Lorraine’s POV
I blinked hard, trying to make sense of what I’d just heard, but the room had already fallen into a suffocating silence.
"What?!" I blurted, the word ripping out of before I could control it. "What do you an she was captured?!"
Alistair didn’t look at . He looked at the floor, jaw tight, shoulders stiff, like bracing himself for a punch.
Kieran, on the other hand, didn’t bother hiding the fury rising off him in waves. "How," he said, each syllable clipped, "did it happen?"
Alistair inhaled shakily. "After you left, Varya led us to follow you. But not long after.... we were ambushed, by Crimson Hunt soldiers. A lot of them."
Felix rubbed at his temple like the mory physically hurt. "Quite a handful," he muttered.
Alistair nodded. "We fought them off at first, but they.... multiplied, literally. Like soone had called for backup in advance. They kept coming, and coming, and...." He shook his head. "We decided to run. But Kaelani was still unconscious and carrying her slowed us down."
My eyes flicked to the girl on the floor. I had almost forgotten she was even there, like a discarded doll. Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths, completely oblivious.
"I told them we should drop Kaelani so we could move faster," Felix cut in.
"Drop her for the crimson soldiers to kill her?" I snapped.
Felix shrugged helplessly. "It made sense at the ti! We were getting overwheld. We could barely hold them back, and running with extra weight...."
"Varya refused too," Alistair said quickly, glaring at Felix so he wouldn’t keep digging his own grave. "She said Kaelani is the daughter of the council leader of the Elites. Handing her over to Crimson soldiers might break the already strained alliance between Lycans and Elites."
I blinked. "Council leader...?"
Alistair continued, voice lower now. "Varya insisted she stay behind to fight the soldiers off off and buy us ti to escape. With Kaelani slowing us, it was the only way we wouldn’t all be caught."
For a mont no one breathed.
Then Kieran stepped forward, slowly, deliberately, like he was fighting the urge to shift on the spot.
"She wanted to stay behind." His voice was dangerously calm. "Alone."
Alistair swallowed. "Yes."
"And you allowed her?"
"Kieran...." he began.
But Felix stepped between them. "It doesn’t matter wasting ti on bla. What we need now is a way to save her before the Crimson Hunt does sothing irreversible to her."
He wasn’t wrong. But Kieran’s expression said very clearly that Alistair wasn’t off the hook.
"We should also figure out what to do with her." Alistair pointed at Kaelani, who still lay in a half curled heap. "Sooner or later, her people will notice she’s missing."
"Who even is she exactly?" I asked.
Alistair and Felix shifted uncomfortably, like children caught stealing sothing expensive. Kieran, however, kept his face perfectly blank, too blank.
That was suspicious.
Before I could demand answers, Liandrin’s loud, irritated voice cut through everything.
"I’ve had enough of your bickerings!" she snapped.
Every muscle in my body tensed as I turned toward her. Her long white hair swayed as she stood, one eye red, one eye white, both burning with annoyance.
Her gaze locked onto Kieran. "You barged into my house uninvited, demanded my help, and now your friends are turning my ho into your rebel headquarters!"
"I’m sorry, Liandrin," Kieran began, "I didn’t an to...."
She sliced her hand through the air, silencing him instantly. "It doesn’t matter what you ant. The fact remains, your friends are crawling all over my place, and it’s making so angry I want to blow this entire house up!"
Felix froze. "Wait, you can actually do that? You can just... explode this place with your powers? Like a biological dynamite?"
Liandrin slowly turned her head toward him.
The look she gave him could have killed a lesser wolf on sight.
Felix shuddered and hid behind Alistair.
Before anyone could say another word, a small voice broke the tension.
"Where am I?"
Kaelani.
We all turned as she stirred, groggy and confused. She blinked a few tis, wobbling to her feet.
"What’s going on here?" she demanded.
Her gaze swept across the room, and then landed on Alistair.
Her eyes widened.
And she launched herself at him.
"How dare you and your people snap my neck?!" she scread, fists flying. "How dare you?!"
Alistair stumbled back, arms up, not attacking, just trying to shield himself from her cyclone of rage.
"That’s enough!" Felix shouted, grabbing her arm.
Kaelani looked at him, her eyes twitching with anger.
"You are feral" She said her eyes running through Felix from head to toe and her voice filled with disgust.
"You are a feral and you dared to even interrupt .... and touch , you must be yearning for your quick death really bad" Kaelani said.
"Stop the drama Kaelani." Kieran said like he was tired of even lookin at her but Kaelani didn’t seem to be listening as her claws suddenly grew out and she raised her clawed fingers at Felix.
"Enough!!!"
Liandrin’s voice thundered through the room like a shockwave.
Her white eye glowed, bright, blinding, and the entire house shook violently.
The ground trembled so hard we all fell to the floor.
Kaelani stopped mid swing, frozen. Even Alistair looked pale.
Liandrin stepped forward, glaring at Kieran.
"We had a deal," she hissed. "I saved your feral girl. Now you will do what I want. So enough with the tomfoolery. Let us move on to my terms."
A cold ripple ran down my spine.
Her face....
Her smile...
There was sothing deeply wrong with the way she looked at him.
"What do you want?" Kieran asked quietly.
Liandrin’s lips curled up.
"Good question."
She leaned forward, lowering her voice into sothing almost gleeful.
"I want you to kill soone for ."
My breath hitched.
Kill?
Liandrin’s smile widened, hungry, unhinged.
"Yes," she whispered. "Kill soone for .... a fellow Lycan like you."
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