Chapter 98
Chapter 98
Francesco’s Point of View:
Another letter came without ceremony. A pale parchment bearing the seal of the High Council, delivered not by emissaries but by a crow. That alone told me everything I needed to know.
They weren’t visiting.
They were summoning.
My grip tightened as I read the carefully chosen words–language veiled in courtesy, but steeped in authority.
Luna Ellaine is hereby summoned to the High Council Chambers to clarify the recent manifestations of ancestral power observed during the incident at the Florence university grounds.
No offer to meet. No request for dialogue.
Just a command.
My mate was being called as if she were a problem to be fixed.
“They must be planning something,” Alfonso said from beside me, voice low and watchful.
I didn’t answer yet. My eyes remained on the letter, but my mind had already gone further. I could see their faces–Malek’s cold disdain, Marsen’s tired suspicion, Roderic’s concealed fear. I knew them too well.
“They forget who you are, my Alpha,” Marlow added, stepping forward. His arms were crossed over his chest, expression unreadable.
Alfonso nodded in agreement. “They truly fear the power you hold now. Not just as the last Lycan Alpha, but with Ellaine as your Luna… the White Wolf, and magic–born. It’s more than they ever expected.”
“They fear what they cannot control,” I murmured, finally lowering the letter.
It had been too long since I reminded them of who I was.
After Anastasia’s death, I stepped back. I let Alfonso take over most council dealings. I had no heart for politics, no patience for old men clinging to dusty laws. I turned inward. I fought quietly in the shadows. I rebuilt what was broken.
They mistook that silence for submission.
They forgot that I am not a ruler because of titles or traditions.
Jam the Lycan Alpha.
And Lycans do not kneel.
I moved to the wide window of my study. Outside, the summer sun poured across the gardens, bathing the wildflowers in gold. And in the midd! -her.
Ellaine.
She was sitting on the grass, her hair gleaming in the light as two children chased her with flower crowns in their hands. She laughed, real and unburdened, even as a woman nearby scolded the children gently for tugging too hard. The sound of her joy drifted up to me, unfiltered and bright.
That smile… it had taken months to nurture.
That peace… it had cost us everything.
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Chapter 98
And I would let no one–no one–take it from her.
“It’s time I reminded them,” I said quietly, still watching her. “Time they remembered who I truly and
I turned to my men. They didn’t hesitate.
Their heads dipped in unified loyalty.
“Tell the Council,” I said to Alfonso. “We will come tomorrow.”
The Beta nodded. “Understood, Alpha.”
My gaze shifted back to the garden.
Let them prepare their chamber, their tests, their traps.
If they wanted to question my Luna, then they would first answer to me.
The journey to the High Council took a night and a half, riding through mountain passes under a waning moon, escorted by my finest warriors. Ellaine remained quiet most of the way, watching the trees slip past the window of our vehicle, her hands folded over her lap.
When she finally spoke, her voice was calm.
“I’m not afraid of them.”
I looked at her, proud. “I never thought you were.”
She turned her head slightly. “But they want me to be.”
I reached over and laced my fingers through hers.
“They want you uncertain, because they’re already afraid.”
She didn’t reply after that. She leaned her head against the window, but she never truly rested.
Her magic stirred beneath the surface now like it breathed with her a presence, no longer dormant. Controlled, not suppressed. Her wolf, Mika, had grown stronger too. The two had become one heartbeat inside her.
When we finally arrived at the gates of the Council’s domain, the guards said nothing. No greeting. No formality. Just opened the towering iron gates with blank expressions and let us pass.
Their insult did not go unnoticed.
They weren’t just summoning a Luna.
They were challenging a bond.
The Council Chamber was colder than I remembered. It stood like a relic from another age, carved from ancient black stone veined won silver. Seven thrones stood in a crescent on a raised platform, each one marked with the crest of an elder pack or house.
None of them rose as we entered.
They meant to diminish us with silence.
But Ellaine walked beside me with her head high, her every step filled with quiet dignity. No fear. No shrinking. If anything, her presence seemed to make the stone walls crackle faintly, as if her very magic couldn’t be dimmed in their presence.
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Chapter 98
We came to a stop before them.
“Alpha Francesco Totti,” said Marsen, the oldest of the council, voice rasping like dry parchment. “And your Luna.”
“She has a name,” I said flatly. “Ellaine Rollin.”
A few exchanged glances, and I saw a muscle twitch in Malek’s jaw.
