All Chapters of Mated to the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Eldrick’s POVThe refectory was loud, but it wasn't the drunken, aggressive roar of the old victory feasts. There were no alpha warriors slamming iron tankards against the timber to demand more wine, and no omegas scurrying along the walls like shadows trying to avoid a backhanded blow. It was the low, steady hum of voices, warriors arguing peacefully with timber-cutters about structural load limits, and scouts drawing pass routes on grease-stained tables for the kitchen staff.I sat on the edge of the long pine bench near the hearth, a wooden bowl of Marta’s venison broth cooling between my hands. I hadn't touched it. My eyes were fixed on the far end of the room, where Moana stood over the grand ledger.The amber light from the massive stone fireplace caught the silver-and-gold torque at her throat, making it gleam like an ember against her dark leather brigandine. She was listening intently to an old, half-blind woodcarrier named Corin, her head tilted, her fingers flying across th

Eldrick’s POVThe messenger didn't wait for the dawn. He spun his stallion so hard the beast’s hooves threw jagged sparks off the frozen flagstones, turning tail and fleeing through the northern archway into the howling dark. But he didn't leave empty-handed; he left us with a ticking clock and a valley full of wolves who had finally tasted freedom, only to realize the rest of the world was coming to take it back.I stood on the edge of the stone platform long after the sound of the horses had vanished into the wind. My thumb stroked the smooth back of Moana’s hand, feeling the rapid, electric pulse of her blood through our bond. She was calm on the outside, a monument of silver and gold against the winter chill, but through the thread connecting our souls, I could feel the cold, sharp truth that she was trying to hide from the pack.She was exhausted. The Reverse Claim hadn't just rewritten our pack link; it had tied her mortal frame directly to the vitality of the Blackthorn mountai

Moana’s POVThe stench of unrefined silver-gas clashed violently with the icy ozone radiating from Torin’s shadowy beast. The courtyard felt smaller now, trapped between the green inferno of the lower foundries behind us and a wall of silver-clad Assembly pikes before us."Moana," Eldrick murmured, his voice a low, terrifying vibration in my mind through our bond. "When I move, you take Kaelen and break Sela out of that forge. Do not look back.""I am not leaving you, Eldrick," I whispered back through the thread, my fingers tightening around the cold metal of my father's iron box."You aren't leaving me," he growled softly, his golden eyes burning with an unholy, lethal clarity. "You're securing our flank."Torin let out a guttural, bone-chilling roar that rattled the stone flagstones, his shadowy, mutated frame springing forward with terrifying speed.At the same instant, Eldrick moved.He didn't shift into a full wolf. Instead, he channeled the raw, unfiltered authority of the Reve

Moana’s POVDarkness was a crushing weight smelling of stale blood and cold silver.When consciousness returned, it brought searing agony radiating from my throat down into my chest. I tried to reach for the golden torque at my neck, but my wrists were bound behind me in heavy iron.Silver-weave.Raw silver wire bit into my flesh, flaring white-hot with every pulse and smothering my wolf to a buried spark."Don't fight the wire, child," a rasped voice called out. "The harder you pull, the deeper it drinks."I forced my head up, fighting nausea. We were in the High Assembly’s subterranean transport vault, carved five miles past our valley’s border. Dripping limestone vaulted overhead, while iron braziers cast long green shadows across polished obsidian.Five paces away, bound by heavy chains to a stone pillar, sat the slate-gray wolf. His forced shift was receding, fur sloughing away as bones cracked into human shape. When he lifted his head, green light caught his sharp jaw and clear

Moana’s POVThe freezing subterranean torrent hit us like a wall of liquid ice, knocking the breath clean from my lungs. Cold mountain runoff roared through the narrow limestone fissure, churning with black silt and sharp gravel that bit into my exposed skin.Eldrick never let go.Even as the current tossed us through the pitch-black tunnel like fallen leaves, his massive arm remained clamped around my waist like an iron band. He slammed his bare shoulders against the jagged rock walls again and again, taking the full brunt of the punishing subterranean rapids so that not a single piece of floating stone touched me. Beneath the surface, his skin burned with that violent, volatile heat, a blazing beacon of reawakened Alpha power fighting against the icy dark.Behind us, a dull, thundering ‘BOOM’ rattled through the stone, vibrating through the water and straight into my marrow.The subterranean transport vault had fully collapsed. Millions of tons of northern crags had caved in, seali