Chapter 150
Nathan’s POV
Several long minutes crawled by before Emily finally opened her eyes.
“You scared me,” I admitted, my voice rough.
Emily swallowed hard, her eyes fixing onto my face as she pulled herself up. “I know.”
“What did you see?” I asked, helping her sit up on the grass. “Your wolf–or you, or whatever that was–it ripped right out of your chest and flew toward the horizon.”
Emily shook her head, trying to clear her mind as she forced her legs to support her weight.
“I was at the castle,” she said, her voice shaking. “Declan is finalizing his preparations for the attack. Nathan, he has drained so many Lunas. I watched him do it.” She pressed a hand over her center, her fingers digging into her
shirt.
I pulled her tightly into my chest, wrapping my arms around her to stop her from shaking. “Emily.”
“We need to prepare,” she whispered against my shoulder, her tone turning cold and determined. “We have to kill hat bastard. And I have a plan.”
An hour later, we were sitting in my office inside the main administrative pack building.
My top warriors including Marcus, Kane, Blake and Liam, stood around the room. We were finalizing the trap.
“The crystal barriers now ring almost our entire territory,” Emily explained, leaning over the layout of our lands. ‘Eight massive stone pillars, each carved with ancient runes and holding a glowing crystal, create a defensive dome completely enclosing our pack lands.”
“If Declan attacks head–on,” Blake said, slamming his fist onto the wooden map table, “the barriers will stop his irst wave. But they’ll just regroup and search for another way in.”
“And then what?” Kane muttered, his wolf pacing visibly beneath his skin. “We can’t just hide behind glowing
୮ ocks forever, Nathan. Our wolves want a fight.”
Before I could answer, Emily’s voice cut through the growls of my warriors.
“We don’t hide,” she said, walking straight up to the map. “We let them think they found a weakness. We emporarily disable one crystal right here.”
Liam leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “A funnel trap. You want to bottle them up.”
“They’ll rush through that gap, believing they broke our defenses,” Emily countered, her voice dropping into a chilling, steady rhythm. “They’ll be so focused on the opening that they won’t even realize it’s a trap.”
“Perfect,” Liam said, a brutal grin spreading across his face. “We can ambush them right there. There’s a perfect ridge overlooking that canyon. We’ll slaughter the whole wave.”
2:02 pm pp
Ham blinked, looking completely lost. “I don’t get it. What are we supposed to do, welcome them with flowers?”
A few of the lead warriots laughed. I couldn’t blame them; I didn’t understand her strategy either.
Instead of arguing, Emily simply locked her silver gaze on the two biggest warriors standing by the window. Their aughter died.
A second later, both men went completely rigid and launched into a perfect, synchronous dance.
Their heavy boots stomped a sharp rhythm against the floorboards, hips swaying and feet crossing over in a lawless pattern. Their faces were dead serious, eyes wide with panic as their own limbs moved with the grace of
rofessional dancers against their will.
“Enough,” Emily said softly.
The two warriors instantly tripped over their own feet, stumbling back against the wall.
The entire room was stunned by the total control she held over them.
“I am going to break Varga’s spell on the rogues,” Emily explained, looking around the table. “I will clear their ninds of the dark magic. Once they are back to normal, they will fight for us. But the ones who are genuinely evil and want bloodshed? They are yours.”
A heavy, thick tension flooded the office. My warriors just stared at her, completely locked in place by her words.
“Damn. That’s beautiful.” Liam was the first to break the silence.
“She’s genius” Asher roared inside my chest–a mix of primal pride and dark, suffocating desire.
She was speaking like a true Luna Queen, commanding my army and planning a victory with the precision of a
general.
I wanted to drag her onto my lap right in front of my men and claim her until she forgot about wars and daggers.
But I stayed back. I watched her from my seat, my hands clenched into fists beneath the table.
Behind her brilliant strategy, I could still feel a gap in our mate bond. There was a dark corner in her mind where he was locking me out. She was hiding something from me—something much bigger than the fear of death, and it
elt like a ticking bomb between us.
“Then we set the trap,” I announced, looking around the room. “Everyone is dismissed.”
Once the warriors left, only Emily and I remained. She stood by the window, watching the survivors from the >ther packs walk into our territory.
I walked up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist and pressing a warm kiss to her shoulder. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”
“What’s coming,” she whispered.
2:02 pm P PTM
The stubborn wall she’d kept up all day finally started to crumble. I pulled her tighter against my chest, needing
to feel her heartbeat.
“We still haven’t talked about it,” I muttered, the raw pain vibrating in my throat. “You asking Marcus to kill you
if Declan captured you. It broke something inside me, Emily.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “Nathan”
“No,” I said, turning her around to face me. “I get why you’re terrified. But stop trying to carry this entire war on
your shoulders. Let me in.”
She stared up at me, a tear finally escaping and tracking down her cheek.
I leaned down and captured her lips. The kiss was soft at first, deep and full of every protective instinct I had. Her ingers curled tightly into my shirt, anchoring herself to me as she kissed me back with a desperate, crushing
ntensity. For a second, the entire world vanished. There was only her.
Then, Emily’s head snapped back. Her eyelids fluttered, and her eyes turned completely white, glowing with a
blank, blinding light.
My heart stopped. I felt the exact second her Phantom Wolf ripped right out of her chest.
She was gone. Her body became a lifeless weight in my arms, cold and empty, while her mind drifted somewhere
niles away.
One minute passed. Then three. By the fifth minute, absolute panic kicked in. I just stood there, holding her completely limp body in my arms, waiting and begging the Moon Goddess to send her soul back to me.
Suddenly, Emily gasped, her eyes snapping open as she violently dragged air into her lungs.
“Declan. He’s coming,” she choked out.
“Emily! Hey, I’ve got you.” I brushed the hair away from her face, my hands shaking. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but the pack won’t be,” she said, locking her gaze onto mine. “I saw him, Nathan. Declan is standing top the black rocks. There are thousands of rogues behind him–a sea of snapping jaws and glowing eyes. A nassive army.”
She grabbed my forearms, her grip bruisingly tight. “And Varga is right beside him. They’re growing stronger with every pack they destroy. Nathan… he saw me looking at him.”