All Chapters of Cursed Bonds:The Wolflees Luna's Redemption : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Chloe's POVThe Silverpine crest lay on the council table like a threat.No one touched it. It was old, scratched along one edge, but I knew the shape of the pine branches, the crescent cut into the centre, the tiny notch left by the smith who had made every officer's insignia in my uncle's court.Theron stood at the head of the table. "Who carries it?""A man called Elias Vane," the messenger said. "He claims he served the Silverpine council."My stomach tightened. I knew the name. He had once brought medicine when fever swept the nursery and refused payment from families who had nothing. That memory made his arrival worse. Men who seemed decent could still carry ruin through a gate. Elias had been one of Gareth's border captains."Claims?" Kael asked."He came alone. No horse. No weapons we could find.""Then you didn't look hard enough," Kael said.Theron's attention stayed on me. "Do you know him?""Yes."Seraphine folded her hands. "A friend?""No.""An enemy?"I looked at the cre

Chloe's POVI spent the entire morning with Lord Adrian.We were in the war room, maps spread across the table, discussing defensive strategies. With the Silverpine Pack still gathering at the borders, and no one yet certain which face in the court had fed them the convoy routes, the Shadow Court needed to be prepared on every front at once.Adrian was brilliant. Strategic. He saw patterns I missed and explained them patiently."If we reinforce the eastern wall here," he said, pointing to the map, "we can funnel any attack toward the main gate where our forces are strongest.""But that leaves the western approach vulnerable," I said."Not if we station archers here and here." Adrian leaned closer, his shoulder brushing mine. "See? They'd have clear sight lines."I studied the map, nodding. "That could work.""You have a good tactical mind," Adrian said, smiling. "Better than most of the generals."Heat crept up my neck at the compliment. "I'm just trying to help.""You're doing more th

Chloe's POVThorne was waiting in the eastern solarium when I found him, standing at the tall windows with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the training yard below like he had nowhere else to be and all the time in the world to be nowhere.I'd never been alone with him before. I noticed that the moment I stepped inside and Sera closed the door behind me instead of following."Lady Chloe." He didn't turn immediately. "Thank you for coming.""You said it was urgent.""It is." Now he turned, and up close his eyes were a pale, unsettling grey, the color of a sky before snow. "I'll be direct, since I suspect directness is the only currency you trust right now."My pulse ticked up. "Go on.""I know Adrian believes I'm the one feeding information to Silverpine."I kept my face very still. Adrian's warning echoed in my head. If he learns I suspect him, he'll know I've been watching."I don't know what you mean," I said."You're a poor liar, my lady. It's one of the things I find mys

Chloe's POVI told Theron about Thorne the next morning, before I lost my nerve.He listened without interrupting, standing very still by the window while I laid out everything: the solarium, the redacted page, the two-day deadline, the reason I'd kept it from him even as Adrian's chambers sat empty and half the court searched the borderlands for a man who might already be halfway to Silverpine.When I finished, the silence stretched long enough that I braced for fury."You should have told me immediately," he said instead, quiet."I know.""But you're telling me now." He crossed the room and took my face in both hands, searching my eyes like he was looking for the lie that wasn't there. "That has to count for something.""I was trying to protect an innocent man from being accused on nothing but a feeling.""I understand why you did it." His thumb traced my cheekbone. "That doesn't mean I'll let you keep something like this from me again. Not when your life could be the price of being

Chloe's POVThe horn sounded just after sunset, three long blasts that meant only one thing in this court: enemy movement at the border.I was still in Theron's arms when it came, both of us barely dressed, the weight of last night's confession still sitting heavy between us. He was on his feet before the third blast finished, pulling on his armor with the efficient, practiced speed of a man who'd done this a hundred times and hoped never to again."Stay here," he said."No."He turned, already half-armored, and something in my face must have convinced him faster than an argument would have, because he didn't waste time repeating himself. "Then stay close to me. Not Adrian. Not Thorne. Me."We reached the war room to find it already crowded, Kael, Seraphine, Darius, and a scout I didn't recognize, mud-streaked and breathless, still catching his wind against the doorframe. The map on the table had already been dragged back into place from the night Theron had claimed me across it, and t