- 3 hours ago
Broken by My Twin Alphas - Full
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Again.
00:01Damien's voice came from above me.
00:03Low.
00:04Horsky.
00:05Burning with the heat of an alpha in rut.
00:08I had lost count by now.
00:10Three times?
00:11Maybe?
00:12His arms were braced on either side of my head, veins bulging at his temples,
00:17every thrust hitting me with a force that felt more punishment than pleasure.
00:21I didn't dare make a sound.
00:23The patrol guards outside would hear.
00:26The entire pack would know that the wolfless, worthless Omega was being used as a painkiller
00:31by their alpha.
00:32Nobody knew I was Damien's fated mate.
00:34Or rather, he refused to let anyone know.
00:37A nobody from the slums whose wolf had never awakened.
00:40How could someone that pathetic ever deserve to be the fated mate of the pack's twin alphas?
00:44So for three years I had been hidden away in the Grey Sector,
00:47a run-down district packed with crippled and discarded wolves.
00:50I was his dirty little secret.
00:52The third time ended and Damien finally got off me.
00:56I laid there gasping, my whole body trembling.
00:59All I wanted was to close my eyes and sleep.
01:02Then a pair of hands grabbed my waist again.
01:05Turn over.
01:06It was Damien's voice.
01:08But the hands were wrong.
01:09The Khalids were in different places.
01:10The ring he always wore on his left hand was missing.
01:13I was too exhausted.
01:14My brain was mush.
01:15I couldn't think straight.
01:16Four, five.
01:17He was rougher than before.
01:19His fingers dug ug into my waist hard.
01:22I thought they would break through the skin.
01:24Which felt better?
01:25He leaned down to my ear.
01:26His voice dropped to a whisper.
01:29There was something cruel and mocking in his tone that I had never heard from Damien.
01:33Hmm?
01:34Answer me.
01:38Six.
01:39Seven.
01:39My mind was coming apart.
01:41Every release ripped away what little strength I had left.
01:44In the haze I turned my head and reached for his mouth.
01:47I wanted a kiss.
01:49Just one.
01:49My lips found his.
01:51But my eyes found him first.
01:52Damien's eyes were gray-blue.
01:54Cold and still.
01:55The eyes staring down at me were blown wide, bloodshot, with a faint gold sheen of something savage.
02:00Caspin, Damien's twin brother, the one the whole pack called the rabid dog behind his back.
02:05My blood went cold.
02:06The scream stuck in my throat because his hand was already on my neck, his thumb resting right over my
02:12windpipe.
02:13Figured it out?
02:14Caspin grinned at me, wearing the same face as Damien.
02:17Too late, little waste.
02:19A small sound came from the far corner of the room.
02:22A wall lamp clicked on.
02:23Damien was sitting in an armchair, fully dressed.
02:26His shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms, a glass of whiskey in his hand.
02:30He had been here the entire time.
02:31He had watched his brother take his mate, and he looked bored.
02:35Why?
02:35My voice came out wrecked, unrecognizable.
02:38Damien swirled his glass.
02:40Ice clinked against the amber liquid.
02:42You're my fated mate, sure, but so what?
02:45His tone was flat, his expression blank.
02:47You have no wolf, no family.
02:49You can't even shift into a full wolf form.
02:51What makes you think you deserve the Luna title?
02:53The moon goddess played a sick joke on me.
02:55He took a sip.
02:56Tying a waste of space to me as my fated mate.
02:59So I made the best of it.
03:00Your body calms our ferial episodes.
03:03Your blood works as a pain repressor.
03:05Beyond that, you have zero value.
03:08Caspin climbed off me and wiped his hands on the sheet.
03:10Basically, you're a sedative the two of us share.
03:13You think you actually deserve the mate title?
03:17My hands were shaking.
03:19Shaking so badly I couldn't grip the sheets.
03:21Three years.
03:23Three full years.
03:24I had skipped meals to buy herbs for Damien's pain relief tonic.
03:28I had pricked my own fingers with a sewing meal to feed him my blood for the remedy.
03:33I had told myself that if I was good enough, useful enough, he would eventually claim me in front of
03:38the pack.
03:39My mate.
03:40My alpha.
03:41I had believed I was his future Luna.
03:44Turns out, I was never anything more than a tool he was too ashamed to mention.
03:49Next week, Serena will officially become the pack's Luna.
03:52She's from the Blackwell bloodline.
03:54Pure lineage.
03:55Powerful wolf form.
03:56The entire pack already believes she's my mate.
03:59Damien stood and adjusted his cuffs.
04:01He said it the same way he would read a memo.
04:03I won't correct them.
04:04A complete stranger was going to wear the Luna crown that should have been mine, and I wouldn't even be
04:11allowed to sit and watch.
04:13Damien walked to the door and glanced back.
04:15You will attend the ceremony.
04:17His eyes swept over my bruised, marked body.
04:20There was no guilt in his gaze.
04:22No disgust.
04:24Nothing at all.
04:25You'll kneel in the last row of the gallery, with the servants.
04:29You'll bow to the new Luna.
04:30And if you make a scene, or if Serena or anyone else finds out you're my mate.
04:35He didn't finish the sentence.
