Chapter 190
The basement exploded with light. The black salt circle on the floor flew into the air,
scattered by my power.
Alpha Silas screamed. He fell backward, covering his eyes. “What? No! The ritual was working! You were empty!”
I stepped forward, out of the broken salt circle. I felt the Moon–Shield root working in my blood and I looked at my hands. They were glowing with a bright, pure white light.
“The only thing empty uncle is your head,” I said. My voice didn’t sound like a normal human voice. My wolf was speaking through me.
Annabella was frozen. She was still holding the silver dagger, but her hand was shaking so much that the metal was clicking. “Faith? But… the dress… you looked so broken!”
“It’s called acting, Annabella,” I hissed. “You should try it sometime. It’s better than being a fool.”
“Guards!” Silas roared. He scrambled to his feet, his face twisted with rage. “Kill them! Take their hearts! We will finish the ritual with their blood!”
The four guards who smelled like cold stone stepped out of the shadows. They didn’t move like wolves. They moved like machines. Their skin looked gray and hard, like rocks. They lunged at us.
Astor didn’t even shift. He didn’t need to. He punched the first guard in the chest and I heard the sound of stone cracking. The guard flew across the room and smashed into a stone pillar.
“The jars, Faith” Astor shouted. “Break the jars! Free the spirits!”
I turned my attention to the hundreds of glowing blue jars. They were sitting on shelves all around the room. I could feel the pain of the trapped wolves inside them. They were crying out for help.
I raised my arms. I didn’t use my fists. I used my mind. I reached out with my White Wolf power and grabbed the air itself.
‘Break.‘ I commanded.
A massive wave of white energy flew out from my body. It hit the shelves like a physical hammer.
1/4
Chapter 190
+25 Painte
The sound was deafening. Thousands of pieces of glass exploded into the air. The blue light didn’t fall to the floor. Instead, the tiny flames flew out of the broken jars.
Suddenly, the basement was full of swirling, blue ghosts. They weren’t scary. They were beautiful. They were the souls of the stolen wolves. They circled the room, making a sound like a thousand whispers.
“No!” Silas cried, trying to catch the lights with his hands. “My power! My army!”
Without the jars, the dark magic in the room started to die. The guards started to crumble. They weren’t real wolves, they were made of magic and stolen energy. One by one, they fell apart into piles of dust and rocks.
Annabella looked at me, and her eyes went wild with fear and greed.
“I won’t let you win” she screamed. She ran at me, raising the silver dagger. “I’ll kill you myself”
I didn’t even move. I just watched her.
As she got close, I felt my wolf surge. I didn’t shift, but I let my claws grow just an inch. When Annabella swung the knife, I caught her wrist in mid–air.
I squeezed. I heard the bone snap. Annabella screamed, and the silver dagger fell to the floor with a loud clang.
“You think you can take my life?” I asked her. I leaned in, my glowing eyes inches from hers. “You think you can take my mate and my home? You are a small, selfish girl, Annabella. And a Queen does not lose to a brat.”
I used a burst of energy to throw her across the room. She landed in a heap next to Ovelia.
Ovelia was shaking. She was leaning against the wall, her face white as a sheet. “Astor… Faith… I didn’t know. I thought… Silas said it would make us the strongest pack in the world. He said nobody would ever hurt us again.”
“You sold our souls for a lie, Mother,” Astor said. He walked toward Silas, who was backed into a corner. “You let a monster into our home because you were afraid of being weak.”
“Astor, please” Silas begged. He looked like a small, pathetic old man now. Without the stolen spirits, he had nothing. “We can make a deal! I have money! I have secrets!”
“The only secret I want to know,” Astor said, his voice dropping to a low growl, “is how it feels to lose everything.”
Astor didn’t kill him. Instead, he grabbed Silas by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He
looked at the blue spirits swirling in the air
“Free,” Astor said.
The blue lights seemed to understand. They dived toward Silas. They didn’t bite him, but they flew through him. Each spirit took back a tiny bit of the energy Silas had stolen over the years. Silas screamed as his hair turned white and his skin wrinkled. He was aging a hundred years in ten seconds.
The spirits then turned toward the ceiling. They flew through the stone, rising up into the night sky to find their way back to their bodies or to the Goddess.
The basement went dark. The only light left was the soft glow from me and Astor
Silas fell to the floor, unconscious and old. Annabella was sobbing on the ground, clutching her broken wrist. Ovelia was silent, her head in her hands,
The ritual was over. The trap was broken.
I walked over to Astor.
His eyes were full of warmth and love.
“Are you okay?” he asked. He reached out and pulled me into his arms.
I rested my head on his chest. I was so tired I could hardly stand, but I felt wonderful. “I’m okay. We did it.”
“We did,” he whispered. He kissed the top of my head.
We stayed like that for a minute, just breathing together.
“What about them?” I asked, looking at Annabella and Ovelia.
Astor looked at them coldly. “Silas and Annabella will be sent to the Council of Alphas and the alpha king will make a decision.
“And your mother?”
Astor sighed. He looked at Ovelia. She looked up at him with teary eyes.
“She is my mother,” Astor said. “But she betrayed me and the Pack. She will be stripped of her rank. She will live in the small cottage at the edge of the territory and will never enter the Pack House again. She is no longer part of the leadership.”
Ovelia didn’t argue. She just nodded and let out a broken sob. She knew she was lucky to stay in the pack at all.
Chapter Lon
“Let’s go home, Astor,” I said.
“Yes,” he said. He took my hand and led me toward the stairs. “Let’s go tell our pack that the war is over.”
