~Samantha~

Dominic’s voice thundered through the courtyard behind me.

“Split into four teams. East, north, west. I’ll take the south with my mate.”

I stopped abruptly and turned to look at him.

“Do you have another mate? Because you sure as hell can’t be talking about me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” His eyes tightened.

“You’re the last person I want to be with right now so there’s no way I’m heading south with you.”

He could stay with his people for all I cared.

He drew in slow, steady breaths. “I can’t leave you all by yourself.”

“I have Killian with me. I really don’t need you.”

He laughed with an edge that irked me. “Or you’ve been looking for an excuse to be with him all along?”

“If that’s what your insecure mind is feeding you, believe it.”

“You don’t want to be with me? Fine, take the lead with Killian and let’s see who gets the kids first.” He said and walked ahead of me.

“It’s not a competition, Dominic!” My face went sour.

Without sparing a glance, he replied. “Oh, it became so when you tried to act like you’re a better parent than I am.”

“Samantha, drop this now! We can spend this time looking for the twins.” Killian pulled me away from him.

My heart pounded through my chest. Killian was right.

Lila came running in from the side path before I could spit anything else at Dominic.

“I found tracks.”

I shoved Killian’s hand off me and ran straight to Lila.

“Where? Show me!”

She pointed toward the side garden, already breathless from trying to keep up with the chaos. “Over here.”

I fell fast to my knees. Small footprints marked in the dirt. Beside them were Purple’s paw prints too.

A shaky breath escaped me, “Fuck, they must be close by.”

I pointed. “They went that way,”

I was already on my feet.

Behind us, Dominic barked. “Get to it and keep me updated.”

I did not look at him. I did not care what orders he was throwing around.

I just bolted.

Killian caught up beside me before I hit the tree line. “Slow down, Sam.”

“No, you’ll have to catch up.”

“You’ll end up hurt if you keep up this way.”

“I don’t care, as long as I get to them first.”

“You just can’t listen.”

I shot him a furious look, but I did ease up by half a step.

My eyes kept darting everywhere, searching for movement, straining for familiar voices.

Then Lila’s voice pulled my attention. “Wait.”

I froze, spotting a pink ribbon hanging from a low branch.

Diana’s.

Pulling it down with force, my mind raced with the worst case scenarios. Diana loved this ribbon too much, there was no way she would just drop it carelessly.

“She must have fallen while hiding then someone took them.” I imagined my poor little baby struggling, my heart dropped.

“Sam, no.”

“Remember how they got lost every other time? I think they intentionally left this here so they could easily trace their way back.” Killian assured me.

But forgive me for not believing him.

“What if it wasn’t them?”

“Somebody must have known we would look for them and they left this here as a trap so we could follow the trail.”

“That’s possible but thinking about that isn’t helping this situation.”

“How do you expect me not to? Every single time they are alone, they get into trouble.” I cried out.

If I lost them, forgiving myself would be impossible.

“If someone was really here with them, we would have seen adult footprints but it’s just the twins here.”

Killian sighed, kneeling beside me. “Are you going to keep overthinking or are you going to take the risk and find them?”

“You know what I want, Killian.”

“Good. Now get up.” He stretched his hand out and I took it.

The second he pulled me up, a warrior came crashing through the trees from the east side, panting so hard he nearly tripped over his own feet.

“Alpha,” he called toward Dominic, then his gaze found me and panic flashed across his face. “We found them.”

I pressed a fist to my mouth before asking. “What? Where? Why didn’t you come with them?”

“Near the Wolf Tomb. They’re alive, Luna, but they’re doing something to the array. The boy and girl are using their purification power on the edge of it. We tried to get close, but the force coming off that place is wrong.”

I did not ask anymore questions.

I took off so fast the others had no choice but to follow.

Please let me get there before something bad happens.

By the time I arrived at the scene, I halted in my steps.

Two warriors were flat on the ground. One was lying face down next to a broken stone. I had to look away before I threw up because the other guy’s throat was so badly cut. Three more were hurt and were groaning or trying to crawl out of the way in the clearing.

