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Chapter 104
Anthere–down the shore, maybe twenty yards away
Alden.
He was being dragged.
His heels lell thick, broken trails through the sand, carving desperate lines that told me he’d tried to fight. His arms were wrenched behind his back, his small tists clenched.
His hoodie his favorite one, the one he said made him brave–w bunched awkwardly at the shoulders. One sleeve had ridden up past his elbow, exposing skin scraped taw.
His face was pale. His lips trembling. His eyes–wide and terrified searched the beach like he wasn’t sure what was real
anymore.
“AIDEN!”
I scromed his name so load it ripped something in my throat. My voice cracked apart, sharp and raw and full of fear The rogue dragging him turned like a startled animal, his head jerking over his shoulder–and that’s when I saw
The dagger.
Silver
Not decorative. Not bluffing.
The blade gleamed in the sunlight, held tight to the soft skin beneath Aiden’s jaw. One twitch, one slip, one heartbeat—and it would be over.
“Don’t come any closer!” the rogue shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. “I swear to the goddess–I’ll kill him!”
My legs moved on instinct. I surged forward.
But stopped.
Dead.
The knife glinted again. The way it trembled in the man’s hand made it worse, not better. The rogue was scared–panicked. Unstable. A single wrong move and he’d follow through just to make it stop.
The world narrowed to a single, terrible thread.
The
e wind howled off the oce
ocean behind us, but i didn’t feel it. The sun blazed high and cruel above, but I didn’t see it.
All I could see was that blade. His throat. My child.
Then-
The thunder of footsteps.
stling Sand crunching.
Brush cracking behind me. Leaves rustling Sand crunching.
Петек
Brock
Joe.
Silverclaw warriors poured onto the beach like a second wave of fury–eyes bright, muscles tense, weapons out
Derek moved faster than the rest, his body coiled, teeth bared. He was already lunging forward before he’d fully processed what
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Chapter: 104
he was seeing
“DNA“U” I shouted.
1 grabbed his shoulder with both hands, nails digging in so hard felt skin give beneath them.
He stopped like I’d struck him.
His chest heaved. His jaw clenched.
His gaze locked on Alden–on the dagger. On the slight, swaying weight of our son’s body barely staying upright.
And I saw it
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The moment his instincts warred with his logic. The moment the Apha in him yielded to the father. Even if he didn’t know the boy was actually his.
We couldn’t rush the rogue.
Not like this.
The rogue’s eyes flicked between all of us, wide and shining with panic. His chest rose and fell too fast. Sweat poured down his temples, streaking through the blood and grime.
The blade in his hand wavered slightly, unsteady but dangerously close to skin.
“I’ll do it!” he screamed. “Don’t think I won’t!”
“I believe you,” I whispered, too quietly for him to hear.
Aiden looked at me then. His eyes were wet, but no tears fell.
He blinked, once. Slow. Steady.
Not crying
Fighting it.
Trying to be brave. Just like I’d taught him.
My knees wanted to give out. My whole body did. I felt my wolf snarling, thrashing beneath my skin, begging me to shift and throw myself between them.
But I couldn’t. Not yet.
Every instinct I had–every ounce of me that loved that child more than life itself–screamed to move. To fight To end it.
But I couldn’t risk it. Not when one wrong breath could sever the world.
I didn’t breathe.
I didn’t blink.
My soul stayed frozen inside my body as I watched my son’s life balance on the edge of a shaking blade.
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Chapter 15
Chapter 105