“Luna Eilaine,” Marsen corrected, tone dripping with forced civility. “You’ve been summoned to clarify several… alarming reports.”
Alarming.
That word again.
As if healing the wounded and protecting their people were acts of terror.
“You’ve displayed powers thought to be either extinct or myth,” Malek said, cutting to the point. “Magic, Wolf–light. A howl that heals.”
“I did what I had to,” Ellaine said. Her voice didn’t tremble. “My pack was under attack. I responded.”
“But with forbidden forces,” another councilman said from the far end. “That is what concerns us.”
“I was not taught to fear what was born in me,” she replied. “Only to understand it.”
“A convenient justification,” Malek scoffed. “What if it consumes you?”
“It won’t,” I said before she could speak. “Because she has control. Because she is not alone.”
Roderic sneered. “And when you’re not there to hold her leash?”
My jaw flexed. But I didn’t rise to the bait.
Instead, I stepped forward, eyes steady. “You assume she needs control because you cannot understand her strength. That’s the failure here–not hers.
Yours.”
The room shifted at my words.
The Council, so used to leading with veiled threats, didn’t know what to do when the prey stared back like a predator.
“She will be tested,” Marsen finally said. “Not by punishment. By tradition.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Neither did Ellaine.
He gestured to the center of the chamber. An ancient circle carved into the stone, etched with old runes glowing faintly.
“She must be tested,” Roderic interrupted, already rising. “We’ve prepared the Circle of Oaths. If she endures it, she proves her balance. If not—”
“No.” I stepped forward, my voice rising. “There will be no test.”
Tension splintered the chamber like a struck gong.
Marsen’s eyes narrowed. “You would deny a centuries–old rite, Alpha?”
“I would deny you, Elder.”
Gasps rang through the balconies. Alfonso and Marlow stepped closer behind me, on high alert.
I raised my voice, the weight of my authority pressing against every stone wall of that chamber.
Chapter 98
“I am Francesco Totti. The last true Lycan Alpha. I walked into fire when you cowered behind borders. Your date sammen my mats kiek prisoner–then humiliate her with tricks and circles and fear–mongering?” My growl reverberated like thunder Them vil he is fast hét ville
Malek stood, eyes burning. “You are out of line.”
“No,” I said, lowering my tone to something more dangerous. “I am done with lines.
A pause.
Then Marsen waved a hand to a cluster of guards by the side hall. “Remove the Luna for independent questioning.”
A heartbeat passed. Then another.
Six guards stepped forward.
I didn’t even blink.
“You touch her,” I growled, voice shaking the walls, “and you bleed.”
The guards hesitated. But the command had already been given.
Ellaine glanced at me, not afraid–only resolved. “Francesco-”
And then they moved.
Three men reached for her arms.
Everything inside me snapped.
I unleashed a roar that shook the chamber floor, every inch of my being rising as my Lycan instincts surged. In a flash, I slammed one guard back with a single blow. His body hit the wall with a crack. Another reached for her–Alfonso intercepted him, claws drawn. Marlow roared and knocked a third to the ground.
Chaos erupted.
I shifted halfway–my claws lengthened, my eyes burned gold. Magic crackled around Ellaine, reactive and wild. The air buzzed.
But then-
A hiss.
Psssss.
A barely visible mist spread across the chamber from small vents in the walls. The scent was faint–but unmistakable.
Wolfsbane.
I froze, mid–breath. My lungs burned.
“No,” I growled.
Cowards.
The Council… they had prepared this all along/
My warriors faltered first, eyes wide as their legs wobbled. Alfonso went down to one knee. Marlow coughed, blood flecking his lips.
I staggered forward, eyes locked on Ellaine as she was yanked from the circle of chaos by three guards dragging her toward the eastern hall.
Chapter 98
“No!” My voice broke like thunder. Flunged forward, striking down another guard, but my strength was fading last, My vision blurted
I saw her face as they dragged her away–terrified, not for herself… but for me.
Her mouth shaped my name-
“Francesco-!”
The wolfsbane thickened, like fog. My chest heaved, body rebelling.
Still, I kept fighting.
One.
Two.
Three more guards fell by my hands, but the last blow came not from claws… but from the air.
Thick.
Poisoned.
Every breath I took was acid.
I dropped to one knee.
Then another.
Still–I looked to where they’d taken her.
Still–I reached for her with one shaking hand.
“I’ll come for you…” I whispered. “I swear…”
Darkness finally took me.
And Ellaine was gone.
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