Chapter 211 211.She’s alive

Chapter 211 211.She’s alive
Keith

Hope is shaking in my arms, but she’s here.
She’s alive.
For one fragile second, that’s all that matters.
I crush her against me, breathing her in like I’ve been drowning, and she’s oxygen. Her fingers fist in my shirt, clutching hard, as if she lets go, I’ll disappear again.
My Lycan presses forward inside me, pacing, restless.
She is ours. Protect her. Kill for her.
“I’ve got you,” I murmur against her hair.
But even as I say it, my eyes are on the dome in front of us.
Because this isn’t over.
Inside, beyond the electrified barrier, Tirianna is still trapped with Elira.
And the Heart.
The cursed, ancient Heart we prayed would never fall into her hands. We were too late in finding a place to hide it.
We were too comfortable with things feeling peaceful, my beast comments.
Hope pulls back just enough to look at me. Her eyes are glassy with fear, not for herself.
For Tirianna.
“We can’t let her get it?” Hope whispers. “The Heart. No, after what, we can’t allow her to get her hands on it.”
I don’t answer right away.
I don’t need to.
I can feel it.
The air hums wrong. Thick. Charged. Like the world is holding its breath. My Lycan snarls low in my mind.
Power. Ancient. Corrupting.
If Elira secures it—
She won’t just be Alpha of her pack.
She’ll control them all.
Control us.
Hope’s voice breaks. “We have to save her.”
I cup her face, forcing her to look at me. “We will.”
Even if it costs me everything.
A presence shifts at my side. Rhys appears, blood streaked across his temple, eyes sharp and steady.
“The children are back,” he says quietly.
Everything inside me stills.
“Are they alive?”
A beat.
“Yes.”
Air floods my lungs.
“But there are injuries,” Rhys adds. “Bad ones.”
My vision flashes red.
The Alpha inside me explodes to the surface.
They hurt the young.
A growl rips out of me before I can stop it. The ground at my feet trembles faintly with the force of it.
Hope’s hand tightens around mine.
“They’re alive,” she repeats, grounding me.
Alive.
But hurt.
My Lycan bares his teeth inside my skull.
We will make them pay.
“What about Elliott?” I ask.
Rhys nods toward the perimeter. “He’s executing the plan. Warriors are barricading the land. We’ve sealed the outer routes. If Elira breaks free of the Heart’s hold, she won’t escape.”
Good.
Because if she does—
I won’t stop hunting.
I scan the battlefield.
Elira’s wolves stand frozen in place.
Every last one of them.
Like statues.
Eyes blank. Bodies rigid.
Controlled.
The sight chills me more than blood ever could.
“She’s already testing it,” Hope breathes.
I nod slowly.
At any minute, they could come back to life.
At any minute, we could be facing an army that doesn’t even belong to itself anymore.
Movement at the fortress entrance draws my focus.
Tirianna.
She’s just beyond the threshold, and one of Elira’s guards lunges for her arm.
He grabs her.
Big mistake.
She twists, slamming her elbow into his throat. He stumbles back, choking, and she shoves him hard enough that he crashes into the stone pillar.
My lips twitch despite everything.
Tiranna has always been formidable, but now I see why she is a guardian for the heart, what she was able to withstand the torture, and why she was queen.
“Don’t touch me,” she snaps.
Her voice carries across the courtyard.
And then she does something reckless.
She steps forward instead of back.
“Is that the best you can do, Elira?” Tirianna calls out. “Sending out your dogs hoping one will take a big enough bite to give you what you want? Pathetic.”
Hope stiffens beside me.
Elira stands across the clearing, eyes hard as flint. “Eegar to be broken, I see.”
“You know your worlds would mean more if you weren’t standing so far away,” Tiranna checks her nails in a bored fashion.
Elira’s eyes harpen on Tirianna.
Cold.
Calculating.
Tirianna keeps going.
“What’s wrong?” she taunts. “Can’t fight your own battles? I figured as much. Hiding behind power you didn’t earn?”
My Lycan jerks forward in alarm.
She is baiting a monster.
“She’s going to get herself killed,” Hope whispers, horror in her voice.
Before I can answer, another presence moves up beside me, casting a shadow on my form.
Riven.
He gives me a small nod.
“No,” he says quietly. “She’s buying us time.”
