《The Phoenix Wolf's Awakening 》全部章節：第 51 章 - 第 60 章

Mona's POV The scream reached us three miles from Nightshade territory.Derek's entire body went rigid beside me in the car. His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel, and the speedometer climbed past ninety. That scream carried a message meant for him—pain shaped into sound, suffering designed to summon."That's Jamie," he said, his voice hollow. "My cousin's daughter. She's twelve."We'd been heading to Silver Moon territory to help with their rebuilding when the call came through the pack bonds. Vera had struck Nightshade while Derek was away. Classic predator tactics—wait for the Alpha to leave, then attack the vulnerable. Except Derek's pack wasn't vulnerable. They were trained, armed, ready. Which meant Vera had found another way to hurt them.The main gate of Nightshade stood open, unguarded. Wrong. Everything about this was wrong. Derek slammed the brakes, and we were running before the car fully stopped. The compound was too quiet. No patrols. No movement. Just that te

Mona's POV Nova stood at the edge of the cliff where we'd once scattered our mother's ashes, her silver hair whipping in the dawn wind like a war banner with no war left to fight."I don't know who I am anymore," she said without turning around. Her voice carried that hollow echo I'd been hearing for weeks—the sound of someone who'd survived when they'd expected to die. "The witch mothers trained me to be a weapon. Marcus trained me to be a phoenix. The war trained me to kill. But now?" She laughed, brittle as ice. "Now everyone looks at me like I should have answers, and all I have are questions I'm too afraid to ask."I stepped beside her, close enough that our shoulders touched. Below us, the valley stretched green and peaceful, no sign of the battles that had scorched it months ago. "What questions?""Why did I survive when they didn't? What's the point of all this power if I couldn't save the people who made me? Who am I when I'm not fighting for my life or someone else's?" She

Mona's POV The dress shouldn't have existed. Marcus Blackstone had burned everything of my mother's—or so I'd thought. But hidden in a sanctuary trunk, wrapped in tissue paper that crumbled at my touch, lay her ceremonial dress. White silk that caught light like water, embroidered with silver phoenixes that seemed to move when I breathed. The note tucked inside, written in Marcus's harsh script, simply said: "She would have wanted you to have this."I stood before the mirror in Silver Moon's preparation room, wearing my dead mother's wedding dress, and felt time collapse. Past and present merged as Nova's fingers worked through my hair, braiding in small silver bells that chimed with each movement."You came back," I whispered, afraid if I spoke too loud she'd vanish like a dream."I promised, didn't I?" Nova's eyes met mine in the mirror. She looked different—calmer, more centered, like she'd found whatever she'd been searching for on those empty roads. "Besides, someone had to mak

Mona's POV The bathroom floor felt cold against my knees as I threw up for the third morning in a row, trying to muffle the sounds so Derek wouldn't hear.But of course he heard. Derek always heard everything—wolf senses combined with the mate bond made privacy basically impossible. His hand settled warm on my back, pulling my hair away from my face as another wave of nausea hit."Food poisoning?" he asked, though something in his voice suggested he already suspected the truth."Maybe." The lie tasted bitter. I'd been suspecting for weeks now, but saying it out loud would make it real, and real things could be lost. After everything we'd survived, the thought of hoping for something this precious terrified me more than any war."Mona." He helped me stand, studying my face with those brown eyes that saw too much. "How long?""I don't know what you're—""You've been tired. Nauseous. You cried yesterday because Leon ate the last piece of bread." His thumb brushed my cheek. "And your sce

Mona's POV Samuel stood in our courtyard at dawn, seventeen years old with phoenix fire dancing in his palms, screaming that I'd ruined his life."I was normal before you!" His voice cracked, tears streaming down his face while guards surrounded him, waiting for Derek's signal. "I had a future! A family! Then you 'saved' me and now I'm this—this thing that burns!"The accusation hit harder than any physical blow. I watched from my window, seven months pregnant and banned from direct confrontation, as the boy I'd pulled from flames threw those same flames at our walls. His phoenix fire was wild, uncontrolled, more rage than power.Derek caught him easily—one lightning strike to stun, another to bind. But Samuel's words echoed long after they dragged him away: "You're not a savior, you're a curse! Everything you touch burns!""He's wrong," Derek said that night, hands gentle on my swollen belly."Is he?" I stared at the list Nova had brought—fifty-three names, all connected to assassin