bChapter /bb162 /b

    “AAAHHH…!!!! NO.. NO.. CRISTINAAA..! NOOOO!!!”

    The chamber shook with Henri’s screams, raw and ragged, echoing against stone.

    His grief bled like poison, but it no longer touched me.

    The Subus was dead.

    The chains are broken.

    My soul mine again.

    And in that moment–The power shifted.

    I gasped loudly when I felt it first in the bond: Francesco’s presence swelling, radiating outward like a sun cresting the horizon. It wasn’t just him as my mate. It was him as King. The true Alpha Lycan.

    Golden light bled from his eyes, flickering brighter with each breath, until the torches seemed to dim in deference. The weight of his aura pressed outward, rolling through the stone, past the chamber walls, through the ground itself. It surged like a tidal wave.

    Henri flinched back, his screams faltering.

    His body curled inward as though trying to shield himself from a storm he couldn’t withstand.

    And then the cries began to change.

    The women’s wails outside softened, then broke into gasps. The children’s keening turned to silence. It was as though a veil lifted from them all at once, as though their lungs dragged in fresh air for the first time in years.

    I felt them through the bond–dozens, hundreds of heartbeats, fragile and searching.

    Their souls no longer chained.

    They were all trapped, their souls held captive by theke by the subus, now since her gone, they’re all free.

    Francesco’s power burned brighter, wrapping me in its warmth, wrapping the pack beyond in its reach.

    The bond inside me thrummed, resonant with theirs.

    One by one, their grief turned to something else.

    Awareness.

    Recognition.

    Hope.

    That he, the Lycan king is here.

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    K

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    flesh, radiatingmand so absolute it stole breath.

    “You were their jailer,” Francesco’s voice thundered, every word rolling with the resonance of his Lycan power. “You let a parasite feed on their souls. You traded their lives for your lust.”

    Henri shook his head violently, tears streaking his face, desperation turning feral. “No! She was mine! She loved me–”

    “She devoured you.” Francesco’s eyes burned gold, his fangs shing in the torchlight. “And through you, she devoured. them. That ends tonight.“.

    The chamber pulsed with silence.

    Then a sound rose–low, rumbling.

    A growl.

    Not Francesco’s. Not mine.

    It came from the warriors. From the women. From the pack.

    One by one, wolves lowered to their knees, heads bowing, throats exposed. The humans among them mirrored it instinctively, as though their bodies knew what their minds only now understood.

    Submission.

    Not to Henri.

    Never again to Henri.

    But to the King Alpha Lycan.

    To my Francesco and me.

    Tears blurred my vision, not from weakness but from the weight of the moment. My heart swelled, my wolf howled inside, recognizing the truth that had always been there.

    Francesco looked at them all–at his people–and his voice dropped, low but resonant enough to carry to every ear.

    “You are mine now. No one will ever steal from you again. No one will ever silence your cries. You stand with me—or you fall with him.”

    The answer was instant.

    The sound of knees hitting stone, one after another, until the chamber reverberated with it.

    Henri’s scream tore through the chorus of loyalty, shrill and broken.

    He stumbled backward, face contorted with grief and rage. “Traitors! All of you! You’re mine–you were always mine!”

    But his voice no longer held

    The choice had been made.

    power.

    12:07 Mon, 1 Sept A

    Francesco’s hand tightened around mine, his golden gaze softening when it turned to me.

    For a moment, the fury and the storm quieted.

    “Eine.. my Eine…”

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    “You brought me back,” I whispered, trembling. “When I thought I was gone, when I thought you’d never see me–you

    found me.”

    His forehead pressed against mine, the barest tremor in his voice. “I would tear every illusion apart, burn every shadow to ash, to find you, Eine. Always.”

    And though Henri’s screams echoed still, though the chamber smelled of blood and smoke, all I felt in that moment was

    truth.

    I wasn’t invisible.

    I wasn’t stolen.

    I was always his.

    And behind him, the pack was no longer lost.

    They had a King.