Chapter 70

[ 1,147 words ]

Chapter 70

My heart slams once against my ribs, then holds.

“Who p>

N ༥

Felix doesn’t answer right away. He steps past me, slow and deliberate, like each motion is a ritual he’s done before but never wanted to. His boots echo softly against the ancient stone, a steady rhythm in the silence that stretches between us. He looks down the spiral stairwell, where frost gives way to something darker, older, humming just beneath the surface. The air thickens with it.

“Alpha Marcus,” he says finally, voice low, “wasn’t supposed to get close to you. Not emotionally. Not politically. But he always was too curious for his own good p>

I blink, confused and cold. “ Then why was I brought here? Why was I kept here? What does he want p>

Silence. Heavy, almost suffocating. Felix turns slowly, and in the flickering blue hue that coats the walls, I see him clearly now, not just the man I’ve known my whole life, the one who taught me to ride and showed me how to swing a sword, but someone older. Worn. Weathered by truths too heavy to carry alone. His eyes afe glassy, shadowed.

“I brought you here, Envy p>

The words hit like a punch to the gut.

“You were left at the border, yes, but not by accident. That day…the day I found you… ” He pauses, swallowing hard. “It was the day I died p>

My breath catches. “What? ”

He meets my eyes. “I was given a choice. Persephone herself stood before me. I was meant to go straight to the Underworld for the things I’d done. Things I regret more than you could know. But she gave me an option. One chance. I could be returned. Reborn, in a way. On one condition. ”

I don’t realize I’ve taken a step back until my shoulders hit the wall. “What condition? ”

He takes a breath like it hurts. “Watch over you. Protect you. Keep you safe until you come of age. ”

The walls feel like they’re closing in. “Safe from what p>

Felix steps closer now, and for the first time since I’ve known him, I don’t feel comfort in his presence. I feel … small. Seen. But not in a way that makes me feel known, in a way that makes me feel marked.

“Not what, Envy. Who p>

He gestures to the stairwell behind us. Down, where the whispers still call.

“There are things beneath this house that Marcus was never meant to find. Things older than this pack. Older than most realms. What he found were fragments, runes, relics, prophecies, but no real understanding of what they meant. So, he found those who could help him p>

“I don’t understand p>

“No,” he agrees softly. “Not yet. Because you’re not ready. You haven’t marked your mates,” he says. “Until you do, your power, your real power, stays locked inside you. Half–asleep. And so do theirs. Together, you’re more than just wolves, hounds, and people. You’re something else entirely p>

Something cold slides down my spine. “What am I? ”

His voice drops to barely a whisper. “You’re the tether p>

I shake my head. “To what? ”

To everything,” he says, “The Underworld. The Veil. The magic that binds the divine and the damned. You are the gate, Envy. The line between what lives and what should not. That’s why you were hidden. That’s why the veil clings to you. That’s why the gods marked you… and why the monsters want to claim you. ”

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Chapter 70

My mouth is dry. “And Marcus? ”

“He wanted to harness you,” Felix says, eyes burning now. “For power. For control. For war. ”

The word sits heavy between us.

“There is a war coming, ” he says. “A great unravelling. Not just between packs or species but between worlds. And when it does, they’ll look to you. ”

I stare at the stairwell. At the place where the runes had once sealed me out. At the ancient magic that now seems to pull me in.

“Why me? ” I whisper.

Felix’s voice softens. “Because only a soul forged in both light and shadow can hold the doorway shut or rip it open p>

I don’t remember climbing the stairs.

One minute I’m staring into that abyss and Felix is warning me, telling me I’m the fucking tether between realms like that’s normal dinner conversation and the next, I’m inside the pack house, in our bedroom, staring blankly at the wall while my mind swims with thought. My heart hasn’t stopped racing since I touched that door. The problem is … it wasn’t fear. Not entirely. There’s something dangerous about knowing you’re meant for more than you’ve been told. Something terrifying and thrilling in equal measure. And I’ve spent my whole life surviving, fighting to matter in a world that didn’t want me. Now, it turns out I might matter too much. Tether. War. Power. Me. My Mates.

My mates portal into the room, scrambling to get to me.

“Where the hell have you been?! We couldn’t locate you for hours. ” Xavier says first, running his hands up and down my arms.

“I need to talk to all of you,” I say, voice steady despite the adrenaline still coursing through me. “Now p>

“Okay, yes, definitely, we should talk, but let’s eat while we do it. You’ve clearly been through a lot today, love.” Haiden says, taking my hand gently in his own.

We’re seated in the private dining room within minutes. The table is set, food steaming under silver domes, but no one touches a thing. Not even Haiden.

“I went beneath Tolaris, ” I say, before anyone can ask.

Xavier’s brows furrow. “What do you mean? ”

“I mean beneath. Past the closed floors, the blocked halls, the sealed doors. Past everything, Marcus told me never to go near. ”

Their expressions harden,

“There’s something down there, ” I continue. “Something old. Ancient, even. It’s not just rogue wolves or secrets. It’s…magic. Runes. A vault buried in stone, locked by blood p>

“Yours? ” Levi asks quietly.

I nod. “Yeah. It recognized me. ”

They all go still.

Felix was right, I haven’t marked them yet, and without that connection, they can’t feel everything I’m feeling. Can’t sense the gravity of what I saw. But they’re smart Tactical. Dangerous in their own right. And they’re not stupid enough to brush this off.

“I’m not just a wolf, or I guess, hellhound, or the Queen of the underworld,” I say finally. “Felix told me… I’m something else. Something that is physically tied to the underworld p>

“Tied to the underworld?” Haiden echoes, like the word tastes bitter in his mouth.

look up, eyes meeting Xavier’s. “He said I’m the tether. Between realms. That I’m the reason Marcus kept me p>

Xavier doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t move. But I can see the shift behind his eyes. The calculations. The instinctive protectiveness that flares when

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