Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

LUCIEN’S POV My hand drops from her face. The moment it does, something inside me seals shut. I take a step back, then another, forcing distance between us before instinct overrides reason and I do something irreversible for her and for myself. The bond screams in protest, a violent wrench in my chest, but I clamp down on it with iron discipline. Alpha control. Her eyes widen. She feels it too. The sudden cold where my touch was. The shift. I turn away from her before my resolve fractures. “Guards,” I call, my voice carrying through the chamber, amplified by authority and command. “Now.” The word hits her like a blade. I hear it in the sharp hitch of her breath. I feel it through the bond, her panic spiking, fear flaring bright and wild. My jaw tightens. I do not turn back. Boots thunder down the corridor. The door bursts open as armoured guards flood the chamber, weapons drawn, instincts keyed to threat. Their gazes snap immediately to Saphra, pressed to the wall, eyes

SAPHRA'S POV The first time he comes back, I think I imagined it. The dungeon has taught me not to trust my senses, darkness warps sound, stretches silence into hallucination. So when I hear footsteps after midnight again, slow and deliberate, I keep my eyes shut. I tell myself maybe it’s another guard making rounds. Another night of nothing. Then the lock turns. The door opens. And Lucien steps inside my cell. I sit up instantly, heart slamming against my ribs. Every instinct screams at me to recoil, to bare teeth, to prepare for violence. My body remembers him too well. The bond tightens, sharp and aware, a traitorous thing that refuses to let me forget his presence. He closes the door behind him. Again. He doesn’t look at me at first. He sets something down carefully near the wall, a wrapped cloth filled with the faint scent of warmth and spice drifting through the cold air. Then he sits on the floor across from me. Just like before with no words. I wait for the questi

LUCIEN’S POV The doors to my study swing open with sharp purpose, wood groaning softly in protest as three figures stride inside. Senior council members—wolves who have worn authority for so long they mistake it for immunity. Their years have dulled their instincts, softened the memory of what an Alpha truly is when pushed. They do not bow. They do not wait for permission to speak. They act like blood is in the air. “We demand a formal audience,” Elder Vaelor says, his voice clipped, severe, already edged with accusation. “ And this can not wait.” I remain seated behind my desk, hands folded neatly on top a stack of untouched reports. I have not slept. The fire crackles low to my left, its warmth failing to reach the edges of the room, as if even the flames sense the tension coiling here. Outside the tall windows, dawn bleeds slowly into the sky, a sickly grey that mirrors my mood. “I am listening,” I say. My voice is neutral. They exchange glances, clearly expecting more. V

SAPHRA'S POV One moment I am sitting on the cold dungeon floor, back against stone, counting the slow drips of water somewhere beyond the corridor. The next— The world shatters. Moonlight floods my vision so violently I gasp, clawing at the ground beneath me. But there is no stone now. No iron bars. No damp rot of isolation. I am outside. The air is sharp with winter. Silver light spills across the palace courtyard, quiet and untouched. Snow glitters like crushed glass beneath the moon. And my father stands alone in the center of it. He is not armoured. He stands with his hands clasped behind his back, head slightly bowed, as if lost in thought. The wind brushes through his dark hair. His profile is strong. Human. My chest tightens painfully. I have not seen him like this in years not even in memory, or in dreams. In every recollection since the massacre, he has been twisted by violence. Eyes glowing with teeth bared. A monster carved from grief. But here— His eyes are

SAPHRA'S POV The dream begins without transition. One breath I am on stone, the next I am standing upright beneath a sky that does not contain a single star. There is no moon. No wind. No sound of insects or night birds. Only stillness. I stand barefoot in the center of a circle of ancient stones. They tower around me, jagged monoliths worn by time, etched with symbols too old for language. Their surfaces pulse faintly, not with light, but with memory. The air tastes metallic. Like blood. I turn slowly. Beyond the circle stretches nothing but darkness. Not forest or mountain. Just an endless, suffocating void pressing inward. And in the center of the stone ring— It writhes. The shadow from my visions is no longer a smear at the edge of perception. It has form now. If form can be used to describe something that refuses to hold shape. It is massive. Larger than any beast. Larger than the circle meant to contain it. Its body is made of absence, thick folds of darkness fo