Chapter 127

Lucas' POV

"Elara?" I whispered, my voice breaking on her name.

But as I stared into those familiar eyes, I realized with growing horror that something was terribly wrong.

"Not quite," she said. "Though I must admit, using this vessel was the ultimate way to hurt you.''

I tried to stand, but my body was still weak. "Amaris," I growled, the name feeling like poison on my tongue.

She laughed, the sound all wrong coming from Elara's lips. "The great Lycan King, reduced to crawling on the ground. How fitting."

I watched as she walked around the cave, stepping carelessly over the bodies of Matthew's warriors, surveying the carnage I had wrought with something like appreciation.

"You have your father's brutality," she noted, nudging a severed head with her foot. "Though I believe he would have made them suffer longer."

I managed to push myself up against the wall, using it for support. "Get out of her," I demanded. "Get out of my mate."

"Your mate? Oh, how perfectly the goddess works. Do you have any idea what your father did to me? What he took from me?"

"I don't care, my mate is not a part of this.'' I growled.

"How long?" I asked, coughing out blood. The physical pain was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my heart. "How long have you been possessing her?''

"Too long, but not long enough," she answered, though the voice wasn't entirely hers. It carried an echo, as if two people were speaking at once.

"You've been in her this whole time? Since we returned from the village?"

She smirked, watching as Matthew crawled away, clutching the wound in his chest. His eyes were wide with terror as he scrambled toward the cave entrance. That final look he gave me, was assurance that he'd never come at me again. It wasn't just fear, it was horror.

"Long before that," she replied, her gaze returning to me. "I possessed her when the witches first got their clasp on her. When your father first fought you for leadership of the pack."

My heart shattered. All those weeks, Elara had lived with a secret that was killing her from the inside. Instead of helping her, understanding her, I'd gone ahead and rejected her, doubted her, accused her. What kind of monster hurts their mate like that?

"However, it wasn't until my witches convinced you to break your mate's heart and kick her out that I got the perfect chance to fully take over. Her love for you was the only thing giving her the strength to fight me. When you rejected her, fake rejection or not, it broke her heart. It broke her will.''

"I'll do anything," I murmured, my voice broken. "Just leave her alone. Use me, use anyone else but her. Please..."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. "Begging? Wow! I didn't think the mighty Lucas Morretti was capable of begging."

"You don't understand," I said, desperation clawing at my throat. "She's everything to me. She's the air I breathe, the light in my darkness. Before her, I was just existing-not living. She gave me a reason to be more than what my father made me." My voice cracked. "Her life is worth more than mine. Her heart is worth more than my soul. Take me instead. Just let her go."

"Tell you what," she said, turning to face me fully. The stench of blood was still thick in the air. The cave remained littered with the dismembered bodies of every wolf I'd killed moments ago. "I have an offer for you. Tell us where the human, Michael, is, and I'll release your sister from her nightmare."

I stared at her, confused. "Michael? What does he have to do with any of this?"

"More than you know," she replied cryptically. "Where is he?"

"Gone," I said truthfully. "He left months ago. No one knows where he went."

Her eyes narrowed, flashing with anger. "You're lying."

"I'm not," I insisted. "Why would I lie when you're holding my mate hostage? When you're inside the body of the woman carrying my child?"

She paced the cave, stepping carelessly over severed limbs and pools of blood. "Michael is key to everything."

"Let Elara go," I roared. "She's innocent in all of this. She doesn't deserve any of this madness."

Amaris laughed. "Innocent? Oh, Lucas. You understand so little."

"Then help me understand," I pleaded. "Why her? You could have picked anyone, possessed any wolf. Why my mate?"

"Because she was always meant to be your mate," Amaris replied. "Don't you see? It's all part of the curse."

I frowned, struggling to follow. "What curse?"

"The one I placed on your father three hundred years ago," she said, her voice taking on a different quality-older, filled with centuries of hatred. "When he betrayed me and left me to die."

"Darian Morretti," she spat the name like poison. "The man who murdered me in cold blood when I came to him offering peace between Lycans and werewolves."

"I can't possess just anyone, Lucas," she continued. "It doesn't work that way. I can only reincarnate inside a body capable of carrying my soul. Elara isn't possessed-she's my reincarnation. She is simply another version of me, only kinder, gentler. With empathy and love for the likes of you."

"I had to wait three hundred years to be reborn again," she said, her voice softening slightly. "But when Elara was born, a spell was needed for me to reincarnate inside her. When she was separated from her parents and lived as an orphaned omega, I had to wait for the right time." Her eyes gleamed. "And the time is here. I've waited so many years to take revenge on your father."

"Elara," I called out, ignoring Amaris. "Elara, if you can hear me, fight her. Fight for us, for our child."

