บททั้งหมดของ THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA: บทที่ 61 - บทที่ 70

The Warden's portal dropped them onto Ashwood's border ridge hard enough to knock the breath from Selene's lungs.She stumbled forward, caught herself, and looked down.Smoke poured from the eastern wing, thick enough to blot out parts of the afternoon sky. The main gates had been smashed inward, their splintered remains scattered across the entrance.And the courtyard was full of wolves.Silver eyes flashed between the trees and ruined walls. Dozens of them moved through the pack grounds, perhaps more, pressing against Ashwood's already thin defences with the same unnerving coordination Selene had seen at the council.Kael didn't hesitate.He shifted while running.Black fur swept across his body, bones snapping and reforming beneath his skin, and a heartbeat later he slammed into the nearest attacker. The impact sent the wolf skidding across the broken stone and into what remained of the gate.Selene shifted almost immediately.Behind her, Fenna caught Aria's hand and pulled the gir

Dawn found Ashwood in ruins again.The east wing had been gutted a second time. A few timbers still smoldered beneath the collapsed roof, sending thin trails of smoke into the pale morning sky. Scorch marks covered the courtyard, black against stone that had yet to cool completely.Selene walked through the wreckage beside Kael.Neither of them spoke.There was nothing useful to say while they counted what remained.Three pack members were dead.A dozen were wounded.Fenna and the other healers had worked through the night, moving from one injured body to the next until exhaustion had made their hands tremble.Kael stopped beside the remains of the eastern corridor.His eyes stayed on the blackened beams."We can't keep surviving like this."His voice was rough, worn down by more than lack of sleep."Every victory costs us more than the last. Ashwood can't withstand a third assault like this."Selene looked at the ruined building.She wanted to disagree.She couldn't.What frightened

Selene's mind raced through everything the Warden had ever told her.The ritual. The bond. The door that required two. Kael's blood still marked the ancient stone beside her, bright against the dark floor.Then it struck her."The bond."Selene pushed herself upright, ignoring the sharp pain in her ribs. "It rejected Vale because it demanded something freely chosen. What if that's the answer here too?"The Warden's eyes snapped toward her."Explain.""Aria isn't choosing this," Selene said. "The anchor is taking her. If I can reach her—if I can give her something to choose instead of letting it decide for her—""You'd be walking straight into whatever is consuming her."Kael's voice came from behind them.He forced himself upright with one hand against the wall. Blood ran from his temple, streaking down the side of his face where the impact had split the skin.Selene looked at him."I know."She turned back toward the crystal."I don't have a better option."Before anyone could stop h

The darkness swallowed Marcus whole."Marcus!"Selene screamed his name and lunged forward.Kael caught her around the waist before she could reach him. She fought against his grip, claws pushing through her fingertips as violet energy poured into Marcus through his mouth, his eyes, and the open wounds along his ribs.His back arched violently off the ground.For one terrible second, it looked as though something had hooked itself through his chest and was pulling him apart from the inside."Let me go!""Selene, you can't touch it."Kael's voice cracked against her ear."It'll take you too."She struggled harder.Aria was still pressed against her shoulder, one small arm wrapped weakly around her neck. Selene could feel the girl's breath against her skin, but all she could see was Marcus.The Warden was already moving.Silver light flared across her palms.Then she stopped three paces from Marcus.Selene noticed the change immediately.The Warden wasn't attacking.She was waiting.Tha

Nobody moved.The silver veins in the great stone door glimmered faintly in the torchlight. Selene could still hear the last line of the inscription inside her head.Let no one speak the cost to the two until the choosing hour, lest they flee."Explain," Kael said.His voice was low and controlled, but Selene saw the way his hands had curled at his sides. He was seconds from shifting."All of it. Now."Veyra didn't look away from Selene."Beyond that door sleeps something older than my kind," she said. "We called it the Devourer because we had no better word. It consumed a world before ours. The Wardens were created to keep it from consuming this one.""And the sacrifice?""A seal of stone and silver holds for centuries. It does not hold for millennia."Veyra's jaw tightened."To renew it, two living wills must stand at the threshold, willing and bonded by blood, and pour themselves into the binding."Selene's stomach knotted.Veyra continued."Corvain and I selected the Ashford line