Chapter 43 Chapter Forty-Three
Kaelani’s body thrummed with power.
A surge of energy crackled through her like lightning beneath her skin — wild, uncontainable, alive.
For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel inferior.
She didn’t feel helpless.
She felt dangerous.
A low, guttural growl rumbled in her chest — dark and primal. Her wolf… it was there. Breathing. Pacing. Snarling. No longer silent. No longer buried. Her lips parted as the sound vibrated through her, something feral uncoiling in her bones.
So that’s what that feels like.
They had spent her whole life warring within her —
The beast and the lightning in her blood.
The wolf and the other half of her identity.
Each clawing for control.
Each refusing to yield.
But the moment her freedom was threatened…
They stopped fighting.
They rose.
Together.
Her eyes snapped to him — Julian.
Pinned. Restrained. Thrashing beneath the guards trying to hold him down.
Something inside her snapped.
Her wolf surged at the sight of him, a furious, possessive snarl tightening in her throat.
Protect him. Stand by him. Love him. Mate him.
Hers.
Mate.
Kaelani staggered back a step, eyes wide as the word thundered in her head, undeniable and ancient.
And the way he looked at her — wide-eyed, frantic, still fighting despite being pinned — told her he felt it too.
The Elder slowly rose from his seat, the motion deliberate, weighted. His eyes never left Kaelani’s face—more specifically, her unnaturally glowing violet eyes, still radiant with the remnants of her outburst.
His voice cut through the silence.
“What species did you say the girl’s mother was, Alpha Garrick?”
A tense beat. Garrick’s jaw twitched.
“I didn’t,” he said quietly.
The Elder’s gaze sharpened.
“Clearly, she is not fully Lycan. What is her other lineage?”
All eyes shifted to Garrick.
His composure faltered.
He looked at Kaelani—truly looked—and something in his expression cracked —like seeing this side of her had unearthed some long-buried trauma or a nightmare he thought long buried.
Kaelani glanced around the room. They were all staring.
Some with awe.
Most with dread.
Like she’d grown fangs and wings and horns all at once.
The Elder’s voice boomed again, sharp as a gavel.
“Answer my question, Alpha Garrick.”
Silence stretched like a blade.
Then—his voice, when it came, was low. Fractured.
“Her mother was Fae.”
A collective gasp rippled through the chamber.
“Fae do not exist, Alpha Garrick. They are myth. Legend. Folklore.”The Elder retorted, his voice tight with exasperation.
Garrick didn’t flinch. His eyes remained locked on Kaelani—haunted, almost shaking.
“No,” he whispered. “They’re real.”
The room stilled. Even the air seemed to hold its breath.
“Her mother wasn’t just Fae. She’s a Dark Fae of the Unseelie Court.”
Gasps rippled through the chamber like shockwaves.
“I didn’t know it at the time,” he went on, voice low and cracking. “But I’ve done the research. I know what she is now. She’s powerful. Deceptive. And she tricked me.”
He paused—swallowed—then said the words like they cost him everything.
“I never touched her. Not really. She came to me in my dreams.”
The room went deathly quiet.
“Over and over. She seduced me again and again. I thought they were just dreams.”
A hollow, bitter laugh escaped him.
“But fae don’t dream the way we do. They design them. They control them. They invade them.”
His voice dropped to a shaken whisper.
“It’s called dream-walking.”
Kaelani’s gaze found Julian’s once again—and locked.
She was mortified. She was frozen. Breath shallow. Heart in her throat.
He looked equally stunned.
Because both of them knew—without a word spoken—that the dreams they’d shared… the ones that were so vivid they felt like memories…
They hadn’t been dreams at all.
And in that charged, breathless moment, the truth sank in like thunder:
Garrick was telling the truth.
Garrick’s gaze shifted to his twins, a flicker of shame crossing his face before he looked up and continued.
“It was a week or two after their birth… when a mysterious woman appeared at our borders. She demanded to speak to me—only me.”
He paused, eyes distant, haunted.
“And when I reached the gates and saw her… I froze. It was her. The woman from my dreams. The one who had visited me night after night—seduced me in the shadows of sleep. I thought she wasn’t real. I thought it had all been in my head.”
His voice trembled, worn by disbelief and guilt.
“She was holding an infant in her arms… and claimed the child was mine. I didn’t want to believe her. But the moment I looked into that child’s eyes, my wolf… recognized her. And when your wolf knows—you know. That kind of instinct doesn’t lie.”
He drew in a shuddering breath, glancing around the room at the skeptical faces watching him.
“She threatened me. Said if I didn’t take the child in, she would lay waste to my land. And I… I believed her. Every word. The power radiating off her—it was unlike anything I’d ever felt. I didn’t know what else to do.”
