جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

The next morning, I followed Damon’s orders and had the maids deliver Moonlight to Ivy’s room.Her door had been left slightly ajar.As I passed, I saw her turning in front of the mirror in the gown, which hung awkwardly from her smaller frame.She held a pair of scissors in one hand. Before my eyes, she cut away the most intricate section of moonstone-studded lace from the skirt.“Damon said I could alter it however I liked,” she murmured to the maid beside her. “But it was Serena’s gown first. You don’t think she’ll be angry, do you?”The maid glanced nervously toward me and said nothing.I kept walking and headed for the kitchen.Damon had been badly wounded by a silver blade during the battle that secured his position as Alpha. The injury flared whenever winter set in, sending pain through his body and driving his wolf into a frenzy.For seven years, I had brewed the same moonroot draught to dull the pain and soothe his wolf.I stood over the stove, watching the dark liquid simmer

Back at the Obsidian main house, the air in the great hall had turned suffocating.Damon sat on the sofa with a glass of cold wine in his hand.He tugged irritably at his collar and stared at the antique clock on the wall.It was already eleven.Three hours had passed since he had thrown me out.Ivy approached with a plate of fruit and tried to settle beside him.“Serena is terribly stubborn,” she murmured. “With all that snow outside, she’s probably hiding nearby, waiting for you to come after her.”Damon shoved her hand away.The plate fell. Fruit rolled across the floor.He rose and crossed to the window, staring into the white night beyond the glass.In seven years, I had never stayed away from him for more than a day.No matter how badly we fought or how long he ignored me, I had always appeared at his study the next morning with the medicine for his old wound.He was certain I would not truly leave. Sooner or later, the cold would become unbearable, and I would return to the fron

The collapse of the eastern ward was only the beginning.Three days later, a rival pack seized the northern hunting grounds under cover of darkness. The next morning, two children slipped through another failing ward and nearly wandered into rogue territory.The infirmary overflowed with injured wolves, all of them healing far more slowly than before.Why had wards that had stood unbroken for seven years begun failing the moment Serena left?The question spread through the Obsidian Pack.Damon doubled the patrols, ordered the priests to reinforce the wards, and threatened to punish anyone who spoke of the Moon Crown bloodline. None of it stopped the silver glow along the border from fading a little more each day.Since my departure, he had not slept through a single night.Every time he closed his eyes, his wolf searched for me. Whenever his mind brushed the broken link, it found nothing but silence.On the seventh night, Damon woke with my name already on his lips.He tore through the

The Obsidian elders convened before dawn.Every council member and head of a high-ranking family attended. Most of them were the same wolves I had forced into submission seven years earlier, when they refused to accept Damon as Alpha.When Damon entered the chamber, only Beta rose to greet him.He took the Alpha’s chair, his face dark.“Serena cares about the Obsidian wolves. She won’t let her father attack us.”Elder Marcus gave a cold laugh.“From what I understand, she has already stopped him once. She also gave us a way to avoid this war. You’re the one refusing it.”Another elder spoke up.“Serena has been gone less than ten days, and two sections of our border have already failed. We have also lost a hunting ground. Without her Moon Crown blood, our priests cannot restore the wards.”Damon’s expression turned glacial.“I am the Alpha of this pack.”No one answered.Their silence humiliated him more thoroughly than any argument could have.The doors flew open, and a bloodied guard

The Obsidian council gave Damon one month to leave the territory. The new Alpha could not allow a deposed predecessor to remain within the pack.Ivy appealed to several elders, but none of them would restore her Luna title.In the end, the new Alpha offered the pair an abandoned cabin beyond the western ward.Ivy went pale.“You can barely shift. How are we supposed to survive outside the wards?”Ivy’s voice broke. “My wolf is too weak to live as a rogue.”On the final day, Damon found Ivy’s bags packed by the door and realized she had not included a single thing that belonged to him.“Where are you going?”“The new Alpha has agreed to let me stay.”“You’re my fated mate.”“That doesn’t make this easy for me,” Ivy said through her tears. “But you can’t expect me to lose everything just because you were banished.”“All you ever wanted was the Luna title.”“You gave me everything that belonged to Serena and still expected her to remain at your side. Neither of us got what we wanted.”Ivy