Hope looks at him sharply. “Time for what?”
Rhys steps closer to Riven. “Are we set?”
Riven’s gaze flicks toward the north wall, then the western ridge.
“Yes.”
My heart thunders.
They’ve positioned the strike teams.
They’re waiting for the signal.
Elira takes a slow step forward.
The Heart pulses.
The frozen wolves shudder faintly.
Tirianna sees it too.
But she doesn’t retreat.
“That it?” she calls. “You want the heart so badly, come and take it?”
Elira’s lip curls.
“You have your father’s arrogance,” she says smoothly. “And his foolishness.”
My claws itch to break through skin. Tirana is under my protection. If she killed…
Rhys’s hand clamps down on my shoulder.
“We are getting into position now. You have to stay here,” he says low. “If you move now, Elira will notice.”
My jaw tightens. “She already knows I’m here.”
“Yes,” Rhys agrees. “But she is arrogant enough to think she holds the cards. Let her believe that for a moment longer.”
Inside, my Lycan thrashes.
We do not wait while our pack stands alone.
We have to. I growl under my breath. Tirana knew what she was doing when she did this. Let us hope she is ready to stay the course.
Because if I charge in now, Elira will unleash her slaves and we will suffer loss before the night is ended.
Tirianna’s eyes flash silver.
Rhys disappears into the crowd, but Riven does not move.
“Come on,” she challenges. “Let's see you get your hands dirty for once.”
That does it.
Elira’s smile vanishes.
She turns slightly.
“You,” she orders her guard. “And you.”
Another female warrior steps forward at her side.
“Kill her.”
Hope’s breath catches.
The two wolves shift mid-stride, bones cracking, fur ripping through skin as they launch at Tirianna.
She shifts too.
Her Lycan bursts free in a flash of dark bronze, meeting them head-on.
The clash is violent.
Snarls tear through the air.
Teeth snap.
Tirianna ducks under the male’s jaws, slamming her shoulder into his ribcage, sending him skidding across stone. The female claws rake across Tirianna’s flank, drawing blood.
Hope gasps.
My nails bite into my palms hard enough to draw my own blood.
Tirianna recovers fast.
She pivots, snapping her jaws around the female’s foreleg and twisting sharply.
A crack echoes.
The female yelps and stumbles back.
The male barrels into Tirianna’s side, knocking her down.
Hope steps forward instinctively.
Rhys blocks her with his arm.
“Not yet.”
“I can’t just stand here!” she cries.
“You can,” Riven says firmly. “Because this only works if Elira believes we’re desperate.”
Even as he says it, his Lycan is full force in his eyes. Not flashing, on the edge of taking over.
This has been harder for him than it looks. I tke a closer look at the chieftain.
The emotion flooded his eyes. The fury, the pain.
“Do you…,” I start unsure of how to ask this, “Are you and Tirianna…”
“She is mine,” he says without taking his eyes off the fight.
He has chosen her, my Lycan comments.
Tirianna rolls, barely avoiding the male’s crushing bite. She slashes upward, catching his muzzle. Blood sprays.
Riven snarls.
Elira watches.
Not helping.
Not intervening.
Testing.
Measuring.
She is trying to exhaust her. My beast paces.
In a vicious arch, Tirianna digs her jaws into the male's throat and rips. His body falls limp, and she turns to the female and ends her in the same vicious fate.
“Enough,” she says coldly. “Let's see how you fare against your betters.”
Elira walks toward her slowly.
Predatory.
Victorious.
She takes off her clothes, keeping her eyes on Elira, and shifts.
The barrier crackles with energy. The sound of bones popping and snapping is wrong. Too dense, like they are splintering as they rearrange.
Hair blooms from random patches in various lengths. Muscle and scar issues are knitting together in a monstrous imitation of a lycan.
“What the…”
There are gasps, and the shift comes to its end, and the full form of Elira takes place. The creature is not a lycan, wolf, or human. It is a creature of nightmares, with overextended limbs, figures three digit hands tips with curved claws and teeth too big for with mouth to close fully.
“God's above,” Hope whispers in horror.
Unnatural, my beast snarls.
It whimpers like it's in pain for a moment before it's beady eyes snap to Tirianna’s lycan.
It sniffs the air and a sense of dread floods me.
Then it charges at her.