Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 61 - Chapitre 70

ELIRA POV"The true heir already exists, and it was never her. Kian, that's not a phrase a six year old invents on his own."I paced the length of Marcus's recovery room, my son's words from that morning still echoing through my mind, unable to shake the certainty that this had been more than an ordinary nightmare."Rhys has always been perceptive," Kian said carefully, watching me from the chair beside Marcus's bed. "But this feels different. Deliberate."Marcus, propped against his pillows, listened with an expression that had gone carefully neutral, the particular stillness of a man working hard to control his own reaction."Say the phrase again," he said quietly. "Exactly as your son told it to you."I repeated it slowly, watching Marcus's face for any flicker of reaction, and found more than I expected. Something old, guarded, and clearly unwelcome moved behind his eyes."You know what this means," I said. "Don't you."Marcus was quiet for a long moment, and when he finally spoke

ELIRA POV"Sit. Please. I find these conversations go better without either of us standing on ceremony we haven't earned yet."Edric's study was simple, unadorned, nothing like the calculated theatre of Isolde's warehouse or the careful diplomatic staging of Marcus's court. Books lined every wall, well worn, clearly read rather than displayed."You wanted to discuss an alliance," I said, remaining standing regardless."I wanted to discuss the truth," Edric said, unbothered by my refusal to sit. "Marcus holds the crown through a technicality of maternal succession that was itself only chosen because it was politically convenient thirty years ago, not because it represented the strongest claim of blood. I gave up my own claim voluntarily, Elira, because I watched what pursuing it would have cost the people I loved, and I decided the crown wasn't worth that price.""Then why resurface now.""Because Isolde's methods finally exceeded what I could tolerate watching from a comfortable dista

ELIRA POV"He has my children. My father, the man who called me a bastard and threw me out with an hour's notice, has my children, and I have no way of knowing whether he intends to hurt them or hide them."I said it through gritted teeth, forcing myself into the passenger seat as Kian drove faster than was strictly safe back toward Ashgrove territory, every instinct in my body screaming to be moving, doing, fighting, rather than simply enduring the agony of the drive."Robert's phone is off," Silas reported through the comm, tension audible even through the static. "No traceable location yet. Callum's working every angle he has.""There's something else," Callum's voice cut in, careful in a way that immediately set my nerves further on edge. "I pulled Robert's financial records the moment his name came up. There's an unexplained transfer three days ago, moved from an account we haven't previously connected to him. It's substantial. And Elira, the destination account traces to a priva

ELIRA POV"The original ground. Kian, I think I know exactly where that is."I said it slowly, the realisation settling cold and certain in my chest as Robert's words connected with something Greta had told me years ago in that small flat above the bakery."Where," Kian asked."The old Ironfang ancestral holding," I said. "Before the line went into hiding, generations ago. Greta mentioned it once, in passing, when she first showed me my mother's things. She said the family legends spoke of a original estate deep in the northern hills, abandoned for over two centuries but never formally seized by any rival territory, out of superstition more than practicality."Marcus's voice crackled through the comm, weak but sharpened by sudden recognition. "I know the place. It's marked on the old succession maps, technically neutral ground by ancient treaty, never claimed because no pack wanted to risk the goddess's displeasure by seizing land still considered sacred to a bloodline everyone believ

ELIRA POV"Whatever happens next, know that I love you completely, and I am not letting her take one single piece of what makes you who you are."Kian's voice cut through the trembling ground and rising wind, and I felt his hand tighten around mine even as ancient power began gathering visibly around Isolde's outstretched blade.The words of her ritual rose and fell in a language I didn't consciously understand yet somehow felt anyway, deep in my blood, ancient recognition sparking against ancient threat. The ground beneath the dais began to glow faintly, old symbols long worn smooth by centuries suddenly visible again, pulsing with a light that seemed to answer Isolde's chant directly."She's actually doing it," I breathed, horror and awe tangled together as I watched power begin to gather around the blade in a way that defied everything I'd assumed about the limits of ordinary wolf magic."Then we stop her," Kian said, already moving to close the distance.I felt the pull the instan