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Home / Werewolf / The Blood Moon Prophecy / Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Blood Moon Prophecy : Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

182 Kabanata

Chapter 51

Anara The chain slipped from my wrists and clattered onto the stone floor with a sharp, clear ring that echoed through the cell like a tiny bell marking the end of something.For the first time since waking up, I stood up straight. The difference between being chained low against the wall and standing on my own feet felt huge. Riven stayed crouched exactly where he was, watching me with those sharp, patient eyes. He didn’t look the least bit worried that I was now unchained and technically free to try something reckless.“You’re not afraid of me,” I said.“Should I be?” he asked.“You should feel something,” I replied. “Most people who chain someone up at least have the sense to look a little cautious when they take the chains off.”He rose then, slow and relaxed, and walked over to the small wooden table against the far wall. There was a jug of water and two cups waiting there. He filled both cups and held one out to me. I just stared at it.“It’s only water,” he said. “You have my

Chapter 52

Kaelen"He's calling again."Asgard held the phone out toward me and I looked at it for a moment before I took it. The second call from Riven Nightfall in twelve hours. I had spent those twelve hours doing three things: preparing my soldiers, trying to locate the exact position Anara was being held, and failing to sleep for longer than forty minutes at a stretch because every time I closed my eyes I heard three words in her voice.*Don't give him anything.*I answered."You've had time to think," Riven said."I have," I said."And?""I want confirmation she's unharmed before this conversation goes any further."A brief pause. Then, "She's unharmed. She's also, for what it's worth, considerably more difficult than you led me to expect."Something moved through me at that. Relief first, sharp and immediate. Then something else underneath it that was almost fond, which was infuriating given the circumstances."The crystal," Riven said. "Yes or no."I looked at the Blood Moon Crystal lyin

Chapter 53

Anara"You knew what it was doing to me."I said it the moment the pack house door closed behind us. Not loudly. Not with the heat I had been carrying since the formal hall two nights ago. Just plainly, the way you stated something you had already finished being surprised by and were now simply naming out loud.Kaelen stopped walking.We were in the east corridor, the quiet one that ran alongside the garden, and the lamps were low for the night and the whole building was still around us. He turned to face me and his expression was exactly what I had expected it to be. Not defensive. Not evasive. Just tired in the way people looked when they had been carrying something heavy for long enough that putting it down felt as uncomfortable as picking it up had."Yes," he said."From the beginning?""From the moment I felt our bond," he said. "I knew the crystal was connected to your wolf. I knew that if you understood that connection fully you would want to go after it yourself." He looked at

Chapter 54

Kaelen’s povShe fell asleep in under ten minutes.I knew because I was watching. Not in a way I was particularly proud of, just sitting in the chair beside her bed in the low lamplight, watching her breathing slow and her hands loosen against the pillow and the tight, careful expression she wore when she was awake gradually release itself into something younger and softer and completely unguarded.The crystal was on the table beside her. She had not let go of it until she was almost entirely asleep, and even then her fingers had uncurled from it slowly, reluctantly, like she was afraid it would be gone when she woke up."You're staring," Nyx said."I'm watching," I said. "There's a difference.""Is there.""Yes. Staring is purposeless. I am watching because she was in a dungeon twelve hours ago and I would like confirmation that she is actually resting and not just performing it."Nyx made the sound he made when he found something I said technically defensible but fundamentally disho

Chapter 55

ANARAZephyr was already sitting at the library table when we walked in, looking like he’d been waiting there all morning. No book, no tea just his hands folded neatly on the dark wood, those violet eyes lifting to the door the second we stepped inside. He didn’t seem the least bit surprised. It was almost like he’d known we were coming before we even decided to show up.“Miss Anara,” he said warmly, then gave a small nod. “Alpha Kaelen.”Kaelen stopped short beside me. “You know who I am.”“I’ve always known who you are,” Zephyr replied with that calm, pleasant tone of his. “Please, sit down, both of you. We’ve waited long enough for this morning. No need to waste any more time standing in the doorway.”We sat.The library was completely empty except for us. Morning light streamed through the tall windows in bright, clean beams across the floor. The familiar scent of old paper, vanilla candles, and that deep, thoughtful quiet filled the room the kind of stillness you only find in pla

