Dozens and dozens of lycans joined Rhiannon and left the temple with her. One would have thought that perhaps, only the older ones who have knowledge of the history, or the lower classes who didn’t exactly enjoy the favor of Casthiel’s lineage would join her, but the truth was that even two of the main Alphas of the packs went with her.“We will make a three-hundred-kilometer run north to the nearest safe place where we can regroup,” General Gallagher said a few minutes later, but not before turning to Rhiannon with a questioning look in his eyes, waiting for her approval.“No one must be left behind,” was the girl’s reply. “It hasn’t even been a quarter of an hour and I can guarantee that all of your heads have a price on them already. The squads loyal to the king will start hunting us soon, so no one can stay behind,” she said, looking at the nearly two hundred lycans who had followed her. “Do you all have open communication with your wolves?Many shook their heads; they were young

“Akela, get inside me. Now!” Aidan called his wolf back and Akela didn’t resist because he knew it wasn’t an unfounded command. As things stood, Aidan’s safety... or at least his life, could be guaranteed, but the only way he would be protected was inside his lycan. After all, he was living proof of Aidan’s disobedience to the laws his own parents had enforced on the lycans for centuries.“What did you do, Aidan?!” the king shouted, turning to his son just as the guards finished clearing the temple of the Goddess.Confusion reigned and rumors of what had happened that night would spread like fire on dry powder. In the center of the orchestra only the king and queen, Aidan, Myra, and General Nader, who did not dare leave his daughter alone in front of the wrath of Caerbhall Casthiel, remained.“What did I do? I won my wolf! And I’m not ashamed to admit it,” Aidan answered with determination. “The only thing I regret is that I spent six centuries torturing him instead of making him a pa

Rhiannon came out of the bathroom with her long hair dripping water and tried to dry it with several towels after getting dressed. At least, they had had the common sense of leaving clothes fit for fighting and not a princess dress. She sat down on the floor, by the window of her room, and hugged her legs, looking outside.She was tired, her soul ached, and yet she knew she could not sleep. Perhaps that was the weight that betrayals left behind, always looking over your shoulder, always having one eye open, and always distrusting everyone, even those closest to you.Her father had been betrayed by his generals, it was hard, but everything was hard in a rebellion and in a war. However, with her it had been different, she had been betrayed by her mate, there was not a single being on earth closest to a lycan than their destined mate, and if she had been betrayed by Aidan, it meant she could be betrayed by anyone.“Are you going to run away?” she heard Maddox’s voice and turned to find h

No one knew exactly how the fire that engulfed half the royal house had started, but the following day the New York Times carried the news on the front page that the residence of one of the oldest and most respected families in the city had burned to the ground.The truth was that it was not a big deal, but it certainly meant that Rhiannon of Isrion’s words had struck a chord in the minds of many lycans, or else no one would have dared to start a fire since no one was buying that it was an accident.“I hold you responsible for all this!” the king shouted to Erea as the losses and defectors were listed, especially those who had openly rebelled against them and left with Rhiannon.“You can also hold me responsible for the crown on your head,” the queen replied, “that you are so reluctant to pass on to our son.”The king answered with a grunt, but if in times of peace quarrels were not a problem for them, this had just turned into a war, and everyone was pretty sure it would be an import

“Nut bread? Are you serious?” Brennan asked exiting the plane, after hearing absolutely everything Aidan had told him.“Well, Lidora Nader probably has a lot of answers, but she’s still the Crazy Wolf of Astan, and from what I saw, she doesn’t talk unless there’s a loaf of nut bread on her lap,” the Alpha replied with a frown.“You’re worried about her, aren’t you?” his Beta murmured, and Aidan just nodded.“I don’t know how to feel about all this. I know my parents are lying to me... and these feelings of Rhiannon’s... I know there’s no way she can fake them, there’s so much hate in her that I feel as though she’s just breathing so she can get revenge.”Brennan nodded, he had sensed that too, but right at that moment he was more concerned about how Aidan felt than how Rhainnon did.“But I still can’t follow her with blindly and forget the blood that runs through my veins. I know it may seem selfish, but I can’t trade six and a half centuries of my family for someone I met two months

