Lyra's POV
I wake buried in rubble. Again.
Everything hurts worse this time. Ears ringing so loud I can't hear my own breathing. Dust so thick I'm choking on ash and pulverized stone.
But I'm alive.
The bond pulses weakly. Kael's alive too. Somewhere in this destruction.
I dig frantically. Claw my way up through broken stone and twisted metal.
Air. Sweet, precious air.
Shadow Vale is utterly destroyed. Buildings collapsed completely. Fires burning everywhere. Smoke blocking out the moon.
Some wolves are moving in the wreckage. Digging. Crying.
Some aren't moving at all.
I stumble toward Kael's presence through the bond. Following that golden thread.
Find him pulling survivors from debris with bloody, shredded hands. Ash covering his face. But alive. Still fighting.
Lyra. He rushes over when he sees me. Pulls me into his arms desperately.
Relief floods both of us through the bond. Pure, overwhelming relief.
You're alive, I whisper against his chest.
So are you. I thought His voice breaks. I felt the explosion through the bond and thought I'd lost you.
We hold each other. Just breathing. Just grateful to be breathing.
Then reality crashes back.
Mira! I gasp. Where's
Over here! a weak voice calls.
She's trapped under a collapsed wall. Thomas helping dig her out with his bare hands.
We rush over. Together we lift the massive stone.
Thomas pulls Mira free. She's hurt but alive.
Alive.
I hold her close, tears streaming down my face. You're okay. You're safe.
What happened? she asks weakly.
Riordan blew up Shadow Vale, Kael says, voice hollow. Destroyed everything.
How many dead? Thomas asks the question we're all dreading.
Silence.
I don't know yet, Kael finally admits. Start counting. Organize search and rescue.
Thomas leaves to coordinate, face grim.
Marcus appears from the smoke. Bleeding from multiple wounds. But standing.
Forty-three confirmed dead so far. Over a hundred injured critically. Shadow Vale as a territory is gone. Uninhabitable.
Forty-three wolves dead.
Forty-three lives ended because of this insanity.
Rage burns through me hotter than the fires around us.
Where's Riordan? I demand. I want to see him. Now.
Lyra Kael starts.
He destroyed an entire pack's home. Killed forty-three innocent wolves. Children died in this! My voice rises. I deserve answers. We all do.
Kael studies me, then nods slowly. Together.
We find Riordan chained in a makeshift cell. A reinforced vehicle that survived.
He's broken. Burnt. The red in his eyes dimmed to dying embers.
Defeated completely.
Come to gloat? he rasps when he sees us.
No, I say coldly. I want answers. Why all of this? Why destroy everything?
Because I hate the bond. I hate what it did to me. What it took from me.
The bond didn't make you destroy Shadow Vale, Kael says quietly. That was your choice. Your decision. Nobody forced you to press that button.
Was it my choice? Riordan looks up with haunted eyes. Or was it Isla's manipulation playing out? Did Seraphina's betrayal decide this? Where does free will end and fate begin? Can any of us truly choose when we're shaped by the bond from birth?
You always have a choice, I say firmly. Always. When they told me to kill DamonI chose. I chose to save Mira over him. My sacrifice. My decision.
And Damon's still dead because of your choice.
But Mira's alive. And I'd make the same choice again. I meet his red eyes. Because love is worth the cost. Even when it hurts. Even when it destroys things.
Riordan stares at me like I'm speaking a foreign language. You actually believe that? That love is worth this much pain?
Yes.
Even when love leads to death? Destruction? Agony?
Even then. Especially then.
He closes his eyes. A single tear escapes. I wish I could believe that. I used to. Before Seraphina. Before Isla showed me the 'truth.'
What did Isla actually want? Kael asks urgently. Her real end goal. Not the bond hatredwhat was she building toward?
Riordan opens his eyes slowly. You really don't know, do you?
Know what? I ask.
Isla wasn't working alone. She never worked alone.
My blood runs cold. Kael's hand finds mine.
She had a partner. Someone more powerful than her. Someone who's been planning this for decades.