04:38He didn't need to.
04:40Caspi had cut in.
04:41He bent down and patted my sweat-dripped face.
04:44I'll rip your tongue out myself.
04:47Little waste.
04:49The door closed.
04:50The room went dark.
04:54I curled up on the crumpled sheets.
04:56Every part of me felt crushed.
04:58The tears wouldn't come.
04:59Not because it didn't hurt.
05:01Because it hurt too much.
05:02So much that even crying felt pointless.
05:05I was their fated mate.
05:06I was supposed to be this Pax Luna.
05:08And I couldn't tell a single soul.
05:10I didn't know how long I lay on that bed.
05:13My thighs were still sticky.
05:16The air reeked of two alpha's pheromones mixed together.
05:20So thick it made my stomach turn.
05:23My phone buzzing woke me up.
05:25A message from my neighbor in the gray sector.
05:28Five words.
05:29Nana's is not going to make it.
05:31I jumped off the bed barefoot and ran out the door stepping over the mess on the floor.
05:36The shack in the gray sector smelled of blood.
05:39Heavy, rotten blood.
05:40Nana was curled up on her worn out mat.
05:43Dark blood was seeping from the corners of her mouth.
05:45And her nostrils her body was seizing.
05:47Jerking and sharp violent spasms.
05:49Nana!
05:49I dropped to my knees beside her scrambling to wipe the blood away.
05:53But it kept coming.
05:54The pack doctor was already packing up his kit ready to leave.
05:57The wolf spide has reached her bones.
05:59He barely glanced at her.
06:01Unless you can get alpha blood for the antidote, she's done.
06:04Alpha blood.
06:06My mate.
06:07My alpha, at least in name.
06:09His blood could save her life.
06:10But he wouldn't even acknowledge that I existed.
06:13I closed my eyes and reached for the thin thread of the mate bond between me and Damien.
06:17That bond had worn down to almost nothing after three years of one-hided draining.
06:21But it was still there.
06:22No matter how much he despised me.
06:24A mate bond was the moon goddess Mark.
06:26As long as both of us were alive, it couldn't be broken.
06:28Damien, please.
06:29Just one drop of blood.
06:31Nana is dying.
06:33The link went quiet for two seconds.
06:35Then Serena's sugary voice bled through the mind link.
06:39Damien, look at this one.
06:41Don't you think the lease neckline is prettier than the last dress?
06:49And then Damien's voice.
06:52So gentle, I almost didn't recognize it.
06:55They all look beautiful.
06:58You look beautiful in anything, my Luna.
07:00My Luna.
07:01He had never once called me that.
07:03I was his mate.
07:05But that title, those two words, he gave them to a woman who had no fated bond with him at
07:09all.
07:10I screamed through the link.
07:12Damien!
07:13I'm begging you!
07:15Shut up.
07:16That wasn't Darmien.
07:17It was Caspian.
07:18His consciousness slammed into the link with open disgust.
07:21Using the old woman for sympathy again?
07:25Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough?
07:27An alpha's mate living in the grey tech tour, crying and begging.
07:31If word gets out, how do you think that makes us look?
07:34It's not an excuse.
07:36She's really bleeding out.
07:38Enough, Ivy.
07:39Damien's voice came back.
07:40Colder than the night wind.
07:42Today is Serena's dress fitting.
07:44As the future Luna, every moment of her day matters more than whatever crisis you've invented.
07:49Stop acting crazy.
07:50The link was severed from his end.
07:53The backlash hit me instantly.
07:55Pain exploded inside my skull.
07:57I grabbed my head and collapsed.
07:59My ears ringing so loud I couldn't hear anything else.
08:02By the time I pulled myself off the floor, Nana had stopped seizing.
08:07Her hand was cold.
08:08She was looking at me.
08:09She reached into her shirt with shaking fingers and pulled out an old whistle carved from bone.
08:14She pressed it into my palm.
08:16Then her lips moved.
08:17No sound came out.
08:19Just a shape.
08:20Run.
08:21Her hand dropped.
08:22I held her body as it went stiff.
08:24I couldn't cry.
08:25Not because I didn't want to.
08:26The moment the link had been cut, it felt as though something inside me had been severed too.
08:31My tears along with it.
08:35Outside, the pack loudbeater was playing Serena's recorded message on a loop.
08:39Everyone is welcome to attend my ceremony with Damien.
08:43Next week, I will officially become the pack's Luna.
08:46Luna.
08:48That seat was supposed to be mine, but I didn't even have the right to fight for it.
08:52Fighting required being acknowledged first, and I was not even allowed to exist.
08:56Some time passed.
08:57The door opened.
08:58Cold air rushed in.
09:00I squinted against it.
09:01A tall figure stood in the doorway, wearing a tattered cloak.
09:05Every nerve in my body went tight.
09:07I shot to my feet and stood in front of Nana's body.
09:10Who are you?
09:11He didn't answer.
09:12He looked at the body on the floor.
09:14Then at me.
09:14Then he walked to the corner, picked up the shovel leaning against the wall.
09:18He lifted Nana's body onto his shoulder and carried her outside.
09:21I think I understood what he was going to do.
09:24He dug a hole in the frozen ground behind the hill, filled it in.
