novelraw Chapter 329 - open beginning
Chapter 329 - open beginning
329
~Lisa’s POV
I helped Damon drag Rowan and Kael inside. Their bodies were cold and heavy, blood staining their clothes and hands. My heart raced so hard it hurt. Damon’s face was pale, jaw tight with worry as we laid them both on the floor of the healer’s room.
"Help them!" I cried out. "Please, they’ve lost too much blood!"
The healer rushed in, kneeling beside them. His hands moved fast, checking their pulse, their wounds, the color of their veins. After a long, tense silence, he looked up at us with a grim face.
"The daggers..." he muttered, eyes wide. "They were laced with wolfsbane."
Damon froze. "What?"
"I’ve tried everything I can," the healer said quietly. "But the poison is deep. It’s not just in their blood; it’s binding to their souls. Waking up is now up to them."
I felt my chest tighten. "You mean... You can’t save them?"
He looked down, ashamed. "I’m sorry, Lady Lisa."
Something in me snapped. I turned on Damon, the room, on everything.
"They haven’t even made a proper apology to me!" I yelled, my voice breaking. "They betrayed me, they hurt me, and now they’re lying here like this? No! They don’t get to just sleep through it!"
"Lisa..." Damon started, but before he could finish, the door opened.
Thorne and Lira stepped in.
"What’s going on here?" Thorne demanded, his eyes blazing. But then he saw Rowan and Kael lying still on the beds, and all the anger in his face faded. He stopped, his jaw tightening. "What happened to them?"
"They are attacked with wolfsbane," Damon muttered bitterly. "And we don’t know if they’ll wake up."
For a moment, no one spoke.
After some hours, when things had quieted down, I stepped out to see Thorne and Lira waiting in the hall. Damon stayed behind with his brothers, refusing to move an inch.
Thorne turned to me the moment I stepped out. "We should leave, Lisa," he said firmly. "You’ve done enough."
I shook my head. "No. I’m staying. Damon needs me."
He frowned. "Lisa...."
"It’s not up for debate," I cut in. "I’m not leaving him."
Lira placed a gentle hand on Thorne’s arm. "Let her stay," she said softly. "I’ll remain here with her and bring her back when it’s time."
Thorne looked at me for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Fine." He stepped forward and pulled me into a tight hug. "Be careful, Lisa. Don’t lose yourself again."
"I won’t," I whispered.
Then he and Lira exchanged a brief nod, and he left.
The next two days were long and silent. Damon and I barely slept. We stayed by Rowan and Kael’s sides, hoping for even the smallest sign, a twitch, a whisper, anything. But they remained still, their faces pale behind the glass Damon later placed them in.
He sealed each of them inside a crystal-glass chamber infused with protection runes, not coffins, but something between sleep and survival. "This will keep them alive," he said quietly, pressing his hand to the glass. "Until they’re ready to wake."
Watching him broke something inside me. The man who had once carried the world on his shoulders now stood in front of two glass chambers, holding onto hope like it was his last breath.
But he didn’t let that stop him.
A few days later, He stood tall again, the Alpha once more. His face was as hard as stone as he faced Belinda and her father in the judgment hall.
"Belinda," he said coldly, "for the crimes you committed, betrayal, poisoning, murder, and the attempt to destroy this pack... the punishment is death."
Her father fell to his knees. "Please, Alpha..."
"You," Damon interrupted, his voice low but deadly, "are stripped of your title. You’re no longer part of the council. You’ll live the rest of your life in exile."
Two weeks after....
The tension in the air had softened, replaced by something warmer, quieter. Damon had begun to smile again, though the shadows under his eyes never completely disappeared. I thought life might finally start to breathe again, even if slowly.
That evening, as the sun sank behind the mountains, painting the sky gold and crimson, he called me outside. The garden was glowing softly under the moonlight, fireflies floating like tiny stars. I turned, about to ask what he was doing, when I saw him kneel on one knee.
My breath caught.
"Lisa," he said, his voice steady but full of emotion, "I’ve loved you through every form, human, wolf, and now witch. I don’t care what you are, or what magic runs through your veins. You’re my true mate. My heart chose you long before fate did. So..." He opened a small box, revealing a silver ring that shimmered faintly. "Will you marry me properly this time?"
I froze, staring at him. Tears stung my eyes, but I couldn’t speak for a moment. My chest ached with so many feelings I couldn’t even name.
"Damon..." I whispered. "You won’t like me if you truly know me. I’m not just a wolf. I’m half witch. Half of what your kind once hunted."
He smiled, that soft, patient smile that always managed to undo me. "Then let them hunt us together," he said simply. "Because I love you, Lisa. I loved you when you were human, I loved you when you were a wolf, and I’ll love you in every form you take."
My voice trembled as I said, "You’re serious?"
"I’ve never been more serious."
I broke down then, laughing through tears. "Then yes," I said, my voice shaking. "Yes, I’ll marry you."
He stood, pulled me close, and kissed me, slow, deep, and full of promise.
When Damon went to see Thorne later, I expected an argument. But instead, Thorne just looked at me, then at Damon, and sighed. "As long as she’s happy," he said finally, "you have my blessing."
Lira smiled beside him. "And I’ll go with her," she added. "Someone needs to make sure she eats properly."
Damon chuckled. "You’re always welcome, Lira."
And that was how it happened. Damon married me, the right way this time, not out of desperation or circumstance, but out of choice. Out of love. I became his true Luna, standing beside him in every sense of the word.
Days turned into weeks, and I began to live freely again, no longer hiding my magic, no longer afraid. Damon ruled the pack with strength, and I ruled beside him with compassion. Together, we rebuilt what had been broken, uniting every form of living thing on earth.
One quiet afternoon, while Damon was away attending a meeting, Lira and I took a slow walk through the palace halls. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows, and the marble floors gleamed under our feet.
"Feels peaceful here," Lira said softly.
"It does," I agreed, though part of me still ached whenever I thought of Rowan and Kael.
When we reached their chamber, I hesitated before opening the door. The room was dim, quiet except for the faint hum of the runes carved into the glass chambers that held them.
They lay there, still as ever, peaceful, almost as if asleep.
"When will you cowards wake up?" I muttered to myself.
Lira stepped closer, her eyes tracing the symbols glowing faintly across the glass. "They’re in slumber," she murmured. "A deep one. But don’t worry, they’ll wake up one day."