Chapter 187
I stood by the window for a long time after the phone call with Liam cut off. My hand was shaking so much that I almost dropped my phone. The silence in the dining room felt heavy and scary. Ovelia’s mean words were still ringing in my ears, but Liam’s warning was much
louder.
Forbidden things.
What did that mean?
If Liam was right, Astor was in a lot of danger. And if Astor was in danger, the whole pack was in danger.
I needed to talk to Liam again. I tried to call him back, but the phone just made a clicking sound. The signal was completely dead. It wasn’t a mistake. Someone was blocking the signal.
I’m not sure whether it was happening from my side or from his side but I tried something different, I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind. I tried to find the special mind–link I had with Liam. It’s a secret link we made when we stayed in the Crescent pack in order to keep an eye on everyone there when we first arrived because we didn’t know who to trust.
‘Liam? Can you hear me?‘
For a second, there was nothing.
‘Faith? The signal is bad… they have jammers here.‘
‘Tell me what you saw! What are the forbidden things?‘
I felt his fear through the link. It was cold and sharp.
‘It’s a room under the Alpha’s house, Liam’s voice said in my mind. It smells like old blood and rot. Faith, there are jars. Hundreds of jars. They have silver seals on them. I think… I think they are wolf spirits. They are capturing the spirits of wolves who ‘disappear‘ from other packs.‘
My heart skipped a beat. Capturing spirits? That was the worst kind of dark magic. If you take a wolf’s spirit, they become a shell of who they really are.
And there’s more, Liam continued. I found a book. It belongs to the Alpha here. It talks about a ritual. They want to combine the power of a White Wolf and a Great Alpha. They want to create a monster that they can control. Faith, the Gala… the party next week… that’s not a celebration. It’s a trap.
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The link snapped. The silence returned to my head.
+25 Points
I felt sick. A ritual? I didn’t even know there was a gals next week but I understand what they’re trying to do.
They wanted me and Astor. They wanted our power. Annabella wasn’t just here to marry Astor; she was here to harvest him like a piece of fruit. And Ovelia? Was she really helping them destroy her own son?
I walked out of our house. I needed to find Astor. I didn’t care about the deal anymore. I have
to tell him what Liam found.
I walked toward his office, but someone stepped in my way.
It was Annabella.
She was standing in the middle of the hallway, blocking my path. She was holding a vase of lavender flowers. She smelled so strongly of the purple flowers that it made my nose itch.
“Where are you going in such a hurry, Faith?” she asked. Her voice was sweet, but her eyes were like ice.
“Get out of my way, Annabella,” I said. I didn’t have the energy to be nice.
“You look upset,” she said, ignoring me. She started to arrange the flowers in the vase. “Maybe you should go lie down. You’ve been acting very strange since you came back. People are starting to notice.”
“I said move,” I growled. My wolf was right at the surface now. I could feel my eyes starting to
glow.
Annabella didn’t move. She stepped closer to me. She was shorter than me, but she didn’t look scared. She looked powerful.
“You think you’re so smart,” she whispered. “You think that just because you’re a White Wolf, you win. But power isn’t just about strength, Faith. It’s about who is left standing when the dust settles.”
She reached out and touched the collar of my red dress. Her fingers were freezing cold.
“Astor is mine now,” she said. “The pack is mine. Even your children like me. Why don’t you just leave? It would be so much easier for everyone.”
I grabbed her wrist. I didn’t use my invisible punches this time. I used my actual hand. I squeezed her wrist until I heard her bones groan.
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“Listen to me, you little snake,” I hissed. “I know about the basement. I know about the jars. And I know about the ritual.”
Annabella’s face went pale. The smug smile disappeared. For a second, she looked terrified.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stammered.
“Yes, you do,” I said. I leaned in so close our noses almost touched. “I am the White Wolf. I see everything. If you touch my mate or my kids, I won’t just send you home. I’ll rip your spirit out and put you in those jars myself. Do you understand me?”
I shoved her away. She stumbled back, dropping the vase of flowers. The glass shattered on the floor, and the lavender water spilled everywhere.
I didn’t wait for her to answer. I walked past her and went straight to Astor’s office. I didn’t knock. I slammed the door open.
Astor was sitting behind his desk. He was looking at some maps. When I burst in, he looked up. His face was cold and flat.
“Faith, I’m busy,” he said. “I told you to-”
“I don’t care what you told me!” I shouted. I locked the door behind me.
I walked over to the desk and slammed my hands down on the wood.
“The deal is off, Astor. We have to talk, and we have to talk now.”
Astor stood up. He looked angry. “Faith, stay in your role. If someone hears you-”
“Nobody can hear us!” I said. I threw up a privacy shield around the room. The air shimmered for a second.
“Liam found it,” I said, my voice shaking. “He found the basement in the Shadow Moon Pack. He found jars, Astor. Jars full of wolf spirits. They’re doing a ritual. They want to use us for a Gala next week. They want to steal our power.”
Astor’s expression didn’t change, but I saw his fingers twitch. He already knew.
“You knew,” I whispered. “That’s why you’re pretending to be cold. You’re trying to act like your spirit is already gone so they think the ritual is working.”
Astor let out a long breath. He sat back down. He looked very, very tired.
“I didn’t know about the jars,” he admitted. “But I knew they were stealing power. I’ve been feeling it for months, Faith. Every time Annabella touches me, I feel a little bit of my wolf slipping away. I had to turn ‘cold‘ to protect my core. If I show any emotion, if I show any love
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for you, it opens a door for them to get inside my head.”
I felt a tear run down my cheek. “So that’s why you’re doing this? To protect yourself?”
+25 Points
“To protect you,” he said. He looked at me with so much love it hurt. “They need us both for the ritual to work. If I’m a ghost, they can control me and they don’t need you as much. But now that you’re back, they’re going to try to trigger the ritual early.”
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We play the game,” Astor said. “We go to the Gala. We let them think they have us. And then, we burn the whole thing down.”
“But Ovelia…” I said. “She’s helping them. She’s pushing for Annabella.”
Astor’s face got even darker. “My mother is… complicated. She thinks she’s saving the pack by making a deal with the Shadow Moon. She doesn’t realize she’s selling our souls.”
I walked around the desk and stood behind him. I put my hands on his shoulders. He leaned his head back against me.
“We have to be careful, Faith,” he whispered. “From now on, the masks stay on. No more mountain hikes. No more secret kisses. We have to be enemies until the Gala.”
“I hate this,” I said.
“I hate it too,” he said. “But it’s the only way we survive.”
I nodded. I understood. The war was no longer in the woods or the training grounds. It was in this house. It was at the dinner table.
I turned off the shield and walked to the door. I took a deep breath and put on my “angry”
face.
I opened the door and walked out. Annabella was still in the hallway, cleaning up the broken glass. I looked at her with pure hate.
“I’m done with you, Astor!” I shouted so she could hear. “If you want that girl, you can have
her!”
I marched away, feeling Astor’s eyes on my back. I knew he was hurting, and I was hurting too. But we have a plan now.
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