09:27Set up a plank of wood as a marker.
09:30Why are you helping me?
09:31I asked.
09:33Six months ago, in the alley behind the market, you saved my life.
09:37He turned and disappeared Dinto the dark.
09:39I stood in front of the fresh grave, gripping the bone whistle Nana had left me.
09:43The sharp edges of the bone had cut into my palm.
09:46That was when I felt it.
09:47A tiny flutter deep in my belly.
09:49Something stirring in my blood.
09:51Faint and timid.
09:52Nudging against my skin from the inside.
09:54I pressed my dirt-covered hand against my stomach.
09:57Two.
09:58Two faint heartbeats.
09:59I was pregnant.
10:01Carrying my Alpha's children.
10:03Funny, wasn't it?
10:05He refused to claim me as his mate.
10:07But he had left his bloodline growing inside me.
10:12In the distance, the main house was blazing with light.
10:16A golden countdown sign for the wedding was glowing on the front porch.
10:21I knew Damiathian Cassibian would never let these children be born.
10:24A secret mate they treated as a tool found to be carrying their pups.
10:28That wasn't just a scandal that would make the entire pack question Serena's Luna status.
10:33They would kill these babies the same way they had killed every last shred of my dignity.
10:38Without blinking.
10:39I had already lost Nana.
10:41I would not lose them too.
10:43I looked down at the blood-stained bone whistle.
10:46I thought about the cloaked wolf who had just buried Nana for me.
10:50I raised the whistle to my lips and I blew it with everything I had left.
10:56The whistle's sound didn't carry far.
10:59The winter wind swallowed it whole.
11:01Nobody came.
11:03Not that night, at least.
11:05Three days later, the night before the Luna coronation,
11:09two guards dragged me out of my shack in the gray sector
11:16and shoved me into the servants' changing room in the pack's main house.
11:20Put this on.
11:22One of them tossed me a gray linen robe.
11:24Tomorrow you stand in the last row of the gallery, with the servants.
11:27You kneel and bow to our new Luna.
11:29No looking up, no talking, no looking at the Alpha.
11:32I took the rough fabric and said nothing.
11:35What a joke I was this Pax Alpha's fated mate.
11:37The Luna crown should have been on my head.
11:39Instead, I would be wearing slave clothes,
11:41kneeling on the ground watching a woman with no mate bond sit in my seat.
11:47The door locked behind me.
11:49I crouched on the floor.
11:50One hand pressed against my belly without thinking three days in those two heartbeats.
11:55Had grown a little stronger, tiny stubborn.
11:58Pushing outward, the door swung open.
12:00Not a guard, Serena.
12:02She wore an ivory velvet robe, her hair loose, her feet in satin slippers.
12:07Two personal attendants trailed behind her.
12:11So you're Ivy.
12:12She tilted her head and looked me over.
12:15The wolf-less waist from the gray sector?
12:17She sniffed the air and wrinkled her nose.
12:20You smell disgusting.
12:21I have no idea why Damien even knows someone that pathetic.
12:25Her eyes narrowed, studying me.
12:28I kept my head down.
12:30I didn't dare speak.
12:32If she found out I was Damien's real mate,
12:35Casserbyn had promised to rip my tongue out.
12:38Serena didn't push further.
12:40Her gaze dropped to my neck,
12:42where Nana's bone whistle hung on a cord.
12:46That's interesting.
12:48She reached out without warning and ripped the cord off my neck.
12:52Give it back!
12:54I jumped to my feet and grabbed for it.
12:57The slap knocked me back to the ground.
12:59Serena shook out her hand,
13:01then held the whistle up and studied it.
13:03She smiled.
13:04Do you know Dead Man's Valley?
13:06That ravine behind the hill?
13:08The one full of bones?
13:10I'm going there tomorrow morning for a purification ritual
13:14before the coronation.
13:16She spun the whistle between her fingers.
13:21I'll toss this filthy thing down there for you.
13:25Consider it the future Luna cleaning up the trash.
13:29Tonight, you stay on your knees right here.
13:32You don't get up until I say so.
13:34She turned and walked out.
13:36I stayed kneeling on the cold stone floor.
13:39Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.
13:42The next morning, I ran to Dead Man's Valley.
13:44It was a deep ravine cut into the far side of the hill.
13:47The rock walls on both sides were streaked with old dried blood.
13:50I dug through the rubble at the mouth of the valley,
13:52tearing through loose stones and broken bones.
13:54My fingers were sliced open.
13:56Blood dripped onto the rocks.
13:57I knew you'd come.
13:59Caspian's voice came from behind me, amused, entertained.
14:02Before I could turn around, something cold wrapped around my ankle.
14:04A silver-laced chain.
14:06The second the silver touched my skin white,
14:08smoke hissed up from the contact point.
14:10The burning pain hit me so hard it felt as though someone had pressed a red,
14:14hot iron against my bones.
14:15I screamed and collapsed.
14:17Caspian gripped the other end of the chain and dragged me across the rough stone.
14:21Ground 10-15 feet, maybe more the skin on my back.
14:25My arms and my shins shredded against the rocks.
14:28K-silver dust ground into the open wounds.
