting to break out.“Hold on,” I whispered

Chapter 44

The purple sky turned blood-red as the assault began.Troy ran at the front of the formation, his hybrid form tearing through shadow wolves like they were made of paper. His claws ripped through dark fur and bone, his teeth found throats, and his legs carried him forward, always forward, toward the East Tower where Elaina was dying.Around him, warriors from two different packs fought side by side. Stone’s werewolves and the Creekwood hybrids, enemies for years, now working together. It was strange and wrong and perfect all at the same time. A werewolf would slam a shadow creature to the ground, and a hybrid would finish it off. A hybrid would get surrounded, and werewolves would break through to save them.The tracking marks on their wrists burned and pulsed, showing them the way like a magical GPS. Every corridor, every turn, every hidden passage—all of it mapped on their skin in Elaina’s desperate handwriting.“East wing!” Troy shouted over the sounds of battle. “Push through!”Sha

Chapter 45

Aiden and Melissa collided in an explosion of light and darkness.White wolf energy slammed against shadow magic, the two forces screaming as they met. The sound was like thunder and breaking glass mixed together, so loud it made everyone’s ears ring. The floor cracked beneath them. The walls shook. Pieces of the ceiling started falling, crashing down around the warriors.Melissa threw bolts of pure darkness at Aiden. They looked like lightning made of smoke, crackling through the air. Aiden dodged and countered with blasts of white light that burned holes in the stone floor where they hit.“You should be DEAD!” Melissa screamed, her hair whipping around her face like she was standing in a windstorm. “I erased you! Removed you from existence!”“You can’t erase love,” Aiden growled back, his white eyes blazing. “You can’t erase family. I came back because my mate needed me. Because my children needed me.”“Those THINGS are not your children!” Melissa’s face twisted with hate. “They’re

Chapter 46

The moment their lips touched, the mate bond exploded to life. It wasn’t just a connection anymore—it was a flood. Aiden poured every memory he had of her through the bond. Their first night together in the forest. The morning after. Her telling him she was pregnant. The twins being born. Every laugh, every fight, every moment of joy and pain and love they’d shared.The memories hit Elaina like a tidal wave.She gasped against his mouth, her eyes going wide. Images flashed through her mind—Aiden’s face, the twins as babies, her pack, her friends, her life. Everything came rushing back in a chaotic mess, but it was THERE. Real. Hers.When the kiss ended, Elaina stared at Aiden with tears streaming down her face.“Aiden,” she breathed. “You came back. You actually came back.”“I’ll always come back to you,” he said, his voice rough with emotion. “Always.”Elaina looked down at the twins, and this time she SAW them. Her babies. Her children. She dropped to her knees and pulled them both