Chapter 16 Sixteen
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sara’s POV
The healer wing was already crowded when we arrived. Warriors lined the walls, tense and alert. Healers whispered urgently as they moved between rooms. The air smelled of blood and antiseptic, thick enough to sting the back of my throat.
Adrian led us toward the far corner where a cot had been set up for the injured wolf. Warriors stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking him from view. No one spoke, but the silence carried weight.
Xenon did not slow.
He pushed through the warriors, pulling me behind him. Ryker and Kael followed close, ready for anything.
The moment I stepped close enough to see the man on the cot, my heart stalled.
He was young. Maybe late twenties. His hair was dark and matted with blood. His clothes were torn as if he had been dragged through the forest. Three deep claw marks ran across his chest, barely stitched together by a healer. His skin was pale. Too pale. His breathing shallow.
But his eyes opened the instant he sensed me.
And they locked onto mine like he had been waiting for only one person.
“You,” he rasped.
Xenon stepped in front of me instantly. “Say her name again, and you will not finish your next breath.”
The man shook his head weakly. “I came for her. Not for you.”
Ryker’s stance tensed. “Alpha, let me push him back.”
“No one touches him,” Xenon said, voice low.
The man coughed, blood staining his lips. “They are coming.”
Xenon leaned forward. “Who.”
The man swallowed. “The Creed. But not only them. There are others with them.”
Kael’s expression sharpened. “Others.”
“Yes,” the man whispered. “Those who want the girl alive.”
My breath caught. “Alive for what.”
The man’s eyes flicked to mine, something like recognition flickering through them. “You have her eyes.”
I froze. “Whose eyes.”
“Your mother’s.”
Everything inside me went still.
Xenon shifted slightly, but he didn’t step away. His presence stayed heavy, protective, but I could feel his attention sharpen like a blade.
I moved around him before he could stop me and crouched beside the cot. My hands shook. “You knew my mother.”
He nodded slowly. “Years ago. Before she disappeared.”
My chest tightened. “She died when I was young.”
“No,” he whispered. “She vanished. The Creed hunted her. She hid you. She hid all of you.”
I swallowed. “All of who.”
His eyes closed briefly, then opened again. “Your mother carried the same bloodline you carry now. She was the last memory keeper before you.”
My heartbeat slammed against my ribs. “Memory keeper.”
Kael stepped closer. “One who carries ancestral memory.”
The man nodded. “And she tried to protect you from it.”
Xenon’s voice was cold. “How do you know any of this.”
“Because I was part of her circle,” the man whispered. “Those who protected her bloodline. There were seven of us. Now only two remain.”
“Why protect her,” Kael asked quietly.
“Because she carried information the Creed wanted. Something old. Something dangerous. Something that could break them.”
My hands tightened into fists. “What information.”
He coughed again, blood staining the pillow beneath him. “I do not know. Your mother never told anyone. But she left something for you.”
My breath stopped. “For me.”
“Yes,” he said. “Something only you can open.”
A chill moved down my spine. “Where is it.”
The man lifted a trembling hand and pointed toward the forest. “In the valley of stones.”
Kael inhaled sharply. “The place from her dream.”
I stiffened. Xenon turned toward me. “What dream.”
I looked at him quickly. “The stones. The markings. I saw them the night I came here.”
Xenon’s eyes darkened. “And you told me nothing.”
“I thought it was nothing,” I whispered. “A nightmare.”
“It is not a nightmare,” the injured man rasped. “It is a memory. A memory she sent you through blood.”
Xenon was silent, but his frustration was obvious in the tightness of his jaw.
Ryker stepped forward. “What is in the valley.”
“Your mother’s truth,” the man whispered. “The missing half of the pendant. And the key to understanding why the Creed wants you.”
My stomach tightened. “I have to go there.”
“No,” Xenon said immediately. “You are not leaving this pack.”
“You cannot stop it,” the man said. “If she does not go on her own, the Creed will drag her there.”
A cold pressure pushed against my ribs.
Xenon’s aura sharpened dangerously. “You do not speak to her like that.”
The man swallowed weakly. “Alpha. I am telling you the truth. The girl does not have the luxury of waiting.”
Xenon stepped closer to him. “You call her ‘girl’ one more time and this conversation ends.”
The man met his eyes without flinching. “She is not your possession.”
Xenon’s expression turned lethal. “You do not know what she is to me.”
“I know you rejected her,” the man said.
The words hit too hard.
Too sharp.
Too true.
Xenon’s wolf surged, the air vibrating with the force of it. Ryker reached for Xenon’s arm, sensing the shift.
“Alpha,” he warned. “Control it.”
Xenon didn’t break eye contact with the injured man. “You have no idea what I rejected or why.”
The man closed his eyes for a moment, exhausted. “Your emotions are clouding your judgment.”
Xenon leaned down slowly. “And your bleeding is clouding yours.”
I stepped forward, grabbing Xenon’s hand. “Stop.”
His attention snapped to me, and the moment our eyes met, the tension in his body changed. Not gone. Just redirected. Focused on me.
The injured man opened his eyes again and looked straight at me.
“Sara,” he whispered. “Your mother left one warning.”
My heart pounded. “What warning.”
“That you must not remember everything at once,” he said. “If the memory opens too fast, it can break you.”
A cold sweat spread across my skin.
He continued, voice weaker. “The pendant was created to control the flow. Without both halves, the memory will come out too quickly.”
Xenon straightened. “So the Creed wants to trigger her before she finds the other half.”
“Yes,” the man rasped. “Because then they can shape what she remembers.”
My breath shook. “I cannot let them do that.”
Xenon turned to me instantly. “You are not doing anything alone.”
The man reached for my wrist. I leaned closer so he wouldn’t strain himself.
His voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear.
Not poetic.
Not dramatic.
Just a plain, cold truth.
“They are already inside the territory.”
My blood ran cold.
Xenon’s head snapped toward him. “What did you say.”
The man’s voice was fading. “They hid among the trees. You did not see them. They are waiting for the trigger.”
Kael stiffened. “Trigger.”
“What trigger,” I asked.
The man’s eyes locked on mine one last time.
“You.”
Then he collapsed.
The healers rushed forward.
Ryker checked his pulse. “He is alive, but barely.”
Xenon didn’t look away from me. “Sara.”
His voice was low, quiet, and controlled.
But his eyes told the truth.
The Creed wasn’t waiting outside the gates anymore.
They were already here.
Inside BloodRidge.
And they were waiting for only one thing.
Me.