Semua Bab The Alpha's Abandoned Mate : Bab 71 - Bab 80

“Stand up, Sienna.”The voice came from everywhere and inside her mouth. She was already upright. She opened her eyes into mist that wasn’t mist, silver, fine, filling space without weight. It clung to her lashes without wetting them. It carried no temperature. It had the polite indifference of a room prepared for a guest who might not arrive.“I’m not kneeling,” Sienna said. Her words didn’t make sound. They made shape in the fog.“You have knelt enough for men,” Lunaris replied. “I allowed it once. It taught me nothing I wanted to know.”Ryder stood three paces away, hands loose at his sides, eyes bright with the reflection of light that had no source. He looked at Sienna first, then at the not-sky, not-floor, not-walls, scanning a prison whose bars were made of decision. The wound at his ribs was gone. The ribbon on his wrist remained, looped to hers with a line that didn’t need silk to exist.“Where,” he asked, voice low, warning the room that answers that waste time will be punish

“Turn back while you still can breathe our weather.”The voice wasn’t Lunaris. It belonged to the High Priestess, who stepped out of the ruined vestibule of the Moon Temple with her white hair braided tight and her hands inked to the wrist. The Citadel smelled of ozone and wet ash; the air tasted clean because so much had burned.Sienna crossed the threshold without stopping. Her sandals made no sound on stone that had memorized her footsteps. She carried no crown. The crescent on her wrist glowed faintly, not as a threat, more like a lamp you keep by the door in case someone frightens the dark.“I wanted goodbye,” the Priestess said, no cruelty in it.“There is no goodbye,” Sienna answered. “There’s work.”“You took her bargain,” the Priestess said. It wasn’t a question. Her eyes flicked to Sienna’s mouth, perhaps expecting the arrogance that immortals wear when they think they’ve learned humility well. She did not find it.“I took a door that doesn’t close,” Sienna said.“Then learn

“Do you really think you can walk back into this place alive?”The voice was only in his mind, a memory more than a threat, but Ryder still jerked his head toward the darkness behind him. Only silence answered. Only the cold breath of the old tunnels curled around him, clinging to his skin like a reminder of everything he had lost.He pressed his palm against the damp stone wall and drew in a slow breath. “I’m not here to survive,” he muttered. “I’m here for her.”The tunnels beneath the Citadel were not meant for living men. They were cut centuries ago, before the Moon Throne existed, carved by claws and magic during the first Bloodline War. Ryder felt every inch of it pressing in on him now, the curse under his skin pulsing like something alive, something hungry.His breath turned white in the air. The deeper he went, the colder it became. The curse reacted to the air down here, responding to the ancient runes carved into the walls, runes that once bound the wolf king he carried in

“Don’t move another step.”The voice came so sharply that Ryder froze in the middle of the outer garden path. His hand hovered inches from the carved stone pillar he’d used to brace himself, but he didn’t turn. He didn’t have to. He recognized the tone instantly.Eamon.Sienna’s loyal guard captain. Tall, bronze-skinned, broad-shouldered, with a jaw cut like a blade and a gaze that could silence a room. His loyalty to Sienna was legendary. His hatred for Ryder? Even more so.Ryder slowly lowered his hand. “Relax. If I wanted to kill anyone, I wouldn’t be walking through roses.”Eamon stepped out from behind a column, dressed in dark leather armor, sword unsheathed. “You shouldn’t be here. The Queen gave explicit orders.”“I’m aware.” Ryder shrugged once, eyes fixed forward. “I’m ignoring them.”“You always did,” Eamon muttered.Ryder’s lips twitched faintly. “Some habits die slowly.”“Yours seem to never die at all.”Ryder finally turned his head. “Move.”“No.”He didn’t waste a breat

“Ryder… why are you here?”Her voice slid through the darkness before he even stepped out of it, sharp as a blade and trembling under the weight of something she didn’t dare name. The moonlight cut across her face as she turned, catching the silver in her eyes, the faint glow beneath her skin that hadn’t been there weeks ago. She looked like someone the world should fear, yet all Ryder saw was the woman he kept breaking for.“I couldn’t stay away.” His words were low, rough, dragging through his throat like each one hurt to speak. “Not tonight.”Sienna exhaled shakily, and the breath misted between them in the cold air of the garden. “You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered. “Every step you take toward me pulls that curse tighter.”He stepped closer anyway. His boots crushed the roses Renna once planted, roses he’d always hated. “I don’t give a damn about the curse.”“You should.” Her voice cracked and she caught it quickly, pressing her lips together until her composure returned. “Yo