Taz est ? am right was me, she and deliberate, the each motions in a chual be’s free before but never wanted to. Big boots echo watch again the ancient come, a wrath is the silence that she been the books down the spiral stairwell, where frost gives way to song di bumming be the war. The articles with
“N“besimal wat supposed to get me to you. Not emotionalle. Sist politicalls. But be abeys was to care for his men
है
Il comford and Then why was I brought here? Why was I kept here? What does be worn?
Silence Regg almost miting Felists hand in the fickering Hue hue that coats the walls, I see him clearly now, not just the man I’ve known mywho, the one who taught me to ride and showed me how to swing a word, but someone olden Worn Weathered by truths too heavy to carry alone.
heme Emrs.”
like a punch to the gut
To were let at the border, yes, but not by accident. That day..the day I found you… Be pauses, swallowing hard. It was the day I died.”
Be mercs and Two pret a choice. Persephone herself stood before me. I was meant to go straight to the Underworld for the thing I’d done. Thing! at de can you could low. But she gave me an option. One chance. I could be resumed. Rebom, in a way. On one condition.”
I don’t realise The caken a step back until my shoulder hit the wall What condition”
Be called a breath Tikve
“Match over you Protect you. Keep you safe and you come of age?
The walls feel like they’re closing in “Safe from vi?
Felin steps dose now, and for the first time since Ive loova kim. I don’t feel comfort in his presence. I feel small Seen. But not in a way that makes me feel known, in a way that makes me feel marked
“Nat what, Enry. Wão”
He states to the stairwell behind us–Down, where the whispers still call
“These are things beneath this house that Marcus was never meant to find. Things older than this pack. Older than most realms. What be found were fragments, es, is, grophecies, but no real understanding of what they meant. So, he found those who could help him.”
“I do understand.”
“so be agent. “That yet. Because you’re not ready. You haven’t marked your mates,” he says. “Until you do, your power, your real power, stays locked maste you all sexy had so do theirs Togethers, you’re more than just wolves, hounds, and people. You’re something else entirely.”
Something was fides town my syre. “What am I
His voice drops to barely a whisper. “You’re the ether”
I shake my head. “To what
“Is everything,” be ways. The Underworld The Veil. The magic that binds the divine and the damned. You are the gate, Envy. The line between what lives and what should wx. That’s why you were hidden. That’s why the veil clings to you. That’s why the gods marked you… and why the monsters want to claim
you‘
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My mouth is dry. “And Marcus?”
“He wanted to harness you,” Felix says, eyes burning now. “For power. For control. For war.”
The word sits heavy between us.
“There is a war coming,” he says. “A great unravelling. Not just between packs or species but between worlds. And when it does, they’ll look to you.”
I stare at the stairwell. At the place where the runes had once sealed me out. At the ancient magic that now seems to pull me in.
“Why me?” I whisper.
Felix’s voice softens. “Because only a soul forged in both light and shadow can hold the doorway shut or rip it open.”
I don’t remember climbing the stairs.
One minute I’m staring into that abyss and Felix is warning me, telling me I’m the fucking tether between realms like that’s normal dinner conversation and the next, I’m inside the pack house, in our bedroom, staring blankly at the wall while my mind swims with thought. My heart hasn’t stopped racing since I touched that door. The problem is… it wasn’t fear. Not entirely. There’s something dangerous about knowing you’re meant for more than you’ve been told. Something terrifying and thrilling in equal measure. And I’ve spent my whole life surviving, fighting to matter in a world that didn’t want me. Now, it turns out 1 might matter too much. Tether. War. Power. Me. My Mates.
My mates portal into the room, scrambling to get to me.
“Where the hell have you been?! We couldn’t locate you for hours.” Xavier says first, running his hands up and down my arms.
“I need to talk to all of you,” I say, voice steady despite the adrenaline still coursing through me. “Now.”
“Okay, yes, definitely, we should talk, but let’s eat while we do it. You’ve clearly been through a lot today, love.” Haiden says, taking my hand gently in his
own.
We’re seated in the private dining room within minutes. The table is set, food steaming under silver domes, but no one touches a thing. Not even Haiden.
“I went beneath Tolaris,” I say, before anyone can ask.
Xavier’s brows furrow. “What do you mean?”
“I mean beneath. Past the closed floors, the blocked halls, the sealed doors. Past everything, Marcus told me never to go near.”
Their expressions harden.
“There’s something down there,” I continue. “Something old. Ancient, even. It’s not just rogue wolves or secrets. It’s…magic, Runes. A vault buried in stone, locked by blood.”
“Yours?” Levi asks quietly.
I nod. “Yeah. It recognized me.”
They all go still.
Felix was right, I haven’t marked them yet, and without that connection, they can’t feel everything I’m feeling. Can’t sense the gravity of what I saw. But they’re smart. Tactical. Dangerous in their own right. And they’re not stupid enough to brush this off.
“I’m not just a wolf, or I guess, hellhound, or the Queen of the underworld,” I say finally. “Felix told me… I’m something else. Something that is physically
tied to the underworld,”
“Tied to the underworld?” Haiden echoes, like the word tastes bitter in his mouth.
I look up, eyes meeting Xavier’s. “He said I’m the tether. Between realms. That I’m the reason Marcus kept me.”
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Xavier doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t move. But I can see the shift behind his eyes. The calculations. The instinctive protectiveness that flares when something threatens his pack.
“What do you want us to do?” he asks.
1 take a breath. “I want to request a meeting with Alpha Marcus.”
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