The Alpha’s Fated Outcast: Rise Of The Moonsinger

Chapter 283

283: An unexpected ally...

Clarissa

I never planned to be anyone's savior, especially not Lyla.

The pack house was unusually quiet as I made my way through the corridors. Most of the warriors were patrolling the borders, and the remaining pack members were busy preparing for what Nathan had called "the coming change." I didn't know exactly what that meant, but the gleam in his eyes sent shivers down my spine when he spoke of it.

Something wasn't right. Nathan had been acting strange for days now, and my sister—no, my step-sister—had been missing since yesterday. No one seemed concerned except my mother, Luna Vanessa, who had cornered me earlier with fear in her eyes.

"Find Lyla," she had whispered urgently. "Something's happened. I can feel it."

I had scoffed at first. Why should I care about Lyla? She was the eternal thorn in my side, the golden child, the special one. Even when our father had cast her aside, there had always been that look in his eyes when he spoke of her—a mixture of fear and pride that he'd never shown when looking at me.

But as the day wore on, a nagging feeling grew in my chest. What if something truly was wrong? What if the strangeness I noticed in Nathan connected to Lyla's disappearance?

I found myself heading toward my father's old study—a place I'd rarely been allowed to enter when he was alive. I wasn't even sure why I was drawn there, except for a half-remembered conversation I'd overheard between Nathan and Lyla about visiting it.

When I arrived, the door was slightly ajar, another oddity. My father had always kept this room locked. I pushed it open cautiously, unsure of what I might find.

The sight that greeted me stole the breath from my lungs.

The room was in shambles—papers scattered across the floor, furniture overturned, a massive dent in one wall. But what froze my blood was the figure lying motionless in the center of the chaos.

Lyla.

She was barely recognizable, her face swollen and bruised, dried blood caking her skin. For a moment, I thought she was dead.

"Lyla?" I whispered, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears.

No response.

I rushed forward, dropping to my knees beside her. With trembling fingers, I pressed against her neck, searching for a pulse. It was there—faint and erratic, but there.

"What happened to you?" I murmured, though I knew she couldn't answer.

Looking around the destroyed room, the answer seemed obvious: a fight, and a brutal one at that. But against whom? And why here, in my father's private sanctuary?

My eyes caught the wall behind the desk—a collage of photos, all of Lyla at different ages. Next to them were complex diagrams and notes about Moonsingers. My father's handwriting covered much of it, obsessive and meticulous.

chill creep up my spine. All those years, I'd envied Lyla for our father's

groan drew my attention back to Lyla. Her eyelids

can you hear me?"

words I couldn't hear. I bent lower, placing my ear

so faintly I almost missed it. "Xander... Nathan...

alarm. What was she trying to

escaped her lips. "Trap... everyone in

urgency was unmistakable. Whatever had happened

get you out of

opened just barely, unfocused and glazed with pain. For a

I instructed. "You're badly

in a painful

harder than I expected. Why was I helping her? This was Lyla, the girl I'd resented since childhood,

something's wrong with Nathan. Something bigger than

look in her

not... Nathan anymore," she managed. "Xander... using

to stress or his growing obsession with power. The idea that he wasn't himself at all—that

need to warn the others," I said, more to myself than

whispered. "Don't know... who's loyal

not know who might be in league with whatever Nathan—or this Xander—was

somewhere safe. I can call the Lycan

to sit up, her face contorting with pain. She managed to raise herself a few inches before collapsing back. "Too

house, but here I was. I positioned myself beside her and slid one arm under her shoulders, the

to hurt,"

nodded weakly,

lips. She was lighter than I expected, almost fragile in my arms. It was strange seeing her this

adjusting my grip. "Is there anything here we

open again, more precise this time.

frowned. "Nathan's not

she insisted.

I lowered her back to the ground and began searching through the debris. After a few moments, I spotted a folded piece of paper half-hidden under an overturned chair. The paper was old, the creases worn from repeated folding and

it?" I asked, holding it

Lyla nodded weakly.

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