Chapter 68 Chapter Sixty eight

Chapter 68 Chapter Sixty eight
WALTER’S POV

The ink was dry on the old parchment, with the handwriting looping and telling stories that had been buried for centuries.
I sat at my desk, the heavy leather history book open before me, even though my eyes had long since stopped reading the words. 
Instead, they were now fixed on the dark window pane, it's reflecting my own image back at me, the man I had become, and the man I used to be.
My thoughts drifted to Lila, my little Starborn, the legend had always been there, it's a footnote in our history lessons, and a myth that's spoken around campfires, a child of both worlds and neither, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself to hold the balance between light and dark and a being whose power could heal the deepest wounds, purify the deadliest poisons, and bend the very magic of the world to their will.

And she was mine, all mine.
Not just mine as an Alpha claims a member of his pack, or as a man claims a woman, but mine in the way the moon belongs to the night, and the wolf belongs to the wild. 
She was my mate, my fated equal, created specially by the Goddess to stand beside me, and not behind me and I had spent two years treating her like dirt, like a curse, like a mistake.

Regret gnaw in my chest, even after the hurt, and after everything she went through, she was still kind, still brave and most of all she didn't hate me, even though she had every right to and she didn't spit in my face or demand I leave her be. She stood by me, ready to fight the enemy I had blamed her for bringing.

I was a fool. A crippled, stupid, arrogant fool.

"My wolf stirred inside me, he's restless and powerful, and no longer silent. He was fully awake now, and he's roaring at the injustice, roaring at the lost time, and roaring for her." 
"We've failed her, he growled deep in my mind, his voice was thick with a kind of grief that mirrored my own."
"We let them poison our minds and let them turn us against her. We hurt her." 
"We hurt our mate."

"I know," I whispered aloud to the empty room, while my hand gripped the armrest of my chair so hard my knuckles turned white. 
"I know and I will spend the rest of my life making it right. If she lets me."

A sharp, sudden noise from the outside made me freeze, a door slammed, then followed by the distant, frantic barking of the pack hounds, and then the eerie, mournful sound of howling that sounds as if it's rising from the outer perimeter.

My senses, which I now noticed that it had been dulled for so long by the silver and the pain, suddenly snapped into sharp focus. 
I could smell it instantly, it's carried by the cold night wind that slipped through the cracks in the window frame.

Silver. And… blood.

I pushed myself up from the desk, ignoring the screaming protest of my leg, the familiar agony shooting up my spine which making my vision blur for a second. I reached forward and grabbed my cane...

Or I reached for it, and grasped only empty air.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

It wasn’t there and I remembered now, I had dropped it just by the door earlier, when the vision had hit us and the pain had taken my breath away. 
I had been too focused on Lila to pick it back up.

I moved toward the door, relying heavily on the furniture to support my weight, while dragging my bad leg behind me. 
I reached the heavy oak door and wrenched it open, and stepped out into the stone corridor.

The hallway was empty, it's lit only by the torches that are set into the walls, casting long shadows, but right there, on the floor where I had left it… there was nothing.

There was just a patch of empty stone.

Panic, spiked through me. That cane was carved from sacred ironwood, treated with magic, and bound to me. It was a part of my identity as the Alpha now, and it's the only thing that allowed me to walk with some level of dignity and more importantly… it was made of materials that were sensitive to magic and if it was missing… it meant someone had taken it.

Footsteps echoed rapidly from further down the hall, and Caelum came sprinting around the corner, his face was pale and tight with alarm, with his hand which is now constantly resting on the hilt of his sword, he skidded to a halt in front of me, breathless.

"Walter," he gasped, his eyes wide.
"We have a breach at the north wall, the guards found two men down and they're Dead and also Draven’s mark was left on them."

"I thought of it," I said, my voice was low and my eyes were scanning the shadows around us, I was feeling watched, and hunted. 
"And my cane is gone, Caelum. Taken from right outside this door."

Caelum’s expression shifted from alarm to horror. 
"He must be inside," he whispered, understanding instantly. 
"He got past the outer defenses somehow and he’s playing with us, Walter. Like a cat plays with a wounded mouse before it bites its head off."

"He isn't just playing," I corrected him, my jaw set hard and my mind racing. 
"He wants fear, he wants Lila to be afraid, he wants her to believe that he is unstoppable, that I am useless, and no wall can keep him out, and no Alpha can protect her."

I turned toward the end of the corridor, looking at the wing where Lila’s chambers were located and where she was with Mirabel.

"Go to her," I commanded sharply.
"Stay with her and Mirabel, do not leave that room or open the door for anyone unless it is me or you recognize the voice beyond any doubt. 
And even if it's a shadow moves, or the wind changes, you will protect her. Do you understand me, Caelum? She is not just a girl anymore. She is the future of this pack and She is mine."

Caelum nodded, his face serious. "I understand. I won’t let anything touch her. Not while I breathe."

He turned and ran back the way he had come, his footsteps fading quickly.

I stood there, alone in the flickering light, leaning heavily against the doorframe, with my leg throbbing viciously, and sweat beading on my forehead from the effort of standing and the sheer weight of everything that's pressing down on us.

Three days left.

Draven had already taken my symbol of strength and killed my guards. He had infiltrated my home. And he was standing right outside, waiting for the moment that Lila’s power began to truly wake, and waiting to snatch it away before she could learn to wield it.

I looked down at my hands, at the scars that marked my skin, and at the body that had failed me for two years.

"He thinks I am broken," I murmured to the darkness, a slow, dangerous rage beginning to build inside my chest, it's so deep it's burning away the fear and the regret. 
"He thinks I am weak that because I cannot run, or shift, that I cannot fight."

My wolf howled inside me, it's a sound of pure challenge.
"He does not know what a Star Born’s Alpha becomes when he has nothing left to lose" the voice echoed. 
"He does not know that you have her light inside of you too.

I pushed off the doorframe, forcing myself to stand tall, and bear the weight on my own, without the wood and iron support I relied on. Pain shot through me, it's white-hot and blinding, but I gritted my teeth and took a step. Then another.

I would not hide in my study anymore and I would not hide my injury or my weakness.
I would walk through this estate, and I would show Draven Harlan that while this Alpha might be crippled… he was far from defeated.

And as I turned to head toward the main hall, to gather the remaining guards and plan our next move, I caught sight of something that was carved deep into the stone lintel and above the doorframe of my own study, it’s something that definitely hadn’t been there when I walked through hours ago.

It was a symbol that's jagged drawn into the rock with what looked like a claw or a blade, and beneath it are words that made my blood turn to ice in my veins.

YOU SAVED HER ONCE. NOW WATCH WHILE I TEACH HER THAT DEATH IS THE ONLY ESCAPE FROM YOU.

And written just below it, in a swirling, elegant script that dripped with malice:

P.S. – I didn’t just take your cane, Walter… I took something else. Look for your little bird Walter... Because she might fly too close to the wrong shadow.

My breath caught in my throat, and realization hit me instantly.

Draven hadn't just left a message.

He had taken a hostage.