Knots of the Hybrid Queen: Claimed by Four Alphas

Chapter 24: The Breakthrough

The demon showed up early.

Not attacking, just watching from the tree line at the eastern border where the pack’s territory met unclaimed forest, and when the scout reported back everyone’s panic spiked through the bonds loud enough to wake me from dead sleep.

I was in the training yard ten minutes later with wet hair and no breakfast and the kind of adrenaline spike that made my hands shake, watching Kael coordinate scouts while Riven checked weapons and Draven laid out tactical maps and Thorne just stood at the edge of the clearing staring toward the border with those amber eyes that had gone feral.

"How long has it been there?" My voice came out steadier than I felt.

"Twenty minutes." Marcus appeared at my elbow. "Just watching. Not moving."

"Why would it do that?"

"Testing." Draven didn’t look up from his map. "Seeing how we react. How prepared we are. How much of a threat you actually pose."

Me. It was watching to see what I could do.

My stomach tried to crawl up my throat.

"Can I—" I had to stop, swallow, try again. "Can I see it?"

Kael’s head whipped around. "Absolutely not."

"I need to know what I’m facing." My thumbnail found my finger, notching hard enough to hurt. "If it’s going to attack tonight I need to see what I’m up against."

"No." Flat. Final. Alpha King voice that normally would have made me back down except I was done backing down when people’s lives were on the line.

"I’m not asking permission." The words came out sharper than I meant. "I’m the Hybrid Queen everyone keeps telling me I am. I need to see the thing I’m supposedly meant to stop."

Silence.

Then Thorne turned from the tree line and looked at me with those predator eyes. "I’ll take her."

"The hell you will." Kael crossed to me in three long strides. "She’s not trained enough. Not ready enough. Not—"

"I’ll never be ready enough by your standards." I met his eyes and didn’t flinch. "But hiding me away until the fight starts isn’t going to help anyone. Let me see it."

Through the bond I felt his terror mixing with his reluctance to override me mixing with his absolute conviction that this was a terrible idea.

"Please." I softened my voice. "Trust me."

His jaw worked and I watched him war with himself through the bond, watched the Alpha King fight with the mate who just wanted to keep me safe.

The mate lost.

"Fine." He bit the word out. "But Thorne stays with you. And if that thing so much as looks at you wrong, you run. Understand?"

I nodded because my throat was too tight to speak.

Thorne’s hand found my elbow, grounding me, and then we were moving through the pack house and out the back entrance and into the forest that bordered the eastern territory.

The trees swallowed us in less than a minute, thick enough that sunlight barely penetrated, and I followed Thorne’s silent footsteps trying not to focus on how my heart was trying to break through my ribs.

We walked for maybe ten minutes before Thorne stopped and pointed.

I looked where he was pointing and my blood went cold.

The demon stood at the tree line maybe fifty yards out, and it wasn’t what I’d expected — not some grotesque monster made of nightmare fuel but something almost beautiful in a way that made my hindbrain scream danger.

Tall. Humanoid. Wrapped in shadows that moved like living things. Eyes that glowed red and seemed to look right through me to whatever core of power my hybrid blood carried.

It smiled.

I stopped breathing.

"It knows you’re here." Thorne’s voice was barely a whisper. "Can feel your power."

"Good." The word came out before I could stop it. "Let it know what’s coming."

I called the shadows.

They pooled in my palms faster than they ever had before, darker than they should be, and I pushed them outward in a wave that swallowed the space between us and crashed into the demon with enough force to make it step back. freёwebnoѵel.com

The smile on its face widened.

Then it was gone, melting into the shadows like it had never been there.

My knees gave out.

Thorne caught me before I hit the ground, arms banding around me while I shook. "You okay?"

"No." Honest and raw. "That thing is terrifying and I just showed it exactly what I can do which was probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever done."

"Not stupid." He pulled me against his chest. "Brave."

"Brave and stupid aren’t mutually exclusive."

His chest rumbled with silent laughter and then we were heading back through the forest, and I tried not to focus on how the demon’s smile had looked satisfied, like I’d just played exactly into whatever plan it had.

Kael was waiting when we got back, arms crossed and expression thunderous, and I braced for the lecture I absolutely deserved.

Instead he just pulled me into his arms and held me while his heart hammered against my chest.

"Don’t ever do that again." Rough and raw through the bond.

"I needed to see it."

"I know." He pulled back just enough to look at me. "What did you see?"

"Power." My voice came out quiet. "It’s not just strong, it’s ancient. And it was testing me just as much as I was seeing it."

"Did you pass?"

"I don’t know." The honesty hurt. "But I showed it my shadows and it didn’t run screaming so either I’m more powerful than I thought or it thinks I’m not a threat."

"You’re a threat." Draven’s voice from behind us. "The way you called those shadows just now? That was alpha-level control. Most wolves train for years to reach that." freewebnovel.cσ๓

"How do you know—" I turned and saw the scrying bowl on the table, still rippling with images. "You were watching."

"Of course we were watching." Riven appeared with water I desperately needed. "You think we’d let you face that thing without backup?"

The water was cold and perfect and I drank half before my hands stopped shaking enough to set it down.

"Tonight," Marcus announced from the doorway. "Scouts confirmed. It’ll attack at moonrise."

Six hours.

Six hours until I had to face that thing with powers I’d barely learned to use and a confidence I absolutely didn’t have.

"Then we prepare." Kael’s voice went hard. "Selene, you rest. Everyone else, battle positions."

The pack mobilized around me, warriors checking weapons and scouts coordinating positions and healers preparing supplies, and I stood in the middle of it all feeling like a fraud.

"Hey." Riven’s hand found mine. "You’ve got this."

"You don’t know that."

"I know you exploded a training dummy two days ago and just sent a wave of shadows strong enough to make a demon step back." His eyes were fierce. "I know you’re terrified and still standing here instead of running. That’s enough."

Was it though?

In six hours I’d find out.

And God help us all if the answer was no.