Chapter 234: The Remaining One

Genevieve’s POV

Two long, agonizing days had passed since we stood in that small, candlelit hut deep in the forest.

Since my oldest friend let the ancient spirits speak through her lips and delivered that terrifying prophecy.

Two days had passed since the burden of hunting down a hidden female Alpha had settled over my shoulders like a suffocating shroud.

Rhydor had wasted no time once we returned to the territory. He issued an immediate, unyielding decree to every corner of the pack land.

Every single female werewolf aged eighteen and above was ordered to gather at the main training grounds.

They came in vast waves, leaving their homes, farms, and shops behind. Now, hundreds of women stood clustered across the wide dirt field, whispering among themselves in nervous murmurs.

They were confused, hoping to be of help, but deeply fearful of the dark cloud hanging over our pack.

Near the center of the grounds, five senior pack elders stood in a strict, stoic line.

These were men and women who had lived through centuries of pack history. They possessed the rare, ancient sensitivity required to identify a true Alpha spirit.

They had performed this ritual generations ago, knowing exactly what signs to look for in a rising leader: the sudden spike in raw power, the overwhelming magnetic presence, and the irresistible ancestral pull that commanded respect without a word.

Yet, as the hours dragged on under the blazing sun, they found absolutely nothing.

One by one, the women stepped forward to stand before the panel of elders. The old wolves closed their eyes, reaching out with their senses to examine each female’s internal energy.

They checked the flow of their bloodlines, tested their spiritual aura, and searched desperately for even the smallest spark that would mark someone as extraordinary.

Every single test yielded the same result: complete, utter silence.

Standing a few feet away, Rhydor watched the endless parade of rejection with growing fury.

With every woman who walked away unmarked, his jaw clenched tighter, the veins in his neck bulging against his skin.

His knuckles turned white as he slammed his fists against the wooden railing, his dark eyes burning with unvented rage.

"She lied to us," Rhydor growled out, turning his harsh gaze directly toward me.

"The witch lied straight to your face, Mother."

"She did not lie to us, Rhydor," I replied smoothly, keeping my voice completely calm despite the knot tightening in my stomach.

"Then where on earth is she?" he demanded, his voice dropping into a dark, frustrated snarl.

"Where is this legendary female Alpha? We have literally checked every single adult female in this entire territory! None of them carry an Alpha spark!"

"We are out here standing in the dirt, wasting precious time while the enemy prepares to strike!"

"We are not wasting time," I said, holding my ground and looking him straight in the eye.

"We are conducting a necessary search. The prophecy stated clearly that she is right here within the Crescent Moon Pack. We will find her."

Rhydor took a sharp step closer, his eyes cold and distant.

"And what happens if we do not find her, Mother?"

I clamped my mouth shut, turning my face toward the training field.

I couldn’t give him an answer to that question. I didn’t dare to.

Rhydor was looking at this entire crisis through the eyes of a young, powerful warrior. He did not know the Alpha King the way I did.

He did not understand the sheer, terrifying scale of the dark magic we were truly up against.

He honestly believed that his raw physical strength, his disciplined pack warriors, and a large army would be enough to secure a victory on the battlefield.

He was dead wrong.

I had never faced the Alpha King in open combat before, but I had felt a small, lingering fraction of his dark energy through the possessed messenger in the dungeon.

That small taste alone had been immensely powerful, enough to make my old bones ache with deep dread.

I knew what that ancient monster was truly capable of doing to a mortal army.

If my son led our warriors into battle without the female Alpha at his side, they would be slaughtered.

We would all lose everything we held dear.

I remained standing at the very edge of the dusty training field long after the crowd had dispersed, watching the silent horizon.

The women had all been dismissed. One by one, they had walked away back toward their homes, some looking disappointed that they weren’t the chosen warrior, others looking utterly relieved to escape the burden, and all of them entirely confused by the sudden summons.

Now, the vast dirt field was empty.

I had watched ten women remain on the grass, then nine, then eight, until finally, there was no one left standing before the elders.

Nothing.

Not a single soul.

Rhydor was no longer by my side. He had stormed off toward the council room hours ago, consumed by anger and feeling completely defeated.

The five elders had quietly packed away their testing herbs and returned to their private quarters, shaking their heads in confusion.

The surrounding guards had marched back to their perimeter posts along the walls.

I was standing entirely alone in the quiet afternoon breeze.

I pulled my dark shawl tighter around my shoulders, my brow furrowing into a deep frown.

Something about this entire situation felt deeply wrong. My old friend was not a charlatan.

If the female Alpha wasn’t present within our territory, her vision would have explicitly shown us a distant land or a journey across the mountains.

