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.

had passed, and Cassandra 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,

down beside him and rubbed his

mother will be just fine,” she assured the little boy repeatedly,

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, but I

of it I inhaled. Behind me, the voices

efforts would be in vain. We would have done all

hand at the soldiers in special protective suits beyond us awaiting instructions, but before I could utter a word, Raven stood up and shook her

yet,” she insisted, but as soon as she finished her sentence, a loud growl escaped the building. It was an intense sound, so clear and strong that the air around us felt as if

up

and

could properly react, the intensity of the fire decreased all

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eyes e

angry as they

59%

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

rang out and was quickly followed by a heavy thud. The front doors of the building flew open, and thick smoke billowed out

eyebrows knitted together as I stared in confusion, and as I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t gray, but white. It had only looked gray because of the smoke, but its fur was actually snow

A white wolf.

usually highborn. It was a fur color reserved for royalty and nobility, and I had never

been trapped within the building followed the

wolf crawled closer toward Raven and me, its body lowered and its

red as rubies.

me froze, unsure of how to