POV: Serephina
"NO!" I screamed, throwing myself at Corvus. "Don't you DARE—"
But he was already doing it.
I felt the mate bond between us—that beautiful, perfect connection the Moon Goddess had given us—start to tear. Like someone was ripping my soul in half. Corvus's face contorted in agony, but he didn't stop.
The silver cage around Thaddeus began to glow. The blood curse feeding on Corvus's sacrifice.
"Stop!" I begged, clutching at him. "Please, there has to be another way! I just found you! I can't lose you too!"
"You won't lose me." Corvus's voice was steady despite the pain. Despite the fact that severing a true mate bond could literally kill him. "I'll always protect you, Mayreath. Bond or no bond. That's what—"
He gasped, doubling over. Blood trickled from his nose. The mate bond was almost completely severed now—I could feel it fraying, unraveling, dying.
And then Finnian did something I didn't expect.
The gentle omega healer grabbed my wrist and slammed my hand onto the silver cage.
The blood curse hit me like lightning.
Pain exploded through every nerve. The spell drank my Thornecrown blood greedily, burning through my veins, trying to consume me from the inside out. I screamed.
But Finnian didn't let go. He pressed his other hand to Corvus's chest, and suddenly I understood—he was using himself as a bridge. Channeling the curse's magic through all three of us, spreading the deadly load so no single person took the full hit.
"Finnian, no!" Corvus roared. "You'll die—"
"Maybe," the omega gasped, his body shaking. "But so will you if you finish severing that bond. And she needs you both—her mate AND her son. So shut up and let me help."
The three of us formed a chain: my hand on the cage, Finnian's hands on both of us, Corvus's half-severed bond feeding the spell. The blood curse tried to choose a victim, tried to kill someone, but we'd confused it. Divided its power.
The cage shattered.
Thaddeus tumbled free, and I caught him with my free arm, pulling him close even as the curse's feedback slammed through me. The mine shook harder. Rocks rained down.
"RUN!" Corvus shouted, scooping up both Thaddeus and me despite his injuries. His wolf surged through, carrying us even as the tunnel collapsed behind us.
Finnian shifted too—a small gray wolf, nimble and fast—racing ahead to guide us through the darkness. The mine was coming down around our ears. Support beams snapped like twigs. Stone crushed stone in deafening roars.
We burst out of the entrance just as the entire structure collapsed inward with a thunderous crash.
For a long moment, nobody moved. We just lay there in the dirt, gasping, bleeding, alive.
Then Thaddeus's small voice: "Mommy?"
I looked down at my son—my real son, not a changeling, not a fake. He stared up at me with those ice-blue eyes, and this time they were clear. Aware. Remembering.
"You saved me," he whispered. "The bad people said you wouldn't. Said you didn't love me anymore. But you came. You almost died and you still came."
"Always." I pulled him against my chest, sobbing into his hair. "I will always come for you, baby. Always. You're my son. My heart. My everything."
"I'm sorry I forgot you." Tears streamed down his little face. "The lady—Lyssandra—she gave me medicine that made me sleepy. Made me forget things. Made me think she was—"
"Shhh." I rocked him gently. "It's not your fault. None of this is your fault."
Corvus sat up slowly, wincing. His shoulder was still bleeding from Isolde's earlier attack. His ribs were probably broken from our fall. And the mate bond between us...
It hung by a thread. Barely connected. He'd gotten so close to severing it completely that now it flickered weakly, like a candle about to go out.
"Did it work?" Finnian asked quietly, checking Corvus's pulse. "The bond—is it still—"
"Barely." Corvus's obsidian eyes found mine. Even with the bond dying, I could still feel echoes of his emotions—relief that we were alive, grief for what he'd almost destroyed, and underneath it all, love so deep it made my chest ache. "But we're alive. That's what matters."
"We need to move," Finnian urged, glancing nervously toward the forest. "Those guards you fought will report back. Kael and Isolde will send more—"
A slow clap echoed through the trees.
We all spun.
Isolde stepped into the clearing, flanked by fifty wolves. But these weren't Varnoth pack members. These wolves wore the silver emblems of the Wolf Council—the governing body that ruled all werewolf territories.
"Impressive," Isolde said coldly. "You survived the cage, the curse, and the collapse. I underestimated you, girl."
"It's QUEEN," Morvana's ancient voice growled. The spirit wolf materialized beside me, violet flames crackling. "Show respect to the Thornecrown heir, oath-breaker."
