THE ALPHA'S FORBIDDEN LUNA의 모든 챕터: 챕터 171 - 챕터 180

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Do not name a line, Lyra. Name mine. I have already decided, and if you argue with me, I swear I will walk into that light myself before you finish the sentence. I mean it."My palm was glued to the Stone. I could feel the blood running down the notch, hot and slow, as if the rock were drinking me one sip at a time. The crimson light had crawled up my forearm to the elbow. Under it, my skin tingled like a limb waking from sleep.Lyra did not look at me. She stood with her mother's ring locked in the socket and her chin lifted toward the glow. The wind pulled her braid loose. Her face was wet, but her eyes were dry and strangely bright."No," she said."Lyra...""No. I heard what she said. There is a third door, and I will not find it by being obedient." She drew a shaky breath. "Titus wants me to pick between you and my own blood. He has built his whole plan on the idea that I will. So I am not going to.""That is not an answer," Titus said pleasantly. He had not

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"They are through the first line, Alpha! Rourke's men are falling back to the pines! Tell me to hold or tell me to run, because I cannot do both!"Marcus's voice came from somewhere above the hollow, torn by wind and the clash of steel. I could hear it all. The screams. The horns. The thud of bodies against shields. It was a terrible thing, to be bound to a rock while my pack bled on the slopes, and not be able to lift my hand."Hold!" I roared back. "Hold the pines! Do not give them the hollow!""With what?""With everything you have!"A grunt that might have been a laugh. Then silence, and the grinding clash began again.My arm had gone numb to the shoulder. The Stone had settled into a steady, hungry thrum, like a second heartbeat set against my own. But it was lighter now. A dozen hands crowded around the notch, Tobin's and Fenn's and old Pell's, and every palm eased the weight a little. I could breathe, almost. I could think.That was the worst of it. I though

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Go, Kaelan. Go. I will hold. I am an Ashwood hand, and the Stone does not care which one. Run, before the boy reaches the fire."My father said it with his teeth clenched and his arm already shaking. The Stone had flared bright crimson when Briar screamed. Every wolf at the notch was on their toes, staring up the slope. Lyra had her free hand over her mouth. Her whole body was bent toward the ridge, as though she could pull the boy back with her eyes."If I let go, my line is struck," I said. My voice was hoarse."If you let go, and I keep my hand where it is, the oath is still met. An Ashwood hand stays." He did not look at me. "The Stone told me so. I asked it, while you were not listening. It has been listening to me for nine years, Kaelan, whether I knew it or not.""You will not last the night.""No. But I can last an hour." His mouth shook. "Let me be a father for one hour. Even if it is the wrong order."I looked at Lyra. She met my eyes. There was no fear

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"Get away from him, Titus. Get away from my father, or I will cut your hands off and feed them to the Stone myself. Do not make me say it twice."I did not recognize my own voice. It came out of me low and flat, the voice of a stranger. I had stopped running. I stood at the edge of the clearing with my mother's knife in my fist, breathing hard. Titus stood with one foot against my father's ribs, tugging his sword free."Ah," he said. "The Alpha has come home.""Let him go.""He is hardly in my way." Titus wrenched the blade loose. My father slumped against the Stone, still gripping it. "He is a dying man, Kaelan. I have only hastened it.""Not another word.""As you wish."He came at me. I had fought a hundred men in training, and a dozen in real battles, but I had never faced anyone like him. He was too fast. Too calm. His sword whirled in a gray blur, and my first parry only just held. The impact shuddered up my arm. The second cut slipped past my guard and laid

POV: Kaelan Ashwood"My Alpha, they are looking at me. The wolves on the ridge. They are all looking at me. I do not know what to do. I do not know who I am without you."Titus Crane spoke it very quietly, to nobody in particular. He was standing alone in the snow with his sword hanging from his hand, staring up at the huge, shining picture of his own sins. His face was gray and slack. For the first time, he looked old."Titus," Vane said gently."They saw.""Yes.""They saw everything." Titus laughed. It was a high, strange, broken sound. "I wanted them to see Damon. That was all. I only wanted Damon to be named.""You did not think the Stone would show your face too?""I thought I was cleverer than a rock.""Titus." Vane stepped closer, very slowly, as one would approach a wounded horse. "Put the sword down.""They will not forgive me.""No. They will not." Vane's voice was rough. "But you do not have to be forgiven to put it down."Titus stared at him as if he had spoken in a forei