Chapter 11
The moment my feet touched Bondrose territory, a tremor rose from deep within my soul.
The air was damp and heavy, thick with the scent of moss, rich earth, and the unmistakable presence of a powerful
predator.
There were no city lights here, only threads of pale moonlight filtering through the canopy, and the gleam of countless
curious and wary wolf eyes watching from the dark.
Something ancient and familiar wrapped around me.
The floodgates of memory burst open: my father, Kaelen, lifting me high upon his shoulders; the laughter of towering warriors around us; my mother Elara seated on glowing moss, a harp of bone in her lap, filling the night with her haunting
song.
I was home.
The wolves of Bondrose were enraged when they learned what I had endured in the Lunar Crest Pack. Under Alexander’s command, they destroyed several of Lunar Crest’s treasure vaults in retaliation.
Then Charlie arrived with his warriors.
War between the packs was inevitable.
“Victoria! I know you’re in there! Come out! I need to talk to you!”
“Victoria…” his voice cracked, “I’m sorry… I was blind-blinded by jealousy and Selena’s lies. I didn’t know how cruel she really was. I didn’t know… about our pup…”
Tears streamed down his face. “Please forgive me, Victoria! Come back! Lunar Crest needs its Luna! I need you!”
“Too late, Charlie,” I said coldly. “The moment you left me and our pup to die on that lonely road, it was over. No apology can bring our child. No regret can erase what you carved into my heart.”
“Lunar Crest’s Luna is dead. You and Selena killed her. Standing before you now is Victoria Nightshade-Luna of the Bondrose Pack.”
“No!” Charlie howled like a wounded beast. “It was him! That bastard tricked you! He stole you from me!”
His fury turned on Alexander. “I’ll tear you apart!”
In an instant, Charlie shifted. His body morphed into a sleek silver-white wolf, gleaming like moonlight, and lunged at Alexander with savage rage.
Alexander met him with a thunderous roar that shook the trees.
In a blur of motion, Alexander shifted into an iron-gray wolf and dashed towards Charlie like a cannonball.
The battle exploded.
Charlie moved nimbly like lightning, but Bondrose wolf was bred for brutality, especially their Alpha.
Alexander surged forward and clamped his massive jaws around Charlie’s shoulder. The crack of bone echoed in the
clearing.
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Charlie howled in agony, pinned under Alexander’s crushing strength. Blood spilled over his pristine coat.
Amber eyes cold and unrelenting, Alexander loomed over his fallen opponent with the staring of a true victor and a
protector.
Charlie lay in the mud and blood, barely able to hold his wolf form.
Through the swirling dust, he lifted his bloodied face and locked eyes with me.
“Victoria… don’t go… please…”
His voice was hoarse, broken by pain, guilt, and desperation.
I didn’t stop.
Not once did I look back.
I left that man-Charlie Smith-along with all his betrayal, his pain, and his worthless, belated remorse, stranded at the edge of that moonlit territory that no longer had anything to do with me.
As for Victoria Nightshade? Her path stretched forward, unyielding, through these shadowed and primal lands-raw, relentless, and true-carving its way back to the source of her blood.
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