14:30The pain was so intense I couldn't breathe, but I kept both hands over my stomach.
14:34I didn't let go once Damien was standing nearby.
14:37He was dressed for the coronation black suit white shirt.
14:40Without a single wrinkle his mate was being dragged in front of him torn apart by silver chains.
14:45And his face showed nothing he could have been watching.
14:48A stray mutt on the roadside.
14:50Ivy.
14:51He spoke his tone was flat official.
14:54From this moment, I formally sever the mate bond between us.
14:58You don't deserve to be my mate.
15:00You don't deserve to be this Pax Luna.
15:02You never did.
15:06Every word landed on me with the force of a blade splitting open my chest.
15:11The moment the mate bond snapped something deep inside my soul was ripped away.
15:15The pain was beyond anything I had ever felt worse than the silver burning through my flesh.
15:19A thousand times worse.
15:21The mark the moon goddess had carved into my soul the day I was born.
15:24He crushed it with his own hands.
15:26Throw her down.
15:28Damien turned around and straightened his cuffs.
15:31The ceremony is about to start.
15:33Serena is waiting.
15:33Caspian hauled me by the chain to the edge of the cliff.
15:37Then he kicked me in the back.
15:39I didn't scream on the way down.
15:41I hit the bottom of the valley and felt three ribs snap.
15:45My left shin bent at an angle that shouldn't have been possible.
15:48The silver chain was still wrapped around my ankle.
15:51Still burning.
15:52The stench of rotting bones filled my nose and mouth.
15:55Through my blurring vision, I saw something white.
15:57Nana's bone trussel wedged in a crack between two old bones.
16:01I dragged myself toward it with my one working hand, inch by inch, until my fingers closed around it.
16:07The moon carvings on the bone whistle began to burn, scorching hot.
16:12The heat poured from my palm into my veins, flooding through my limbs, rushing up my spine, slamming into the
16:19top of my skull.
16:20Something cracked.
16:22A seal.
16:23My back arched off the ground.
16:25A sound ripped out of my throat that did not belong to a human.
16:30The bones scattered across the valley floor blew outward from the force of it.
16:33My eyes turned solid gold.
16:36I got to my feet and started walking toward the pack square.
16:39The coronation was already underway.
16:41Thousands of wolves were gathered around the altar, torchlight flickering across their eager, reverent faces.
16:49At the center of the altar, Serena stood draped in a white Luna ceremonial robe.
16:53She was walking slowly toward the Moonstone, a sacred rock that had stood for a thousand years.
16:58The stone only responded to a true mate.
16:59Only the Alpha's fated mate could make it glow, confirming the Luna title.
17:03Everyone was waiting for that moment.
17:05Damien and Caspian stood on either side of the altar.
17:08Black suits, gold crests.
17:09Their Alpha Oris pressed down on the crowd.
17:11Their faces were calm, everything under control.
17:14When Serena's hand touches the Moonstone, she will officially become this Pax Luna.
17:19The Elder's voice rang across the square.
17:21Serena raised her hand, her fingertips were less than an inch from the stone.
17:26The stone exploded.
17:28No warning.
17:29The massive white rock split down the middle with a blood-red crack, then shattered completely.
17:36Ash rained down across the square.
17:38The stone had rejected her, because she was not the mate.
17:42The stone knew.
17:44The Moon Goddess knew.
17:46Screams erupted across the square.
17:48Serena stubbled back two steps, her whole body shaking.
17:53She stared at the ash on her fingers.
17:55What happened?
17:57What happened?
17:59Damien shot to his feet.
18:01For the first time in public.
18:03His composure cracked.
18:05Nobody could answer him.
18:06Because the full moon above them changed color.
18:08The white light bled red, inch by inch, until the entire moon hung in the sky the color of fresh
18:14blood.
18:14A blood moon.
18:15A blood moon.
18:16The Elder's legs gave out.
18:17He collapsed to the ground.
18:19This is the Moon Goddess's punishment.
18:23She rejected Serena.
18:26Because the Alpha's true mate is not her.
18:31The crowd erupted.
18:33Damien and Caspian both went rigid.
18:35Then the real horror began.
18:38The entire pack's mind link was hijacked, forced open.
18:43Every single wolf in the pack, from the lowest Omega to the highest ranking Alpha, had the same vision explode
18:48inside their heads at the same time.
18:50They saw me, Damien's fated mate, being passed between him and his twin brother, used, discarded.
18:58They saw me on my knees, begging the Alpha for a single drop of blood to save my dying Nana.
19:02And the answer that came back was,
19:05Today is Serena's day.
19:06They saw me chained at the ankle, with silver-laced links, dragged across jagged rock for fifteen feet.
19:13Skin shredded, bone exposed.
19:16And they saw Damien standing there in his spotless white shirt, his face completely blank, saying,
19:22Throw her down. The ceremony's about to start. Serena is waiting.
19:27Every wolf in that square now understood the truth.
19:30For three years, their Alpha had hidden his fated mate in the Grey Sector.
19:34He had used her as a pain repressor and a tool to relieve his rut.
19:37Then he had handed the Luna Throne to a woman who had no mate bond with him at all.
19:41Thousands of wolves grabbed their heads at the same time.
