All Chapters of The Price Of Fate: Chapter 191 - Chapter 200

388 Chapters

191 The Doom They Tried to Name 2

Nyra’s POVThe room tilted again. Power moved strangely in moments like that. It was not always the loudest voice. Sometimes it was the room choosing where it would stand, and one by one, more of the room was choosing me. Choosing Ronan. Choosing Elaine’s memory over the Prima society’s sudden need.Calista’s face twisted.“You cannot dismiss us.”“I can,” Robert said. “And I just did.”Before Calista could lash out again, Astrid spoke.“I will not be returning with her.”Everything stopped. Even Calista froze.“What?” she snapped.Astrid straightened, though I could still see the nerves in her shoulders.“I said I am not returning with you.”Calista stared at her as if she had lost her mind.“Are you out of your mind?”Astrid’s face steadied.“I also have visions. Shadows, yes. Not true sight. But I have been led to stay here.”She turned then, not to Calista but to me.“And help Nyra figure out how to save the people.”The words sat heavily in the room. Calista made a harsh sound of

192 The Doom They Tried to Name 3

Nyra’s POVMy gaze flicked to Ronan before I could stop it. He was watching Astrid with flat displeasure still lingering from Calista’s conduct. His jaw was tight. His eyes cold. There was no softness in him for this. No rush to grant trust because someone had said the right words after things went wrong.That steadied me. I was not the only one hearing caution in all this.Astrid saw the way I looked at him and smiled faintly, almost to herself.“You are right to be careful,” she said.“I did not say that.”“You did not need to.”Her tone held no offence. That made me warier, not less. Because people who wanted something often performed patience better than honesty.Ronan finally moved. Not towards Astrid. Towards the centre of the room, claiming it fully now that the storm of the confrontation had passed.He looked at Maelin.“Henceforth,” he said, his voice clipped and hard, “unless Ally is coming herself, Vandwood will no longer receive Calista.”The command settled into the room

193 What Remains of the Crown

Keiran’s POVThe house Astrid was given was not far from the main part of Vandwood, but not too close either. Close enough that she could be watched if she needed to be. Far enough that if anyone in the pack got stupid ideas, they would have to think twice before acting on them. I made the arrangements myself because I did not want the task left to anyone who might decide a Prima wolf deserved less comfort because of where she came from, or more comfort because of what she might still know. I stood in the middle of the sitting room and looked around one last time. It was simple. Clean. Firewood stacked. Water already brought in. Fresh sheets. Basic food in the kitchen. Nothing luxurious, but enough. More than enough for a temporary stay. Astrid stood near the window, watching me. I had barely spoken during the whole walk over. I had spoken even less since we entered. That suited me fine. My mind had been too loud since the moment I saw Nyra with Ronan again. Too many old wounds being

194 What Remains of the Crown 2

Keiran’s POVTears gathered in her eyes and spilled before she could stop them. My mother did not cry easily. She raged. She struck. She cut people open with her tongue. Tears from her were something uglier than weakness. They were the sound of someone losing a war they had built their life around winning.“I am useless now,” she said.“Mother…”“I am.” Her voice cracked. “Do not tell me otherwise.”I moved closer and took the arm of the chair, ready if she needed me, though I knew she would hate that thought too. She laughed once, and it was a horrible sound.“Ethan never loved me,” she said. Beverly shifted awkwardly behind her. I still did not look at the girl.My mother kept going, crying openly now. “He barely tolerated me when I was whole. What do you think will happen now?” she asked. “What do you think I will be to him now that I cannot stand beside him as Luna? Now that I cannot even walk into a room without help?”“Stop,” I said quietly.“I hate this,” she snapped. “I hate d

195 What Remains of the Crown 3

Keiran’s POVThe room went silent enough for the fire to sound too loud.“I lost,” I said again, calmer now because truth always steadied me more than fantasy. “Ronan is a better Alpha. I have no problem serving as Ronan’s Beta.” Beverly sucked in a breath. My mother looked like I had struck her.“You cannot mean that.”“I do.”“No.”“Yes.”She shook her head rapidly, tears building again. “No. No. I did not go through all this for you to say something like that to my face.” I stepped closer, not for comfort this time, but so she would hear every word clearly.“Ronan’s father was the original Alpha,” I said. “If Ronan’s father had not died, Ethan would never have become Alpha in the first place.”“Stop.” My mother’s voice tore out of her. Tears streamed down her face again.“Stop.” I did not.“Ronan has more right to that position than anyone in this house,” I said.“Ethan won that challenge fair and square!” she cried. Her chest heaved. Her fingers dug into the blanket over her lap.

