Mated to Her Alpha Instructor (Eileen and Regis) novel Chapter 238

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Chapter 238

The chains had snapped minutes ago—I didn’t know how, didn’t care. All that mattered was crawling to Mother.

She lay crumpled at the circle’s edge, silver manacles still locked around her wrists even though the connecting chains had shattered. Her face was gray. Bruised. Dried blood caked her temple.

But her eyes were open. Fixed on me.

“Nina.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “You need to run.”

“I’m not leaving you.” My hands shook as I tried to lift her. She weighed almost nothing—when had she gotten so light? “Come on, we can—”

The ground convulsed.

I looked up just in time to see Cornelius slam that horrible runestone into the ritual circle’s center. Purple-black light exploded outward like shockwaves, and suddenly the runes carved into the earth weren’t just glowing—they were burning.

The air turned thick. Hot. Wrong.

“No.” Mother’s hand locked around my wrist with surprising strength. “Nina, listen to me—”

“The circle’s collapsing!” I could feel it—some instinct I didn’t understand screaming danger. “We have to—”

“There’s no time.” She pulled me close, her breath rattling. “He built a fail-safe. If the ritual is interrupted, the whole array will detonate.”

My blood turned to ice. “What?”

“Three minutes.” Her eyes were too calm. Too resigned. “Maybe less.”

Around us, the purple light intensified. Cracks spread through the ground, glowing from within. The air tasted like ozone and ash.

Owen was slumped against a boulder twenty feet away, poison arrows jutting from his back. Eileen and Regis lay in the circle’s heart, both barely breathing. If this thing exploded—

“We’ll die.” The words came out flat. Emotionless. Some part of me had already accepted it.

“You won’t.” Mother’s hand moved to my face, cupping my cheek. “My brave girl. You won’t.”

Something in her tone made me look at her—really look. Her eyes weren’t resigned.

They were determined.

“Mother, no—”

“I sealed your power when you were born.” She spoke quickly now, urgently. “To protect you. To hide you from people like him.” A glance toward where Cornelius was laughing, mad and triumphant. “But you’re not a child anymore.”

“What are you talking about?” My voice cracked. “I don’t have power, I’m just—”

“You are the daughter of a moon-blessed wolf and an ancient witch bloodline.” Her grip tightened. “You were never powerless, Nina. I just… I couldn’t let them use you the way they used me.”

Tears blurred my vision. “Please don’t—”

“By blood I bound you.” Her voice changed—took on a resonance that made the air vibrate. Ancient words in a language I shouldn’t understand but somehow did. “By blood I free you.”

“Let the seal break. Let the power wake.” Mother’s voice was fading, growing distant even though she was right in front of me. “Let my daughter be whole.”

Nina.

Thea’s voice. But different. Stronger. No longer the timid, half-formed presence I’d felt when I’d shifted before Adrian.

The seal, she breathed in wonder. She didn’t just bind your magic. She bound half of ME.

I gasped as the truth hit. All those years I’d thought my wolf was weak, incomplete—it wasn’t natural. Mother had split Thea’s power to hide the witch blood from detection.

We’re whole now, Thea growled. Feel it.

The purple light intensified. I looked down and watched in shock as my hands began to shift—not fully into wolf form, but something between. Claws lengthened, dark and gleaming. Fur rippled across my forearms, but it wasn’t the pale gray I’d seen in the forest.

It was purple. Deep amethyst shot through with silver, shimmering like starlight on water.

The witch magic and wolf magic merged. Spiraled together in my chest like twin flames becoming one inferno.

When I opened my eyes, the world looked different. Sharper. I could see the magic now—purple threads of power bleeding from the collapsing ritual circle, silver moonlight pooling around Eileen’s unconscious form. I could smell the wrongness of Cornelius’s corruption, taste the death magic coating the air.

And I could feel Mother’s life force, guttering like a candle in a storm.

“No.” I reached for her, but she was already pulling away. “Mother, please—”

“You’re free now.” She smiled—actually smiled—even as her skin began to turn translucent. “That’s all I ever wanted.”

“Mother—”

“You were never a mistake, Nina.” Her voice was barely a whisper now. “You are my greatest blessing. Live. Live for both of us.”

Her hand fell away.

Her body dissolved into silver light.

And she was gone.