19:44Some threw up on the spite.
19:46Young pups burst into screaming sobs.
19:49The adults stared at the twin Alphas on the altar.
19:52The awe was gone from their eyes.
19:54All that was left was disgust, fear, and doubt.
19:59Who did this?
20:01Damien roared, his Alpha aura blasting outward at full force.
20:06Who hijacked the Pack Link?
20:11His aura had a wall.
20:12An invisible wall that was 10,000 times heavier than anything he could put out.
20:17It was coming from Dead Man's Valley.
20:19Every pair of eyes turned toward the hill.
20:22The ground was shaking.
20:24A low rumble at first.
20:26Then harder.
20:27The stone tiles under their feet cracked apart.
20:30I stepped out of the fog in my wolf form.
20:33Pure white.
20:34It was my first shift.
20:36My body was barely holding together.
20:38But my wolf was two full sizes bigger than any Alphas.
20:42And that was enough to freeze every wolf in the square.
20:46The Elder dropped flat on the ground.
20:48His voice broke apart mid-sentence.
20:51Moon.
20:51Moon Goddess's daughter.
20:53White Wolf Bloodline.
20:55She is.
20:57She has always been.
20:59The Alpha's true mate.
21:01The real Luna.
21:03I walked onto the shattered altar and swept my gaze across the thousands of terrified faces below.
21:10Then, I locked eyes with Damien and Caspian.
21:13Both of them dropped to their knees at the same time.
21:15They didn't choose to.
21:17Something buried deep in their blood.
21:18Something that overrowed every Alpha command.
21:21Forced their bodies down against their will.
21:23Their knees slammed into the broken stone.
21:26Caspian fought it.
21:28Veins bulged in his neck.
21:29His teeth ground together so hard I could hear it from where I stood.
21:32He couldn't lift a single finger.
21:34Damien's face had gone white.
21:36Deep inside his soul, the mate bond he had severed with his own hands was tearing back through him.
21:42Every ounce of pain I had felt when he cut me off was hitting him now, multiplied.
21:48He raised his head.
21:50His eyes were shot through with red.
21:53Ivy?
21:53He finally recognized me.
21:55I didn't answer him.
21:57I turned and looked at Serena.
21:59She was backing away, clutching her hand, her face frozen in disbelief.
22:04But I wasn't focused on her face.
22:07My nose had caught something.
22:09A faint scent drifting from her sleeve, witching herbs.
22:13Black thornberry extract.
22:15Odorless and tasteless.
22:17Long-term use created a false sense of mate bond dependency in alphas towards a specific person.
22:22I shifted back to human form.
22:25Elder.
22:26Check what your future Luna has been hiding in her sleeve.
22:30My voice was quiet, but every wolf in the square heard it.
22:34The Elder was still on the ground.
22:36But two enforcers had already rushed forward.
22:39Serena screamed and stumbled backward.
22:41Don't touch me!
22:43I'm the Luna!
22:45Damien!
22:46Do something!
22:50Nobody listened.
22:52An enforcer ripped her sleeve open.
22:55A small vial of thick black liquid rolled out and hit the stone tiles.
23:01The cat popped off.
23:03A sharp, sickly sweet smell spread across the square instantly.
23:09The Elder's face went green the second he caught the scent.
23:14Black thornberry!
23:16This is a witching drug!
23:21She has been drugging the Alpha!
23:24That is why he bonded with a woman who has no mate bond with him.
23:28It was never fate.
23:29It was the drug!
23:31Dead silence.
23:33Then the square exploded.
23:35He pointed out!
23:35The Alpha?
23:36No wonder the Moonstone shattered!
23:37That woman was a fraud!
23:39She used witchcraft on our Alpha!
23:42That's treason!
23:43Serena's face went from white to gray.
23:45She turned to Damien.
23:46Her lips trembled.
23:47Damien, you believe me?
23:48I didn't.
23:49I would never...
23:50Damien didn't look at him.
23:51He was on his knees in the rubble, drenched in sweat, his eyes locked on me.
23:54Seize her.
23:55The Elder's voice came from behind.
23:57On the charge of treason,
23:59Serena Blackweck is to be detained immediately.
24:03Two enforcers grabbed Serena by the arms and dragged her away.
24:06She thrashed and fought, his screams cutting through the night.
24:09Damien!
24:11You said you loved me!
24:14You said I was your Luna!
24:16Damien didn't move.
24:17I looked down at the two of them, both still on their knees.
24:21Honestly, I could barely stand.
24:23The first shift had drained almost everything I had.
24:26The two heartbeats in my belly were pounding hard,
24:28protesting everything I had just put my body through.
24:31But I held on long enough to look Damien in the eye.
24:34You told me I didn't deserve to be your Luna.
24:37Now you know the truth.
24:38You were too blind to see it.
24:41Someone drugged you, and you couldn't even tell what was real.
24:44But even without the drug, you never once looked at me.
24:47Did you?
24:48Damien's throat moved.
24:49He opened his mouth.
24:50I didn't let him speak.
24:52From today, you and I have nothing to do with each other.
24:55I straighted up and turned around.
24:57On my first step, my legs buckled.
25:00On the second, my vision went black.
