CHAPTER 5
1038 Words
Valen Grey
Lyra was moved out of detention after her transformation.
Her wolf-size alone bent spell-barrier architecture, the structure was in near shambles.
This was what Arcspire’s laws categorize as threat potential. The damage her power could cause was showing its full effect.
The council weren't the type to use emotional language. As far as something was able to bend their architecture, it could bend their treaties as well.
They lived in fear of her and assumed that she was a ticking time bomb.
I realized that I had to start l pushing for her freedom instead of tracking her like something I wanted back. I had to be the alpha of my pack and fight for my own.
I saw the politics and I wasn't going to let her be a docile element of experimentation.
It wasn't only because my heart had softened. But also because every pathway in Eryndor began shaking and tilting towards her.
Her power was important and vital to us. Everyone wanted her at this point. I saw that Princess Marivelle had come to also try to get her.
It was only a matter of time before hybrid classifications hit the political floor, then everything will change.
Species leaders always mobilized faster than councils could put them together.
Sirens wanted to crown her. Mages wanted to study her indefinitely. Let's not forget the Demons that wanted to cage or consume her.
The Dark Fae Empire wanted her under fate-decree possession laws. The least was endless; the power she had was more than she understood.
But Drex on the other hand wanted her dead.
He didn’t say it as hatred. It was truly complicated for me to understand or explain but from what I had seen he believed that her presence was doing more harm to the pack than good.
He believed her death was for the better of the magical stability but I couldn't let her die. We were bonded, a mate bond that couldn't break
"I don't care what you have to say. She has to die?"
"Is that why you crossed the border to see the mage council without telling me? Your Alpha"
I knew the question would shock him because he didn't know that I knew but I knew.
"Well, I wanted to have your back and also make sure you killed her so that balance could be restored"
I didn't know what to say, it seemed like he had made up his mind and I had made up mine. I was definitely going to defend Lyra with my last breath.
"In that case I ask you to step down as my beta"
He looked at me as he grunted and walked away. I sighed as I realized that things were really falling apart quickly.
Yet all I could think about was Lyra. No one in the first era pulled power clean. It is always up-roots. But Lyra was different, she was the exception I had to protect.
Soon I heard that Princess Marivelle secured clearance to move Lyra to Tidelume for recovery and council evaluation.
With that I knew I smelt a rat somewhere everything was too fishy for my liking.
Soni came up with a plan to intercept along the transfer path.
I did this because I knew Drex too would be planning to do the same but for different reasons.
Tidelume’s ocean border is enchanted against wolf fire magic. So, I couldn’t storm in without either forming an alliance or drowning in spell-backlash.
I boy my lip as I tried to put myself together.
Lyra’s transport vessel wasn’t a wolf caravan. It was a spell-submersible built by humans contracted by demons, a risky intermediary tech that operates in cross-territory in treaty-neutral lanes.
Seeing all of it made me realize that it was well planned.
The vessel would be ambushed halfway by a fae flight-courier.
I knew that Selthar, the dark fae lord who rules fate courtyards, wasn’t going to attack to kill.
He offered contract-freedom in exchange for magic extraction rights.
"Give us the she wolf and you'll have your rights"
They said as they ambushed the caravan but Princess Marivelle was not going down without a fight.
She countered him mid-air. With some mage incantations clashed with a siren song.
That chaos cracked open a third truth layer. Another realm had presented itself.
"What is this?"
I questioned her
"Valen was always a Nightclaw heir.
Lyra was never pack-defective. Don't you understand what is going on? This is destiny"
Princess Marivelle Said. I stepped and tried to reach Lyra. But I forgot that our bond triggered her and that was when it started.
She was too old-blood powerful for the bond to settle quietly.
The transport vessel broke. Everyone expected Lyra to fall. I ran to hold her but to my surprise she absorbed heritage magic from the broken fae spell-strike overhead and transformed the pain into expansion.
My wolf burned her moon-blood roared back. I could feel it right underneath my skin as my hand ached.
The bind was stronger than ever.
That was when I realized something vital that I couldn't see.
If the universe kept taking from you without permission. Maybe it’s not testing you. But now I could see that it was our destiny just as Lyra had said that night of our first bonding.
***
Lyra Ash
As the transport broke. I knew I didn't have much time. I was going to be blamed, after all. I was the bone of contention.
That should’ve told everyone something early enough.
When I arrived at Tidelume’s court, I was interviewed again.
Not as a prisoner or test subject, but a political anomaly.
Princess Marivelle stood beside the throne during the council-envoy questioning.
Then I spotted Valen who stood in the back like someone who learned consequences too late but was too deep in to walk away.
My heart jumped because it meant something that he had come this far regardless of how dangerous it had been.
The council envoy asked a final question.
“Do you accept hybrid protection under another species territory?”
I looked at them as I thought it through then I replied,
“I accept protection. Not ownership.”
- Writer
