Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

KIAN POV"Nobody in this room is handing anyone over tonight. Not while I'm still breathing."I said it low, flat, every word aimed straight at Ren Achara, my body already angled to put Elira fully behind me.Ren's smile didn't waver. "Brave words from an Alpha with no idea what he's actually standing in front of.""Then enlighten me.""Another time." Her eyes moved past me to Elira, assessing, unhurried. "The King doesn't negotiate in rooms full of witnesses who might repeat his business badly. You have three days, Elira Hart. Consider this a courtesy, not a threat."She left the way she'd entered, four armed men falling in behind her, and the chamber didn't breathe again until the doors closed.Robert and Marisol were taken by council enforcers within the hour, Selene given protective custody rather than punishment once the council heard the full weight of what she'd sacrificed. Priya stood apart from her mother the entire time, jaw set, refusing to look away even once.It was well

KIAN POV"Get down."I had Elira on the floor and my body over hers before the second shape came through the broken window, instinct taking over faster than thought.The intruder rolled to his feet in a crouch, blade already drawn, and I recognised the stance instantly. Trained. Professional. Not pack, not rogue chaos, someone hired and drilled for exactly this kind of work."Stay behind me," I said to Elira, low and urgent, already moving to put myself fully between her and the threat.The man lunged. I met him halfway, catching his wrist before the blade could find its mark, twisting hard enough to hear something crack. He grunted but didn't drop the knife, driving his shoulder into my ribs instead, and for a moment we were locked together, wolf-strength against wolf-strength, the room too small for the violence happening inside it.Silas burst through the door a heartbeat later, two enforcers behind him, and between the three of us the intruder went down hard, disarmed and pinned b

KIAN POV"You want us to walk into a meeting with the most powerful wolf alive, on his terms, with less than an hour's notice."I said it flatly, phone still in hand, Elira beside me with her arms crossed and her jaw set in the way I'd come to recognise as her holding fear at careful arm's length."I want you to survive the next twenty four hours," Ren Achara's voice came back through the line, unbothered by my tone. "The Second Voice faction moves fast once they've committed. The King, whatever else you think of him, does not want the Ironfang line erased before he's had the chance to decide what she's worth to him. That makes him, currently, your best protection.""Or our biggest threat," Elira said, leaning toward the phone. "Forgive me for not finding comfort in the idea that the man who wants to use my children is somehow the safer option.""He doesn't want your children," Ren said, and something in her voice shifted, careful in a way it hadn't been in the council chamber. "He wa

KIAN POV"Down. Now."I had Elira against the floor before the second round of gunfire tore through the study wall, plaster raining across both of us, Marcus already barking orders into a comm unit I hadn't noticed him wearing."That's not standard weaponry," he shouted over the noise. "Silver rounds. Someone came prepared to kill wolves, not scare them.""The Second Voice," I said, dragging Elira toward the cover of an overturned desk."Has to be." Marcus's calm had cracked entirely, real fear showing through for the first time since he'd walked into that hallway. "They must have followed us here, or already knew the location before I did."Elira's eyes were wild, terrified, but focused. "The twins are with Silas and Priya, two territories away. They're safe. Tell me they're safe, Kian.""They're safe," I said, and prayed I wasn't lying to her.Ren Achara appeared in the doorway a moment later, blood on her sleeve, moving low and fast. "Three shooters, positioned on the east ridge. M

KIAN POV"Wren! Rhys!"Elira's scream tore through the cellar stairwell ahead of me, raw enough to strip the paint off the old stone walls.We hit the bottom of the stairs together, and I took in the scene in a single frozen heartbeat. Priya, blood on her temple, standing between the twins and a man I didn't recognise, a knife already drawn in her shaking hand despite having no training I knew of to use it. Wren pressed against the wall behind her, tear-streaked and silent. Rhys, jaw set exactly like his mother's, standing in front of his sister like he intended to take whatever came next himself.The man facing Priya turned at the sound of our arrival, and Elira went past me like a shot, faster than I'd ever seen her move, faster than should have been possible without training.She didn't reach for a weapon. She didn't need one.The Ironfang bloodline, dormant for eighteen years under a lifetime of careful suppression, ignited behind her eyes like something ancient finally waking up,