POV: Corvus
"That's not Thaddeus?" Serephina's voice broke on her son's name. "What do you mean that's not—"
The fake child in Lyssandra's arms flickered. For just a heartbeat, I saw through the illusion—not a five-year-old boy, but a twisted thing made of shadow and old magic, wearing Thaddeus's face like a mask.
My wolf snarled. Changelings were forbidden magic. Dark. Dangerous. The kind of spell that required blood sacrifice and deals with entities no sane wolf would bargain with.
"Where is he?" Serephina's violet flames exploded outward, scorching the ground. "WHERE IS MY REAL SON?"
Lyssandra stumbled backward, the changeling dissolving into smoke in her arms. Her face went from smug to terrified in a heartbeat. "I—I don't know what you're talking about! Thaddeus is right—"
"LIAR!" Morvana's ancient voice boomed. The spirit wolf's power pressed down on everyone, forcing even me to brace against it. "I can smell the changeling magic on you, she-wolf. You helped cast it. Where. Is. The. Cub?"
"The old mine," a small voice whispered.
Everyone turned.
Finnian stood at the clearing's edge—the gentle omega healer I'd met days ago when Serephina first awakened. He looked terrified but determined, clutching herbs in shaking hands.
"I followed you," he said to Lyssandra, voice trembling. "Three days ago. I saw you and Isolde take a child into the abandoned mine at the eastern border. I heard him crying. I heard—" His voice cracked. "I heard him calling for his mother."
Serephina made a sound like a dying animal.
"You're lying!" Lyssandra shrieked, but her scent gave her away—sharp with panic and guilt. "That omega is delusional! There's no—"
"The eastern mine." Isolde's cold voice cut through the chaos. The ancient woman looked at Finnian with murder in her eyes. "You should have minded your own business, healer."
She raised her hand. Dark magic gathered in her palm—the killing kind.
I moved.
My wolf surged forward, dark silver fur bristling, putting myself between Finnian and the death spell. The magic hit my shoulder instead of the omega's heart. Pain exploded through me, but I'd survived worse in my three hundred and forty years.
"Touch him again," I growled, "and I'll rip out your throat, old woman. Oath or no oath."
"You swore to protect the Thornecrown line," Isolde hissed. "Not interfere with justice—"
"Justice?" Serephina's laugh was pure rage. She stalked toward Isolde, flames dancing higher with each step. "You kidnapped my son. You replaced him with dark magic. You were going to let me surrender while my baby is TRAPPED IN A MINE?"
"It was necessary!" Isolde snarled back. "To keep you controlled! To keep you from—"
The rest of her words vanished in screaming.
Serephina's alpha command crashed over the clearing like a tidal wave: "TELL ME WHERE MY SON IS. NOW."
Every wolf except me dropped, necks bared, unable to resist the royal order. Even Kael, who'd managed to rise earlier, slammed back down. The command was so powerful it forced truth.
"Eastern border," Isolde gasped out against her will. "Old iron mine. Thirty feet down. Silver cage. Spelled so he can't shift or call for help. We were going to—" She choked, fighting the command, but it was useless. "—going to use him as leverage. Keep you obedient by threatening to hurt him if you didn't—"
Serephina didn't wait for the rest.
She shifted mid-stride, her massive silver wolf with violet-flame markings exploding toward the forest. Our mate bond screamed with her anguish, her terror, her desperate need to reach her cub.
I shifted and ran after her, ignoring the burning wound in my shoulder.
"Wait!" Finnian called, scrambling to follow in human form. "The mine is unstable! And there are guards—Isolde left guards—"
"I don't care if there are a hundred guards," Serephina's thoughts roared through our bond. "I don't care if the whole mine collapses. My baby is down there alone and scared and I'm getting him OUT."
We ran.
Miles blurred past. My wolf was fast, but Serephina's royal blood made her faster. Fear and rage fueled her until she was practically flying over the ground, violet flames trailing behind her like a comet.
The mine came into view—a collapsed entrance, rotted support beams, warning signs about cave-ins. And standing guard at the entrance: twelve wolves in battle formation.
They saw us coming. Shifted. Prepared to fight.
Serephina didn't even slow down.
She hit them like a hurricane of violet fire and fury. Her alpha command forced half of them to their knees instantly. The ones strong enough to resist her power got her claws. She fought like a demon—no technique, no strategy, just raw maternal rage.
One guard managed to slash her side. She barely noticed, just ripped out his throat and kept going.
"Serephina!" I tried to reach her through the bond. "You're hurt! You need to—"
"MY SON IS DOWN THERE!"