25:02On the third, my knees hit the stone.
25:07I didn't hit the ground.
25:09Someone caught me.
25:10One arm wrapped around my waist from behind.
25:12The other hand cradled the back of my head.
25:14Steady.
25:14Precise.
25:15As if he had calculated exactly when my third step would give out.
25:18I caught a faint scent.
25:19Pine and frozen earth.
25:21Familiar.
25:21The cloaked wolf.
25:22Caspian finally broke free of the suppression and surged to his feet.
25:26Let her go.
25:27She's ours.
25:28Yours?
25:28The cloaked wolf's voice was calm, almost polite.
25:31But the moment he spoke, the temperature across the entire square dropped.
25:35An alpha aura far more terrifying than Damien's rolled outward.
25:39Every wolf in the square, including the twins, buckled.
25:42Not to their knees.
25:43Their legs just went soft.
25:44Pure instinct.
25:46Screaming at them to submit.
25:47The wind caught the edge of his cloak and pulled it open.
25:51Underneath was not rags.
25:52It was a black jacket.
25:54A silver wolf head crest was pinned at the collar.
25:57The elder's face changed instantly.
26:00That crest.
26:02That's the rogue king's crest.
26:05A wave of ghast swept through the square.
26:08The rogue king.
26:09Leader of the largest exile alliance in the northern territories.
26:12He belonged to no pack.
26:13He answered to no elder council.
26:15His followers were the most savage cast out alphas from every corner of the continent.
26:18Rumor said he had wiped out two mid-sized packs on his own.
26:21Rumor said his wolf form was pure black.
26:23As large as the ancient wolves.
26:25And this man was standing in the middle of their square.
26:28One arm around my waist.
26:30His other hand brushing the blood-mad hair from my face.
26:33Stay awake.
26:34You can't sleep yet.
26:35He looked down at me.
26:36His voice was low.
26:38My mind was barely hanging on.
26:41Are you here to repay a debt?
26:45My lips moved, but my voice was almost gone.
26:48Allie, six months ago.
26:51All I did was pull you out.
26:53You don't have to.
26:55This isn't about a debt.
26:56He pulled me closer.
26:58I'm here to take you home.
27:00Damien got to his feet.
27:01The calm was gone from his face.
27:04What replaced it was something I had never seen on him before.
27:08Panic.
27:09His voice was raw.
27:11She's my mate.
27:12She belongs to this pack.
27:14You have no right...
27:15Excuse me?
27:16The rogue king lifted his gaze.
27:18His eyes were pure black.
27:19No light in them at all.
27:21You severed the mate bond yourself.
27:23You threw her into Dead Man's Valley.
27:26She's free now.
27:27On what grounds do you claim she's yours?
27:29Damien had nothing to say.
27:31Caspian charged forward.
27:33Don't you dare play games with me!
27:35The rogue king didn't even glance at him.
27:37He tilted his head half an inch.
27:39A black wolf shadow shot out from behind him.
27:41So fast, the human eye could barely track it.
27:44Caspian's body flew twenty feet through the air and slammed into the wreckage of the altar.
27:48Blood sprayed from his mouth on impact.
27:51Nobody in the square moved.
27:52The rogue king looked down at me.
27:54He pulled off his black cloak with one hand and wrapped it around my body.
27:58The cloak was huge.
28:00It covered me almost entirely.
28:02It smelled of pine and frozen earth.
28:04It was warm.
28:05Let's go, he said.
28:07I had no strength left to answer, but my fingers found the edge of his cloak and held on.
28:12I didn't let go.
28:14He carried me and turned towards the hills.
28:16Thousands of wolves parted to make a path.
28:19Not one of them dared to step in his way.
28:21Damien stood where he was.
28:22He watched another alpha carry me away.
28:25His hands were clenched into fists.
28:27His nails had broken the skin of his palms.
28:33Blood dripped between his fingers, but he couldn't take a single step.
28:37His wolf was howling inside him, slamming against his consciousness.
28:41The remnants of the mate bond were burning through his soul.
28:44He had severed it himself.
28:46Now the backlash had come.
28:48The crackling of a fire woke me up.
28:50I opened my eyes.
28:52Rough wooden beams crossed the ceiling above me.
28:55The air smelled of burning pine resin and faint herbal medicine.
28:59I was lying on a bed covered in thick animal pleps.
29:02My wounds had been treated.
29:04The silver burns were covered in dark green salb.
29:07My broken ribs were wrapped and stabilized.
29:10My left shin was splinted tight between two wooden blades.
29:14I moved my fingers.
29:16Two faint fluttered came from my belly.
29:19Still there.
29:20They were still there.
29:21The tears hit me all at once.
29:23I had held it together in Dead Man's Valley.
29:26I had held it together on the altar.
29:28But now, finally, I broke.
29:33You're up?
29:34The door opened.
29:35The rogue king walked in carrying a bowl of hot soup.
29:38He had changed into clean clothes.
29:41No military jacket.
29:42Just a plain black long-sleeved shirt and worn jeans.
29:45His hair was tied back loosely.
29:47He didn't look anything close to the terrifying rogue king.
29:50He could have passed for a regular alpha who had just walked out of the kitchen.
