Semua Bab Now, The Alpha Wants Me Back: Bab 31 - Bab 40

Lyra's POVIt wasn't her voice that emerged from Sable's mouth.It was wrong. Ancient. Stratified with echo that felt like it was coming from everywhere at once. It was a sound that set my skin to crawling and my wolf to spring forward with alarm."Moon's daughter," it said again, and Sable’s head twisted sideways in an unnatural way. “We’ve been looking for you.”My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst out of my chest. "What are you?"The something inside Sable laughed, and the laughter made the windows rattle. "We are older than your packs. Older than your precious bitch Moon Goddess. We are what was here before the light.”Black energy was flowing from Sable’s body in waves, pushing outwards as if a physical force. It kind of smacked me and I staggered backwards, Draven’s hand reflexively gripping my arm.“Lyra, we must go,” he said urgently. "Now."But something in me wouldn’t let me run.My wolf was not cringing or attempting to run away. She was growling, hair sta

Lyra's POVI was standing on a hidden balcony over the central courtyard, surveying." as the Elder Council's envoys filed in.I clutched the stone railing so hard, my knuckles went white.There were dozens of them. There must have been fifty wolves in all, each one wearing covered pack livery and marching with military precision. Warriors circled the party, weapons in hand and suspicious eyes tracking circles around Draven's headquarters as if waiting for attack.This was not a diplomatic call.This was a show of force.In the midst of this cavalcade came five horsemen. I knew who they were even from afar. The Elder Council. The wolves that had judged over pack affairs for generations. The same wolves who’d graced my wedding to Cassian with lying smiles and scheming eyes.And there, mounted on his gray mare with his head high, trotted Elder Thane.The man whose baby Sable was carrying. The man who had betrayed Cassian while seated on his council, advising him, pretending at loyalty.R

Draven's POVI hit the wall as the explosion rattled my ears. Glass tinkled like rain around me as I got myself to my hands and knees, wolf already barrelling for the open in my skin.Outside, chaos erupted.Alarms wailed. Warriors shouted orders. And from the cracked window, I could gaze upon the Elder Council's forces charging through our ruined gates.They had attacked us.Actually attacked us.This was not political maneuvering or delicate diplomacy. This was open war."Shift!" I bellowed, the sound echoing through the complex. "Defensive positions! Protect the inner buildings!"Except Cassian was already going, body shifting and rippling as his wolf fought for control. His father followed suit. The three of us were bounding out of the office and into the courtyard in seconds.My pack was already responding. Warriors streamed out of the buildings, some in wolf form, and some yet still human; armed up and ready to rock. They knew what to do. We’d drilled for this, though I hoped it

Cassian's POVTo me, the world broke like broken glass.One second I was in Draven's compound, observing as the old witch lifted her hands. The next, the plain was falling to pieces and I was literally being sucked into a darkness that was so dark my own hands would have been invisible.I felt I was falling, tumbling through nothing, and had no bearings.Then I hit solid ground.Hard.I lay there for a brief moment, breathless, trying to comprehend what had taken place. Gradually my eyes accustomed to the dimness.I was in a forest. But everything was wrong.The trees were black, their bark charred flesh, reaching out to a sky that bore no stars. The moon loomed overhead, blood red and bloated, and everything was bathed in an unhealthy crimson light.I attempted to move, summoning my wolf out.He did, but sluggishly, and as though slogging through mud. It was a painful and incomplete transformation, my wolf caged by whatever unnatural force this place held.I willed myself human and r

Lyra's POVI knew what was happening inside my body, but I wasn’t in control of my body.The Moon Goddess had done some temporary occupying, hijacking me as a vessel to materialize in this hell house she'd been made specifically not to be included in. I felt what she did. Her primordial sorrow, that of deep ocean depths. Her intense undiscriminating love of all werewolves—even those who had betrayed her confidence. Her deep sense of disappointment at how badly things had gone to pieces over the centuries.She looked down to the corrupted First Daughter with my eyes and such deep, profound… sorrow it pained my heart.“My dearest child,”The Goddess answered, speaking through my mouth, the sound of her voice filled with a mixture of power and pain. “Look what they made you become.”The witch jumped back as if she had been slapped. "You abandoned me! I cried for you years while they brutalized me! Though they destroyed me day by day and you did nothing!”“I never left you,” the Goddess sa