Then I saw my kids.

Devon and Diana were at the end of the queue, both on their knees and shaking with effort. Purple ran around them, barking like crazy and nudging them with his head, as if he were trying to pull them back by force.

Both twins had blood running down their noses. Devon’s face had gone pale, and Diana looked so weak that my heart almost broke.

“Devon!” I screamed, my voice cracking apart. “Diana, stop!”

Diana’s head jerked toward me first. Her little face crumpled with relief so fast it broke something in me.

“Mummy, you’re here!”

Devon tried to stand, but his legs gave under him and he dropped hard to one hand. “We almost got it,” he rasped, like he was proud of himself.

I ran toward them, but shadows whipped up from the ground.

Black Moon. It had to be him.

“You’re too late.”

“They are mine now.”

“Get the hell away from my children.”

His mouth twisted. “Then maybe you should’ve taught them to stay where they belong. They made this easy for me.”

My throat went dry. “You used my children as bait?”

He looked at me like I was slow. “Used? No. I knew exactly what would bring them running.”

“It’s the same, you loser!”

A dark chuckle left him. “Call it whatever helps you sleep after I take them from you.”

Not on my watch.

“You should have stayed home,” he said, looking at Devon and Diana like he had already claimed them. “Now look at you, all scared, and still too stupid to know when you’ve walked into your deaths.”

Diana clutched Devon’s hand harder. Devon tried to stand straighter, but he was trembling too much to pull it off.

“Leave them alone and face me. Or is terrorizing children the only time you feel powerful?”

His eyes flicked to me. “You don’t get to order me around in front of what belongs to me.”

Before I could reach them, dark shadows lashed out and wrapped around both twins.

Diana screamed. Devon tried to fight it, twisting hard as the magic dragged them off the ground. “Mum, help us!”

My heart nearly stopped.

“Put them down now!” I shouted and ran.

Black Moon lifted them higher with one hand. “Take one more step and I’ll snap the boy’s neck before I leave.”

“You know damn well that he’s more useful to you alive than dead. You wouldn’t.”

“Bold of you to think I need all of him intact.”

Black Moon’s grip on Devon’s throat got tighter.

My son’s body jerked right away. His hands flew up to claw at the shadows that were crushing his neck, and Diana screamed next to him.

I couldn’t move.

“Stop this nonsense and tell me what you want!”

“You finally sound smart,” he said. “Maybe watching your child choke is teaching you something.”

I forced myself to stop looking at Devon’s face before I lost my mind completely.

“You’re making a mistake,”

“They’re children with half formed powers. You know that.”

Black Moon’s mouth curved, but I saw it. The pause with interest.

“You drag them into a ritual like this and they’ll grow weak before you get anything useful.”

His gaze sharpened on me. “And you think you know what I need better than I do?”

“I know you didn’t build all this just to gamble on two frightened kids.” I lifted my chin. “You want power that will last forever, not one that fades when you need it the most.”

I took another bold step. “Take me instead.”

Diana cried harder. “Mummy, no!”

“Don’t do this!”

“Sam, what are you doing?”

I cut Dominic off without looking at him. “My blood shield held your shadows back before. You felt it. You know I’m the better prize.”

Black Moon’s fingers twitched around Devon’s throat.

“You expect me to believe you’re worth more than both heirs?” he asked.

“You want more power, don’t you? I’m standing right here. Or are you too stupid to see what’s in front of you?”

I kept going because Devon was still choking and I was running out of time.

“You can spend all night carrying two weak, exhausted children, or you can take the one person here with a ripe bloodline.”

For one second, he actually looked tempted.

That was it.

His hold loosened just enough.

Dominic got the hint and moved while Killian struck.

The shadows snapped apart, Devon dropped, and Diana grabbed him so fast it almost broke me.

“Kids, run!” I screamed.

The twins stumbled toward me and slammed into my body, both shaking, both crying, and I wrapped myself around them just as Black Moon let out a furious roar.