POV: Corvus
Thaddeus's heart stopped, and time stopped with it.
"NO!" Serephina caught her son before he hit the ground, violet flames exploding around her in panic. "Baby, no no no, breathe! BREATHE!"
I dropped beside them, pressing my ear to the boy's chest. Nothing. His small body was limp, his lips already turning blue. The royal power that had surged through him moments ago—too much, too fast, too young.
It had burned him out from the inside.
"Move!" Finnian shoved past the stunned Council wolves, his healer instincts overriding his fear. He placed both hands on Thaddeus's chest and pushed magic into the boy. "His heart can't handle the power surge. He's only five—royal blood isn't supposed to manifest until puberty. This is killing him!"
"Then STOP it!" Serephina begged, tears streaming. "Please, you have to save him! I just got him back, I can't—I CAN'T—"
Finnian's face was grim. "I can restart his heart, but if the power keeps surging, it'll just stop again. We need to suppress his magic until he's old enough to control it, or—"
"Or he'll die within the hour," Morvana finished, her ancient voice heavy with sorrow. The spirit wolf materialized fully, her violet-flame form casting eerie shadows. "I've seen this before. Royal cubs who manifest too early always burn out. It's why Thornecrown children were traditionally kept in spelled nurseries until they came of age."
Serephina looked at me with such desperate hope it nearly broke me. "Can you do it? Can you suppress his magic like Isolde did to mine?"
Everything in me recoiled at the idea. Suppression spells were what had tortured Serephina for seven years, what had nearly destroyed her. But this was different. This was to save a life, not control one.
"I don't know the spell," I admitted, hating my own helplessness. "Suppression magic requires blood ritual and—"
"I know it." Isolde's ancient voice cut through the chaos.
Everyone turned to stare at the old woman who'd caused all this suffering. She stood surrounded by Council wolves, her wrists now bound in silver after Kael's recording had exposed her crimes. But her eyes were locked on Thaddeus.
On her great-grandson, dying because of magic she'd tried to steal.
"You?" Serephina snarled, pulling Thaddeus closer. "You're the reason he's like this! You tried to drain his power! You—"
"I'm also the only one here who can save him." Isolde's voice was flat, emotionless. "The suppression ritual requires someone of the child's bloodline to anchor it. I'm his great-grandmother. It has to be me."
"No." Serephina's refusal was absolute. "I won't let you touch him again. You'll just—"
Thaddeus gasped, his small body convulsing. His heart had restarted, but barely. His lips moved, trying to form words: "M-mommy... hurts..."
Finnian looked at Serephina with agony in his eyes. "He has maybe ten minutes. Less, if the power surges again. You have to decide."
The choice was impossible. Trust the woman who'd destroyed her life to save her son, or watch Thaddeus die trying to find another way.
I saw the moment Serephina's heart shattered and reformed into something harder.
"If you hurt him," she whispered to Isolde, "if you try to control him or bind him or do anything except SAVE him, I will rip you apart so slowly you'll beg for death. Do you understand me?"
Isolde's ancient eyes met hers. For the first time, I saw something almost like regret there. "I understand."
The Council wolves released her. Isolde knelt beside Thaddeus, her wrinkled hands hovering over his small chest. She began to chant—words in the old language, the kind of magic that predated written history.
Violet flames erupted from Thaddeus's skin, fighting the suppression. The boy screamed in pain.
"Hold him!" Isolde barked. "The magic will resist being bound!"
Serephina wrapped her arms around her son while I held his legs. Finnian pressed his hands to Thaddeus's forehead, using his healing magic to ease the pain. The ritual took forever—five minutes that felt like five hours of Thaddeus screaming and thrashing while violet flames tried to consume him.
Finally, the flames flickered and died.
Thaddeus went limp, breathing but unconscious. The royal power that had nearly killed him was now locked deep inside, waiting until he was old enough to control it.
"It's done," Isolde said quietly, sagging with exhaustion. "He'll live. The suppression will hold until he turns sixteen, then it'll fade naturally. He'll never know it was there."
Serephina pulled Thaddeus against her chest, sobbing with relief. "Thank you," she whispered, the words clearly painful. "I hate you for everything you've done, but... thank you for this."
Isolde nodded once. Then the Council wolves took her away in silver chains, her crimes exposed, her power broken.
The High Councilor cleared his throat. "Serephina Thornecrown, in light of... recent evidence... the Council will need to review your case. The charges against you may be—"
"Dismissed," Kael interrupted, still holding the recorder. "I have three hours of recordings. Isolde confessing to everything—the massacre of the royal family, the false mate bonds, the magical harvesting. Serephina is innocent. She's the victim."
