Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 80

Chapter 80

Maya

I loved them.

I loved the Blackridge Heirs with everything in me.

I knew it was wrong. Caden was my mate, and I loved him more than anything. But I loved Leo and Tylon

too.

I loved Leo’s gentle kindness, and his ability to just understand me even when the others didn’t.

Tylon was a pain in the ass, but I loved his ever-present instinct to protect me, and help me, even when he

doesn’t want to.

I didn’t think I loved them the way I loved Caden. But I still did.

And that meant that while they were here risking their lives to save me, I would do the same.

I forced myself upright again, and the moment I pushed my palms back onto the relic, heat shot through my arms so violently I gasped.

It felt like plunging my hands into the heart of a furnace. The stone ignited beneath my skin as if recognizing me, pulling me closer with a force I couldn’t fight this time. The sigil glowed beneath my fingers, brighter than before, pulsing like a frantic heartbeat.

Caden’s voice tore through the bond so sharply it made my head snap back.

‘Maya, stop!’ His panic crashed over me so fiercely I staggered, but I didn’t pull away. I couldn’t.

‘If I open it,’ I whispered shakily, ‘maybe I can help you!”

His response hit like a growl in my skull. ‘We don’t know what it unleashes. It could destroy everything-‘

‘Or save you!’ I shouted. ‘I’m not letting you die for me!’

Before he could answer, the forest exploded.

Wolves, massive, fast and familiar, charged from the treeline behind me. Their scents hit me one by one, heavy and warm and unmistakable. Blackridge wolves.

Tylon called for reinforcements.

Relief and everything similar flooded into me, and I could tell a part of it wasn’t only mine.

Rohan snapped his head toward the sound, genuine surprise ripping across his sharp features. The confidence in his posture faltered for the first time.

I didn’t have to look far to see Tylon’s wolves ripping into the rogues with brutal coordination, shredding

them apart with a precision only pack wolves had. Snarls and bone-crunching sounds filled the grove, and the balance that had been slipping so fast suddenly shifted back toward us.

A shaky breath left me. We weren’t losing. Not anymore.

Caden used the distraction to break away from Rohan’s circle of wolves. His hulking brown wolf form barreled through bodies until he reached me, throwing himself between me and the nearest threat.

I felt the bond pull tight with relief and desperation as he shifted mid-stride, fur melting into skin until he was human again, bleeding and exhausted, but alive.

I yanked my hoodie off the ground and shoved it around him before anyone else could see him exposed. His hands cupped my jaw instantly as if checking for injuries, checking to see if I was still breathing, and checking everything at once because he never did anything halfway.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, breath rough in my ear. “Look at me, Maya. Did anything touch you?”

I shook my head, even though my skull still rang from the relic’s call. “I’m okay. I’m okay now.”

He exhaled shakily and pulled me into his chest for one fierce second before pushing me slightly behind him.

“I need to get you out of here,” he said, scanning the grove again. “I don’t care what that bastard said. He’s trying to mess with our heads. You’re my mate. Only mine.”

Something twisted inside me at those words… something reluctant and uncertain, but this was not the moment to unravel. I just nodded, clutching his arm as he lifted me like I weighed nothing. The bond vibrated with his urgency, his terror, and his single-minded need to protect.

But he didn’t get far.

Rohan’s voice tore through the fight like lightning.

“She’s coming with me!” he bellowed, his now calm and collected demeanor gone.

Caden spun just in time to see Rohan shift.

It was instant in one breath and one ripple of muscle, then a massive black wolf stood where the man had

been.

He was bigger than any rogue, and bigger than most of Tylon’s wolves. By my estimation, he was only slightly smaller than Caden, but still lean, quick and evidently ready to kill.

Caden froze for half a heartbeat, then he put me down behind him.

“I’ll come back for you,” he said in a low tender voice, breaking but resolute.

He didn’t wait for my answer. His shift ripped through him like a detonation of power, fur exploding through skin as his wolf roared into existence again. Then he lunged.

Wolf collided with wolf, two giants slamming together in a blur of fangs and claws and raw hatred. The ground shook with each impact. Their teeth snapped inches from each other’s throats. They were fighting like

Chapter 80

the world depended on it… because tonight, maybe it did. Somewhere in the blur, Tylon joined as a rogues flanked Caden to defend Rohan.

I stumbled back, unable to tear my eyes away from them, from the sound of bone meeting bone, from the sickening crack as they crashed into a tree so hard the bark split.

But something else seized me before I could move.

An invisible force wrapped around my ribs, dragging me backward… dragging me towards the stone.

My breath hitched painfully as my feet began to slide across the ground toward the relic.

“No-no, no, no!” I clawed at the dirt, grabbing roots and grass and anything my hands could find, but my fingers slipped.

The relic pulsed beneath the soil, calling-no- commanding me forward, like it was sick of being polite and waiting for me to make a move. The worse part, my body wasn’t strong enough to resist it.

It was Aelera, or something in between. Something older and powerful that wanted to be freed, and that Rohan wanted too.

My body jerked forward again, and I fell on my hands on knees in front of the stone.

I glanced around for anything or anyone for help.

The chaos around was ebbing, but the fight was still very much active.

But Leo saw me first.

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