BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 231: THE SHIFTER COUNCIL’S DECISION

Chapter 231: THE SHIFTER COUNCIL’S DECISION

{"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."}

We all left the royal guardian and convened at the Shifter conference hall. We had barely begun to speak, Ma standing at the head, Elder Crystal on her left, Beta Spark at her right when the double doors swung open, and a guard stormed in, breathless, his armor streaked with dust and soot, and all eyes snapped to him.

"Commander. Your Majesty." He dropped to one knee and form his attire he was the border army guards that were near the Bay Shifter border near Paradise coven.

My pulse jumped. "Speak."

His voice was raw. "Message from Alpha Tor. They entered Bloodstone Mountain days ago."

A ripple went through the room. Rita tensed at my side, eyes narrowing.

"What did they find?" I asked.

The guard swallowed hard. "Alpha Tor reports they found three presences. First—a vampire called Ash Marcel. Elder Crystal went still, and the guard continued. "Second, a black cloaked creature. Not a vampire. Not a shifter. Something twisted. Possibly bound to Ash Marcel. Third, Lord Marcel, he is the one who has been harbouring the creatures in Bloodstone Mountain.

A stunned silence swept the room. "Alive?" I asked.

"Yes," The guard nodded.

"Did you just say Ash Marcel?" Ma whispered in shock.

"Who is here?" Spark demanded.

Someone who should be dead and buried, "Elder Crystal stated. "We need to send reinforcements to Alpha Tor.

"Alpha Tor stated that we needed to ensure the Bay Shifter Pack remains safe and secure. We cannot leave, "The guard interjected.

Ma paced near the edge of the table, her crown gleaming beneath the conference hall’s lights. The others sat stunned, murmuring threats and plans. Mortas bristled near the map, fingers hovering over routes. Elder Crystal was already muttering spell precautions under her breath.

But none of them saw the shape of what needed to happen, and only Rita did, and she was already watching me, as if reading the map in my mind.

I cleared my throat ."We’re going in," I said.

The room quieted too quickly. "Absolutely not," Ma snapped, turning fast. "You don’t walk into a den of vampires just because your name echoed in some mountain."

"I’m not walking in," I said coolly. "We are slipping in. Silent. Unseen."

Rita stepped forward beside me, calm and lethal. "We know how to go without being tracked."

Ma’s eyes narrowed. "You’re talking infiltration."

"We’re talking advantage," I replied. "Alpha Tor, Freyr, Rou, and Rolan need all the help that they can get. They are facing something layered in ancient magic, shadows, and blood. If we go in through the wrong door, we will just become targets."

"But if we go through the cracks," Rita added, "we become blades. Ones that strike first."

Spark leaned forward. "You mean to go in unnoticed. Unrecorded."

"That’s right," I said. "Rita and I slip in, meet up with Tor’s team, and support from the inside. No noise. No trails."

General Mortas finally spoke. "There is a back channel. A forgotten tunnel through the black cliffs was shuttered after the last landslide. You would have to climb half of it by hand."

Rita smirked faintly. "Good. They will not expect us to be that stupid."

"Or that fast," I added.

Ma looked like she wanted to throw the table. "You’ll report in if—"

"We shall send the guard with information in case of anything, "I interjected.

Then Crystal stepped forward and placed a stone on the table small, obsidian black with a red rune carved into it. "For your pocket," she said softly. "Not magic. Just a promise. One carved by my hand when I was a soldier, not an Elder. It has brought me home three times." I took it and Rita bowed her head slightly in thanks.

Ma still had not spoken, and I walked over to her and touched her arm. "If I do not go now, who knows what will happen. You have everyone here plus Wave needs to stay behind."

Finally, Ma nodded, jaw clenched. "Then don’t die in the dark."

I smiled faintly. "I have got a Rougarou in my shadow. I will be fine."

We bid farewell after careful planning, and the doors of the conference hall shut behind us with a final click, sealing in the weight of what we had just promised. Outside, dusk had begun to drape the Bay Shifter lands in soft silver light. The wind rolled in from the cliffs, cool and heavy with salt, whispering through the trees like the land already knew we were leaving.

