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Chapter 47: Through the Front Door
Rowan
“We’re not that far from the castle, Rowan,” Dad said sternly as he bent to tie his boots. He looked up
at me, catching my annoyed expression.
“It would be faster if we shifted-”
“And show up naked to confront whoever’s in the castle right now? No, I think not.”
He did have a point.
I surrendered, leaning against a tree as the rest of the warriors caught up to us, their backs heavy with
sacks full of supplies. Dad had said in passing that he meant to take over again, but I hadn’t believed it
at the time. Seeing the warriors outfitted for battle made a hard lump form in my throat. We were
actually going to do this…
It wasn’t long before we reached the outskirts of the castle grounds. I could see it rising out of the
darkness, amber colored light spilling from several windows.
We crouched in the tall grass, Dad motioning for us to move forward a few feet at a time, the group of
us spread wide across the field.
“Do you think Maeve is being held in the castle?” I whispered. Dad shook his head, his eyes shining in
the moonlight.
“No, she wouldn’t be here. They are holding her somewhere less obvious.”
I opened my mouth to question his thinking, but he held his hand up to quiet me. We moved forward.
Suddenly, a shout came from somewhere near the castle, then laughter. I held my breath and winced
as a woman began to scream, pleading with whoever was laughing. I winced, my fingers digging into
the earth beneath me as I tried to maintain my composure.
Dad motioned to one of the warriors, who took off through the grass towards the noise. I heard a
whooshing sound, then a cracking thump.
The woman was crying, gulping for air as she sobbed a desperate thanks.
“Come on, let’s move,” Dad said, crouching as he walked through the grass, leading up closer to the
castle.
“What was that?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t care. We just can’t risk anyone seeing us approach,” he answered.
“How are we going to get inside?”
“Through the front door, of course.”
I stopped, gaping at him. “What?”
“This is my castle, remember?” He gave me a knowing look, his eyes flaming with long subdued fury.
He wasn’t wrong. He was just going to waltz in like he owned the place, apparently
I had heard stories about my father, but those stories didn’t reflect the man I knew. It seemed I was
going to meet the man from the stories tonight, however
We walked out of the grass and onto the pathway leading up to the castle. Dad led the way as we
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtapproached the door, and opened it wide, stepping in before the warriors.
It was quiet inside the castle. The front hall was dimly lit by lanterns placed in the corners of the area
and on the stairs.
“Why aren’t they using power?” I whispered.
“Because these idiots cut the power to the entire city of Mirage and inadvertently drained the power
banks while doing so,” Dad said loudly, his voice booming with purpose and echoing through the front
hall. “They don’t know how to fix the mistakes they made. And they will pay.”
Footsteps sounded in one of the hallways. They were light, their tread soft against the stone pavers as
they neared.
A woman appeared, her glossy platinum blonde hair falling thinly over her shoulders, her black eyes
shining in the lantern light. She swiveled to a stop in front of Dad, her fluffy, emerald green gown
rustling against the stone floor.
“Who are you?” Dad demanded.
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Chapter 47: Through the Front Door
“Opaline, Alpha of Greenbriar,” she said hotly, tilting her chin towards dad and giving him a sultry look.
She bowed slightly, chuckling to herself as she straightened up.
“You’re not the Alpha of Greenbriar-” Dad began.
“My husband is dead,” she replied, pouting her lip sarcastically. Then she laughed again, a shrill sound
that echoed off the walls around us. I shuffled my feet, uncomfortable and suspicious of the situation.
“Where is the Alpha of Drogomor?” Dad said, his voice harboring an edge of disdain for the woman.
“Which one? The dead one, or the new one?”
“The false Alpha,” Dad ground out, his teeth bared.
“Oh, ha! There is no false Alpha of Drogomor. His name is Damian, you might have heard of him?” She
was being sarcastic, of course, her eyes shining with mirth. “My soon-to-be husband.”
“I see,” Dad said, stepping towards her. She smiled at him, another sultry smile that made my stomach
turn. “And where can I find him? I need a word.”
“Oh, of course you do, Ethan Black.”
| arched my brow, shocked by the causal manner in which she addressed my dad.
“Are you on his schedule?” She giggled, walking a circle around him, running her fingers over his
shoulders.
He didn’t answer. He stood stock still, his face beginning to twist in mingled fury and frustration.
“I’ll tell you where he is,” she said, leaning into his ear, “if first you come to my bed.”
He reached out and clutched her by the throat, catching her off guard. But her look of panic quickly
changed to a look of sheer enjoyment.