196 The Pain That Stayed

Keiran’s POVCharles did not wait for me to answer. He turned the moment he delivered the message and started toward the door like standing still any longer would cost us something we could not afford to lose. I moved after him at once. My mother called my name sharply behind me, and I heard the scrape of her wheelchair as she tried to turn too fast.“Keiran.”I stopped only long enough to glance back. She looked pale with rage and fear both, one hand gripping the arm of the chair so tightly her knuckles had gone white.“Don’t go,” she said. “Let Ronan handle whatever it is. If he wants to play Alpha so badly, then let him do it.” Charles did not even slow.“He cannot,” Charles said. My mother’s eyes snapped to him.“And why not?” she demanded.Charles finally looked back, and the expression on his face made something in my gut tighten immediately. There was no impatience there. No ordinary urgency either. It was worse than that. It was the look of someone carrying news that had alrea

197 The Pain That Stayed 2

Keiran’s POVI forced my thoughts back to the road. To the present. To my father. To the thing we were driving toward. Grief could wait. Or no. That was a lie. Grief never waited. It just learned to sit beside everything else while life kept dragging you forward. We drove for several more minutes with only the sound of the engine and the tyres grinding over uneven ground between us. Then the forest began to thin. Not gradually. Strangely. Like a curtain being pulled apart. The trees opened and the land ahead spread into a wide meadow washed in pale moonlight. For one startled second the sight of it felt wrong in the opposite direction of everything else tonight. Too beautiful. Too open. Too untouched. Silver grass. A low sweep of wildflowers. The kind of stillness that belonged in dreams or traps. Charles slowed the car hard. We got out before it had fully settled. Cold air rushed at me again, cleaner here, thinner somehow. The meadow stretched ahead in a quiet that did not match anyt

198 The Place Where Soon Died

Keiran’s POVCharles helped Ethan to his feet. My father looked unsteady, wrecked in a way I had never seen before, but he let himself be pulled up. Ronan stayed close on his other side, one hand ready near his arm, not pushing him, just there in case the grief took his legs out from under him. Elder Jorren exhaled like he had been holding the breath for half the night. The meadow stayed silver and too beautiful for what had just happened in it. The shimmer of the barrier still cut through the air ahead of us, cold and unreal, uncaring about the men it had just brought to their knees.Charles glanced at me once Ethan was standing. “We should go.” I looked at him, then at my father, then at Ronan. Ronan had already turned his focus fully to Ethan. He was speaking to him in a low voice I could not hear from where I stood. My father nodded once, though it looked more like his body giving in than agreement. Jorren moved in too, hovering close, still worried, still old, still trying to mak

199 The Place Where Soon Died 2

Keiran’s POVMy wolf stirred inside me, but even that did not save me. No clean growl of certainty. No instinctive yes. No violent insistence that of course we would have stood up eventually, of course we would have fought, of course we would have chosen her over all of them. My wolf had wanted her. Loved her. Ached for her. But wanting her in the dark had never made us brave in the sun.I pressed a hand against my chest as if I could force the answer out. Would I have gone against my father? Would I have gone against my mother? Against the pack? Against the whole weight of Vandwood and all the filth it called tradition? Would I have stood beside Nyra openly and let the consequences fall where they would? Would I have fought for her when the cost stopped being private? I had no answer.And that destroyed me more cleanly than anything else had tonight. Because if I could not say yes now, here, alone, in the place where I had lied best, then what did that mean? It meant Nyra waited for

200 What Lives Under My Skin

Nyra’s POVI was still awake when Ronan came home. The house had gone quiet a long time ago, but sleep had refused to stay with me. I had tried closing my eyes. Tried turning to one side, then the other. Tried pulling the blanket higher and telling myself I was only tired, that if I stayed still enough my mind would follow. It never did. Too many things kept circling inside me. My mother beyond the barrier. The voice from earlier. The scales. The heat that had lived under my skin and then settled without really leaving. The way Seraphina had sounded calm when I felt anything but calm.So when I heard the outer door open, I knew at once it was Ronan. His steps were heavy in a way they had not been before all this. Not weak. Just spent. The kind of tired that sat in the bones of a man and made even quiet sound weighted. I stayed where I was under the blanket and listened as he moved through the house. A pause. The soft thud of boots being taken off. The low scrape of something set aside

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