All Chapters of Forbidden Under the Blood Moon: Chapter 261 - Chapter 270

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Pell's mother has been dead for three days, Kade. Three days. His house is empty, and yet the table is set for two, as if he expected company."Ronan said it very quietly, standing in the doorway of a small stone cottage at the edge of the east village. Rain had started, thin and cold. It dripped from my hood and ran down the back of my neck. I stepped inside, and the smell hit me first. Old bread. Cold ash. The sweet, flat odor of a house where no one had breathed for days.I had trained Pell myself. He had been sixteen when he first stood in my yard, all elbows and eagerness, desperate to prove that a boy from the east village could carry a sword as well as any noble's son. He used to bring my horse an apple every morning. I had thought of him as a kind of younger brother."He never mentioned his mother was ill," I said."Nobody here did." Ronan nodded toward a narrow bed against the far wall. "The neighbor says she died in her sleep on the night before the counci

POV: KADE ASHBORN"He whispered a name to me on the stairs, Kade. Tobin did. I thought he was being friendly. I thought he was my friend." Cody's voice broke on the last word, and he looked away.We stood in my father's old study at noon, with the shutters drawn and a single candle burning. Dust floated in the thin light. The room still smelled of pipe smoke and cold leather, even after all these years. I had avoided it since the day I took the Alpha's chair, because walking in felt like stepping into his shadow."What name?" I asked."Maelis. He said, ask the Healer who taught her the song." Cody swallowed. "I did not understand it then. I was too proud that a senior guard had bothered to speak to me.""You could not have known.""I should have told someone.""Cody." I put a hand on his shoulder. He was almost as tall as I was now, and the Thorne cloak hung from his shoulders like a promise he was still learning to carry. "Listen to me. A wolf who hides his mistakes is dangerous. A w

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Do not move, Tobin. Not one finger. If you reach for that blade, I promise you will not like what comes next." I kept my voice low, because the night was holding its breath.The old mill stood at the bend of the river, black against a sky of scattered stars. The great wheel had rotted years ago and hung half broken in the water, creaking with every slow turn. Reeds whispered along the bank. The air smelled of wet stone and cold mud, and a signal lamp glowed in the loft window like a single yellow eye.Ronan crouched to my left. Selene was on my right, a knife loose in her hand. Wren had stayed behind with Ivy at the tree line. I had argued with her for five whole minutes, and she had won by saying nothing at all. She only looked at me. I had deserved that look.Now Tobin stood frozen in the mill doorway with his gloved hands half raised. He was thinner than I remembered, with tired eyes and a gate guard's patient stance. For a moment he looked like a man waiting for

POV: KADE ASHBORN"You want me to lie to the people we trust, Selene? To the entire council? If this goes wrong, we lose the last friends we have." I had never hated a plan so much.We were in the war room at midday, with the shutters open for once. Pale sunlight cut across the table and the scattered pieces of evidence. The silver ring. The black envelope. The roster with my father's thorned seal. Selene stood at the far end with a stub of chalk in her fingers, calm as frost."I do not want to lie to anyone," she said. "I want to find out who already is.""By feeding them poison?""By feeding them four different stories." She drew four short lines on the table. "Tobin said the orders arrive in a candle box. That means someone inside the council passes information along. So we give each suspect a separate secret about where Wren will sleep tonight. Whichever one leaks, we know who the leak is.""A canary trap," Ronan said from the corner. "My old captain used it on spies.""It works b

POV: KADE ASHBORN"Take your hand out of that candlestick, Elder Maren. Slowly. I want to see every ring you are wearing when you do." My voice shook, and I let it.The council hall was black and silent at two in the morning. Moonlight fell in long pale bars through the high windows and lay across the twelve empty chairs. The air smelled of cold ash and beeswax. The tall brass candlestick by the east wall stood exactly where Hale had said, and an old woman's arm was buried to the elbow in its hollow stem.Maren did not scream. She did not run. She only froze, and the silver rings on her knotted fingers clicked once against the brass."Alpha," she said quietly. "It is very late for you to be walking about.""It is very late for you too."I stepped out from behind the pillar. Wren moved beside me, wrapped in her dark cloak. Selene stepped from the shadow of the great hearth. Ronan closed the double doors behind us with a soft thud, and the sound rolled across the room like a verdict."A