جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

Serena’s POVI can't sleep. The bed is warm. Kael's arm is wrapped around me. His breathing is steady and slow, but my mind won't stop.Three days, two hundred wolves. Elena wants us dead. All of us, And somewhere inside these walls, someone is still feeding her information. I stare at the ceiling and count the cracks in the stone.The bond hums quietly in my chest. Kael's exhaustion bleeds through it. His worry. His fear. He's asleep, but even in dreams, he carries the weight. I turn my head and watch him. His face is softer like this. Younger. The hard lines around his jaw relax. The permanent tension in his shoulders eases.He looks almost peaceful. I reach out. Trace my finger along his cheekbone. He doesn't wake. I wonder if he knows how much I need him. How much I've come to depend on his presence. His strength. His stubborn refusal to give up. I wonder if he knows I'm terrified of losing him.The bond pulses, a quiet answer. He knows. I slip out of bed before dawn. The mansion

Serena’s POVI don't know how they found me. One moment I was behind the lines. Safe. Watching the battle from a distance like Kael ordered.Next, a hand clamped over my mouth. Something sharp pressed against my throat. A voice whispered in my ear. "Scream and you die." I didn't scream; I should have. Now I'm standing at the edge of a battlefield with my hands bound and Elena's wolves at my back, and Kael is staring at me like his world just ended.The bond screams between us. His rage. His fear. His desperate, clawing need to reach me. I feel all of it; I feel him."Let her go." His voice carries across the clearing. Human now. He shifted back without me seeing it. "This is between us, Elena. She has nothing to do with it."Elena laughs.The sound is cold. Musical. Wrong."Nothing to do with it?" She steps closer to me. Her fingers trail along my jaw. I flinch. "She's the whole reason we're here, little Alpha. The prophecy. The power. The bond that makes you weak." Her hand drops."K

Serena’s POVThe first punch lands before I see it coming. I hit the ground hard. Dust fills my mouth. Pain blooms across my jaw. "Get up."Kael's voice is flat. No sympathy, no hesitation. I push myself to my knees. Spit dirt. Glare at him. "You could warn me.""Elena won't warn you." He's right. I hate that he's right. I stand. Raise my fists the way he showed me, feet apart. Weight-balanced. Eyes on his center, not his hands. "Again," he says.He moves. This time I see it. Barely. I twist sideways. His fist grazes my shoulder instead of my face. Progress, but not enough. His other hand catches my wrist, pulls, and spins. I'm on the ground again before I can breathe."You're thinking too much," he says from above me. "Your body knows what to do. Trust it." "My body knows how to fall. That's what it knows." Something that might be a smile crosses his face.Then it's gone. "Again." We train for six hours. By the end, my entire body is a bruise. My muscles scream; my lungs burn. But I'

Serena’s POVThe great hall looks different at midnight.Shadows stretch across the stone walls. Torches flicker and dance. The faces of the gathered Alphas are harder to read in the dim light.That might be a mercy. Every wolf in the room is on edge. Some are half-shifted, their eyes glowing in the darkness. Others stand rigid, hands close to weapons they shouldn't have brought to a summit.An Alpha is dead, and no one knows who to blame.Gregor stands at the head of the curved table. His face is carved from granite."Alpha Rendall of the eastern territories was found murdered in his quarters." His voice echoes off the walls. "His throat was torn out. His guards saw nothing." Murmurs ripple through the room."This is an act of war," someone growls. "Against all of us." "An act by whom?" another Alpha demands. "We're all suspects now." "Perhaps we should start with the newest arrivals." Eyes turn toward us, toward me. I feel the weight of their suspicion like a physical thing. Heavy.

Serena’s POVThree days after the summit, we leave the northern fortress. The alliance is fragile. New. Held together by fear and necessity more than trust, but it exists.That's more than we had a week ago. I ride beside Kael at the front of the column. Fifty wolves from six different packs. All of them are following us toward Shadow Ridge territory, toward Elena.The forest stretches ahead. Dark, Dense, Waiting. "You're quiet," Kael says. "Thinking." "About?""Everything." I glance at him. "We're leading an army into enemy territory. Against a wolf who's already outsmarted us twice." "She didn't outsmart us. She escaped.""That feels like the same thing." He shakes his head. "Escape is survival. It's not victory." "Tell that to the wolves she killed." He's quiet for a moment. The bond pulses between us. His grief. His anger. His determination to end this. "We'll stop her," he says finally. "Whatever it takes." "I know." "Do you?"I look at him. His eyes are gold in the morning light