Chapter 26: Chapter 26: What They Could Not Tolerate

Chapter Twenty six : What Was Buried

Kael POV

I woke because something was wrong.

Not danger.

Not an attack.

Absence.

My hand was stretched across the mattress where she should have been. Cold sheets. No warmth. No slow breathing beside me.

For a moment I just stared at the ceiling and told myself not to overreact. She wasn’t a prisoner. If she wanted to walk the fortress at night, she could.

But the bond didn’t agree with that logic.

It pulled.

Not sharp. Not painful. Just... insistent.

Like something tugging at my ribs from the inside.

I exhaled slowly and sat up. The room was quiet. Too quiet. I could hear the torches outside in the corridor crackling faintly.

She had been different these past days. Watching me when she thought I didn’t notice. Measuring every word.

She was hiding something. And I had decided to let her.

Because pushing her only made her retreat deeper into herself.

But the bond tightened again.

Damn it.

I stood and dressed quickly, not bothering with full armor. If this was nothing, I wasn’t going to look like a paranoid Alpha chasing shadows.

The corridor was empty when I stepped out.

Her scent lingered faintly in the air. Not fresh. Not old either.

I followed it without calling her name.

Past the ancestral gallery. Toward the west wing. My steps slowed before I reached the tapestry.

I stepped into the passage without making a sound.

Blue flames ignited one after another as I moved forward., but I kept my breathing controlled, my steps measured. I wasn’t here to interrupt. I needed to understand what she was doing.

The deeper I went, the more certain I became of where this led.

My father brought me here once.

I was twelve.

He didn’t explain much. He never did. He simply showed me the sealed door and told me that some things were better left buried. That power without control was more dangerous than enemies at our gates.

I hadn’t believed him then. I understood now.

The stone door at the end of the corridor was already open.

I slowed before reaching it.

From where I stood in the shadow of the entrance, I could see her.

Liora stood at the center of the chamber, her back to me.

And in front of her—

My stomach tightened. The woman chained to the stone looked exactly like her.

Not resemblance. Not similarity.

Exact.

Same posture. Same face structure. Even the slight tension in the jaw.

The only difference was the exhaustion etched into her features. Years of confinement. Decades, maybe.

The chains were not symbolic. They were embedded deep into the stone and locked around her wrists and ankles with old magic. I could feel it humming faintly in the air.

Liora’s voice broke the silence.

"Who are you?"

The chained woman lifted her head fully now. Her gaze didn’t go to me.

It stayed on Liora.

"I’ve been waiting," she said calmly. "For the last real blood of my bloodline."

My chest went still. Last real blood.

What blood?

So the legends were not exaggerated stories told to children. The woman’s lips curved slightly.

"Welcome," she said softly.

"The last true blood of my line."

Liora didn’t move. I could see the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers twitched slightly at her sides.

"What are you talking about?" Liora asked.

The woman studied her carefully.

"I have been waiting for you," she continued. "The last blood of the White Wolf."

The air shifted. Even from the doorway, I felt it.

Old power. Not violent. Not unstable.

Ancient.

The same bloodline Seraphina has hunted for years?

Liora swallowed. I could see it from here.

"That’s not possible," she said quietly. "The White Wolf line was wiped out generations ago."

The woman’s eyes softened not with pity, but with certainty.

"No. It was imprisoned."

Silence filled the chamber. I stayed still, forcing myself not to step forward.

If this was what I thought it was, interrupting could ruin everything.

"You look like me," Liora said, her voice steady but thinner than usual.

The woman gave a faint nod. "Because you are mine. And I am yours."

She shifted slightly, the chains scraping against stone.

"I will explain everything in time. Not tonight. There are things you are not ready to hear yet." Her gaze sharpened. "But you must understand one truth before you leave this place."

Liora didn’t speak.

"You are the last descendant of the White Wolf bloodline. The final vessel carrying unbroken blood."

I watched Liora process that. She didn’t gasp. She didn’t step back dramatically.

