All Chapters of Forbidden Under the Blood Moon: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

POV: Wren"Do not let go of my hand, Wren, no matter what happens in the next few minutes, because I am not losing you tonight after everything it took to keep you." Kade's voice was steady even as chaos exploded around us, arrows and firelight and the sound of clashing steel filling the air where quiet celebration had stood only moments before.The riders pressed hard against the eastern wall, more disciplined than I expected from wolves Elias had described as scattered and grief driven, and something about that discipline sent a fresh wave of unease through me even as I fought to stay steady beside Kade. Ronan moved through the chaos like he had trained his entire life for exactly this moment, directing guards with sharp, controlled precision while Alpha Magnus fought alongside soldiers half his age without a single visible hesitation. Briar pulled Ivy and Cody toward the inner keep, glancing back once to make sure I was following, though some instinct kept my feet planted exactly w

Point of view: Wren"You think I came here to gloat over you bleeding in a courtyard, Wren Thorne, but I came to tell you something my own pride has been too stubborn to say for weeks." Selene stood in the healer's doorway like she had rehearsed the sentence a hundred times and still could not make it sound easy.I sat up too fast on the narrow cot, wincing at the pull of the bandage wrapped around my forearm where an arrow had grazed closer than I wanted to admit. The healer's tent smelled of crushed herbs and blood, and beyond the canvas walls I could still hear guards calling out watch positions in the dark. "I am listening," I said carefully, because Selene Draven had never once sought me out for a friendly conversation.She stepped inside and let the flap fall closed behind her, and for a moment she looked younger than I had ever seen her, younger and more uncertain than the poised, polished daughter of an allied pack I had spent months quietly resenting. "I spent my whole life b

Point of view: Wren"Wren, this is not just your mother's handwriting, this is a second letter hidden inside the first one, and I think she wrote it knowing someone dangerous might read the outer page." Briar's fingers trembled slightly as she held the thin, folded paper up to the candlelight.We sat huddled in the small room I had been given since the truth came out, the one with a lock that did not quite work and a window that faced the eastern wall where guards still paced twice as often since the attack. Briar had smuggled the pendant's velvet pouch out of the healer's tent for me, and inside it, sewn carefully into the lining, we had found a second sheet of paper folded so small it had taken us twenty minutes just to unfold it without tearing."Read it," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.Briar cleared her throat and began. "My daughter, if you are reading this, then the mark has finally found its way to your skin, and I am sorry I was never brave enough to explain it to yo

Point of view: Wren"Wren, it is me, please open the door before someone sees me standing out here and decides I am a threat instead of your sister." Ivy's voice was so unexpected, so achingly familiar through the wood, that for a moment I could not make my hands move fast enough.I threw the lock open and there she stood, thinner than I remembered, dirt streaked along her traveling cloak, eyes red rimmed with exhaustion but unmistakably, impossibly her. Briar gasped behind me and I did not even think before pulling my sister into the room and into my arms, months of anger and worry and relief tangling together so tightly I could not separate one feeling from the next."You left me to explain everything," I said into her shoulder, half sob and half accusation. "You left, and I became you, and everything since has nearly gotten me killed twice.""I know," Ivy said, voice cracking. "I have heard pieces of it from every direction, and Wren, I am so sorry, I never imagined Father would ac

Point of view: Wren"If you scream, Wren Thorne, I promise you the only person who hears it will be the one holding the knife, and I would rather you save your breath for the walk ahead." The voice behind me was calm in a way that terrified me more than shouting ever could have.It happened fast, faster than I had time to process, a hand clamped hard over my mouth as I stepped out of the council chamber's side corridor alone, exhausted, needing air after the chaos Garrick's confession had unleashed. I fought, elbow driving back hard into ribs, but a second set of hands caught my arms before I could break free, dragging me through a servant's passage I had never noticed before, one that clearly someone inside these walls had known about for a very long time.They bound my wrists and pulled a rough cloth sack over my head, and in the darkness that followed, all I had left was sound. Boots on stone. Hushed, urgent voices arguing about timing. The distant, muffled roar of the council cham