Chapter 103
Kael’s POV_
“Alpha. He’s on the move.”
I stared at the message on my phone. My gut twisted. Rylan. The Frostbane Alpha. He was leaving his pack territory, and my spies were following him.
I stood up from the edge of the cliff where I had been perched, watching the sky darken over the trees. I needed some time alone so I came here to clear my mind. Valric stirred inside
- me.
“Where is he going?” Valric asked.
I didn’t answer right away. I was already pulling my jacket on. My mind spun with questions. I thought of Lisa, of how hollow she looked the last time I saw her. Like her soul was somewhere else…..far away.
“He is headed toward the Shadowrune pack,” I said aloud, staring at the next update. “He brought men with him. Three cars. Armed.”
Valric growled.
“He’s either attacking them or… she’s really there.”
I cursed under my breath. I had accused Rylan of hiding Lisa. But what if I was wrong? What if he had been telling the truth all along?
“Then why hasn’t she come back?” I muttered.
“Because something is keeping her there,” Valric said. “Something more dangerous than that Alpha Rylan.”
I didn’t waste another second. I jumped in my car and started driving. My men had sent me a location. The road twisted through pine–heavy forest, thick and shadowed. As the sky dimmed, tension crawled down my spine like cold sweat.
By the time I reached the edge of Shadowrune territory, night had fallen. My men were already waiting.
Harris stepped forward, his hood pulled low. “We saw him go in, Alpha. Just him. He crossed the border with no resistance. He came back out after an hour. But he didn’t leave. He has been parked near the perimeter. It seems that he is waiting.”
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“Waiting for what?” I asked.
Harris shook his head. “We don’t know.”
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I peered through the trees, lowering my scent to blend in. Just beyond the thicket, I could make out movement. Rylan stood near his car. He was alone.
“What is he doing just standing there?” Valric growled. “He could’ve left. But he didn’t.”
My heart thudded in my chest. “Because he’s waiting for her.”
We settled deeper into the shadows, our breath tight in our chests. Minutes passed. Then an hour. The air had grown colder. The moon rose slowly above the treetops.
Then we saw her.
Lisa.
She moved like a shadow across the clearing. She was quiet and fast. She threw something toward the guards at the front gate. A rock maybe. It clattered loudly.
The two guards turned their heads.
Lisa sprinted.
But she didn’t get far.
“Lisa!”
Rylan’s voice rang out. She skidded to a stop.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
From our hiding place, I could see everything. The look on her face. There was panic, sadness and pain.
“You were really going to run without looking back?” Rylan asked.
I felt my jaw tighten. My claws pushed at the edge of my skin.
“Don’t shift,” Valric warned. “Not yet.”
“Why are you here?” Lisa asked.
“I never left,” Rylan said. “Not after this morning. Not after seeing you again.”
“This is bad,” I muttered.
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“Worse than bad,” Harris whispered. “Look.”
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They argued. I heard every word. The way she told him not to touch her. The heartbreak in her voice. But also the doubt. The way she hesitated.
“She still feels something,” Valric whispered.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to admit it.
Then we heard another voice.
“Ah, young love. So fragile. So foolish.”
My blood ran cold.
It was the Alpha of the Shadowrune Pack.
He stepped from the shadows with a dozen others.
“Alpha,” Harris said under his breath. “They don’t smell like wolves.”
He was right. I sniffed the air. They didn’t reek of fur or rage. There was something else. Something burnt and bitter. Like ash and poison.
“You should’ve known better, Alpha Rylan,” Fenric mocked. “Coming here like some lovesick
pup. How noble. How stupid.”
Rylan stepped in front of Lisa. Jared and Alex came crashing through the trees with others. I counted six. Maybe eight in total. They shifted, bones cracking as they lunged.
But Fenric’s people didn’t shift.
They chanted.
Words that made my skin crawl.
“Vincta lumen! Sero venari! Althira vincam!”
The earth trembled beneath my boots.
“Alpha, what do we do?” Harris whispered.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I was frozen.
Roots exploded from the ground. One of Rylan’s wolves was yanked down screaming. Another took a swing at one of the dark figures. It hit… but nothing happened.
Then there was smoke. I could hear whispers. They were teleporting and flickering like
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shadows. One blew something dark into Rylan’s face.
He fell.
Lisa screamed.
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She was trying to fight, but something wrapped around her legs. She looked trapped in an
invisible web.
“Do something!” Valric roared.
“We can’t! There are too many!”
“You’re going to let her be taken?”
I growled. My hands were shaking. “If we move now, we die. All of us.”
More wolves fell. Fenric stepped forward. He chanted again.
Lisa collapsed. Rylan crawled towards her. He was bleeding.
And then… silence.
The dark figures gathered them up. Lisa was unconscious. Rylan was limp.
They vanished into the pack territory like ghosts.
I stood there, breathing hard, watching the place they disappeared into.
“We failed her,” Valric said, voice rough.
“Not yet,” I whispered. “Not yet.”
I turned to my men. They looked shaken. They were pale.
“Did you see that?” Harris asked. “What… what were they?”
“Not wolves,” I said. “Witches. Or something worse.”
“What do we do now?”
I stared at the path where they had taken her. My chest ached. My mind raced.
Lisa was powerful but not trained.
And that man, that Alpha, had no intention of letting her go.
I had no idea what his endgame was.
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But I knew one thing.
I couldn’t fight that alone.
“We go back,” I said. “Now.”
“We’re not going after them?”
“No,” I growled. “Not yet.”
I looked up at the stars. The sky felt heavier now.
“I need help,” I muttered. “We all do.”
Valric rumbled. “There’s only one person who knows enough magic to counter this.”
“Morana.”
He didn’t argue.
I stepped back toward the trees. The moon followed me, casting long shadows.
My heart pounded.
Lisa was in a prison of magic. And I had no way of breaking her out.
Not yet.
But I would.
Even if I had to walk through hell to do it.
