Chapter 9 – The Betrayer’s Name
556 Words
The cell they threw Lira into was smaller than a coffin.
No window. Just damp stone, rusted chains, and the echo of Kael’s last scream ringing in her ears.
She lay there for hours, bruised and shaking. But her mind burned — not with fear, but fury.
Torran had taken everything.
Her Alpha. Her future. Her freedom.
He will not take my soul.
Footsteps echoed outside.
She sat up, ready to fight with bare hands if needed.
The door creaked open.
“Lira?”
She blinked.
A familiar face stepped in.
Mara.
Her best friend. The quiet healer’s apprentice who had trained beside her since they were pups.
“Mara? What are you—”
Mara rushed to her and unlocked the chains. “There’s no time. I heard what Torran plans. He’s going to use Kael’s body in a full soul fusion tonight. If it succeeds, he’ll never come back.”
Lira’s breath caught.
“Come on,” Mara said. “I know the tunnels.”
They ran.
Twisting passageways. Hidden staircases. The cries of the broken echoing in the dark.
Finally, Mara stopped. “This is it,” she whispered, pointing to an old iron door. “Kael’s just beyond.”
Lira stepped forward.
Then she froze.
“Why aren’t you opening it?”
Mara didn’t move.
And then… she smiled.
But it wasn’t a kind smile.
“You always had to play the hero,” Mara said. “Even when you were the weakest one in the room.”
Lira’s stomach dropped. “What are you talking about?”
“I was supposed to be his vessel.”
“What?”
“Torran promised me the bond,” Mara whispered, stepping closer. “But then Kael died first. They needed a stronger body. So they gave it to him.”
Lira backed away. “You were helping him?”
“I gave them your scent. Your location. Everything.”
Lira’s eyes burned. “You betrayed me for power?”
Mara’s expression twisted. “You don’t know what it’s like, Lira. To be invisible. Powerless. I was never going to be chosen — not with you standing in front of me like some little broken flower the Alpha was supposed to save.”
“I never asked to be saved.”
“No,” Mara said. “But you were.”
Then she lunged.
Lira moved faster.
She slammed Mara into the wall, elbow to her throat, rage giving her strength she didn’t know she had.
“I’m not weak anymore,” Lira hissed.
Mara gasped. “Even if you stop me — it’s too late. The ritual’s already started.”
Lira dropped her.
And ran.
⸻
Kael screamed as fire ripped through his soul.
He was strapped to a stone altar, surrounded by candles, the black crystal embedded into his chest like a wound.
Torran stood over him, chanting.
The room swirled with shadows.
Kael saw flashes — wolves howling, his younger self running through the woods, and… Lira’s face, calm and full of light.
He tried to hold on to it.
But the darkness was winning.
Then a voice sliced through the chaos.
“KAEL!”
Lira.
She burst through the door, blood on her hands, a blade in her grip.
He saw her.
And for one second — he remembered everything.
- Writer