She disappeared into the mine entrance.
I followed, shifting to human form to navigate the tight space. The darkness was absolute. The air reeked of old magic and silver and something else—
Fear. A child's fear.
"Thaddeus?" Serephina's human voice echoed through the tunnels, desperate and breaking. "Baby, can you hear Mommy? I'm coming! I'm—"
A small, terrified voice answered from deep below: "Hello? Is someone there? Please... please help me... I want my mommy..."
Not Lyssandra's name. Not a request for the fake mother who'd stolen him.
He wanted her. His real mother. Even if he didn't fully remember her yet, some part of him knew.
Serephina sobbed and ran deeper, following her son's voice. I stayed close, trying to check the structural integrity, trying to sense magical traps, trying to—
The tunnel floor gave way beneath us.
We fell.
Thirty feet of darkness and terror, hitting stone and mine cart tracks and ancient debris. I managed to twist mid-fall to take the worst of the impact. Pain exploded through my ribs—definitely broken.
But Serephina had already scrambled up, violet flames lighting the cavern we'd landed in.
There.
In the center of the space, locked in a silver cage barely big enough for a child to sit in, was Thaddeus. The real Thaddeus. Filthy, tear-streaked, shaking with fear.
When he saw Serephina, his ice-blue eyes went wide.
"You... you're the lady from the bedroom," he whispered. Then, quieter, confused: "Why do I feel safe when I look at you?"
Serephina's hands trembled as she approached the cage. "Because I'm your real mommy, baby. I know you don't remember, but I'm—I'm here now. I'm going to get you out."
She grabbed the silver bars.
The cage exploded with magical feedback.
Serephina screamed, thrown backward by the spell. I caught her before she hit the wall, my own hands burning where the residual magic touched me.
"It's trapped," I realized with growing horror. "The cage is booby-trapped. Anyone with Thornecrown blood who touches it—"
The mine began to shake.
Dust rained from the ceiling. Support beams groaned. The explosion had triggered something—a collapse spell, probably, designed to bury anyone who tried to free the boy.
"No no no NO!" Serephina tried to reach for the cage again.
I grabbed her wrists. "It'll kill you! The spell will—"
"I DON'T CARE!" Tears streamed down her face. "He's my SON! I have to—"
A new voice, small and heartbreaking, interrupted: "Mommy, don't die. Please don't die for me."
We both froze.
Thaddeus was staring at Serephina with those ice-blue eyes—but they were different now. Clearer. Like memories were surfacing through whatever spell had been clouding his mind.
"I remember," he whispered. "The singing. The way you smell like flowers and moonlight. The way you held me when I was scared. You're... you're my real mommy."
"Yes," Serephina sobbed. "Yes, baby, I am."
"Then don't touch the cage." His little voice was so serious, so much older than five years old. "The bad grandmother said anyone with 'special blood' who touches it will die. She said she hoped you'd try. She wanted you to die saving me."
The mine shook harder. Rocks fell from the ceiling.
We had maybe two minutes before this whole place came down on our heads.
And the only way to save Thaddeus would kill Serephina—which was exactly what Isolde wanted.
"There has to be another way," I growled, examining the cage desperately. "Some way to break the spell without—"
"There isn't." Finnian's voice came from above. The omega had somehow climbed down after us, clutching his herb pouch. "I recognize this spell. It's a blood curse. Only two ways to break it: let it kill someone with Thornecrown blood, or..." He swallowed hard. "Or replace it with a different sacrifice."
"What kind of sacrifice?" I demanded.
Finnian looked at me with ancient sadness in his eyes.
"A mate bond," he whispered. "Someone has to sever their own true mate bond to break the curse. The pain of losing your destined mate is enough magic to—"
"No." Serephina's voice was absolute. "Corvus just found me. I won't—"
"I'll do it," I said.
Our eyes met. The mate bond between us sang with everything we could have been—centuries of partnership, of love, of ruling together. The future the Moon Goddess had planned for us.
I'd waited three hundred and forty years for her.
And I'd give it all up to save her son.
"Corvus, please," Serephina begged. "There has to be—"
The mine shook violently. Thaddeus whimpered in his cage.
I cupped Serephina's face gently. "I've served the Thornecrown line for three hundred years, Mayreath. This is what I was born for. Protecting my queen and her bloodline. Even if it costs me everything."
I closed my eyes and reached for the mate bond between us—that beautiful, burning connection.
And I began to tear it apart.
The pain was indescribable.
But my queen's son would live.
That was all that mattered.