Rhiannon could understand perfectly why that lycan did not want to accept the Keqzhara. It was difficult for someone used to being free to suddenly find himself bound to a destiny he had not foreseen, and something must be said: the Keqzhara spears were a destiny in themselves, they were the constant path of the protection of the lineage of Isrion, and it was a path that did not admit detours once it was the spear that chose you.Unfortunately, the strongest of the Keqzhara had chosen, and she had chosen him, only the Goddess knew why. In the end, it became impossible for him to bear it any longer, and he had to reach out to touch it... but no one, in years, had seen a partial transformation like that.Milo emerged on Maddox’s skin and his spirit remained there, restless and ready, darkening as he joined the Keqzhara in a strange way. Rhiannon recoiled, for that kind of power, or rather, that potential for power she had only seen in one other wolf since she had left the Watchtower...

Aidan and Brennan looked at each other in surprise as the girl laughed softly.“Well, you know her now; this is my dear great-granddaughter that I had to kill,” Lidora Nader said while handing the girl the nut bread. “Look what your grandmother did with her own hands!” she added theatrically.Briccia sniffed it with her eyes closed and smiled.“It smells delicious, Grandma, thank you. It would be great to eat it with chamomile tea. Can you put the kettle on for me?” she asked.The old woman gave her a kiss on the head and left the cabin as if nothing had happened while Briccia put the bread on the nearest table.“I suppose she already thinks of Summerville’s bakery as ‘her own hands,’” she teased, “but it’s the thought that counts.”“I see her very much alive...” Brennan murmured to Aidan, but it was the girl who replied.“And I hear very well, too. My grandmother likes to be very theatrical. She always says she had to kill me because everyone out there thinks I was born dead,” she ex

“I’m not sure I can answer that question for you.”‘I’m not sure I can answer that question for you?’ Was that all Maddox had to say?Rhiannon had turned that over in her head and Raksha’s a thousand times, until they had both fallen asleep, unable to understand why Maddox wore the exact same mark on his shoulder as Aidan and herself.She was sure she didn’t share the same kind of bond with him that she shared with Aidan; after all, the bond that linked her to Aidan had been meant to save her life. However, she knew her mark had been made by herself over the centuries, and Maddox having it had to mean something, right?“You’re driving me crazy,” was the first thing she heard in that early morning when she opened her eyes again.“I’m sorry. I guess I’m just too worried about this,” Rhiannon replied to her she-wolf.“More like you’re worried about everything else and you’re using this as a good excuse to escape it,” Raksha assured her.“Well... it doesn’t look like that’s going to chang

If Rhiannon really wanted to know what was really going on between her and Maddox, why she felt so strangely safe at his side, or why she had sensed that potential in him to become a Royal Alpha, then yes, perhaps that was the most dangerous question of all.The problem was that her head and heart had deceived her before. She had let all her feelings take the lead, and they had failed her...maybe it was time to let instinct guide her.She caught the first ring between her index finger and her thumb and popped the clasp open, feeling Maddox’s grunt of satisfaction as she pulled it out of his ear. She had felt it as well when Raksha had forced out all the silver from her body, she just hadn’t had time to enjoy it as she should have, or at least not as he seemed to enjoy it.She removed the second ring and could see the hair on Maddox’s skin stand on end as he closed her eyes. Silver no longer had an effect on her, but she knew that those four hoops piercing his cartilage were, by far, m

Brennan held him up as he cursed loudly, attracting the attention of Briccia and old Lidora.The priestess’s eyes turned as blue as her wolf’s as she examined the wound.“Silver bullet,” she murmured. “Do you feel very bad?”“They wounded her... they wounded Rhiannon...” was all Aidan could mumble, his eyes wild.“Calm down, she’s healing,” Briccia assured him, and his face took on a strange calmness. “But this is only the beginning. This means they’re already hunting her.”Aidan’s jaw tightened, feeling Akela howl inside him in despair. Briccia placed a hand over his wound and his eyes clouded over completely, losing all the brightness that her wolf's eyes had given her.“I’m so sorry to tell you this, but you’ll have to take sides,” the girl whispered in a sad voice. “The war is about to begin... and I’m afraid you won’t make it in time for the first battle.”And indeed, hundreds of miles away from them, the first hunt led by King Caerbhall against the resistance had already begun.