"The Council doesn't recognize Thornecrown blood anymore," a new voice said.
A man stepped forward—tall, silver-haired, radiating authority. He wore the crimson robes of a High Councilor. "The Thornecrown Dynasty was dissolved thirty years ago for crimes against werewolf kind. Any surviving heirs are to be executed on sight."
My blood ran cold.
"On what charges?" Corvus snarled, trying to stand despite his injuries.
"Treason. Murder. Consorting with dark entities." The Councilor's eyes locked onto me. "Serephina Thornecrown, you are under arrest by order of the Wolf Council. Surrender yourself, or we will take you by force."
"She hasn't done anything wrong!" Finnian protested. "She was the VICTIM here! Isolde kidnapped her son, used blood curses—"
"Isolde Varnoth filed a formal complaint three days ago," the Councilor interrupted. "Claiming that the Thornecrown heir awakened illegally, murdered pack members, and poses a threat to all wolf territories. We've investigated. The evidence supports her claims."
"LIES!" Thaddeus's small voice rang out, surprising everyone. My five-year-old son pulled away from me and marched right up to the Councilor, tiny fists clenched. "My grandmother is a liar and a kidnapper and a bad person! She hurt my mommy! She locked me in a cage! You can't arrest my mommy for saving me!"
The Councilor looked down at Thaddeus with something almost like pity. "Child, you don't understand—"
"I understand you're being STUPID!" Thaddeus shouted, and several Council wolves actually stepped back, shocked. "My mommy is good! She's the best mommy in the whole world! And if you try to take her, I'll—I'll—"
His little body started to shake. Power rolled off him in waves—not normal pup energy. Something stronger. The air crackled with electricity.
"Thaddeus?" I reached for him, concerned. "Baby, what—"
His eyes flashed violet.
Not ice-blue like Kael's. Not gray like a normal wolf cub's.
Violet. Like mine. Like Thornecrown royal blood.
Corvus sucked in a breath. "Impossible. He's only half royal. The Varnoth bloodline should have diluted—"
"It didn't." Morvana's ancient voice was filled with awe and terror. "The boy inherited full Thornecrown power. Not diluted. Not halved. Full royal blood."
Isolde's face went sheet-white. "No. That's not possible. We made sure when Kael sired him that the Varnoth genes would be dominant—"
"You made sure of NOTHING," Morvana snarled. "Royal blood doesn't dilute, fool. It consumes. This cub is more Thornecrown than his father ever was Varnoth."
The Councilor stepped back, hand on his weapon. "A child with full royal power is even more dangerous. We'll have to take both—"
Thaddeus's small voice rang with alpha command that shouldn't be possible from a five-year-old: "You won't touch my mommy."
Every wolf in the clearing—including the Council members—dropped to their knees.
Forced into submission by a child.
My son stood there, violet flames dancing across his skin, looking like a tiny avenging angel. "My mommy is the queen," he said firmly. "And you will show respect or I'll make you."
The Councilor struggled against the command, managed to raise his head slightly. "The boy... he's already manifesting... this changes everything..."
"Yes," a smooth, cold voice agreed. "It does."
Kael walked into the clearing.
My ex-mate looked terrible—gaunt, pale, haunted. The severed false bond had damaged him more than I'd expected. But his ice-blue eyes were sharp as he studied our son.
"Thaddeus has full royal blood," Kael said quietly. "Which means everything Isolde told me about the Thornecrown line being dangerous... was either a lie, or..." His gaze shifted to his grandmother. "Or you've been planning something far worse than I realized."
Isolde's ancient face twisted with rage. "You fool of a boy! This changes nothing! The Council will still—"
"The Council," Kael interrupted, voice hard, "will do what I tell them. Because I'm about to make a very public confession."
He pulled out a recorder from his pocket and pressed play.
Isolde's voice poured out: "—planted the girl in that minor pack specifically so Kael would find her. Cast the binding ritual myself. Kept her suppressed for seven years while we drained her royal magic to fuel our own power. Once she's dead, we can harvest the boy's magic too—"
The clearing exploded into chaos.
But I couldn't focus on any of it. Because Thaddeus suddenly gasped, his little body convulsing. The violet flames surged out of control.
"Mommy!" he cried, scared. "Something's wrong! I feel—I feel—"
His eyes rolled back.
My son collapsed, and his heartbeat stopped.