Chapter 154

The rest of the day dragged like feet through mud. Every sound made me look toward the door. Every unfamiliar scent made Ravin lift his head from where he sat sharpening his claws. Every time one of the children wandered too far from my sight, my heart nearly stopped.

By sunset I had counted the snakes fourteen times. Syren. Vaelis. Rhyzar. Kaelor. Seraya. Nyssara. Elira. All seven. Safe.

Levy sat between them, carefully tying a crooked little cloth band around Syren’s neck. "Pretty," she announced.

"Very pretty," I agreed.

Syren looked deeply offended by the accessory.

Then the warning horn sounded. One sharp blast. A pause. Two more.

Everyone froze.

Aureon was on his feet before the final echo died. "That’s the eastern watch."

Ravin shifted instantly. Bones cracked. Golden fur erupted across his body as he dropped to all fours. Leon followed, his lion form emerging with practiced speed. Veylan was already halfway through the doorway, his wolf form large and silver.

"Stay here," Aureon ordered me.

"Oh, absolutely not."

"Krys."

"You baited a traitor using information I helped deliver. I’m coming."

"You are pregnant."

"I was pregnant yesterday too."

"You are carrying a Mer child and overheating every few hours."

"And I’m still coming."

His eyes narrowed. Mine narrowed back.

Caelion sighed from behind me. "She is coming."

Aureon looked at him. "You are supposed to help me."

"I have accepted that this is pointless." Caelion moved to my side, his hand finding mine. "Where she goes, I go."

I pointed at Caelion. "That is why you’re my favorite today."

Ravin growled, a low rumble that vibrated through the floor.

I patted his mane. "You’ll survive."

---

We reached the eastern watchtower after dark. One guard was waiting, his face pale in the torchlight. He looked shaken.

"A messenger left the village," he reported.

Aureon’s expression sharpened like a blade. "Who?"

"We couldn’t identify them. They wore a heavy cloak. They used the lower path."

"Which direction?"

The guard pointed toward the southeast.

Aureon looked toward Aurin. Aurin’s face changed, something shifting behind his eyes.

"What?" I demanded.

"That path only connects to one of the false routes," Aurin said quietly. "The one I gave to Elder Merek."

Every muscle in my body went tight. "So Merek sent someone? Or went himself?"

Aureon looked at me. He didn’t answer. Not yet. Instead, he turned toward Veylan. "Can you track them?"

Veylan crouched, his nose close to the earth. He inhaled once. Twice. His eyes flashed silver in the moonlight. "Yes."

And then we ran.

Well. They ran. I was carried. Because apparently pregnancy had reduced me from independent woman to royal luggage.

Caelion carried me first, his arms secure around me. Then Ravin took over, his lion’s back broad and warm. I complained the entire time. No one cared.

We followed Veylan through the jungle until the trees thickened and moonlight disappeared. Branches clawed at us. Roots twisted beneath our feet. The air smelled of wet earth and crushed leaves.

Then Veylan stopped.

Everyone froze.

He lifted one paw, then his head.

Voices. Faint. Ahead.

We moved carefully now. No talking. No snapping branches. No unnecessary movement. The jungle opened into a narrow clearing. I could see two figures. One stood near the trees, large and horned. Stonehorn.

My pulse exploded.

The other wore a dark cloak that hid their features completely.

My fingers tightened around Ravin’s shoulder.

We were too far away to hear everything. But pieces carried through the night.

"...tomorrow," the cloaked figure said.

A pause.

"...southern ravine."

My blood went cold. One of the false routes. Not Merek’s route. A different one. So there were multiple traitors, or the information had been shared.

The stonehorn shifted, his horns catching the moonlight. "What of the female?"

Every mate around me went rigid.

The cloaked figure answered that their voice muffled by the hood. "She will not matter much longer."

Aureon’s claws extended, digging into the earth.

I grabbed his wrist. Not yet. We needed the identity. We needed to know who was pulling the strings.

The stonehorn stepped closer. "And the white tiger?"

The cloaked figure laughed softly. "They still trust me. They have no idea."

My stomach dropped.

Aureon looked at Aurin. Aurin looked like someone had driven a blade through his chest. He knew the voice. I realized it immediately. Aureon knew it too.

The figure suddenly stopped talking. Slowly... very slowly... their head turned.

Toward us.

My breath caught. "They know."

The stonehorn reached for a weapon.

The cloaked figure lifted one hand. "No."

Then they reached for their hood.

Aurin made a broken sound beside me. "No..."