29:54Where am I?
29:55The Northern Territories.
29:56My territory.
29:58He set the bowl on the wooden stool beside the bed.
30:01You're safe.
30:02I stared at the soup.
30:03Why should I trust you?
30:04You don't have to.
30:06He leaned against the doorframe.
30:07Arms crossed.
30:08But right now you've got three broken ribs, a fractured left leg, silver burns all over
30:13your body, and two pups in your belly.
30:15Where exactly do you think you'd go?
30:18I opened my mouth.
30:19Everything he said was true.
30:23Drink the soup.
30:25He said.
30:25It's not as good once it gets cold.
30:27I hesitated.
30:28Then I picked up the bowl.
30:30Bone broth.
30:30Thick and rich, with chopped herbs mixed in.
30:33Slightly bitter.
30:34But the warmth hit my stomach and my whole body loosened up.
30:37What's your name?
30:38I asked.
30:39Ronan.
30:40That's it?
30:40No last name?
30:41No pack?
30:42Rogues don't have packs.
30:44His voice was even.
30:45I was exiled from my original one.
30:48Why?
30:49Killed someone I shouldn't have.
30:50He didn't explain further.
30:52I didn't push.
30:53We sat in silence for a moment.
30:56You know I'm pregnant?
30:57I looked at him.
30:59I can smell it.
31:00Two of them.
31:01And you're not worried about the trouble?
31:03Taking in another Alpha's mate?
31:05Pregnant with his pups?
31:06Damien won't let this go.
31:08Ronan glanced at me.
31:09His black eyes held no complicated emotions.
31:12Just calm.
31:13When you saved me in that alley six months ago, did you know I was the rogue king?
31:18No.
31:19Then why did you do it?
31:21You were dying.
31:23Exactly.
31:24He nudged the soup bowl toward me, telling me to keep drinking.
31:28Same reason.
31:29I lowered my head and buried my face in the steam rising from the bowl.
31:34The tears mixed with the hot broth and I swallowed them both down.
31:38Two months later, I gave birth to two pups in Ronan's cabin in the Northern Territories.
31:43The delivery nearly killed me.
31:45My body was already weak.
31:48The silver poisoning made it worse halfway through.
31:51I passed out completely.
31:52One of Ronan's healers delivered them.
31:54When I woke up, two tiny bodies were curled against my chest.
31:58A boy and a girl.
31:59The boy had gray-blue eyes.
32:01Damien's eyes.
32:02The girl had a faint ring of gold around the edge of her pupils.
32:06The same gold my eyes had turned when I shifted.
32:09They were so small.
32:10So small that I was afraid a single turn in my sleep would crush them.
32:16Ronan was standing in the doorway, arms crossed as usual.
32:19Got names picked out?
32:20The boy is Asher.
32:21The girl is Selene.
32:24Selene?
32:24He raised an eyebrow.
32:26I knew what he was thinking.
32:28Luna.
32:28The title that had been taken from me.
32:30That's not why.
32:31I pressed a kiss to my daughter's forehead.
32:33It means moonlight.
32:35The moon was shining through the window when she was born.
32:38Ronan didn't say anything.
32:40He walked over and looked down at the two pups.
32:43Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out two small braided cords.
32:47He tied one around each of their ankles.
32:49Northern Territories tradition.
32:51He said.
32:52Any pup born on my land is under my protection.
32:56Nobody takes them.
32:58Not for any reason.
32:59I looked up at him.
33:01You know Damien will come for them eventually.
33:03I know.
33:04He's not just any alpha.
33:06He has an entire PAX army behind him.
33:09I know.
33:10And that doesn't scare you?
33:12Ronan tilted his head down.
33:13The firelight reflected in his black eyes.
33:16Twelve PAX have put a bounty on my head at the same time.
33:18His voice was casual, as if he were talking about the weather.
33:23One more won't make a difference.
33:24Damien found us on the day the pups turned one month old.
33:27He had actually located the Northern Territories a month earlier.
33:31But Ronan's wolves had driven every one of his scouts back.
33:34This time he came himself.
33:36No army.
33:37Just him and Caspian.
33:38They were standing in the snow outside the cabin.
33:41Both of them looked terrible.
33:42Damien had lost at least 20 pounds.
33:44His cheeks were hollow, his skin was gray, and his lips were cracked.
33:49The mate-bond backlash had been tearing him apart for months.
33:52Caspian wasn't much better.
33:54His left arm was strapped to his chest.
33:57Word was that Ronan's wolf had broken it at the altar, and it still hadn't healed.
34:01I stood behind the window, holding Selina in my arms.
34:04Asher was asleep on the bed.
34:06Ronan had his back to me, sharpening a hunting knife.
34:09He didn't look up.
34:10Wanna see them?
34:12No.
34:15Then I'll go run them off.
34:17Wait.
34:18I hesitated for one second.
34:20Then I put Selina down, pulled on a jacket, and opened the door.
34:24Damien saw me and froze.
34:26His eyes went to my face first.
34:28Then they swept down over my body.
34:30I wasn't the starving skeleton from the Grey Sector anymore.
34:33The food in the Northern Territories was good.
34:36Ronan's herbal remedies had done their job.
