บททั้งหมดของ Forbidden Under the Blood Moon: บทที่ 231 - บทที่ 240

POV: KADE ASHBORN"You knew," I said, and watched something in Ivy's face crumble before she could stop it. "Before Ferris ever crossed our border, you knew exactly what he used to be to Corvyn."We stood in the narrow study off the east hall, the same room where Ivy had once begged me for asylum with nothing but a torn dress and a story I had chosen, against every instinct I owned, to believe. She had not looked this frightened since that night, and the sight of it stirred something uncomfortable in me, a memory of the last time I had watched her fear and let it soften my judgment."I knew he served him," she said. "Everyone who survived Corvyn's territory served him in one way or another. That does not make Ferris his creature.""Doesn't it?" I kept my voice level, though the fury underneath it had been building for three days, since the ravine, since Sable's empty bed, since a symbol scratched into stone told us Corvyn's people had walked our halls unnoticed while we slept soundly

POV: KADE ASHBORN"He does not deserve the rank, and everyone in this hall knows it," the elder wolf said, loud enough that Cody could hear him from the doorway, and I watched my nephew's face go rigid in a way that reminded me, uncomfortably, of my own at that age, the same effort to hold still when every instinct screams to answer fire with fire.The council chamber had filled faster than I wanted, word of Talan's confession spreading through the manor like smoke through dry timber, and in the middle of that chaos, someone had chosen this exact hour to reopen the question of Cody's testing, as though grief and suspicion made a convenient enough backdrop to relitigate old grievances no one had the courage to raise in calmer weather."His rank was never in question until this morning," I said, keeping my voice level though the exhaustion of the last three days sat behind my eyes like stone, heavy and unmoving. "Do not use my son's grief as an excuse to relitigate a decision the counci

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Three names, three doors, and now a stranger walks into our manor unannounced and no one can explain how she passed every guard we have." Ronan's voice carried the particular edge of a man who had stopped trusting his own instincts three days ago and had not yet found a way to trust them again, each word clipped short as though he did not have the patience left to finish longer sentences. "How am I meant to keep this pack safe, Kade, when I cannot even keep our own walls honest?"We stood in the war room long after the council had scattered, the map of the ravine still pinned uselessly to the table, its edges curling slightly from the damp evening air, and I understood the accusation underneath his words was not truly meant for me, though it landed close enough to sting anyway, close enough that I had to remind myself he was exhausted, not accusing."You are not failing us," I said. "You are the only reason we are not further behind than we are, Ronan. Do not let th

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Say it was a mistake. Tell me Selene's list is wrong, and I will believe you, because the alternative means I have trusted the wrong voice at this table for longer than I want to admit." I kept my eyes fixed on Halric, the oldest council member seated among us, a man who had counseled my father before me and had never once, in all the years I had known him, given me a reason to doubt him, not once, not even in the smallest, quietest way.The council chamber had emptied of everyone except the four of us, Ronan standing near the door with his arms crossed, his stance deliberately blocking the only exit, Selene holding the list steady in her hands as though it might otherwise shake loose from her grip, and Halric himself, silent, his face unreadable in a way that frightened me more than open denial would have, more than tears, more than anger."The name could belong to anyone," Halric said finally, his voice measured, careful, the voice of a man who had spent decades c

POV: KADE ASHBORN"The prisoner's cell is empty." Ronan's voice reached us before he did, breaking through the last of the crowd still lingering near the testing yard, his footsteps loud and uneven against the packed earth, and I felt the ground shift beneath me for the second time in as many days. "Halric is gone.""That is not possible," I said, already moving, Wren close beside me, the gold pressure I had come to recognize in her expression sharpening into something close to alarm, her eyes already fixed on some point beyond the walls none of us could see. "He was under guard. I placed the guard myself.""The guard is dead," Ronan said, grim and breathless from running, his voice cracking on the word dead in a way I had rarely heard from him. "Throat opened clean, no struggle, no alarm raised. Whoever did this knew exactly where to stand and exactly how long they had before anyone would notice, knew the rotation better than the men walking it."We reached the cell within minutes, a