Aureon’s face went pale. For the first time since I had met him, my white tiger looked completely stunned.

The hood began to fall.

And I saw the first glimpse of a face I knew. A face I had seen a thousand times in this village, always turned away from me, always cold. Lizarah. Reona’s childhood friend. The woman who was in love with his brother, Cyrus, who had resented me from the moment I arrived since I too like Reona stole the man her daughter wanted. Laurelli hated me too because Aureon chose me. Who now stepped from the shadows behind her. Laurelli. Her daughter.

My blood turned to ice.

"You..." I whispered.

Laurelli smiled. A terrible, knowing smile. "Did you really think you could keep him forever, bitch? Did you think we would let you take what should have been mine?"

Aureon made a sound like something breaking inside his chest. "Laurelli..."

Aurin’s voice came out ragged. "We were friends. Like family."

"We were never family," Lizarah spat, her voice trembling with years of poisoned resentment. "You chose her. The man I loved, your own brother Cyrus, chose Reona." She jabbed a finger toward him, her nails glinting like claws in the moonlight. "You all chose Reona. All of you. You looked at me like I was nothing while you fawned over that tiger bitch."

She took a step closer, her eyes wild with madness. "Do you know how long I waited? How many years I watched Cyrus, loved him, while he looked right through me?"

She laughed, a broken, horrible sound. "So when she chose you, he was broken. And I found a way to get through to him. funny thing really how love can make someone see blindly. Told him to make the alliance with the stonehorn, and they killed your kids they should have succeeded in killing all of you. But Cyrus, no matter what still blindly waited for Reona to choose him. so I made him a deal, he could mate with me and be the chief of the tiger tribe and he can have Reona body after disposing of you. it was perfect. Without any heir, Cyrus would have been next in line."

Her gaze swung back to me, and the hatred there made my blood run cold. "But you. You got him caught. You ruined everything. And he was killed." She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "Yes, I knew exactly who you were. I have been watching you since the lion’s village, you filthy creature. Every move. Every weakness. Waiting."

I lifted my chin, forcing my voice to stay steady. "Do you really think that will work? Aureon loves me. Even if I die, Laurelli will never have him. It would be futile."

She smiled, slow and terrible. "Not if I give him the mistroot before I kill you."

"Mistroot?" The word meant nothing to me.

"Aureon will lose his memories." She said it casually, as if discussing the weather. "It is like a cheat in this world. If you wish to mate with someone who was previously occupied, you can give them a clean slate. The beast gods created it long ago, for those unfortunate souls who chose the wrong mate and wished to change their fate."

"Nothing like that exists," Aurin snarled.

Lizarah’s smile widened. "But that is where you are wrong. The only downfall is that it erases every memory they ever had. Family ties. Feelings. Love. All of it, gone forever. But at least they can rebuild something new. Something better." She laughed, the sound grating against my nerves. "I had planned to use it on Cyrus after he succeeded. I would have slipped it to him without his knowledge, and all his earlier plans to take Reona afterward would have meant nothing. He would not have remembered her. He would not have remembered anything. Just me."

She turned back to me, her eyes glittering with madness. "And now I will use it on Aureon. He will wake with no memory of you, no memory of your abominations, no memory of anything except Laurelli smiling over him. My daughter will be his first sight, his first touch, his first love. And he will be hers, forever. If I couldn’t have my happy ending at least my daughter will."

"No," I whispered.

"Yes," she breathed. "And you will be dead, beast. Just a forgotten ghost in a life that never happened."

She raised her hand higher.

Then I saw them.

From every corner of the clearing, from behind every tree, from the shadows themselves, they emerged. Stonehorn with their massive horns gleaming in the moonlight. Panthers with their golden eyes fixed on us, muscles coiled to spring. Too many to count on one hand. Too many to count at all.

My mates were strong. Fierce. Trained.

But this...

This was a small army.

I felt Caelion press against my back, felt Ravin’s mane bristle beneath my fingers, felt Aureon’s claws extend and his body go rigid with the realization that we were surrounded. Leon’s breath came faster. Veylan made a sound low in his throat, half growl, half despair.

We were outnumbered. Outmaneuvered. Trapped.

My heart hammered against my ribs, the heat of my pregnancy surging in my veins, mixing with cold terror. I looked at the faces of my mates, at the determination there, at the love, at the willingness to die for me.

But love might not be enough this time.

Can we survive this?

The question hung in the air, unspoken, as Lizarah’s smile widened into something truly monstrous.

"Take them," she said softly.

And the night exploded into violence.