Chapter 124
-Dorothy-
“Are you seriously considering this?” Angie vented, pacing up and down the meeting room in agitation.
“Surely there’s another way? What about a stealth mission? I can-”
“We can’t do anything to jeopardize the children’s safety. Angie, Ignatius growled, the deep rumbling in
his chest warning Angic to drop it. There is no other way.”“”
“The campires have eyes everywhere. They’ve been watching us from the beginning, they’ll know if we
try to go against their wishes. But we have a n, I ventured, curling my knees to my chin where I sat
on the edge of therge council table.
“We’ll work on exposing this fake Johan after this is over. But right now, we just need to get our kids
back.” My voice was small, betraying my anxieties as I tucked my head between my knees.
Angie looked from me to Ignatius, her own expression twisting into one of anguish at the thought of the
children. Angie was loyal to the Bielke, but she was loyal to us too. She didn’t want the children hurt
either.
Far stood silent and sober at her side, having agreed with our decision the moment she heard what the
vampires had done.
I checked the time, tilting my b*dy to glimpse therge, yellowing stic clock that hung above the door
of the meeting room. “We’re running out of time. Ignatius. We need to go now!
The possessed to had ryed the coordinates of where we were to go once Ignatius announced his
retirement. After which Ignatius had knocked the man out and bound him in silver chains.
It had hurt him to have to cor his friend, after to had spent so long shackled by the Tally. But we
couldn’t afford him. wreaking havoc under the sway of some vampiric mind control Until we could figure
out how to help him, we needed to be sure that to would stay put
Ignatius too looked at the clock, a dark cloud passing over his features. Outside the meeting room,
Bielke shifters waited impatiently in the grand hall. The murmuring crowd could be heard through the
walls.
Everyone was afraid Coming home to a pack that couldn’t recall the past few hours was rming, and
distrust brewed among our fellow shifters.
The atmosphere was tense, the air crackling with energy as Ignatius stepped out to face his people.
They looked to him forfort and guidance. They wanted to hear words of encouragement and fierce
loyalty, the same kind that had stirred them to stand together against the Tally army three years ago..
The meeting hall was full to bursting, packed tight with dozens of weary shifters, all waiting to hear
some much needed good news. Ignatius could give them no such thing. As he stepped up to the
podium, the hall fell silent.
It was so quiet that the crashing ocean waves could be heard in the far distance.
Ignatius licked his dry lips, steeling himself for what he had to do. I came to stand beside him, looking
out over a sea of pale, weary faces.
These were people I had fought alongside, people I had healed and protected, people who had
protected me in return.
The soldiers and civilians who stared back at me had a special ce in my heart. These were people
who had epted me as one of their own, who had offered up their very life force to ensure the
survival of me and Ignatius both.
It felt like a betrayal, abandoning them when they needed us most. If our suspicions about the fake
Johan were right, then we were handing our people over to the enemy, an unforgivable sacrifice.
Even if some of them had turned on us, out of fear and desperation, even those who saw salvation in
the form of Johan’s ghost, they were still out people to protect.
11:07 Fri, Jan 26
Ignatius cleared his throat before addressing the crowd. “I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the broadcast
from the so-called Jn.
Whispers buzzed through the swarm of bodies. I curled my fingers around Ignatius’s hand, squeezing
slightly to reassure him.
“After much contemtion, and running through the options. Ignatius continued, has voice rough and
gravelly, every word a knife-twist in his heart, Thavee to a decision. I want only what is best for the
Bielke people.”
“When you crowned me as Alpha of this pack, I took a wow to protect our own. I am eternally grateful
for each and every one of you. You have proved your unwavering loyalty time and time again”
He paused, took abored, heaving breath. “However, I am unable to keep my vow, in light of the
recent vampire attacks. I have failed you. And so, as of this very moment, I will be stepping down as
Alpha of the Bielke.
The sudden cries of outrage and disbelief were deafening, and I stepped closer to my mate as he
struggled to finish his sentence. “And Johan will be ruling in my ce.”
The uproar that followed was heartbreaking. Shifters jostled and shoved one another, usations and
insults were flung around the room as Ignatius bowed his head and pulled me our of the meeting hall.
I had felt a physical shockwave roll through my b*dy after Ignatius spoke, as he ended his reign of the
Bielke park. An Alpha no longer.
From what I could hear, it was clear that some took Ignatius’s retirement as a clear sign that Johan had
been in the right all along. Others saw it as a hopeless surrender, a sign that there was no beating the
vampires. Not when even their own Alpha wasn’t willing to fight.
I ran behind my mate, struggling to keep up with his long strides. “Ignatius, I-
“Let’s go. It’s almost midnight. His voice was as cold and cutting as his expression.
There was no time to mourn, no time to exin. No time to bid our people goodbye. I caught Angie’s
eye as we left, the she- wolf had her arms folded tightly across her chest. From the look in her eye, her
message was clear as day: Don’t die Red Not yet anyway. Not like this.
“We’lle back.” I whispered, gripping Ignatius’s hand as he tugged me along. I promise we’lle
back.”
Before his announcement, Ignatius had appointed Angle to track down the fake Johan. Fae he asked to
stay behind, to bring some semnce of order to the distraught Bielke pack.
He would not leave his people high and dry, nning instead to let Far console and guide them until
Angie could unveil the fake Johan’s true form. By then, we would have our children back.
We stepped out into the dark, leaving the distressed shifters at our back. Ignathis’s b*dy burst into wolf
form, shifting from Two legs to four as he threw himself headlong into the forest. I followed suit, my
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white wolf sleeping soundlessly through the trees beside his shaggy, silvery form.
Rence and Tor had both been writhing in turmoil since we realized our children had been taken. Now,
they howled together, their agony erupting outward in the form of long, sorrowful wails.
Now no longer Alpha, something had broken within Ignatius, and I could feel his power waning,
weakening. He could feel it too, andbatted this grim realization with cold ferocity.
“They’ll pay for this, came a vicious growl. I wasn’t sure if it was for or Ignatius I was hearing in my
head. “If those demons have hurt them, they’ll pay with their lives tenfold.”
“I think we know who’s behind this,” I whispered back as we darted through the woods. The truth had
be infinitely clear when the vampires” n was revealed.
They didn’t intend on wiping us out, they wanted to take over. And while there were a few hold shifters
who held a grudge against Ignatius, there was only one possible reason the vampires had targeted the
Bielke
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“You’re right. Ignatius answered in my head, bristling with unbridled rage. “The dhampir child. Elliot’s
bastard. He’se to im his birthright.”
Rabbits and other small forest creatures darted out of our way as we pelted through the trees.
Overhead, the moon evaded us, ducking behind a cover of clouds and offering nofort.
With our life fracturing and shattering around the both of us, we pressed on, racing through the
shadows in search of that which was most precious to us.
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