Chapter 11 Betrayal in the pack

Chapter 11 Betrayal in the pack


Chapter Eleven

Maxie’s POV

The moment the crescent moon shimmered onto Tiara’s skin, the air inside the sanctuary changed.

It thickened. Warmed. Then pulsed outward like a silent shockwave.

My wolf jerked to attention, claws scraping against the inside of my chest. Leo, even from outside, let out a sharp inhale I could hear through the stone.

And far off in the distance, somewhere deep inside the forest, a howl answered the pulse.

Not a wolf’s howl.

A lycan.

Cameron felt her.

I tightened my grip on Tiara as she swayed, her fingers clutching my forearm. Her eyes glowed faintly, pupils blown wide, breath shaky.

“Maxie,” she whispered, “what is happening to me?”

“The sanctuary is waking you,” I said. “It recognizes you.”

She looked down at the glowing mark. “Why now? Why not when I first returned?”

“Because the magic needed a trigger,” I said softly. “Something powerful enough to break the seal your mind created.” I brushed a thumb over her cheek. “Tonight was enough.”

Fear flickered through her eyes. “Because he came. Because he is hunting me.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Because you survived him.”

Her gaze softened, but the fear didn’t leave.

Leo stepped into the sanctuary entrance, his face pale, breaths uneven. “Alpha. The King felt something. I am certain.”

“I know,” I said.

“He will come here.”

“I know.”

“We cannot stay.”

“I know that too.”

Leo’s frustration flared. “Then what is the plan? Because right now, the only thing keeping us alive is ignorance, and he is running out of it.”

Tiara flinched slightly at his tone. I shot Leo a warning look, and he exhaled, lowering his voice.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “But we all know this is bad.”

Tiara steadied herself on the wall, staring at the glowing runes with trembling fingers. “Why does he want this?” she whispered. “Why does he want me?”

I stepped to her, placing my hand over hers. “Because the Moon Mark is not just a symbol. It is power. And every King fears what he cannot control.”

She looked up at me, searching for something in my face. “Was I dangerous before?”

“No,” I said. “You were the opposite. You were light. You were kindness. You carried a strength that was never meant to be used as a weapon.”

“Then why did I die?” Her voice cracked. “Maxie, tell me the truth.”

I swallowed hard.

The truth was a blade I had kept buried in my chest for two years.

“You died,” I said quietly, “because someone feared what you might become.”

The sanctuary lights flickered as the memory cut through me.

Her last night.

Her scream.

Her blood on my hands.

Tiara’s eyes filled with tears. “Who hated me enough to kill me?”

Before I could answer, Leo stiffened.

“Alpha,” he whispered. “Footsteps.”

My head snapped up. I listened.

One. Two. Slow. Heavy.

A rhythm I knew too well.

Cameron.

He was close.

I grabbed Tiara’s arm. “We leave. Now.”

Leo’s eyes darted around the sanctuary. “We cannot go out the front. He will see us.”

The humming stone walls seemed to respond to our panic, light shifting and pulsing.

Tiara pressed a hand to her temple. “My head. The visions. They are coming again.”

Not now.

Her knees buckled. I caught her as she gasped, eyes squeezing shut.

“Tiara,” I murmured, “focus on my voice.”

“I see… trees,” she whispered. “Blood on the snow. A shadow behind me. Someone grabbed me. Someone I knew.”

Leo tensed. “She is remembering.”

She clutched my shirt weakly. “Maxie, I saw your face before everything went dark.”

My heart stopped. “Mine?”

She nodded, trembling. “But not you. Not your eyes. Not your wolf. Something… wrong.”

Wrong.

Cold washed through me.

“That was not me,” I said fiercely. “Whatever you saw, whoever touched you, it was not me.”

Before she could speak, a voice echoed from outside.

“Maxie.”

The King.

Cameron’s aura pressed against the sanctuary stone, vibrating like a living thing.

Leo cursed under his breath. “He is at the entrance.”

I helped Tiara stand. “We move to the back corridor.”

Leo shook his head. “The corridor has been sealed for decades.”

“Not for her,” I said. “This place responds to the Moon Mark.”

I turned to Tiara. “Touch the back wall.”

She hesitated, then nodded and placed her hand on the smooth stone.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the runes exploded in silver light.

The wall shifted.

Stone dissolved into glowing mist.

A path opened.

Leo stared, stunned. “I will never get used to that.”

I lifted Tiara into my arms before she could protest. She was too weak now, trembling from the memory, from the awakening mark, from everything.

She clung to me, face buried in my shoulder. “Maxie,” she whispered. “Please do not let him find me.”

My chest ached. “I will die before he touches you.”

We stepped into the glowing corridor. Leo followed close behind.

Then Cameron’s voice echoed again, louder, closer, dripping with lethal intent.

“You can hide her for one night, Maxie. But the Moon Mark shines too brightly to be buried.”

The sanctuary door shuddered under his strike.

Stone cracked.

Tiara gasped.

I lifted her tighter, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“Hold on,” I whispered. “I am getting you out.”

She nodded weakly, her fingers gripping the back of my neck.

As we ran deeper into the hidden passage, stone closing behind us, Tiara’s voice trembled against my skin.

“Maxie… I remember something else.”

“What?”

Her breath hitched.

“The day I died… I wasn’t alone.”

My steps stumbled.

She buried her face in my chest.

“I heard a voice,” she whispered. “Someone whispered in my ear before everything went black.”

“Whose voice?” I asked, my heart beating painfully.

She tremblingly lifted her head, eyes wide and lost.

“It was someone from the pack.”