Chapter 162: The Dead Don't Walk

Seraphine's POV

I couldn't breathe.

The air locked in my throat, my lungs refusing to expand as I stared up at the figure standing over me. Moonlight carved harsh shadows across his face, highlighting features I knew too well—features that should have been rotting in ash by now.

Damien.

My wolf recoiled violently inside me, her snarl turning into something closer to a whimper. Run. Fight. Danger. The words crashed through my head in an endless, panicked loop, her instincts screaming at me to move, but my body had turned to stone.

"Long time no see, Seraphine Hale." His voice was exactly as I remembered—smooth, casual, laced with that familiar cruelty that had haunted every nightmare since I'd escaped Silverwood.

My chest felt like someone had dropped a boulder on it. I couldn't get air in, couldn't force my lungs to expand past the crushing weight of terror and disbelief. My brain kept trying to make sense of what I was seeing, but the pieces wouldn't fit together.

He's dead. Kaelen killed him. I watched him die.

But he was standing right there, lips curling into that same vicious smile that used to precede pain.

Behind me, footsteps crunched over dead leaves. I twisted around, my heart hammering so hard it hurt, and saw a figure step out from the shadows between the trees.

Vespera.

She moved forward slowly, deliberately, a dark cloak wrapped around her shoulders and that smug, satisfied smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. Like she'd just won a game I hadn't known we were playing.

And then it hit me.

The noise in the forest. The one that had pulled Lucian and Orion's attention away for just a heartbeat. The perfect timing of my escape.

She made that noise.

My hands curled into fists so tight my nails bit into my palms, breaking skin. The sharp sting barely registered through the white-hot fury building in my chest.

"It was you," I forced out between clenched teeth. My voice sounded raw, shredded. "You've been feeding him information this whole time."

Vespera's smile widened. She didn't even bother denying it.

Everything clicked into place with brutal clarity. The financial discrepancies Kaelen had mentioned. The patrols that had been ambushed with impossible precision. The attacks that always seemed to come when our defenses were weakest.

"All of it," I breathed. "The patrol routes. The guard schedules. Every fucking attack—"

"I never wanted this," Vespera said, her voice tight with suppressed fury. "You forced my hand. You came in and stole what was mine—my position, my future, my Alpha."

Damien let out a low chuckle. The sound made my skin crawl.

"You really thought I'd be stupid enough to charge into your territory and get myself killed?" He shook his head, that cruel amusement never leaving his face. "That man who attacked you—the one your precious Alpha tore apart—was just a stand-in."

My pupils contracted so fast the world seemed to darken at the edges. No. No.

But even as I tried to reject it, the pieces fell into place. The way "Damien" had moved during the attack—slower than I remembered, less coordinated. The strange smell that had clung to the corpse, something chemical and wrong beneath the blood.

"You're lying," I whispered.

"Am I?" He spread his hands, grinning wider. "Look at me, Seraphine Hale. Do I look dead to you? Have you already lost your mind?"

The world tilted. Everything I'd felt after that night—the relief, the sick satisfaction, the hope that maybe, maybe I could start to heal—all of it had been built on a lie.

Damien took a step closer, his boots crunching over dead leaves. My body trembled with rage and fear, my mind racing. If Damien was still alive, if he was here now—

"Constant raids were inefficient," he continued, his tone conversational. "Too many casualties on both sides, too much attention. But if you thought I was dead?" He gestured lazily. "Your defenses would relax. Your Alpha would stop looking over his shoulder quite so hard. And when the time was right..."

He left the sentence hanging, but the implication was clear enough.

My chest tightened with dread.

"I had my people leave traces in Zephyr's territory," Damien said, watching my face carefully. "Hair, scent markers, enough to make it look like I was sniffing around Thornwick's borders. And that four-eye-monster—predictable as always—took the bait immediately."

The bond pulsed again, fainter. Kaelen was hunting shadows while the real threat stood right in front of me.

We both walked into traps.

"Smart," I said, my voice coming out flat and cold. "Use me as bait, send Kaelen on a wild goose chase. Very fucking clever."

Vespera laughed, the sound sharp and mocking. "Oh, it was so easy. All I had to do was mention your precious sister and you completely lost your mind."

She tilted her head, eyes glittering with malicious pleasure. "Your weakness is pathetic, Seraphine. Any hint about Lyralei and you'll do anything—lie, betray, abandon everyone who actually cares about you."

Heat burned behind my eyes. I blinked hard, refusing to let the tears fall.

She was right. God, she was right, and that made it so much worse.

Every decision I'd made, every time I'd let desperation cloud my judgment—it had all been because of Lyralei. Because I couldn't stand the thought of her out there alone, scared, waiting for me to save her.

And they'd used it against me like a weapon.

My mind flashed to the green leather notebook, to Kaelen's careful handwriting. If I don't come back. The vague phone calls, the way he'd avoided giving me details about where he was going or why.

He'd been trying to protect me. Trying to shield me from worrying about something I couldn't control.

I closed my eyes for a brief second, my lips trembling. He didn't want me to be scared. He was trying to keep me safe.

But that kindness—that misguided, well-meaning attempt to protect me—had left me vulnerable. Had made it easier for them to manipulate me, to play on my fears until I'd broken and run straight into their trap.

If he'd just told me the truth. If he'd trusted me enough...

But he hadn't. And now we were both fucked.

I opened my eyes and turned to Vespera, fury burning through the fear like acid. My wolf surged forward, flooding my senses as golden light bled into my vision.

"You betrayed Shadowmere," I snarled, my voice dropping into something more animal than human. "You betrayed the people who protected you. You betrayed Kaelen's trust."