Chapter 84 85
BARBIE POV
I knew it the moment the spell flared—that sick, gut-wrenching snap of magic that yanked me out of that hellish lakeside fight and threw me halfway across the cursed mountain range. The smell of blood still clung to my hair, to my skin, to the inside of my lungs. I could hear their screams in my head—Marigold shouting for me not to leave, Gregor roaring like a beast cornered by fate itself.
And gods help me… I ran.
Not because I wanted to. Because if they had both of us, it was over. Full stop. End of story.
Marigold and I shared the same fate— that freaky alchemy of fae and wolf that the ASA wanted so badly for their “super-soldier” experiments and not to mention the queen wanted our blood to cure their curse. If they captured both of us, they’d have everything they needed to start that nightmare. So, I did the only logical, heart-shattering thing. I left her behind.
Now I was standing in the middle of a dead forest, the sky a flat gray smear over the cursed peaks. Every sound echoed wrong. Every shadow whispered in a voice that wasn’t quite human. The Queen’s curse was thick here—it gnawed at the edges of sanity.
“Okay, Barbie,” I muttered to myself, dragging in a shaky breath. “You’ve officially hit the ‘talking to yourself in the woods’ phase. Not good.”
My body trembled from the spell backlash. My magic reserves were low, dangerously low, but I forced myself to kneel on the cold ground, placing both palms on the dirt.
If I couldn’t run, then I’d search.
I whispered the old incantation under my breath, feeling the pulse of my power radiate through the land. Threads of magic stretched out like spider silk, fanning across the northern range—seeking heat, life, movement. I searched for any sign of friendly wolves, warriors, anyone who could help.
For a few long seconds, there was nothing. Just echoes. Then—there.
A camp. Roughly six miles northeast, hidden in a valley pocket near the ridge. The magic signatures were strong, familiar even—wolves. Dozens of them.
I almost cried.
“That’s it,” I breathed. “That’s them.”
I focused on the location, visualizing the slope, the campfires, the mana trail left by their guards. Then I gathered the last of my magic, snapped my fingers—
And bam! The world tilted, cracked, and reassembled itself around me.
I stumbled into the middle of a snowy clearing surrounded by tents and armored wolves.
Instant chaos.
“Who the hell—” one of them shouted, shifting halfway into wolf form, claws bared.
“Don’t shoot!” I yelled, throwing up my hands. “Unless you want to murder the only person who knows what the hell just happened to your Alpha!”
The name Alpha made them freeze. The murmuring started immediately.
“Alpha Gregor?”
“She said Gregor!”
“Who is she?”
Then, from the largest tent, a tall, silver-haired man emerged. His eyes were like winter—sharp, cold, assessing.
Beta Xander.
He looked me over once, clearly deciding whether to gut me or let me talk.
“Start talking, little girl,” he said flatly.
“I prefer Barbie, actually, and I am not little girl,” I snapped back, brushing snow off my sleeve. “And I’m not here for pleasantries, wolfman. Your Alpha’s been taken. Along with Marigold—yes, that Marigold. The Queen’s hunters and ASA agents ambushed us near the lake. Wolfsbane bullets, traps, the works. They took them both alive.”
His expression didn’t change, but I saw the faint twitch of his jaw. “Alive?”
“Yes,” I said, voice shaking despite myself. “For now. They want her blood. Both of ours, actually, but since I managed to skip the kidnapping part of the evening, I’m guessing their little experiment won’t start without me.”
A low growl rippled through the camp.
I looked around at the wolves, their faces grim, furious, broken by disbelief. “And it’s not just them. Prince Leon and Sugar were taken too. Black Fang got them first. I saw the footage at an abandoned ASA post before all this madness started.”
The air turned heavy. The wolves looked at one another in horror, in rage.
Xander finally stepped forward, his hand curling into a fist.
“Then the Queen’s playing a deeper game than any of us thought.”
“Ya think?” I said bitterly. “Look, I’m not here to debate court politics. We need to move now. I can’t fight off a whole army alone, and neither can you if you wait another day. The ASA will transfer them to their northern facility by sunrise, and once that happens—game over.”
Xander’s eyes flickered gold, his wolf peering through.
“You’re saying we storm the cursed valley.”
“I’m saying,” I said, straightening up and meeting his gaze, “we bring every fighter you’ve got, and I’ll get us there. I’ll track them. I’ll burn their little lab to ashes. And I’ll get our people back.”
Silence followed. Then one of the lieutenants stepped forward.
“For Alpha Gregor.”
Then another.
“For the Dark Warrior.”
Then another.
Until the entire camp was howling agreement, the sound rising into the frozen air, shaking the trees.
I grinned through the exhaustion, through the fear.
“Good,” I whispered. “Because we’re about to crash the Queen’s party—and I’m bringing fireworks.”