"Let us hurry up and leave unnoticed" I whispered to Rita, who responded with a nod.

We crossed the courtyard of old stone and roots, down the winding path toward the modest but ward-woven house we called home. Our space. Untouched by council eyes or military protocols. A place that still smelled like fresh herbs and the firewood we forgot to bring in. The door creaked softly as we stepped inside, and Rita locked it behind us without needing to be told.

I kicked off my boots and walked straight to the weapons rack near the hearth. The blades were already humming, sensitive to intention, awakened by adrenaline and purpose. I picked up my shorter silver dagger and tested its balance.

"Light or heavy packs?" she called.

"Light. We are not stopping until we reach the cliff pass."

"Fine," She nodded.

I walked to the window and looked out toward the cliffs. The sky was bleeding red now, as if even the sun was not at peace. We stood there for a long moment, watching the sky shift and the land go still.

Then I pulled away gently. "We leave before moonrise. Let us finish packing." Rita nodded and vanished into the hallway again, her movements smooth, efficient.

The moon hung low, barely more than a silver cut in the sky as we moved through the back ridge of Bay Shifter lands. No torches. No flares. Just shadow and breath and the soft crunch of our boots against moss and earth. We were past the boundary line, where the protection spells frayed, and the wild ridges began when I heard it.

A rustle. A shift in wind and Rita turned back and we stood still waiting for h persons to appear.

"No threat." A heartbeat later, two familiar figures stepped from the trees: Beta Spark and Wave, both cloaked, both silent but burning with intent.

"We’re not here to stop you," Wave pointed out.

I exhaled slowly, not entirely surprised. "Then why are you here?"

"To say what others won’t," Spark said, looking between us. "We trust you both. But trust does not mean we sleep easily."

Wave stepped closer; eyes gleaming under the starlight. "Flora," he said, and for the first time in a long while, he used my name without title. "You must come back. Ma ill not service if you do not come back."

My throat tightened. I managed a nod. "I plan to."

He looked past me to Rita, who stood tall and still beside me, hands loose at her sides but ready to kill for me, if needed. "You’re her mate," Wave said, voice steady. "That means this is more than duty. It is soul deep."

Rita met his gaze without flinching. "It is."

"Then guard her," Wave said, stepping close enough to touch her shoulder. "Not just in battle. In every choice. Every hesitation. Bring her back alive."

Rita nodded once. "Always."

It was not a promise. It was a vow, and then Wave stepped back, letting the shadows begin to swallow him again.

"Go," he said. "Be safe" And with that, Rita and I crossed the boundary line, our presence already fading into the wind.

The cliffs clawed at the sky, jagged and cruel, the stone beneath our boots cracked and slick with moss. We were three days out from Bay Shifter lands, the path was not really a path. More like an old scar carved into the side of the ridge half-collapsed, barely wide enough for one foot at a time. A slip here meant a fall too long to scream through.

"Don’t look down," Rita muttered behind me.

I did not. I just kept moving, one breath at a time, my fingers digging into stone and root. Rita caught the shift too silently as a shadow. She came to my side as we reached the flattened ledge that overlooked the southern forest basin below Blood Stone Mountain.

And that is when we saw it and not far beneath the canopy, tucked in a clearing where the trees grew too still was a shimmer. A distortion. Like glass bending in heat but laced with pale blue glyphs that pulsed in rhythm like a heartbeat.

A barrier. No sound came from within it. No movement. Just a stillness that reeked of magic too old for the current age, and Rita knelt beside me. "That was not here."

"No," I whispered. "Because it didn’t want to be."

We watched in silence, both crouched on the cliff’s edge, our breathing shallow.

"Do you feel that?" I asked, touching my sternum.

Rita nodded. "Pressure. Like something’s watching back."

I reached into my pocket and pulled the small obsidian rune Elder Crystal had given me. It did not glow. But it warmed in my palm, as if whispering, and the Rita’s eyes widene,d and she spoke up, "Rou, my father and uncle Rolan, they are in ther.e "