Chapter 34 Council Attack
Steel clashed against bone.
Tiara spun, claws out, barely dodging the assassin’s blade as it sliced inches from her throat.
“Alpha, behind you!” one of the SilverShield warriors shouted.
She didn’t look back. She didn’t need to. Her wolf already felt the shift in the wind.
Tiara dropped to her knee, swept her leg around, and kicked the hidden attacker off his feet. He hit the dirt with a grunt, but three more shadows flickered in the treeline—silent, masked, lethal.
Council assassins.
So the Moon Council finally made their move.
Tiara pushed to her feet, breathing hard, sweat slicking her brow. The rogues she’d been training scattered behind her, forming a shaky protective circle.
“Stay back,” she ordered, voice sharp. “This is not your fight.”
The assassins advanced in perfect formation, moving like smoke, their aura pulsing with dark council magic. She felt it crackling against her skin like static.
“Tiara!” Damien’s voice cut through the chaos, but she didn’t turn. She couldn’t. One moment of distraction could get someone killed.
“Stay where you are!” she snapped.
An assassin lunged for her heart.
Tiara caught his wrist mid-air, heat exploding up her arm at the impact, and twisted hard. Bone snapped. He screamed. She didn’t hesitate with one swift hit to his jaw sent him crashing unconscious into the dirt.
Another assassin flashed behind her.
Her wolf snarled.
Move. Now.
Tiara slid left just as a blade of moon-forged silver swept past her hair, cutting strands clean off. She felt the weapon’s deadly hum, silver tempered with council rites, forged to weaken Alphas.
They really came prepared to kill her.
And they thought they could.
Tiara lifted her palm, letting her aura swell outward in a shimmering halo of silver light. It rippled through the air, heavy, commanding Alpha dominance at its purest.
Every wolf around them staggered.
Even the assassins hesitated.
“Get out of my territory,” Tiara growled.
The air trembled.
Two assassins dropped to one knee, trembling under the pressure. The third fought it, shaking violently as he forced himself upright. The resistance in his eyes was pure council conditioning.
He lunged again.
Tiara’s aura flared brighter, bursting with raw instinct, power she didn’t fully understand but trusted with her life.
The assassin hit an invisible wall and collapsed, choking on air.
“Damn,” Damien breathed behind her.
Tiara sucked in sharp breaths, chest heaving. She turned to see him stepping out of the shadows, muscles tense, Shadow–his wolf burning behind his eyes.
“I told you to stay back,” she snapped.
“And let you fight council assassins alone?” Damien retorted, jaw clenched. “Not happening.”
His anger wasn’t loud, it was controlled, simmering beneath his skin, protective in a way that made her pulse skip.
But before she could speak again, a fourth assassin burst from the treeline not toward her…
But toward one of her newest pack members.
A child. Barely shifted.
“No!” Tiara’s voice ripped through the air.
She was across the field in seconds, a silver blur. She tackled the assassin, claws shredding through his mask as they crashed into the dirt. He tried to stab her, but she pinned his wrist to the ground, pressing her boot into his chest.
“You attack my pack,” she snarled, “and you die for it.”
His eyes widened behind the cracked mask.
He hadn’t expected the Lost Alpha to be this strong.
Tiara slammed her fist into his temple. He went limp instantly.
Silence fell.
Only ragged breathing and the metallic scent of near-death lingered.
Slowly, Tiara stood, wiping blood from her knuckles. Her wolf was pacing beneath her skin restlessly, alert, ready for more.
Damien stepped closer, his voice low. “They came for you.”
“I know.”
“You handled them.” His eyes softened. “You’re stronger every time I see you.”
She didn’t answer. She didn’t trust her voice. Instead, she walked toward the last conscious assassin, the one who had resisted her aura. He was trying to crawl away.
Damien reached him first.
He grabbed the assassin by the collar and hauled him upright like he weighed nothing. The mask fell away, revealing a scarred face with pale council markings carved down his cheek.
A branded loyalist.
“Who sent you?” Damien asked coldly.
The assassin spat blood. “You already know.”
Damien’s fist clenched. “Say it.”
The assassin smirked. “The council does not fear your rogue mate.”
Tiara stepped forward. “Then why are they sending assassins to kill me?”
His smile faltered.
Damien noticed instantly. “He knows something.”
The assassin’s jaw locked. “I will not betray the will of the Moon Council.”
“Wrong answer.” Damien slammed him against a tree.
The crack of impact echoed through the clearing.
The assassin coughed blood, but his expression didn’t change, he was trained to endure pain.
Tiara crouched before him, eyes glowing. “You can fight Damien. You can resist pain. But you cannot resist an Alpha command.”
His body jolted. “No… don’t…”
“Look at me,” Tiara ordered softly.
He tried to look away. Couldn’t.
“The truth,” she whispered, voice laced with Alpha authority. “Who sent you?”
His lips trembled. He tried to resist but she could already see the council’s mental conditioning tightening around his mind.
But she was stronger.
Finally, the words ripped out of him like a wound opening.
“Alpha Magnus.”
Damien stiffened.
Tiara’s breath caught.
The assassin continued, choking on the forced confession “He is personally mobilizing his forces. He wants Damien dethroned… and the Lost Alpha—” His eyes met Tiara’s. “—dead.”
Silence.
Cold. Heavy. Final.
Damien didn’t move, but a storm raged beneath his expression.
“My father,” he said at last, voice low and deadly, “sent assassins to kill my mate.”
Tiara felt her heart thud painfully. “Damien”
But he stepped back, releasing the assassin, who collapsed to the floor, gasping.
Damien’s voice was steel. “He has declared war.”
Tiara reached for him, but his eyes were no longer on her, they were fixed on the distant treeline.
On the direction of his father’s territory.
On the enemy he would now have to face.
Her wolf whispered a single warning through her bones
This is only the beginning.
Damien turned toward her, jaw tight, anger and heartbreak burning through his gaze.
“Tiara,” he said quietly, “everything changes now.
The assassin coughed once, blood dripping from his lips as
he whispered:
“He comes for you both… and he will not come alone.”
Tiara froze.
Damien’s eyes darkened.
Alpha Magnus—Damien’s own father was leading an army straight toward them.