Alpha's STOLEN Mate (by Abigail Hayes) novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90

Elowen

The more she spoke, the more a strange, desperate ache was building in my chest. Through the mate bond I’d been trying so hand to

suppress, I could feel Kaius’s exhaustion, his growing desperation as he realized these creatures were essentially immortal

In the crystal ball, I watched him stumble as claws raked across his back leg, tearing away a chunk of muscle. Blood streamed down his

fur as he tried to keep moving, but his coordination was failing.

Suddenly, Evelyn gasped and pressed both hands to her temples. The crystal ball’s image flickered and went dark

“Fuck!” she cursed, her face pale with pain. “There’s magical interference disrupting my connection to the forest barrier. Someone or something-is blocking my scrying remotely.” She slumped in her chair, looking drained. ‘I can’t maintain the surveillance anymore. I need to rest and focus all my remaining energy on keeping the forest illusion.”

I nodded grimly. “Do that. Protect our territory first. Everything else is secondary.”

But Evelyn didn’t move to leave. Instead, she looked up at me with an expression of profound sadness that I’d never seen before. Her green eyes were bright with unshed tears as she spoke in a whisper.

“Alpha… Elowen, I know you’ve already made your choice about what you’re going to do next. Her voice carried the weight of absolute certainty. “But please, I’m begging you trust me one more time. If you leave this pack, you will die. My prophecy has never been clearer or more definite than it is right now. Please stay here where you’re safe.*

“But if your prophecy is one hundred percent accurate,” I said slowly, horror dawning on me, “then the person who dies today… it has to

be him.”

Evelyn’s face crumpled with sympathetic pain. “Elowen, I’m so sorry, but yes. That’s what I see most clearly now.”

But even as she spoke, agony exploded through my own body-not physical pain, but the echo of Kaius’s suffering transmitted through Honour bond. I could feel multiple sets of fangs sinking into his neck, could sense his life force beginning to ebb as magical poison flooded

his system.

“No,” I said firmly, surprising myself with the conviction in my voice. “I can’t watch this happen.”

I started toward the door, but Scarlett moved to block my path. “Elowen, you heard what Evelyn said—”

D&Don’t make me give you a direct alpha command,” I warned, my voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. “Stand down, Scarlett.”

ShShe froze in place, her body responding to the alpha compulsion even as her eyes pleaded with me to reconsider.

This crisis isn’t just about him and me,” I continued, looking between both of my closest advisors. “It’s about our entire pack. These Ure creatures know where we are now, they know our capabilities. If we don’t stop this threat, they’ll keep coming.” I turned to Scarlett. ‘I

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Chapter 90

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need you to protect our people while I’m gone. That’s an order, not a request.”

Tears were forming in Scarlett’s eyes, but she nodded reluctantly. ‘Promise me you’ll come back.”

“I promise,” I said, though we all knew how little such promises meant in the face of Evelyn’s prophecies.

I shifted to my white wolf form and burst through the barrier, moonlight revealing the path deeper into the forest. My enhanced senses

quickly located the sounds of battle-snarls, the crash of bodies against trees, the wet sound of claws meeting flesh.

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When I reached the clearing, the scene was even worse than the crystal ball had shown. Kaius was barely standing, his black fur matted

with blood from dozens of wounds. His left front paw was hanging at an odd angle, clearly broken, and there were deep gashes across his

neck that hadn’t stopped bleeding.

The enhanced rogues had formed a perfect circle around him, their mechanical precision beautiful and terrible. They moved like a single

organism, each attack calculated to drive him closer to collapse.

Just as the largest wolf prepared for what looked like a killing blow, I launched myself from the treeline. My claws erupted in white flame as I soared through the air, elemental fire trailing behind me like a comet’s tail.

The burning claws struck the first wolf, incinerating it instantly. I spun mid-air, my flaming claws cutting through two more enhanced rogues before they could even react. The remaining wolves tried to scatter, but my elemental fire was faster-within seconds, I had

reduced the entire pack to smoldering ash.

The clearing fell silent except for the sound of my own heavy breathing and the wounded black wolf’s labored pants.

I approached the injured wolf cautiously, my heart clenching at the sight of his wounds. Despite everything between us, despite how much I claimed to hate him, seeing him in such pain triggered something primal in me.

Without thinking, I lowered my head and began gently licking his wounds, an instinctive gesture of care and comfort that bypassed all rational thought. My tongue traced the deep gashes along his neck, trying to clean away the blood and promote healing.

The moment my tongue touched his fur, something felt wrong-but before I could process what, agony exploded through my chest.

The black wolf’s claws had driven straight through my heart with surgical precision, nearly tearing it from my body. The pain was instantaneous and overwhelming, but worse than the physical trauma was the devastating realization that crashed over me.

This wasn’t Kaius.

There was no familiar scent, no mate bond connection, nothing of the wolf I knew. As I stared in shock at my attacker, the illusion began to fade. The black fur shifted and changed, revealing the grotesque features of another enhanced rogue-this one capable of shapeshifting

and mimicry.

The creature’s red eyes gleamed with malicious triumph as it prepared for a killing blow, but it had made one critical mistake. In its arrogance, it had moved too close.

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Summoning every last ounce of strength I possessed, I ignited my claws one final time. White flame erupted from my paws as I drove

them straight through the shapeshifter’s skull, cooking its brain from the inside out. The creature collapsed into ash, its deception dying

with it.

Fucking hell, I thought bitterly as I felt my own life ebbing away. I’m actually dying for the person I hate most in this world. Of all the stupid,

ironic ways to go.

The prophecy was coming true after all-someone was going to die today. And that someone was me.

Darkness began creeping in from the edges of my vision as I collapsed beside the pile of ash that had been my killer.

Damn it all.

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Alpha’s STOLEN Mate