Chapter 281
Elowen's POV
Reality slammed back like a physical blow.
I was standing exactly where I'd been before, Drake's knife pressed against my stomach, Raven frozen mid-lunge. But everything was different now. I could feel it—the power humming through my veins, the connection to the twins burning like twin suns in my core, the bond with my mates suddenly blazing strong enough to take my breath away.
Time restarted.
Raven's clawed hand came at me, but I was already moving. Juno surged forward, my body shifting mid-dodge as my wolf took partial control. I rolled under his strike, came up behind him, and drove Drake's knife deep into the back of his knee.
Raven screamed, black ichor spraying as he collapsed. But before he could recover, I felt it—the rush of power from my mates, from the Alphas, from every wolf in the room suddenly surging back to full strength.
Cassian was on his feet, the wounds on his chest already sealed over with new skin. Casper groaned, consciousness returning as Alaric and Kade helped him stand. And Ronan—Ronan's emerald eyes snapped open, blazing with fury as he shifted into his massive wolf form.
"What the fuck?" Raven gasped, staring at them with his one remaining eye. "How are you—"
"Divine intervention, asshole." I grinned, feeling Grimm's presence suddenly roaring back to life in my mind. The hellhound materialized beside me in a explosion of flame and ash, bigger than before, angrier than before, mine in a way that transcended ownership. "And you're fucked."
"Everyone shift!" Casper's command rang out, his wolf Leo already pushing forward. "Now!"
Raven tried to run. Tried to use his demonic speed to escape.
But he was injured, weakened, and we were done playing.
Soren hit him first, Ronan's wolf form slamming into Raven with the force of a freight train. They crashed through what remained of the bar, wood and glass exploding outward. Slate was right behind him, Alaric's wolf going for Raven's throat with vicious precision.
Leo bounded forward, joining his packmates in tearing into Raven. The demon fought back with desperate strength, his claws raking across Soren's shoulder, his teeth catching Slate's leg. But it wasn't enough. Not against five Alphas and a hellhound.
Grimm lunged, jaws closing around Raven's arm and pulling. Bone cracked. Flesh tore. Black blood painted the floor as Raven's scream echoed through the Den.
"Cassian!" I called out. "Now!"
Zero's jaws closed around his neck.
Not hard enough to kill. Just hard enough to hold.
"Elowen!" Cassian's voice was urgent. "Now! While we've got him!"
I ran forward, Drake's knife still gripped in my hand, but as I got closer, I felt it—the power inside me responding, the twins' essence mixing with my own wolf, with Grimm's hellfire, with the love and fury and desperate need to protect my family. The knife began to glow, silver light mixing with golden flames, becoming something more than mere metal.
"This is for Drake," I said, driving the blade into Raven's chest. "For everyone you've hurt, everyone you've killed, everyone whose life you've destroyed."
Raven gasped, black blood bubbling from his lips. "You... you can't... I'm eternal..."
"Nothing's eternal, you piece of shit." I twisted the knife, feeling the twins' power surge through me, through the blade, into Raven's demonic heart. "Not even you."
The demon began to dissolve, his form breaking apart into ash and shadow. But his eye—that one remaining crimson eye—stayed fixed on me until the very end.
"She'll never... forgive you..." he whispered. "Your daughter... she'll hate you..."
"Then I'll deal with that when the time comes." I pulled the knife free, watching as Raven's body finally crumbled completely, leaving nothing but scorched floorboards and the lingering scent of sulfur. "But at least she'll be alive to hate me."
Silence fell over the Moonrise Den.
Then Casper shifted back to human form, stumbling forward to wrap his arms around me from behind. "Holy fuck, baby. You did it. You actually did it."
"We did it," I corrected, leaning back into his warmth as the other Alphas shifted back, as Cassian rushed over to join our embrace. "All of us."
Grimm pressed his massive head against my leg, flames flickering contentedly along his spine. Through our bond, I felt his satisfaction, his pride, his absolute certainty that he'd chosen the right master.
"Is it really over?" Alaric asked, his voice rough with exhaustion. "Is he really gone?"
I looked down at the scorched floor, at the space where Raven had been. "Yeah. He's gone."
"Good." Ronan limped over, blood still matting his silver hair but his emerald eyes clear. "Because I'm too fucking tired to fight anymore demons today."
Despite everything—the pain, the loss, the absolute hell we'd just survived—I laughed. And once I started, I couldn't stop, the sound bubbling up from somewhere deep and broken and relieved beyond measure.
We'd done it. We'd actually fucking done it.