Lahat ng Kabanata ng Married To My Enemy's Pack : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

"Helena!"Damian's voice cut through the ringing in my ears, and then he was there, dropping to his knees beside me, smoke and blood streaked across his face, his eyes wild with a fear I had never seen on him before."She's not breathing right," I said, my hands still pressed hard against Nora's wound, slick and useless against how much blood had already soaked through. "Damian, she's not breathing right, you have to help her, please—" I begged, and before I could finish.He was already moving, and scooping Nora up with a careful urgency that contradicted every cold and controlled thing I had seen from him so far, shouting orders over his shoulder to someone I could not see. "Get the healer up here now, and tell her it's a puncture wound, deep, left side, and she's losing blood fast—""Is she going to be okay?" My voice cracked. "Damian, is she going to be fine?""I don't know," he said, and the honesty of it terrified me more than a comforting lie would have. "But I am not losing her

Damian called an emergency council meeting for that afternoon, and though nobody said the words out loud, I understood without being told that my presence in that room was not optional this time."You found the fraud that got Mara running," Xavier said, walking beside me down a corridor I had not seen yet, all polished wood and portraits of Kingston ancestors watching us pass. "That makes you a witness. Possibly a target. Either way, the council will want to hear from you directly.""And what if I'd rather prefer not to sit in a room full of strangers discussing whether I'm in danger or not?" I asked."Then you'll still sit in that room," he responded, not unkindly, "because the alternative is letting them decide things about your safety without you being there to argue."The council chamber was smaller than I expected, a long table surrounded by perhaps a dozen chairs, in which most were already filled by wolves I did not recognise, faces lined with age and authority, watching me wal

I did not tell anyone about the pendant that night. I told myself it was because I needed time to understand it first, but the truth was simpler and uglier than that. I did not know who I could trust in this house, yet especially with something that felt, instinctively, like it belonged to me and to no one else.But I did tell Damian about Elder Logan. I found him in his study an hour later, still going through the reports from the council meeting, and the moment I mentioned the name, his pen stopped moving entirely."He was in here," Damian said slowly. "In this room.""He said he heard someone and was worried I was lost," I told him."This wing is not somewhere guests wander by accident." Damian set the pen down, his jaw tight in the way I had learned meant he was working hard to keep his voice level. "What did he say to you?" He asked.Then I told him about everything, the compliment about the fraud, the too casual glance at my scar, the card he had pressed into my hands, and the l

Nobody moved for a long moment after Ryder spoke, the howls fading into silence that felt heavier than the sound itself had been."Old how?" Damian finally asked."Older than Kingston. And older than most packs in this city today." Ryder's eyes stayed on the skyline. "It's a form passed down deliberately from one generation to another. Whoever called it knows exactly who is still alive to answer it.""And who answers a call like that?" I asked."Old blood," Ryder said. "Packs who remember what the summons actually meant, before most of the city forgot the old ways entirely.""Packs loyal to Silver Moon," Xavier said, saying the words none of us wanted to say first."We need to move," Damian said breaking the silence, already walking towards the house. "If that call reaches ears we don't control, then this stops being a quiet mystery and becomes something the whole city is watching."The council reassembled within the next hour, with faces tighter than they had been that morning. Cassi

The lobby slowly emptied, guards sent out to double the watch, staff sent back to their rooms, until it was only Damian and me left standing beside the crate and the old silver fur still lying inside it like something waiting to be claimed."You should sleep," Damian said, not looking at me, his eyes still on the note in his hand."I'm not tired," I said."You're exhausted, you just don't want to say it in front of me." I almost laughed, though it came out thin and tired instead. "Since when do you notice things like that?"He did not answer. He just simply kept staring at the note, jaw tight, and the muscle in his cheek working the way it did whenever he was holding something back."You've been quiet since the footage," I said. "More than usual.""That's because I am thinking," he said."Is it about the fur, or about the fact that whoever left it walked right up to your gate and you couldn't stop them." I asked.His eyes snapped to mine sharply, and for a second, I thought I had pus