All Chapters of BLOOD OF THE FORGOTTEN : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Cold wakes Lyra before the bell does.It always does. Her room sits at the end of the servants' hall, the last door before the stone gives way to bare rock, and the wind finds every crack in the wall like it's looking for her on purpose. She pulls the thin blanket tighter and stares up at the ceiling, watching her own breath curl into the dark.Somewhere above her, the rest of Blackthorn Keep is still asleep. Warriors in their warm beds. Healers in rooms with real fireplaces. The Alpha, high up in the Moon Tower, wrapped in furs thick enough to swallow a person whole. Lyra used to imagine what that felt like, waking up warm. She doesn't anymore. There's no use aching for something she'll never have.She is an Omega. The lowest rank in the pack, lower than lowest, really, because at least the other low ranks get looked at once in a while. Lyra gets looked through. She has learned to move through the Keep like smoke, quiet and gray and easy to forget, because the alternative is worse. O

Lyra runs until her body simply won't anymore.The forest blurs past in streaks of black and silver, branches tearing at her fur, roots catching her paws, and still she doesn't stop, because stopping means thinking, and thinking means feeling everything that happened in that Hall all at once. Better to run.Better to let her legs burn and her lungs scream and her mind go blank and white with effort.She killed her. She killed my mother.The thought keeps surfacing anyway, no matter how fast she runs from it.By the time the trees thin out and the ground turns rocky and strange under her paws, she's shaking with exhaustion, her wolf form trembling at the edges like it might give out. She doesn't know how long she's been running. She doesn't know where she is.She only knows she can't take another step — and then, quite suddenly, she can't.Her legs fold under her. The forest floor rushes up, and everything goes dark.She wakes to firelight and the smell of woodsmoke, and for one terrif

The Great Hall empties out fast once Kael starts shouting orders, and the silence that's left behind feels almost worse than the noise did.No laughter drifting from near the hearth anymore. No warriors trading stories over half-finished plates.Just the sound of boots pounding down stone corridors, doors banging shut one after another somewhere deep in the Keep, and Kael's voice cutting through all of it, low and sharp enough to send warriors scattering in every direction at once."Search every corridor. Every room, every cellar, every crawlspace big enough to hide a man." His eyes are hard as flint, his whole body coiled tight, like something wound too far and about to snap loose. "If he's still inside these walls, I want him found before he finds a way past them."Lyra stands frozen near the doorway, watching the man she argued with in his study just that morning disappear completely. In his place stands somebody colder. Somebody a whole lot more dangerous."Kael." Her voice comes

The first arrow hits the courtyard wall two feet from Lyra's head. Stone splinters fly everywhere. Something sharp slices her cheek. She feels the sting but doesn't have time to react."Down!" Kael grabs her shoulder and shoves her behind an overturned cart. She hits the ground hard. A second arrow whistles past. It plants itself in the wooden wheel, right where she was standing.Chaos everywhere. Warriors running. People screaming. Torches fall and flicker on the stone. Smoke starts to fill the air. The war horn blasts somewhere beyond the walls, low and endless. It vibrates in her chest. Makes her wolf restless and angry."Who's attacking us?" Her voice shakes. Her heart pounds so hard it hurts."I don't know." Kael's eyes scan the darkness. His body stays coiled tight, ready to spring. "Doesn't sound like Darius's people. His rogues don't use arrows. They fight close. Wolf form. Always have.""Then who—"A warrior stumbles past them. Blood soaks his shoulder. His face twists in pai

The fighting doesn't stop.Lyra tears through the rogues. Her claws find throats. Her teeth find flesh. Blood sprays across her face. Hot and sticky. She doesn't wipe it away. She doesn't care.More come. They keep coming. Through the broken door. Through the cracks in the walls. Everywhere she looks, there's another face. Another set of teeth. Another weapon aimed at her heart.She fights them all."Lyra!" Kael's voice cuts through the noise. He's beside her. Sword swinging. Face covered in blood. His eyes find hers. "Stay close. Don't let them separate us."She wants to answer. Can't. Her throat is full of growls. Her wolf is in control now. All instinct. All fury.A rogue lunges from the left. She spins. Claws out. Catches him across the chest. He falls. Another takes his place. Then another. They never stop. They never run out."The door!" Soren shouts somewhere behind her. "We need to get out. Now!"Lyra looks up. The temple door is shut. Sealed tight. No handle. No crack. Just so