Chapter 56

ANARA I didn’t mean to fall asleep.After we left the library, I went back to my room to change. Liora showed up with food and sat with me while I ate, filling me in on everything that had happened in the pack house while I’d been gone. Somewhere in the middle of her story about Vexa’s dramatic reaction to the formal hall events, I leaned back against the pillows. The warmth of the room and the solid, comforting presence of Seraphis inside me did the rest.The dream started quietly.I found myself in a room I knew instantly the private sitting room attached to the queen’s chambers in Nightveil. It was the same place my mother used to read in the evenings, with just one lamp glowing on the side table and her feet tucked under her on the wide chair by the window. I hadn’t been inside that room since I was eleven, but every detail was burned into my memory: the blue curtains, the worn patch on the arm of her chair where she always rested her elbow, and that particular warm, slightly flo

Chapter 57

Anara He was in his office.I could hear him through the door that low, clipped voice, the steady rhythm of someone juggling multiple problems at once with practiced efficiency and no time left for small talk. I knocked twice and pushed the door open without waiting for an answer.The man sitting across from Kaelen stood up immediately. I didn’t even glance at him.“I need five minutes,” I said to Kaelen.He looked at me for a beat, then turned to the other man. “We’ll finish this later.”The man quickly gathered his papers and left. Kaelen waited until the door clicked shut before leaning back in his chair and really looking at me.“You ran here,” he said.“I walked quickly,” I replied. “There’s a difference.”A flicker of amusement crossed his face, not quite a smile. He waited.I crossed the room, sat down in the chair opposite his desk, and pressed my palms flat against my knees. Then I told him everything about the dream my mother’s face in the lamplight, what she’d said about L

Chapter 58

KAELEN I ended the tournament at breakfast.Nothing dramatic. I simply walked into the dining hall while everyone was still eating, told Elder Thorne to clear the room, and when he gave me that look he always saved for decisions he didn’t like, I told him again. He cleared the room.Then I sat down and told the remaining elders that the selection was over. No more trials, no more scoreboard, and no more pretending I was going to stand in the formal hall at the end of it all and pick a Luna from a lineup of women I’d barely spoken to in three weeks.“The pack requires a Luna,” Elder Thorne said in that formal tone he used when he wanted to remind me the council had opinions.“The pack requires stability,” I replied. “And I’m working on that.”“And the matter of a mate bond?” he pressed.“Also being worked on.”He stared at me for a long moment, then closed his tablet with a sharp click, gave one nod, and left. The others followed without a word.I sat alone in the empty dining hall fo

Chapter 59

Lyra The soldier stopped talking mid-sentence.Not because I told him to. He just... froze, mouth still open around a word he’d never get to finish. His eyes went blank and glassy, staring off into some empty space only he could see. I watched the change wash over him like a slow tide. His shoulders slumped. His fists unclenched. He stood there in front of my throne, waiting for me to tell him what to think next.“Sit down,” I said.He dropped straight to the floor. Not in the chair two feet away the floor. Because I hadn’t specified, and he no longer had any judgment of his own left.I looked down at my hand.The power that had woken up in me that night with Cassian had terrified me for about four days. After that, it became fascinating. It wasn’t a normal wolf ability. It was something much older, something that didn’t bother asking permission before it took what it wanted. I’d learned to guide it the way you guide water not by fighting it, but by giving it the shape I needed.I co

Chapter 60

ANARAThe news came in the middle of the night.I woke to hurried footsteps in the hallway and found Kaelen already sitting up beside me, wide awake. His hand rested firmly on my shoulder, like he was trying to keep me anchored even before I was fully conscious.“Stay here,” he said.I didn’t.By the time I’d thrown on his shirt and stepped into the corridor, he was already down at the far end talking with Asgard. The two of them stood close, tense, the kind of body language men get when they’ve just heard something they really don’t like. Neither of them told me to go back to bed when I approached. That alone told me how bad it was.“Alpha Malachar is dead,” Asgard said quietly.The hallway felt suddenly too still.“When?” Kaelen asked.“The message arrived an hour ago. He collapsed this evening. They think the poison finally got him.”“And Riven?”Asgard’s jaw tightened. “He’s formally declared war. The declaration from Duskbane came twenty minutes later. They’re blaming Virelith fo

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