Alle Kapitel von THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA: Kapitel 71 – Kapitel 80

The knocking continued through the night.By dawn, nobody in Ashwood had slept.Guards crowded the courtyard, pale and exhausted. Some kept glancing at the walls as though the entire pack house might come down around them. Mothers held their children close, whispering whenever another knock travelled through the stone.Edrick stood at the head of the corridor leading to the sealed chamber with a sword in his hands.It was an old blade.Too small for what they were facing.But he held it anyway.By the time Selene and Kael reached the door, the silver veins running through the black stone were glowing like fresh coals.Veyra was already there.She sat against the wall, shoulders hunched, her hands trembling in her lap. The silver in her hair had almost completely faded to grey.When she looked up at them, Selene expected another explanation.Veyra gave none."How long?" Kael demanded.Veyra swallowed."I didn't understand until now.""How long?""I told you Corvain's anchors belonged t

They found the second letter waiting on the map table in Kael's study, delivered by no courier anyone could name, sealed with the same precise hand as before.Selene—I imagine you've found the door by now. I found it myself, once, as a younger man crawling through my father's forbidden inheritance looking for anything that might explain what he'd built his cruelty upon. I did not understand what I was looking at. I understand now.A living seal has been attempted before, though not by any Ashford. My own bloodline's diluted trace of the same power once let a desperate old order try binding a lesser wound the same way. It did not go cleanly. But it did not fail entirely either, and I know where the survivor still walks, if walking is the word for what she does now.Her name was Ysolde. She kept the old order's records. If proof exists that a living seal can hold without consuming its bearer whole, she will know it, or she will know why it cannot be done at all.I am not offering this

They rode through the night without stopping.No one suggested it. The horses were exhausted, their breathing harsh in the darkness, but the thought of losing another hour was worse. What had once felt like six days had become five in Selene’s mind, and every mile toward Ashwood felt like another piece of their remaining time being taken from them.By dawn, the broken gates of Ashwood emerged through the pale light.For one breath, Selene thought the sight of them meant they had made it back in time.Then she saw Marcus waiting in the courtyard.He was standing.That should have reassured her.It didn’t.Marcus was usually the first person to complain when plans went wrong, the first to demand an explanation and the last to admit he was afraid. Seeing him silent now, his face drawn from exhaustion, told Selene more than words could.Lyra stood beside him, one hand braced against the hilt at her side. Both watched the riders approach with the same expression on their faces.Dread.Sele

By the time moonrise approached, the chamber barely resembled the place they had entered hours earlier.Veyra had carved fresh symbols into the stone floor, forming a wide circle around the black door. Silver light ran through the grooves, catching along every cut like veins beneath the skin of the stone.Three bodies deep, the pack formed a ring around the chamber.Their hands were linked.Their faces were drawn with exhaustion, but no one stepped away.Selene stood at the threshold with Aria beside her. Kael remained just beyond the circle, close enough that she could reach him, but far enough to serve as an anchor rather than another vessel.Veyra looked from Selene to Aria."When the moon reaches its peak, the door will open fully, whether we're ready or not."Her gaze hardened."You must already be in position. Already bonded to the binding. Once that moment comes, there will be no second attempt if this fails."Selene swallowed."We understand."Aria's fingers slipped into hers.

Dawn came to Ashwood three hours later.Selene stood at the chamber's threshold, watching the first pale strip of sunlight creep down the long tunnel stairs. It was strange to see morning again after everything that had happened below the earth.Stranger still to realize she had a future to wake up to.She hadn't been sure of that last night.Kael found her there.Exhaustion had settled into every line of his face, darkening the skin beneath his eyes, but something steadier sat underneath it now. He looked tired. He also looked alive.“You should rest,” he said. “The binding will hold. Veyra says it's stable.”“I will.”Selene kept her eyes on the light.“I just needed a moment first.”Kael lowered himself onto the cold stone beside her. His shoulder came close enough that she could feel the warmth through their clothes.For a while, neither of them spoke.The bond between them felt different now. Not louder. Deeper.It was no longer just the connection they'd known before. Whatever h