Stealing the Alpha’s Heritage

Chapter 19

"The ceremony's already started—we need to move now!"

Garrett's scarred hands push the grate aside with desperate force. The Lunar Eclipse's crimson light spills through every window, painting the stone walls the color of fresh blood.

"There's a service corridor that leads directly to the main chamber," Garrett whispers, pulling me through shadows that seem alive with menace. "But the guards—"

"I don't care about guards." My voice comes out raw, primal. "My babies are up there."

We race through hallways I once knew like my own heartbeat. Every corner brings memories—Thorne carrying me through these halls on our wedding night, my first pack meeting as Luna, the day I discovered I was pregnant. Now they're just obstacles between me and my sons.

"Stop right there!" A guard rounds the corner, his eyes widening in recognition. "Luna Aria? But you're supposed to be—"

Garrett's fist connects with his jaw before he can finish. The guard crumples, and we step over his unconscious form without breaking stride.

"The main chamber is through those doors." Garrett points ahead where ornate wooden doors stand closed, strange light flickering beneath them. "I'll create a distraction. You get to your boys."

"Garrett, if Rowena sees you—"

"I bet she already knows." His weathered face hardens. "Go save those children."

He sprints down the opposite hallway, suddenly shouting at the top of his lungs. "Fire in the west wing! All guards to the west wing immediately!"

The doors burst open as guards pour out, racing toward Garrett's voice. I slip through before they swing shut, and my world tilts on its axis.

The ceremonial chamber stretches before me in a nightmare tableau. Hundreds of blood-red candles form intricate patterns on the floor. Ancient symbols pulse with unnatural light, and at the center, on a stone altar older than the pack itself, lie my boys.

Kael and Finn rest side by side, their small bodies unnaturally still. Strange symbols cover their skin, painted in something dark that gleams wetly in the candlelight. Their faces are pale as marble, lips tinged blue.

And standing over them, a silver knife raised high, is Rowena.

"Stop!" The scream tears from my throat as I launch myself across the chamber.

"You shouldn't be here, Aria." Rowena doesn't lower the knife. "This is already difficult enough without your hysteria."

"Get away from my children!" I'm almost there, almost close enough—

"Hold her." Catherine's voice cuts through the chaos, and suddenly two women I don’t recognize grab my arms, their grip iron-strong.

"Catherine, please!" I struggle against their hold. "Those are my babies! You held me when I lost my first pregnancy! You promised to protect them!"

"I'm protecting the pack's future," Catherine says coldly. "One strong Alpha is better than two cursed twins who'll destroy everything."

"You're talking about murdering a child!" I wrench against their grip hard enough to feel my shoulders pop.

"We're talking about mercy," she says with sickening calm. "Finn is already seeing the dead, Aria. He's halfway to the shadow realm. This way, he goes peacefully."

"Peacefully?" I spit in her face, satisfaction flooding through me as she recoils. "You mean while he's drugged and unconscious?"

"Would you prefer he be awake?" Rowena's knife catches the light. "Would you prefer he know his mother couldn't save him?"

"I'm here now! I'll save them both!"

"You ignorant girl." Rowena finally turns to face me fully, and I see tears streaming down her weathered face. "Do you think I want this? These are my grandsons!"

"Then put down the knife!"

"So they can tear each other apart in two years?" Her voice cracks with genuine anguish. "Kael's already showing signs of blood rage. Last week he nearly killed three servants. Finn speaks to ghosts who tell him to hurt people. The curse is accelerating."

"There has to be another way—"

"There is no other way!" Rowena's composure shatters completely. "I've studied every text, consulted every elder, tried every ritual. The only way to save one is to sacrifice the other before they're strong enough to fight."

"That's murder!"

The main doors crash open with enough force to crack stone. Thorne stands in the entrance, his eyes wild, chest heaving like he's run for miles.

"What is this?" His voice drops to something inhuman as he takes in the scene—his sons on the altar, his mother with a raised knife. "Mother, what have you done?"

"What you were too weak to do," Rowena says, but her hand trembles now. "What needed to be done."

"You told me this was a blessing ceremony!" The rage in Thorne's voice makes the candles flicker. "You said both boys would be protected!"

"I told you what you needed to hear to get them here." Rowena's mask of calm slides back into place. "Someone has to make the hard choices, Thorne."

"Let my mate go." The command carries such force that women's grip loosens involuntarily.

"She's not your mate anymore," Catherine spits. "She bears another Alpha's mark."

Thorne doesn’t even look at me, focused on our sons.

"If you've harmed them—"

"They're sedated, nothing more." Rowena adjusts her grip on the knife. "But we're running out of time. The moon reaches its apex—"

A gunshot explodes through the chamber. Rowena spins, the knife flying from her hand as blood blooms across her shoulder. Garrett stands in the doorway, an old revolver smoking in his grip.

"You sentimental fool!" Rowena snarls, pressing her hand to the wound. "You think you've saved them? You've doomed them both!"

She moves faster than should be possible for someone her age, faster than a wounded woman should move. One moment she's by the altar, the next she's on Garrett, her claws extended.

"No!" I scream as her hand punches through his chest.

Garrett's eyes widen in shock. The gun falls from nerveless fingers, clattering across stone. "Worth it," he gasps, blood bubbling from his lips. "Save...them..."

He collapses, and Rowena stands over his body, her hand dripping crimson. "Anyone else want to play hero?"

"Mother." Thorne's voice carries death. "Step away from my sons."

"Our bloodline—"

"Dies with you if you don't move. Now."

The stand-off stretches taut as a wire. Two women still hold me, though their grips have loosened in shock. Rowena stands between us and the altar where my boys lie still as death. Thorne positions himself to attack, his body coiled like a spring.

Then Finn screams.

It's not a normal scream—it's the sound of a soul being torn in half. His back arches off the altar, his small body convulsing as the symbols on his skin begin to glow with sickening light.

"The ceremony's started!" Rowena lunges for the fallen knife. "If we don't complete it—"

I tear free from my captors with strength born of pure maternal rage, reaching the altar just as Thorne does. We collide over our sons, our hands finding each other instinctively as Finn's screams intensify.

"Together," Thorne says, and for this moment, we're not exes or enemies—we're parents. "Whatever happens, we protect them together."