Who? Kael demands.
I never knew their name. Isla kept me compartmentalized. Need-to-know basis only. Riordan coughs blood. But they wanted the territories in chaos. Packs fighting each other. The Alpha King weakened. Leadership crumbling.
Why? Marcus steps forward. What's the endgame?
So they could swoop in and take control. Unite the fractured packs under their rule. Create a new order from the ashes.
Who is this person? I press. Give us something.
I don't know much. But Isla mentioned a name once when she thought I was unconscious. She called her partner 'The Architect.' He looks at Kael. Said they'd been building this plan since before your father died, Kael. Maybe even caused his death to start the dominoes falling.
The Architect. Someone operating for over a decade in the shadows.
Someone we might know. Might trust.
Anything else? Marcus asks sharply.
One thing. Riordan's voice drops. The Architect wants Kael dead specifically. Not just defeated. Dead. And they want it to look natural. Like the mate bond killed him.
Why? Kael asks.
Because then every pack will fear the mate bond. Reject it entirely. When wolves stop trusting the bond when mates reject each other out of fear chaos spreads like wildfire. Packs fracture. Families break. Leadership fails everywhere simultaneously. And in that chaos, the Architect takes control of everything.
Kael and I exchange looks through the bond. We're still targets.
This isn't over.
Who else knows about the Architect? Marcus demands.
Just Isla. And now you. And probably her network of spies embedded in every major pack.
How many spies are we talking about?
Could be dozens. Could be hundreds. They could be anywhere. Anyone. Even in this clearing right now. Riordan smiles bitterly. You're surrounded by potential enemies and you don't even know it.
An alarm sounds. Wolves howling in distress from the perimeter.
Thomas runs over, face pale. Alpha King! A messenger just arrived. From the Council of Alphas. Official summons.
What kind of summons?
Emergency summit. Every pack leader must attend. No exceptions.
When?
Three days from now. At Blood Moon Citadel. Your home territory.
Kael's headquarters. His stronghold.
What's the summit about? Marcus asks, though I suspect we all know.
Thomas's face goes even paler. They're voting on whether to remove Kael as Alpha King. Citing compromised judgment. Failure to execute a known murderer. Weakness in protecting the mate bond over pack law. Multiple Alphas have filed formal complaints.
This is it. The Architect's endgame coming together.
If you don't attend, they'll consider it abdication, Thomas continues. If you do attend you'll stand trial before every major Alpha. They could strip your title. Execute you for dereliction of duty.
And if the Alpha King falls, I whisper, piecing it together, chaos follows immediately.
Exactly what the Architect wants, Riordan confirms from his cell. You're walking into their final trap.
Kael's jaw tightens with determination. Then we go. We attend. We fight this.
You're barely healed, I argue desperately. And if it's a trapif they're waiting to kill you
Then we spring it. Face it head-on. Together. His silver eyes meet mine. I won't run. I won't hide. We face this together.
Through the bond, I feel his absolute certainty.
I want to believe in him. In us.
But Marcus speaks quietly. Carefully. His words like falling guillotines.
There's one more critical detail.
We all look at him.
The messenger who brought the summit notice? I recognized his scent underneath the official perfumes. Cross-referenced it with my investigation files.
He pauses, and the pause itself is terrifying.
He's one of Isla's confirmed operatives. One of her spies who fed her information for years.
My heart stops completely. You're saying
The Council of Alphas is compromised. The Architect has infiltrated the highest level of pack government. They control the very council that will judge you.
Horrified silence.
We're not just fighting one enemy.
We're fighting the entire system.
Every pack. Every Alpha. Every law.
Three days, Kael says quietly, looking at me. We have three days to find the Architect. Expose them. Stop them before they destroy everything.
Or? I ask, though I know the answer.
His silver eyes hold mine with devastating honesty.
Or we lose everything. The throne. The packs. Our lives. Each other.
The bond trembles between us.
Three days to save the world we know.
Or watch it burn.
And somewhere in the shadows, the Architect is watching.
Waiting.
Smiling.