Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

The ancient silver eyes remained fixed on me as the cracked altar continued to split beneath us. A deep vibration moved through the chamber, shaking dust from the ceiling and forcing the wolves near the entrance to retreat. Betty held tightly to my hand, but I could feel her trembling. I didn’t blame her. Whatever was beneath that altar was older than every pack, every Alpha, and every story we had ever been told. My father stood several feet away, staring at the creature with an expression that made one thing painfully clear: he had seen something like this before. “Ryan, don’t listen to it,” my father warned, moving toward us. “It will use your fear against you.” I turned to him, anger still burning inside me. “You knew it was here.” He hesitated. “I knew there was something beneath the chamber, but I never knew it could awaken like this.” I stepped closer, keeping Betty beside me. “That’s another lie.” My father opened his mouth, but before he could answer, the ancient being raise

The words carved into the door remained in my mind as the ancient staircase stretched deeper into the darkness. ONLY ONE BLOODLINE LEAVES. Betty stood beside me, staring at the inscription on her palm as the black mark slowly spread toward her wrist. I looked down at my own hand and saw the same symbol glowing beneath my skin, except mine was silver. The two marks pulsed together, almost as though they were responding to each other, and the strange rhythm made something uneasy stir inside me. My father stepped toward us, but I immediately raised my hand to stop him. “Don’t tell me you knew about this too,” I said, keeping my eyes fixed on him. He hesitated, and the guilt that crossed his face gave me the answer before he even opened his mouth. “I knew there was a final seal,” my father admitted quietly. “I didn’t know what it would say.” A bitter laugh escaped me as I shook my head. “You always know just enough to keep me in the dark. Every time I think you’ve finally told me the tru

The chamber remained unnaturally quiet after Betty told me that something was inside our bond. I kept one arm around her while my eyes moved between my father and Lucian, waiting for one of them to explain what we had just awakened. Neither man spoke immediately, and their silence only made my suspicion grow. Betty’s fingers were still wrapped around my shirt, and I could feel her heartbeat racing against me, but beneath it was another rhythm, faint and unfamiliar, almost as though something else had found a way to beat along with her. The golden line connecting the marks on our palms pulsed again, and this time I felt the sensation travel from her hand into my chest.“What exactly is inside the bond?” I asked. Betty swallowed before answering, and her eyes remained fixed on our joined hands. “I don’t know. When that thing took control of me, I could hear a voice, but it wasn’t the ancient Alpha and it wasn’t my wolf. It sounded like you, Ryan, except it was older.” I frowned. “What d

The eyes beneath the chamber snapped open, and every symbol carved into the stone walls went black at once. I slammed my arm around Betty, anchoring her to my chest as the ground violently shakes beneath us, spiderwebbing cracks across the stone floor. Near the altar, Adrian stood still. A harsh silver radiance auraed his frame, while the black line in his left eye bled outward, swallowing half the iris in shadow. He was locked in a brutal internal war, yet his boots remained glued to the floor. Then the ancient voice vibrated through the bedrock, its rasp terrifyingly pleased. “My first vessel has returned.” Adrian staggered, lunging forward to clutch the altar’s edge. The silver light surrounding him twisted into oily, dark tendrils that binding his wrists and Moved slowly up his neck toward his throat. I surged forward, but Betty’s fingers locked onto my hand, arresting my momentum. Her skin was ice. “Ryan, don't!” she breathed, her eyes wide with horrified fascination. “So

The light struck before I could react. One second I was standing beside Betty; the next, a blinding golden glow encased my entire body. I heard my father shouting my name, but his voice sounded distant, drowned out as if I were sinking into deep water. The golden thread connecting Betty to me pulled taut while another stretched out, snapping tight against Adrian. A sudden, violent force dragged all three of us toward the center of the chamber, and something slammed into my chest, knocking every breath from my lungs. I dropped to my knees. Betty surged forward, but a shockwave of energy threw her backward. Adrian caught her before she hit the stone floor, his eyes wide with panic as he looked over at me. I pressed a hand to my chest, braced for pain, but what rushed in was far worse: a sudden, overwhelming torrent of memories that weren't my own. My father’s first violent transformation. Adrian’s lonely childhood. My mother’s terror as she realized what the elders intended to do.