She would have told me straight out that we needed to leave home.

So why couldn’t we find a single trace of her among our people?

Unless...

I closed my eyes, slowly retracing every single moment of the afternoon. I went over every face that had stepped into the sunlight.

I recalled every family name that had been called out by the guards from the master ledger.

Suddenly, a realization hit my mind like a bucket of ice water.

Amanda.

Amanda was the only female in the entire pack who had not stood on that field today. She was the only woman whose blood had not been tested by the elders.

Because of the secret, delicate nature of her transformation, she was currently undergoing an intense magical process to mature her mind and body.

She was hidden away, completely shielded from the public eye, and was in no condition to be paraded out onto a training ground to be examined by old men.

Yet, when I stripped away every other possibility, she was the sole remaining female left unaccounted for.

I slowly turned my body around, looking back at the tall stone walls of the pack house.

I stared at the dark windows of the upper floor, as if my gaze could pierce through the heavy stone and see straight into the hidden chamber where she rested.

"Amanda," I whispered into the quiet wind.

I instantly shook my head, taking a small step backward on the dirt path.

"No," I muttered softly to myself, clutching my hands together.

"It cannot be her. That makes no sense at all."

I forced myself to think through the logic of it. Amanda was a child.

How could a gentle child like her possibly carry the blood of a female Alpha? How could she be the fierce warrior destined by fate to bring down the immortal Alpha King?

There was no physical clue. There was no ancient mark on her skin. There was not a single sign in her past that pointed to such a terrifying destiny.

Yet, despite all the doubt racing through my head, the cold reality remained. She was the only female left in Crescent Moon Pack whose power remained untested.

I stood motionless on the empty field, staring back at the towering fortress as a cool gust of wind swept past my face.

The afternoon sun was warm against my skin, glowing brightly in the clear sky.

Inside my chest, however, I felt completely frozen.

What if my doubts were blinding me to the truth?

What if the child hiding in my basement is the ancient weapon we have been searching for all along?

I turned on my heel and began to run.

My heavy skirt whipped around my ankles as my boots pounded against the hard-packed dirt of the training grounds.

I needed to reach the pack house immediately. I needed to stand in front of Amanda, look into her eyes, and feel her energy for myself.

The sheer possibility that an innocent, soft-spoken child could be the legendary weapon chosen by fate was tearing through my mind like a wildfire.

I had to know the truth before this agonizing doubt drove me completely insane.

I was still sprinting down the stone pathway when a tall figure rounded the corner near the main courtyard, moving toward me with long, frantic strides.

It was Rhydor. His dark eyes were locked onto my face, burning with a sudden, sharp intensity that stopped me dead in my tracks.

We met right in the center of the stone courtyard, the heavy tension radiating off his broad shoulders like heat off a forge.

"Where is she?" Rhydor demanded, his voice laced with urgent desperation.

I frowned, taking a small step back to catch my ragged breath.

"Who? Whom are you referring to, son?"

"Where is Amanda?" he snapped back, his sharp eyes narrowing as he stepped into my space. "She is the only female left in this entire territory who was not lined up on that field today."

I shook my head, holding my hands up between us in a careful, defensive gesture.

"Yes, she is the only one remaining, but you know as well as I do that she is mentally still a small child. The magic has not finished its work. She does not count in a test like this."

"That is complete nonsense," Rhydor said, his voice dropping into a cold, unyielding register.

"She possesses the physical body of a full-grown woman now. She lives under our roof, carrying our pack blood. She needs to be brought out onto the grounds and tested by the elders just like everyone else."

"And you need to go down there and bring her out right now."

I opened my mouth to argue, ready to defend the fragile child hiding beneath our floorboards.

BOOM!

A violent, deafening explosion ripped through the air, detonating from the eastern wing of the pack house.

The tremendous force of the blast sent a massive shockwave tearing through the courtyard stone.

The ground buckled and trembled violently beneath our feet, knocking me completely off balance.

My ankles gave out, but before I could slam against the hard stone, Rhydor reached out with lightning speed, locking his powerful forearm around my waist and pulling me steady against his side.

I gasped, my ears ringing as I looked up toward the source of the blast.

Thick, pitch-black smoke was pouring out from the broken stone entrance, the exact private doorway I had walked through just hours ago to access the hidden underground chambers.

Dark grey soot and dust swept across the courtyard, choking out the sunlight and coating everything in sight.

My heart stopped in my chest, a cold, terrifying dread sinking straight to the bottom of my stomach.

The secret underground chamber, where both Amanda and Azura’s floating bodies rested, was directly beneath that collapsing wing.

"No!" I yelled.