“Harder!” She hissed; her mouth stretched in a wide smile. He threw her to the ground, turning back to
the warriors and nodded towards the stairs.
Search the castle, find him.”
The warriors ran into the castle, going in several different directions as they spread out. I stood next to
Dad, looking down at the woman as she laid against the floor, her eyes fluttering.
“He’s not here,” she said weakly, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, “Your search will be in
vain.”
“Where are Ernest and Maeve?” he asked sharply, not bothered by the fact that the woman’s head had
smacked against the stone floor during her fall.
She laughed, closing her eyes, “No one knows. Damian is searching for-for her on the water.”
“The water? What do you mean?”
*The man– the breeder… he has something Damian needs. Romero gave it to the breeder. He needs-
he needs Maeve to-to-* She inhaled deeply, choking on air as her body stilled.
“Is she dying?” | asked, looking down at her.
“No, she’s just being dramatic,” Dad replied, his tone totally casual. I knitted my brow, looking down at
the woman as her head slumped to the side. She was still breathing, at least.
A commotion broke out somewhere in the castle and Dad stilled, his eyes focusing on the stairs.
Someone up above screamed, then the sound of snarling and clicking teeth echoed through the air.
“Rowan, run,” Dad whispered, his face etched with adrenaline.
“What”
A body came crashing down the stairs, one of our warriors, his clothes torn and tattered as he came to
a dead stop on the first floor landing
“Go! It was a trap!”
“I could have told you that!” I yelled, squaring my shoulders, then quickly changing my mind as wolves
started pouring down the stairs, jumping over the body of the warrior.
I didn’t have time to strip out of the clothes before I shifted, bursting through the seams and flexing my
scruff as the wolves came to stop before Dad and I, their teeth bared and dripping with saliva.
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Chapter 47: Through the Front Door
Dad had shifted, his great, black coat standing on end as he lowered his head and bared his teeth,
clacking them together.
‘We’re going to lead them out of the castle and give our warriors a chance to run, got it?’ Dad said over
the mind-link.
“Yes,’ I replied.
‘Stay by my side,’ he said, and then he leapt forward, grabbing one of the wolves by the neck and
throwing him against the wall.
Then we were running, bursting through the door of the castle in a shower of splintered wood. The
wolves followed us, howling in menace as we sprinted into the tall grasses and into the woods beyond
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmthe castle ground.
But I slipped.
i was jumped, four or five wolves pouncing on me and attempting to pull me apart as they clamped
down on my legs and tail.
‘Rowan!’ Dad came bounding to me, followed by at least a dozen wolves, his eyes wide with
determination. He howled as he entered the clearing where I lay, slamming his body into one of the
wolves and sending it flying through the air. The other wolves let go, startled by Dad’ s attack. I got up,
wobbling as I tried to push forward, long gashes bleeding along my legs.
“There’re too many, Rowan. We need to get out of here.’
..
I followed him through the forest, eventually putting enough of a distance between us and the wolves to
the point we could only hear them following instead of seeing them right behind us.
Dad was limping, but he didn’t stop. We continued through the woods for what felt like hours, until the
sound of howling and yelping in the trees behind us finally silenced completely.
‘Do you think the warriors got out?’ I asked as we stopped to rest alongside a river bank.
I’m sure they did. Damian was expecting us.
‘Of course he was,” I said, sinking down along the smooth, circular river rocks. The moon was high in
the sky now, the stars glistening around it as I looked up, sniffing the air.
*They will go back to the plane. They know to do that,’ Dad said, speaking of our warriors. He pawed
the ground, shaking out his scruff.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?’ I said, I had been suspicious of his plan to just waltz into the
castle. I knew he had been up to more.
‘Damian knows I’m here. He’s a nervous man, but an ambitious one. He’ll come after me instead of
Maeve.’
‘But you said Maeve was being held”
‘She very well may be, but not by Damian.’
‘Then who?
Keaton, the captain of the Persephone, the ship that intercepted Aaron and the group that held him on
an island while one of Keaton’s crewmen stood in Aaron’s place.’ Dad pawed at the ground, then laid
down, puffing air from his nostrils, ‘I have it on good authority that Maeve is with them.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me any of this?’
“Because no one could know what I found out. No one. Not our warriors, not your mother. Not yet.’
‘Why? This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?’
Dad sighed, resting his snout on his front paws, ‘There’s more to this than Damian’s ambitions for
power. I know it. And yes, I did. Rest now, tomorrow we go back to the castle and finish what we
started.’
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