Chapter 13 He is alive

Chapter 13 He is alive


Chapter Thirteen

Tiara’s POV

The figure stepped fully into the soft silver glow of the opened passage, and the breath caught in my throat before I could stop it.

His outline sharpened.

Then his face.

A face my mind did not recognize.

But my body did.

Every part of me went rigid, a cold ripple moving across my skin like a memory surfacing from somewhere buried too deep to be reached until now.

Leo froze at my side.

Maxie’s entire body tensed in front of me, blocking me so fast and instinctively that I felt the air shift.

The man’s eyes were sharp and familiar, but not in a comforting way. Familiar like a nightmare I once had as a child, the kind that clings to the skin even when the dream fades.

His voice came soft, almost hesitant.

“Tiara… it really is you.”

My heart slammed into my ribs.

I stepped back instinctively, my grip tightening on Maxie’s arm. “How do you know my name?”

He stared at me, drinking in every detail of my face, the mark glowing on my chest, the sanctuary lights reflecting in my eyes. His throat moved in a visible swallow.

“I knew you before the accident,” he said quietly. “Before you disappeared. Before the rogues attacked.”

My blood ran cold.

Accident.

Disappeared.

His gaze flicked to Maxie briefly, and something darkened in his expression.

“Alpha,” he said, “it seems you kept your secret longer than I expected.”

Maxie growled low in his chest. “Say your name,” he demanded. “Now.”

The man’s jaw tightened.

“Elias.”

The name meant nothing to me. But the way Leo stiffened told a different story.

“You cannot be here,” Leo said sharply, stepping forward. “You were banished. Thrown out for treason.”

My heart thudded painfully. “Treason?”

Elias didn’t look at Leo. He looked only at me.

“Tiara,” he said softly, “I came to warn you.”

Maxie took a step forward, placing himself between us. “You have no right to speak her name.”

Elias lifted his chin. “I have every right. She was my responsibility before she was yours.”

My pulse stumbled.

“What do you mean?” I asked hesitantly.

His voice softened. “I trained you. Protected you. Watched over you long before Maxie ever realized what you were.”

Maxie’s growl deepened. “You watched her because you were ordered to. You had no place in her life.”

Elias ignored him and took a slow step toward the glowing threshold. Silver light caught the edges of his dark hair, his shoulders, the faint scar across his cheek.

“That night,” he said quietly, “the night you died… you called my name first.”

My breath hitched.

Maxie stepped in front of me so fast the air cut around him. He shoved Elias back with a force that cracked the glowing stone under Elias’s heels.

“Get away from her.”

Elias only stared at me over Maxie’s shoulder, eyes full of something I could not name.

“When you lay on the snow,” Elias whispered, “you tried to reach me. You asked for help. You begged me not to leave you.”

“No,” Maxie snarled. “You do not get to rewrite that night. You are the reason she ran into the forest alone.”

“I tried to save her,” Elias snapped back. “You were the one who rejected her, not me.”

Silence.

The air thickened.

Maxie’s hands clenched, knuckles whitening.

My lungs froze at the truth in Elias’s words, the sharp echo of something my wolf had been whispering all night.

Rejection.

Death.

Betrayal.

The snow. The blood. The voice behind me.

I swallowed, trembling. “Elias… were you there the night I died?”

His eyes softened with something like regret. “I was the only one who found you in time. I tried to bring you back to the pack, but you were losing too much blood. You said someone hurt you, someone familiar. Someone you trusted.”

Maxie stiffened. “Enough.”

Elias continued anyway. “You told me you felt betrayed. You told me you were cold.” His voice lowered. “You said you felt abandoned.”

The words stabbed something inside me.

Maxie moved again, grabbing Elias by the front of his shirt and slamming him into the sanctuary wall so hard the light trembled.

“You are twisting her memories,” Maxie growled. “You always did.”

“I am telling her the truth,” Elias said, though his body remained still beneath Maxie’s hold. “The truth you refuse to say.”

Maxie’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. “If you speak one more lie in her presence, I will end you.”

Elias’s gaze flicked to mine, ignoring the threat pressed against his throat. “Tiara. There is more. You do not remember everything. And until you do, you will believe anything he tells you.”

My heart hammered. “Then tell me. What do I not remember?”

Elias’s expression faltered, pain threading through his voice in a way I did not understand.

“You loved me once,” he said quietly. “Before everything fell apart. Before the bond with Maxie took root.”

The room spun.

Maxie froze.

Leo swore under his breath.

I stared at Elias, numb disbelief washing through me. “Loved… you?”

Elias nodded slowly. “Before you were marked. Before the Moon chose him. You were mine.”

Maxie’s voice broke into a snarl. “Do not touch the past that does not belong to you.”

Elias shoved Maxie back with a sudden force that sent shockwaves through the sanctuary. The walls trembled. The runes flickered.

“Believe what you want,” Elias spat. “But she deserves the truth. All of it.”

Maxie moved to strike him.

But the sanctuary shook violently, cutting the moment in half.

A distant roar echoed through the stone.

The air thickened.

Leo whipped around. “He found the second entrance.”

Cameron.

My chest tightened painfully.

Maxie’s voice dropped to a cold, lethal calm. “We finish this later. Tiara moves first.”

He grabbed my hand and tried to pull me behind him, but Elias stepped in front of the exit, blocking the tunnel.

“I came to help her,” Elias said. “And I will not let her walk into danger blinded.”

Maxie shoved him aside. “Move, traitor.”

Elias didn’t move. “I am not the traitor.”

His eyes locked onto mine.

“You are in danger from someone inside this pack. Not Cameron. Not rogues. Someone close. Someone you trusted once.”

Maxie snarled. “Say their name.”

“I do not know yet,” Elias said. “But I know one thing.”

He turned fully to me.

“The night you died, you said you saw the same face twice.”

My stomach dropped.

“The person who killed you,” Elias continued, “is still alive.”

Maxie grabbed my arm tightly.

“Run,” he said.

The sanctuary roared again.

The ground shook beneath us.

And somewhere behind the collapsing stone, Cameron’s voice drifted through the corridor, sharp as ice.

“Found you.”