The Councilor's face tightened, but he nodded. "Very well. The arrest warrant is suspended pending full investigation. However—" His eyes hardened. "—the law still forbids active use of royal bloodline magic. You may live, Serephina Thornecrown, but you cannot claim your throne. The Dynasty is still dissolved."
"I don't want a throne," Serephina said tiredly, cradling Thaddeus. "I just want my son safe."
The Council wolves left, taking Isolde with them. The clearing slowly emptied until only our small group remained—Serephina holding Thaddeus, Finnian checking the boy's vitals, Morvana watching over all of us, and me.
I watched Serephina rock her son gently, singing that lullaby about silver wolves and violet flames. The mate bond between us flickered weakly—damaged, maybe permanently, from how close I'd come to severing it.
But I'd do it again in a heartbeat to see her like this. Safe. Her son alive. Free.
"Corvus." She looked at me with those violet eyes, and my ancient wolf whimpered. "The bond. Is it... can it be fixed?"
I touched my chest where the connection used to burn bright and now barely glowed. "I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Does it matter?"
"Yes." Her voice broke. "You saved us. You were willing to destroy our bond to save Thaddeus, and I—" She swallowed hard. "I don't deserve you."
"Mayreath—"
"Don't." She stood carefully, still holding her sleeping son. "Don't call me that. Don't offer me loyalty I can't repay. The mate bond is broken because of me, because of my son, because—"
"Because I chose it," I interrupted firmly. "I chose to save him. I'd choose it again. And whether we have a bond or not, whether you accept me or not, I'm staying. You're my queen. That's not negotiable."
She stared at me for a long moment. Then Finnian cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Hate to interrupt, but we should move. Kael might have helped us today, but there are plenty of wolves who still want Serephina dead. We need to find somewhere safe before—"
A howl split the night. Then another. Then a dozen, all from different directions.
Morvana's ears flattened. "Hunters. Not Varnoth pack. These are Council-sanctioned wolf hunters. The kind they send after rogues and—"
"And dissolved royal bloodlines," I finished grimly. "The Councilor said the arrest was suspended. He didn't say they'd called off the hunt."
Serephina clutched Thaddeus tighter. "They're coming for us anyway."
"Not us." I scented the wind and my blood ran cold. "Just you. These hunters specialize in tracking specific bloodlines. They won't stop until—"
An arrow whistled through the air.
I moved on instinct, throwing myself in front of Serephina. The arrow hit my shoulder—silver-tipped, burning through my flesh like acid. I roared in pain but stayed standing.
Twenty hunters emerged from the trees. Wolves in human form, armed with silver weapons and anti-magic nets. Their leader—a scarred woman with dead eyes—smiled coldly.
"Serephina Thornecrown," she called. "By order of the Wolf Hunter's Guild, you're marked for execution. Royal bloodlines are illegal. Resistance will be met with lethal force."
"The Council suspended the arrest!" Finnian protested.
"The Council doesn't control us." The hunter loaded another arrow. "We have our own laws. Our own targets. And she's been on our list for thirty years." She drew back the bow, aiming directly at Serephina's heart. "Any last words, false queen?"
Serephina stood tall, violet flames dancing across her skin despite her exhaustion. "Yes. Just one."
She looked at me with those impossible violet eyes, and through the damaged mate bond, I felt her decision. Her choice. Her acceptance.
"Corvus Nightshade," she said clearly, "I accept the mate bond. Not because destiny demands it, but because I choose you."
The words hit me like lightning.
The damaged bond between us ignited—not just healed, but stronger. Brighter. The magic of her acceptance and my sacrifice wove together into something the Moon Goddess herself couldn't have planned better.
Power exploded outward from both of us.
The hunters screamed as violet and silver flames consumed their weapons, their nets, their arrows. Serephina and I stood together, our bond blazing between us like a star, and for the first time I understood.
We weren't just mates.
We were a weapon the Wolf Council had tried to prevent for thirty years.
The hunter leader's face went sheet-white. "Impossible. A fully bonded royal pair hasn't existed since—"
"Since my parents," Serephina finished coldly. "And you know what happened to the wolves who tried to kill them?"
The ground beneath us began to shake.
Thaddeus was still unconscious in Serephina's arms, his power suppressed. But our combined power? That was very much awake.
And it was furious.
The hunter turned to run—
And came face-to-face with something that made even me freeze in terror.
A massive wolf stood at the clearing's edge. Bigger than any I'd ever seen. Fur like starlight. Eyes like the void between worlds. Power that made the air itself bow.
"Hello, daughter," the impossible wolf said in a female voice I recognized from Serephina's memories.
The voice of Queen Sevana Thornecrown.
Who'd been dead for thirty years.