She just stood there. Thinking. Calculating.

The way she always does.

"What are you talking about? Why wolf? Why me?" she asked finally.

"Because the seal weakened when you entered this fortress. Because your power is being used without protection."

"Did you lead me here?"

" No, I guess your vision abilities have awakened and led you to me"

The woman’s eyes lowered slightly, focusing on Liora’s back.

Her expression changed. Sharp concern.

"The marks," she said suddenly, tension rising in her voice. "They are too many."

Liora stiffened. I did too.

The woman leaned forward as far as the chains allowed.

"Have you been healing people?"

Silence.

Then Liora answered quietly, "Yes."

"How many times?" The question came fast.

Liora hesitated. The woman’s voice grew urgent. "How many marks?"

"Thirty-three."

The chains rattled sharply as the woman pulled against them in alarm.

"Thirty-three?" Her voice lost its calm composure for the first time. "Be careful, Liora. You have not awakened your wolf."

Liora’s head snapped up slightly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Everything." The woman’s breathing quickened. Healing drains life when the wolf sleeps. If the scar appears forty-seven times before your wolf awakens, your body will not survive it."

The words hit the chamber hard. Forty-seven.

I felt something cold settle in my chest.

Fourteen.

The bond tightened sharply in my chest.

I remembered the first time she healed me. The way she swayed after. The way she pretended the dizziness was nothing.

I let her.

I watched her back straighten while I said nothing.

Thirty-three.

How many of those scars were earned saving me from myself?

If she burns out before awakening, I won’t blame fate.

I’ll know exactly where the damage started.

Liora’s voice stayed level, but I could hear the edge beneath it.

"And how many do I have left?"

"Fourteen," the woman replied. "Fourteen uses before death becomes permanent."

The chamber fell silent again.

I watched Liora’s shoulders rise and fall once.

She didn’t crumble. She didn’t cry. She absorbed it.

Of course she did.

"Were you not aware? "

" Yes, I was brought up and raised in Ebonvale, since you know this much about me, you must also know who my parents are"

" Liora, our bloodline isn’t something that can be taken lightly "

"Why wasn’t I told this?" she asked.

"Because those who knew feared what you would become," the woman answered. "Your wolf must awaken before the forty-seventh mark. If it does not, your life will burn out slowly from within."

Liora’s fingers curled slightly at her sides.

"And how do I awaken it?"

The woman’s gaze flickered briefly toward the entrance.

Toward me. She knew I was here.

But she didn’t expose me. Her eyes returned to Liora.

"That," she said quietly, "is something I will explain when the time is right."

Silence stretched between them.

"You must protect yourself," the woman continued, her voice regaining composure. "Do not heal carelessly. Do not allow them to use you as they did before. Your life is not expendable."

Liora let out a soft breath at that.

"You don’t know anything about that," she murmured.

The woman’s expression shifted subtly.

"Oh, child," she said gently. "I know exactly how they use what they fear."

The chains creaked again as she adjusted.

"You are not here by accident. And you are not mated to that Alpha by coincidence."

My jaw tightened.

Liora didn’t respond to that part. She was thinking again. Always thinking.

Finally she asked the question that mattered most.

"Who are you?"

The woman straightened as much as the chains allowed.

"I am the origin of your bloodline. The first White Wolf. And the reason this fortress was built atop a prison."

Silence swallowed the room. I didn’t move.

Didn’t breathe louder than necessary.

Because in that moment, I understood something my father never said out loud.

This was never just about strengthening the pack.

It was containment.

And I had bound myself to the last key without knowing.

The woman’s eyes softened once more.

"You came because the blood called you," she said quietly. "And now that you have found me, the seal will not hold forever."

Liora’s expression didn’t change much.

But I saw it. The shift.

She was no longer just surviving this fortress.

She was beginning to understand the fortress.

And the moment Liora understood the truth...

I might have to choose between protecting my pack

and protecting my mate.