جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

Xander’s POVThe cold returned just after midnight. I felt it before I heard it. The bed shifted and his breathing changed. “Ashton?” He didn’t answer. I rolled over and my hand found him. He was shaking. Not because of the heat this time. He was cold. Bone-deep cold that burned through his sleeping shirt and into my skin. “Gods,” I breathed. I pulled him against me. He was ice. His teeth were chattering. “W-warm,” he mumbled. “S-sorry.” “Don’t be sorry,” I said, and wrapped the blankets around us both. “I’ve got you.” This was the third time. The royal healer said the moon herb should have fixed it. The tonics should have fixed it. But every few nights it came back. Worse each time. And every time, he smelled different. I pressed my nose to his hair and inhaled. Herbs. Bitter ash and something rooty I couldn’t name. Under that, me. My scent, soaked into his skin from two nights ago. It should have comforted me, but it didn’t. My wolf was restless. Pacing behind

Xander’s POV“Step aside, Your Majesty. This is Council law.”Captain Roric didn’t flinch. Six guards behind him didn’t flinch either. They stood in my bedroom at dawn with drawn swords and a writ with the Council seal, and Ashton was between us.He looked small in the black cloak Mara had wrapped around him. Pale. Shaking. His eyes were fixed on the floor.My wolf surged forward. I forced it down. Barely. “This is my consort,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. “You will not touch him.”“It is not us, Your Majesty,” Roric said. “It is the Council. The Purity and Lineage Blessing Ceremony. They demand that Ashton must do it.”The words made me sick.“Get out,” I said.“Your Majesty,” Roric tried again.“I said get out.”Ashton made a sound. A small, broken sound.“Xander,” he whispered. “It’s fine. I’ll go.”I turned to him. His face was white. His hands were fisted in the cloak like he was holding himself together.“They want to cut you,” I said. “In front of them, for proof.”“I k

Xander’s POVThe sound of my sword leaving the scabbard cut the room in half. “Let. Him. Go.” Seven faces turned to me. Merrick. The Council. Brenda. And Ashton on his knees, wrist in a guard’s grip, hand inches from the Moon Totem. The guard dropped him like he was fire. Smart boy. I crossed the room in three strides and pulled Ashton up behind me. Shielded him with my body. My sword stayed out, pointed at the floor for now. “What,” I said, “is happening.” Merrick straightened. Old fool. He didn’t even flinch. “Your Majesty. We were simply enacting Council law. The Consort must undergo...” “You were touching my Consort,” I said. “With respect, sire, the Council has the right to ensure the bloodline.” “Did I give permission?” Silence. “Did. I. Give. Permission.” “No, sire,” Merrick said finally. “Then you laid hands on what belongs to me,” I said. “In my house... while I was gone.” Brenda stepped forward. She had that look. Pity mixed with venom. “Your Ma

Ashton’s POVMy fingers were curled around the latch when the sound came. Not a knock. Not a voice. A sound so low and so wrong that it vibrated through the stone floor and into my bones before my brain could name it. The Alarm. I had only heard about it in stories. Mara told me once, that it hadn’t sounded in forty years. That the last time it did, half the northern villages burned. "The border has been breached.""The border has been breached.""All citizens to the inner halls. This is not a drill." The voice wasn’t human. It was metal and magic, rolling down from the towers and crashing into every room, every hall, every corner of the citadel until there was nowhere it didn’t reach. The bag slid off my shoulder and hit the floor with a soft thud. All the air left me. Then the doors down the corridor burst open and the world became noise. Boots on stone. Shouting. Women screaming for children. The clash of armor as guards who had been standing lazy at posts suddenly be

Ashton’s POVI turned back one last time to see Xander. He was already shifting. Already moving. Blood on his face and rage in his shoulders and he didn’t look at me again. "Take the Consort to the guarded tower," he’d said, and his voice was iron. "Now. Ten men. No one gets past you. No one."Then he turned back to the gate and that was it. Two guards took my arms before I could argue. "My lord, we have to move," the captain said. I let them pull me because my legs felt like water, and because the last thing Xander needed was me fighting him in front of his men. The snow was still falling. The courtyard was on fire, screaming and the smell of blood so thick I could taste it. I kept my eyes on Xander as they dragged me toward the corridor that led to the High Tower. Midnight fur, massive, tearing through Crescent Wolves like they were made of paper, and still they kept coming. “Don’t look,” one of the guards muttered. I didn’t listen. We hit the doors and slammed th