His voice cracked.
“I couldn’t risk the scandal. Couldn’t risk the truth. Who would’ve believed me anyway? Even now, I see the doubt in your eyes. You all think I’m lying—but I swear on the Goddess, I’m not.”
The elders whispered among themselves in hushed tones, their faces a mixture of suspicion and calculation. Finally, the lead elder stood, his expression hardening as his gaze settled on Garrick.
“You’re right about one thing, Alpha Garrick,” he said coldly. “We don’t believe you. And we’ve heard enough.”
He turned to the guards. “Take them both into custody. Until we uncover the truth—and confirm that the girl does not pose a threat to this society—they are to be detained.”
A fresh wave of whispers stirred.
Kaelani’s heart slammed in her chest. “Stay away from me,” she warned, stepping back as the guards began to close in.
Two more joined the first pair, encircling her.
Four now.
Each one raised a taser, electricity crackling in the tense air.
Her body tensed, instincts screaming.
Across the room, Julian thrashed beneath the guards restraining him, rage bursting in his chest.
“Wait!” he shouted. “You can’t! She’s my mate!”
Elara’s entire body snapped rigid. Her head whipped toward him, eyes blazing, lips curling in disbelief. “What did he just say?” she hissed under her breath. Her fists clenched at her sides, jealousy and fury battling for dominance on her face.
“She’s my mate!” Julian yelled again, his voice cracking. “There are laws—laws that protect the mate of an Alpha!”
One guard drove his knee harder into Julian’s back, forcing a grunt of pain from his lungs, while the others wrenched his arms tighter behind him.
The elder didn’t flinch.
“Even if she is your mate, those laws do not apply in this circumstance,” he said flatly. “We will take the necessary precautions.”
A guard lunged forward, taser wand drawn, the electric current humming at the tip as he closed the distance to Kaelani.
But her hand shot up—fast, instinctive—and caught the crackling end mid-strike.
The sound of shock swept through the room like wind through leaves.
She stared at it in disbelief, her fingers curled around live electricity. The wand buzzed violently in her grip, yet she didn’t flinch. Didn’t fall.
The guard went still, eyes wide with panic. He tried to wrench it back, but her gaze lifted to his—and something shifted.
The violet in her eyes deepened, pulsed.
And then, with a growl building low in her throat, she sent the current surging back.
A flash of violet light burst from her hand, traveling up the wand and into the guard’s arm—a crackling whip of energy that launched him backwards like a ragdoll, crashing into the marble floor near the Elders’ platform with a bone-jarring thud.
Kaelani looked down at her hands, violet light still dancing across her fingertips like crackling embers. Her breath hitched—stunned by the raw, unshackled power that now pulsed through her veins.
She looked up—and the room had turned to stone.
Dozens of eyes locked on her, wide with horror. Every Elder. Every guard. Every wolf in the chamber frozen.
The guards nearest to her began to step back, their grips tightening on their weapons, uncertainty shadowing their movements.
And in that single beat of hesitation—she bolted like a blur of motion, heading straight for the exit.
“Seize her!” the Elder thundered, voice crashing through the chamber like a war drum.
A chorus of snarls followed. The sound of uniforms tearing, bones snapping, bodies transforming—wolves bursting forth, claws skidding across marble, fangs bared as they gave chase.
Across the chamber, Julian fought like a man possessed.
Three guards—maybe four—piled on top of him, their full weight crushing him down, a knee grinding into his spine.
“Wait—NO!” he roared, voice shredding under the strain.
That was it.
His breaking point.
His control snapped—and his wolf surged to the surface.
Flesh split. Bones cracked. A deafening howl ripped from his throat as his wolf exploded free—massive, furious, unstoppable. With one violent twist, he threw them off and launched over the crowd, landing hard in pursuit, mind locked on the only thing that mattered.
Her.
His mate.
Near the platform, his mother stumbled back, hand flying to her chest, horror blooming in her eyes.
“Julian!” she gasped.
The guards who’d held him snarled and shifted, then lunged after him, hot on his trail.
In another burst of movement, Jace vaulted over the platform railing, his body twisting mid-leap, the shift taking hold in a seamless cascade of muscle and fur, bones reshaping in a snap of precision. By the time he landed, his wolf had fully emerged—sleek, agile, and lethal.
No hesitation.
No question.
Where Julian went, he followed.
Christian’s roar split the chamber—savage, bloodthirsty. His wolf exploded forward, fur bristling, fangs bared, eyes feral with hate. He didn’t care what she was. All he saw was the girl who had shattered everything. The one who had torn his family apart.
And then—
Elara lunged in after him. Her paws thundered against the marble, a snarl ripping from her throat, raw and unrelenting. She wasn’t chasing justice.
She was out for blood.