Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 61 - Chapitre 70

Derek didn’t stay in front of me long after that.I could see it in the way he shifted his weight, the way his eyes kept flickering toward my mouth and then quickly away again. For a second I thought he might say something else. But instead, he straightened abruptly.“I should check on Bri.”Before I could respond, he turned and headed toward the hallway. I watched him go for half a second, then pushed myself off the table and followed, because as much as I wanted to keep talking about what had just happened between us, Bri had been gone a little too long.The hallway creaked softly under our footsteps as we moved toward the room she’d run into. I could hear Derek breathing a little harder than usual ahead of me.That made two of us.We reached the doorway. Derek stepped inside first, and then he stopped so suddenly I nearly walked straight into his back.“What—”The rest of my sentence died in my throat.Bri wasn’t standing in the room, she was floating about a foot above the floor.

No one moved after the witches spoke.Derek stood rigid beside Bri, his jaw tight enough that I could hear his teeth grinding from where I stood. Bri, on the other hand, looked… lost.Her entire world had been turned upside down in the last ten minutes. She had learned she wasn’t born normally. That the three women in front of us were all somehow her mothers. That she had been created as a vessel for trapped souls, and now she was hearing that the organization Derek belonged to had betrayed witches centuries ago.It was too much for anyone to process all at once.Still, Bri lifted her chin slowly. Tears were still streaking down her cheeks, but there was something stubborn in her eyes now.“Explain.”The three witches tilted their heads as Bri took a step forward.“What do you mean the Ashbound broke their deal?”The witches studied her quietly, then one of them spoke.“A long time ago…”Another continued.“Before even this cabin was built.”Their voices blended together again, formin

The battle turned chaotic fast. In one second, Lucas had the witch pinned against the ground, his massive jaws snapping at the dark barrier she had thrown up to protect herself, and then, everything exploded.The witch beneath him screamed something in a language I didn’t understand, her red eyes blazing like coals, then she thrust both hands forward. A violent blast of dark magic erupted from her palms.Lucas didn’t even have time to dodge as the force slammed into his side like a truck. His massive wolf body lifted completely off the ground.“LUCAS!”I took a step forward before I could stop myself.His body flew through the air like a rag doll and straight toward Bri and Derek. Lucas crashed into them with terrifying force and all three of them were thrown apart instantly.Bri lost her balance as Lucas’s body collided with her. The golden shield she’d been holding shattered like glass. Derek was sent skidding across the dirt.Bri slammed hard onto the ground several feet away while

My stomach tightened.“Lucas…”He tried to shrug casually, but the movement made him flinch.“Relax,” he muttered. “I’ve had worse.”“No,” I said quietly.My eyes locked onto the wound. It wasn’t healing, and that alone was bad enough. It was spreading.Dark veins crept outward from the center of the burn where the witch’s blast had hit him. The skin around it looked almost charred, like the magic was still eating away at him.Lucas followed my gaze, his confident expression faded slightly.“Okay…” he admitted. “That might be a problem.”My chest tightened painfully.“You’re not healing.”“I noticed.”The dark veins had spread another inch while we were talking.My heart started pounding.Lucas noticed that too.“Hey,” he said quickly. “Don’t panic.”“I’m not panicking.”“You’re panicking.”“I’m not—”“Ethan.” Bri’s voice cut in gently.I looked at her.Lucas tried to lighten the mood.“Well,” he said, glancing between us, “we could always go back to the pack healer.”I immediately sh

Voices murmured faintly through the trees.I stood beside Derek, my heart beating steadily but hard. My wolf senses were stretched to their limit, trying to identify how many people were coming.Behind us, hidden deep within the trees, Bri and Lucas had already slipped into the shadows. They were waiting and watching. Ready to run if things went wrong.But Derek and I…We had chosen to stay.Derek had tried once more to convince me to leave after I told him I wasn’t going anywhere.“Ethan, this is stupid,” he had muttered quietly.“Probably,” I had answered.But I hadn’t moved, and eventually he stopped arguing. Not because he agreed, but because he realized I wasn’t going to change my mind.So now we stood there together, waiting for the consequences.The footsteps were close now.My senses picked up at least two people.My shoulders tensed.Then something unexpected happened.Derek shifted slightly beside me. His arm moved, and our hands brushed... just barely.The contact sent a st