Amaris smiled. "She can hear you, but she can't respond. We share this body now, this life."

"Take me instead," I offered again. "My father is the one who wronged you. I'm his son. Take your revenge on me."

"It doesn't work that way," she said, almost gently. "I can't transfer into your body. Besides, killing you would be too merciful. I want Darian to watch as everything he built crumbles around him. I want him to suffer as I suffered."

"And Elara? Our child? Are they just collateral damage in your vendetta?"

Amaris's expression flickered, something almost like regret crossing her face. "The child complicates things," she admitted. "I didn't expect that."

"Then let her go. For the sake of an innocent life that had nothing to do with what happened three hundred years ago."

"It's not that simple," she replied. "Elara and I are one now. Separating us would kill us both."

I felt the fight draining out of me. The mighty Lycan King, reduced to nothing by the thought of losing his mate. I'd faced countless enemies, survived battles that would have killed lesser men, endured my father's cruelty for centuries. But this-the possibility of losing Elara broke something fundamental inside me.

"There has to be a way," I whispered, more to myself than to her.

"Find Michael," she said. "He holds the key to everything."

"And if I find him?"

"Then perhaps we can negotiate," she replied, her tone making it clear she was offering no guarantees.

I looked up at her-at the face I loved more than anything in this world, now housing an entity consumed by vengeance. "You're using her to punish me, to punish my father. But Elara is innocent."

"No one is innocent," Amaris said, her voice hardening. "Not in this world. Not in the war your father started."

"She is," I insisted. "She's done nothing but suffer her entire life. Orphaned, mistreated, cast aside. And now this? Haven't you both suffered enough at the hands of men like my father?"

"Find Michael," she repeated. "That's all I can offer you."

I felt hollow, gutted.

For the first time since I was a child, trapped in my father's cellar, forced to recite his twisted mantras or starve, I felt utterly helpless. The Lycan King, ruler of the most powerful pack in the world, brought to his knees not by force or magic, but by love.

"Please," I whispered one more time, knowing it was futile. "If any part of you is still Elara, if you can hear me-I love you. I've always loved you. And I will find a way to save you, no matter what it takes."

For just a moment, I thought I saw Elara in those eyes-my Elara.

"Enough of this reunion," came a voice I knew all too well.

My father stepped into the cave, his imposing figure silhouetted against the entrance. His eyes glowed in the dimness, fixed on Elara's form.

"Darian," Amaris hissed. "Come to finish what you started?"

My father's face remained impassive as he moved further into the cave. "I've come to end this madness, once and for all."

Amaris laughed, weaving patterns with her hands. "You're too late. I have what I need now. A vessel of royal blood. And carrying another royal within her. The power will be..." She inhaled deeply, as if savoring the thought. "... exquisite."

With a sudden gesture, she flung her hands forward, clearly intending to blast my father with magic. But nothing happened.

"What?" Amaris tried again, more frantically this time, but still nothing happened. "What's happening? What have you done?"

My father's lips curled into a cold smile. "Did you think I would come unprepared? That I wouldn't learn from our last encounter?"

He circled her slowly. "I struck a deal with some of your former sisters. It seems not all witches share your... extreme views on Lycans."

Amaris's eyes widened. "Impossible. The coven would never betray me."

"The coven, perhaps not," my father agreed. "But there are always those who see reason. Those who understand that balance is preferable to extinction." He gestured around them. "They're gentling your magic as we speak. Clever little spell, isn't it? Dampens your powers without harming your host."

I watched this exchange in silence, my mind racing.

"Father," I managed to say, my voice stronger now. "We need to free her. We need to save Elara."

My father didn't even look at me. His focus remained entirely on Amaris. "All in good time, son."

To my surprise, Amaris didn't look frightened. Instead, she slowly lowered herself to her knees.

"What are you doing?" my father demanded.

"I surrender," she said simply. "Capture me if you wish, Darian. Lock me away. Torture me. It won't change anything."

She turned toward me then, and the smile that spread across Elara's face sent chills down my spine.

"I'm still the one in control," she said, her voice deceptively soft. "If you don't find me Michael, I'll take your precious mate apart from the inside." Her hand moved to rest on Elara's abdomen. "Who's to say your baby will survive if there's no longer an Elara in here?"

"Get her up," he ordered, while a group of my pack warriors entered the cave. "We're taking her back to the pack."

The warriors moved to escort my mate. I staggered foward. "Elara.''

I touched her arm, making her turn to me. It felt like Elara, warm, soft, familiar. But when I looked up, the eyes staring back weren't hers. My legs gave out. I fell to my knees in the dirt and blood. For the first time since I was a boy, I cried. I couldn't stop.