Alpha King’s Lost Luna by Aubrey Pepper

Chapter 279

KALEB

The whole main building was on fire.

watched it burn from a distance, admiring the plumes of smoke as they rose high into the air. It was a gorgeous sight, though dark given the circumstances. Thankfully, I couldn’t hear the screams and cries within because the tightly shut windows and doors had blocked them. As I stared at the building, I wondered if this was what those people felt when they locked my siblings and me in the dungeon, leaving us to our demise.

Had they stood outside the doors, wondering who would be the victor and who would meet a violent death at the hands of their family members? Had they felt satisfaction at the idea of us fighting one another?

All of my enemies, as well as those with the potential to be my enemies, were there in that burning building, but I couldn’t feel even a tiny bit of happiness at the sight. Nor did I feel regret or horror.

I felt absolutely nothing at all.

Those who had stood loyal to my side of the conflict had been evacuated out of the building and stood beside me, watching the structure burn with expressions of wonderment. Some were excited, like Raven. The young, dark-haired sorceress had been excited from the moment I’d revealed my plan to her.

“This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” she remarked, her bluish-green eyes enormous as they stared ahead. “It’s even more incredible than I’d imagined it would be, Kaleb.”

As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t call her crazy this time, because I was just as insane as her.

Raven had said there would never be a more perfect opportunity or idea to provoke Cassandra’s wolf spirit. She believed that the inferno and the burning were the keys Emmett Keller had used to seal Cassandra’s wolf. It was genius, really, to use her fear and trauma to lock away that vital key to her shifting, but we hadn’t known how to get it out of her. It wasn’t every day that one came across an opportunity for a fire big enough to elicit such a fear response, but this one had presented itself at the right moment.

When else would so many people gather in Vlokwell?

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Rain fell steadily from the sky, yet the fire didn’t cease. I wasn’t sure what kind of sorcery Raven had used on the building, but the fire had been so precisely controlled that it hadn’t spread beyond the intended point, nor was it ending until she said so.

“It’s like an oven,” she had said.

hadn’t escaped yet. Her small son and her maid were crying beside Raven, their faces filled with fear and shock as they stared at the building. The maid managed to keep herself steady, but Finnick’s chest wracked with s obs and his cries filled the air around us. It was heartbreaking to hear, but this was a necessary task. I couldn’t

down beside him and rubbed his

boy repeatedly, but the more

a point where I couldn’t look at him any longer. The child was a distraction. I couldn’t let his sorrow and pain affect me, not when I needed to stay so focused. My only worry was the sorcery that Emmett had hidden within Cassandra. There had been no conceivable way of extracting it, so we had come up with this plan. My mind swam with a million thoughts,

the more of it I inhaled. Behind me, the voices of those loyal to me began to make comments about the

get her out,” I remarked. If Cassandra died, our efforts would be in vain. We would have done all

hand at the soldiers in special protective suits beyond us awaiting instructions, but before

loud growl escaped the building. It was an intense sound, so clear and strong that the air around us felt as if it had vibrated. The hairs

up

and

the fire decreased all

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eyes e

as

59%

shouted, her ahead of us. She frowned deeply and raised both hands high in the air. The veins at her temples tensed as she strained, but no matter how she tried, nothing happened. All of her attempts at

grew.

+5

the building flew open, and thick smoke billowed out onto the grounds. Among the

I realized it wasn’t gray, but white. It had only looked gray because of the smoke, but its fur

A white wolf.

a fur color reserved for royalty and nobility, and I had never seen a

trapped within the building followed the wolf,

Raven and me, its body lowered

red as rubies.

me froze, unsure of how