34:39My skin had color again.
34:41My body had filled out.
34:43My eyes were bright.
34:45Then his gaze locked onto a spot near my chest.
34:48I hadn't brought the pups outside with me, but he could smell them.
34:52Milk.
34:53And underneath it, a bloodline scent identical to his own.
34:58Ivy.
34:58His voice cracked.
35:00You were pregnant?
35:01No.
35:01You had them.
35:02You had our pups!
35:03I didn't answer his question.
35:05What do you want?
35:07To bring you home.
35:08Home?
35:09Back to being your drug?
35:10Your sedative?
35:12Back to kneeling in the Grey Sector where nobody can see me?
35:15No.
35:16Damien stepped forward.
35:18I found out the truth.
35:19Serena had been dosing me and Cassian with Black Thornberry for three straight years.
35:23The things I said to you, the things I did, half of that was the drug controlling me.
35:28Half?
35:29I smiled.
35:30What about the other half?
35:32Damien's lips moved without sound for a moment.
35:34The other half was my own prejudice.
35:36And my own cowardice.
35:38His voice dropped so low I almost couldn't hear it.
35:40I know an apology means nothing.
35:42I don't deserve your forgiveness.
35:44But those pups, they carry my blood.
35:46Let me be clear.
35:47My voice went cold.
35:49They are my children, not yours.
35:52You wanted them dead before they were even born.
35:55Have you forgotten?
35:59At the edge of Dead Man's Valley, you told Caspian to throw me down.
36:03You said the ceremony was about to start.
36:06You said Serena was waiting.
36:09That wasn't me.
36:10That was the drug.
36:11You just told me the drug was only half.
36:14Damien looked gutted.
36:15Every bit of air seemed to leave his body.
36:17Caspian stepped forward.
36:19We can make it up to you.
36:20Make it up to me?
36:21I turned to him.
36:22You told me you'd rip my tongue out.
36:24You dragged me across rocks for 15 feet with a silver chain and now you want to make it up
36:27to me?
36:28Caspian opened his mouth.
36:29Closed it.
36:30He had nothing.
36:31Go home.
36:32I step back and grip the door handle.
36:34The bond between us is gone.
36:36I have no pack.
36:37I have no alpha.
36:38And I don't need one.
36:40My children are protected.
36:42You don't need to worry about them.
36:44I shut the door.
36:46Outside, the snow kept falling.
36:48They didn't leave right away.
36:50They stood in the snow outside the cabin for the entire night.
36:53The next morning, Ronan opened the door and looked at them.
36:57You leaving or not?
36:58Damien lifted his head.
36:59Frost clung to his eyelashes.
37:01His lips had turned purple from the cold.
37:03Let me see the pups.
37:05Just once.
37:07Ronan turned and looked at me.
37:08I was holding both pups.
37:10I looked down at Asher, S. Gray, blue eyes.
37:13Those eyes were identical to Damien.
37:15S. I was quiet for a long time.
37:17One minute.
37:18Damien S. steps were careful when he walked in.
37:20He was trying not to wake anyone.
37:22He saw Asher and Selene.
37:24Two tiny pups, nestled together in a fur blanket.
37:28Sleeping soundly.
37:29Damien raised his hand.
37:31He reached toward Asher's face.
37:33His hand stopped in midair.
37:35His fingers were trembling.
37:37He didn't T-touch him.
37:39He pulled his hand back and took a step away.
37:45His voice was barely there.
37:47Fragile in a way I had never heard from him before.
37:49Then he turned and walked out of the cabin.
37:52At the doorway, Caspian had seen them too.
37:54The man the entire pack called the Rabid Dog was standing in the snow, staring at the two
38:00small babies inside.
38:01His eyes were red, but he said nothing.
38:04They left.
38:05They disappeared into the Northern Territory's blizzard.
38:08Ronan shut the door and tossed two logs into the fire.
38:11They'll be back, he said.
38:13I know.
38:14What are you going to do?
38:15I looked down at the two pups in my arms.
38:18Selene yawned in her sleep.
38:19A tiny, perfect yawn.
38:22Asher's small hand was wrapped around my finger, gripping tight.
38:26I don't know, I said honestly.
38:28But I'm never going back.
38:30I looked up at Ronan.
38:31Firelight played across the side of his face.
38:34He didn't offer any comforting words.
38:36He just nodded.
38:37Then he pulled a small blanket from the cabinet and laid it over Selene.
38:41Winter's are rough up here, he said.
38:43Can't let the pups get cold.
38:44Outside, the blizzard had stopped.
38:47Moonlight broke through the clouds and spread across the snow.
38:50I pulled both children a little closer.
38:52For some reason, I thought of Nana.
38:55The shape her lips had made right before she died.
38:58Run.
38:59Nana.
39:00I made it out.
39:00I didn't know what would come next.
39:04Damien wouldn't give up.
39:05Neither would Caspian.
39:07Their blood was in my arms.
39:09Their obsession was carved into their bones.
39:12But I wasn't the same waste from the Gray Sector anymore.
39:14I had my wolf.
39:16I had my children.
39:17From today on, I was just Ivy.
39:19The white wolf.
39:20And I had my own life to protect.
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