Alpha Roland pov.
The private strategy room, a solid bunker deep beneath the mansion's surface, was now a makeshift war center.
The air was thick with the scent of ozone and freshly printed topographical maps.
Alpha Roland stood over the table, his posture radiating lethal calm, but his internal wolf was a cyclone of rage.
Cassian, fueled by urgency, pointed to a section of the border near the old highway.
"The Coven scouts are confirmed at the South Ridge.
They're moving with a vanguard of rogue wolves mercenaries.
They know our weaknesses."
"They know Richard's weaknesses," Roland corrected, his voice a low, hard vibration.
"They think we are still distracted by the threat of witches on our periphery.
They are wrong."
He slammed his fist onto the map, directly over the coordinates of the Shadowlands Manor.
"The Coven isn't after territory; they are after the nexus.
Elara is the key to that nexus. Their entire objective is to breach the East Wing."
Roland looked at Gideon, who had just returned from securing Seraphina in the lower detention level.
"The Sentinel will deploy with the main force on the perimeter. Make it look like we're fighting a territorial war.
But the priority is defense of the manor's immediate grounds."
He turned back to Cassian.
"The East Wing must be reinforced with a second shift of Sentinels.
Tell them Luna is to be guarded at all costs, but no communication is to be made with her.
She remains politically isolated, but practically secure."
His gaze sharpened as he thought about Seraphina's confession: Witch's Bane.
The memory of Elara's pain-etched scars, juxtaposed with the sudden, chaotic beauty of her hybrid power surge in the clearing, drove his strategy.
He was preparing for a war he couldn't win without her, yet she was still too weak and too untaught to control the power she represented.
"One more thing, Beta," Roland said, his eyes blazing gold for a brief, uncontrolled moment.
"I want reconnaissance on Alpha Richard. If he moves, he's betraying the pact.
If he sends forces our way, I want him and his entire pack eradicated before the sun rises."
He was holding the world together with sheer force of will: fighting a witch coven, planning to execute a neighboring Alpha, and fighting the crippling need to be with the only being who made his life make sense.
The Alpha protects the pack.
The mate protects the bond. I must be both.
Cassian pov.
Cassian entered the East Wing with grim efficiency.
The silence in the immense room felt disrespectful given the military chaos unfolding outside.
He found Elara sitting by the fireplace, no longer the slave, but a young woman intently scratching complex, unfamiliar symbols onto a parchment the exact image of a nascent threat.
He didn't bother with a knock.
"The Shadowlands is mobilizing for war, Luna.
Your power is what summoned them.
Do you understand the severity of this?"
Elara looked up, her eyes wide with fear, but her chin was resolute.
"I heard the tension. I know the Coven is here."
"You felt a chaotic energy spike in the training grounds," Cassian stated, crossing the room to stand over her.
His usual suspicion had melted away, replaced by an urgent need for clarity.
"I need to know your stability.
If you become a liability, the Alpha will be forced to make a choice that will destroy him.
Elara lowered her gaze to the pendant. "He told me this was worthless scrap metal.
He told me to forget my past. He lied to me."
"Yes, he lied!" Cassian hissed, kneeling suddenly, his action shocking her into attention.
His voice dropped to a desperate whisper.
"Do you think the Alpha, who has lived and breathed control for thirty years, wants to lie to his own fated mate?
He lies to protect you, not to harm you!"
Elara reeled back, the word mate hitting her with the force of a physical blow.
"Fated… mate?
But he is so cold. He hates this arrangement."
"He hates the timing, not the bond!" Cassian corrected fiercely.
"Elara, the lie is the shield! Richard's spies were watching the instant you arrived.
If Roland had shown any deference, any warmth, or any sign that he felt the bond, Richard would have known the Witch's Bane failed.
He would have known his slave was the Moonfall hybrid, and he would have exposed you to the Coven for a much higher price!"
He gripped the edge of the hearth, his knuckles white. "The Alpha is fighting his deepest instinct, the need to heal you, to claim you, to show you that you are his Luna because the moment he does, the Coven tracks your stability.
The political narrative must be that you are a worthless hostage, held for the treaty.
The golden salve, the training in the second moon's light, those are his wolf's silent acts of devotion, hidden behind Alpha orders. He's risking everything for you!"
Elara felt the pieces snap violently into place: the terrifying power of his touch, the agony in his eyes when he lied, the strange, protective ease he radiated.
The cruelty was the mask of his love.
The realization brought a rush of tears, but also a surge of clear, pure determination. She was not a slave.
She was the one thing the Devil of the Shadowlands couldn't live without.
"Tell me what to do, Cassian," she said, her voice now steady.
"I won't hide.
I won't be a weakness."
Cassian stood up, his professional severity returning, mixed with a sliver of respect.
"You stay here.
You are the nexus, the key. You do not move. If the Coven finds you, they will force you to open the seal, and the resulting chaos will destroy this territory and your bond."
Before Elara could reply, a deep, mournful howl of the pack's war alarm ripped through the thick walls of the manor, followed by the distant, chilling sound of explosions hitting the forest line.
They are here.
Elara pushed herself off the chair, the pendant throbbing against her chest.
She looked out the window at the dark forest, her fear replaced by a cold, protective fury.
"I won't open the seal," Elara vowed, speaking not to Cassian, but to the coming storm.
"But I won't sit here either.
Roland is fighting for me. I will fight for him."
The Coven has arrived, and Elara is now fully aware of the mate bond and the devastating lie Roland maintained to protect her.