Chapter 137 Hundred and thirty seven

Chapter 137 Hundred and thirty seven
Rowan's POV

"Rowan, wait—" Marcus's grip on my arm tightened, but I was already moving, every careful plan burning away beneath the singular, overwhelming need to reach my sister before that blade found her throat.

"Let me go," I said, twisting free with strength I didn't know I still had reserve for. "I'm not watching her die because we waited for a perfect signal that isn't coming."

I broke from cover before Marcus could stop me, sprinting toward the mill with everything I had. I heard him curse behind me, warriors surging forward in my wake as the careful, coordinated plan dissolved into urgent, necessary chaos.

"Rowan!" Julian's voice, sharp with alarm as I burst into view, though something in his expression shifted the moment he saw me, understanding immediately that stealth had become irrelevant.

Renfield's head snapped toward me, surprise flickering across his calculating features. "That wasn't part of the arrangement."

"Neither was threatening my sister with a blade the moment negotiations didn't proceed exactly your way," I said, forcing my voice steady despite the fury and terror coursing through me. "Let her go, Renfield. Now."

"You're hardly in a position to make demands," he said, though I caught the flicker of uncertainty crossing his face as warriors continued pouring from the treeline behind me, Ironwood's colors visible among Crescent Moon's own.

"I think I'm in exactly the position to make demands," I said, drawing on the power Maria had spent months teaching me to control, silver light beginning to build beneath my skin as I advanced steadily. "Considering you're now facing combined forces from three allied territories, and I have very little patience left for pretending this is still a civil negotiation."

The warrior holding the blade against Elowen's throat hesitated, glancing toward Renfield uncertainly.

"Hold your position," Renfield snapped, though his voice carried less confidence than before.

"Rowan," Elowen said, her voice hoarse but steady despite the blade still pressed dangerously close. "Don't. Don't do anything reckless because of me."

"I'm not being reckless," I said, though the tremor in my voice betrayed exactly how close to the edge I actually was. "I'm being precise. Renfield, you have exactly one chance to release her unharmed before this becomes considerably more violent than you're prepared for."

"You're bluffing," Renfield said, though sweat had begun beading along his forehead despite the cool morning air.

"Am I?" I let the silver light intensify further, felt the ground beneath my feet begin to tremble faintly, an echo of the power that had once brought down an entire training ground. "I killed a two-hundred-year-old hybrid three months ago, Renfield. I don't think you're quite prepared to test whether I'm bluffing about anything at this point."

Something in his expression finally cracked, genuine fear replacing calculated confidence, and I watched him weigh his rapidly diminishing options.

"Renfield," Garrick's voice cut through the tension, and I glanced sideways to see him approaching from the treeline, Ironwood's warriors flanking him with grim, determined expressions. "This ends now. You've overplayed whatever hand you thought you were holding."

"Voss," Renfield spat, fury replacing some of his fear. "This isn't your territory to interfere in."

"It became my concern the moment you threatened an ally's family member," Garrick said flatly. "I told you what would happen if you tested Ironwood's alliance further. I'm not in the habit of making empty threats."

Renfield's gaze darted between all of us, calculating rapidly diminishing options, and I watched the exact moment desperation overtook whatever remained of his careful strategy.

"Kill her," he snarled toward his warrior, gesturing sharply at Elowen.

Everything happened at once.

The warrior's blade began its downward arc, and I released every ounce of power I'd been holding, silver light exploding outward with a force that sent Renfield's remaining warriors scattering, the ground splitting in a violent, controlled fissure that swallowed the warrior's footing entirely, his blade clattering harmlessly to the earth as he stumbled backward.

"Elowen!" I reached her in seconds, tearing at the ropes binding her wrists with trembling, desperate hands.

"I'm alright," she gasped, tears streaming freely down her face as the ropes finally gave way. "Rowan, I'm alright, you got here in time—"

I pulled her into a fierce embrace, relief crashing through me so completely my knees nearly buckled beneath the weight of it. "I thought I'd lost you. I thought—"

"You didn't," she said, clinging to me just as tightly. "I knew you'd come. I never doubted it."

Around us, the combined warriors made short work of Renfield's remaining forces, most surrendering quickly once their leader's desperate gambit had so thoroughly collapsed. Julian reached us moments later, pulling both Elowen and me into his arms, Marcus close behind, and for a moment, the four of us simply existed together, relief and adrenaline tangling into something overwhelming.

"Renfield," Julian said finally, his voice hard, glancing toward where warriors had already restrained the fallen Alpha.

"He's not getting away with this," Marcus said, fury still evident in his tightly controlled voice.

I looked toward Renfield, kneeling now amid his defeated forces, and felt exhaustion replace some of my earlier fury, though the anger hadn't fully faded. "What happens to him?"

"That depends on regional law regarding aggression against allied territories," Garrick said, approaching with careful authority. "Given the severity of his actions, kidnapping, threatened murder, coordinated aggression against multiple allied packs, I'd recommend formal tribunal, rather than simply informal justice."

"I agree," Julian said. "Whatever punishment he faces, it should be decided properly, through recognized process, not simply our own immediate fury."

I nodded, though something in me still burned at the memory of that blade pressed against my sister's throat. "I want to be part of that tribunal.