Knotted By The Three Feral Alphas

**Chapter 122: Ash Before Dawn**

Lila found me later in the armory while I sharpened my favorite blade. She carried a small bundle wrapped in cloth. "I made this for you." Inside lay a braided cord of leather and wolf hair, simple but sturdy. "For luck. So you don’t get hurt again."

I tied it around my wrist immediately. The weight felt right. "Thank you. This will keep me steady."

She watched me work the whetstone a moment longer, then asked the question I had been dreading. "If she gets inside... do we run or fight?"

"We fight smart," I told her. "You take your brother and sister to the deepest room like we practiced. You bar the door. You wait for us. But you stay alive. That’s the only order that matters."

Her small jaw tightened, but she nodded. The trust in her eyes carved deeper than any blade. I pulled her into a quick embrace, breathing in the scent of her hair, then sent her back to the nursery where Thorne and Elara played under heavy guard. Their laughter carried down the corridor like defiance.

Darius caught up with me on the eastern battlement as the sun dipped lower. His arm hung in a fresh sling, but color had returned to his face. "Kane sent word. They took out another supply column. The enemy is down to bare rations. Their leader is pushing them without mercy now."

"Good," I said. "Let her break them trying to reach us."

We stood together watching the horizon where smoke from their camp stained the sky. The alignment drew closer with every breath. Two days. Maybe less. The witch-blood heir would throw everything at these walls soon, desperate to claim her prize before the stars aligned against her.

Evening brought the final council. Captains filled the war room, faces grim but focused. I laid out the last details. How we would let the first wave exhaust itself on the outer traps. How the side posterns would open at my signal for flanking strikes. How every fighter must protect the inner keep at all costs.

"No heroics," I told them. "We win by surviving longer than she can afford. Protect the children. Protect each other. That is victory."

They left with renewed purpose. I stayed behind with Darius, going over contingencies until the torches burned low. When we finally returned to the royal wing, the children were already asleep in the reinforced inner chamber. Lila had positioned herself closest to the door again, one small hand resting on the bar.

I stood there a long time, memorizing every detail. Thorne’s peaceful face. Elara’s tiny fist clutching the cloth doll. Lila’s determined brow even in sleep. These three lives against an ancient grudge and stolen power. The scale should have terrified me. Instead it clarified everything.

Darius touched my elbow. "Come. You need rest before tomorrow."

We lay together in the next room, bodies fitted close despite armor and bandages. His good arm wrapped around me. The bond carried quiet strength between us, steady as the stone walls surrounding our family. Sleep came eventually, fractured but deep enough to restore what the long road had taken.

Dawn on the final day arrived gray and heavy. Scouts reported the northern force less than a day’s march away. I rose before first light and walked the walls alone. The keep felt alive beneath my boots, every stone aware of what approached. Archers stood ready. Cauldrons simmered. Traps waited in silence.

I found Garrick near the main gates. "If I fall," I said quietly, "you get the children out through the mountain passage. Take them north if you must. Far from here."

He met my eyes without flinching. "You won’t fall. But if it comes to that, I will carry them on my own back."

The promise settled something inside me. I clasped his shoulder once, then continued my rounds. The pack watched me pass with steady gazes. They had seen me bleed on the bridge and at the gorge. They knew I would stand here until the end.

Mid-morning brought the first distant dust cloud on the horizon. The enemy approached. I called the pack to stations and took my place at the center of the main wall. Darius stood to my right, sword in his good hand. The bond stretched toward Kane and Rylan somewhere out there in the hills, still striking from shadow.

The northern force spilled onto the plain like dark water. Banners snapped in the wind. At their center rode the witch-blood heir, her braids catching the weak sunlight, silver wire glinting. She rode straight for our gates without hesitation now. No more probes. This was her final throw.

I drew my sword. The steel rang clear. Around me the pack raised weapons in answer. The sound rolled across the walls like thunder. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

She stopped her horse just beyond arrow range and looked up at me across the distance. Even from here I could see the madness and hunger in her posture. She raised one hand, power crackling around her fingers, and shouted words that carried on the wind.

"Your children’s blood calls to me! Open the gates or watch everything you love burn!"

I raised my own blade in answer, the leather cord from Lila tight around my wrist.

"Then come take it," I called back, voice carrying across the plain. "If you can."

The witch-blood heir screamed an order. Her broken army surged forward.

The final battle for our future had begun.

Her army crashed against the outer defenses like a dark tide.

I stood on the main wall with my sword already out, watching the first wave hit the caltrops and pits.

Men screamed as iron spikes tore through boots and horses went down in heaps. Still they came, driven harder by fear of their own leader than any courage.

"Archers!" I shouted.

The sky filled with shafts. The sound of impacts mixed with cries as bodies crumpled on the approach. I moved along the battlement, calling adjustments, keeping the line steady.

Darius fought beside me, his good arm swinging with lethal accuracy despite the fresh wound. Every time our eyes met the bond steadied us both.

The witch-blood heir rode behind her front ranks, power crackling around her like black lightning. She raised her hands and unleashed a wave of force that slammed into our outer barrier. Wood splintered. Stones cracked.

Several of our people were thrown back, but the main gate held. I felt the impact through the stone under my boots and answered it with cold anger.

"Oil!" I called.

Cauldrons tipped. Burning pitch poured down onto the climbers and those jammed at the base. The screams that followed turned the air thick and ugly. Smoke rose in black columns. The enemy faltered for the first time, but she drove them forward again with gestures that looked like whips of shadow.

I spotted a weak point forming near the eastern postern and rushed there with a squad. A group of northerners had managed to raise a ladder despite the chaos.

I reached the edge as the first man crested the wall. My sword took him under the chin and sent him tumbling back onto his comrades.

Another replaced him. I fought them off the parapet one by one, boots slipping on blood-slick stone, until hands pulled me back and our own men took over the defense.

Darius found me breathing hard against the inner wall. "She’s testing every section. Looking for a breach."

"Then we give her nothing," I said. "Rotate the fighters. No one stays in one spot long enough to tire."

The battle stretched through the morning and into the afternoon. Waves came and broke. We lost good people. A woman I had trained myself fell with an arrow through her throat. An older gamma took a spear meant for a younger fighter and died with his hand still gripping his blade.

Each loss cut deep, but the pack held. They fought for the children sleeping in the heart of the keep. They fought for the future we had carved out of curses and blood.

A scout reached me during a brief lull, face streaked with dirt and someone else’s blood. "Kane and Rylan hit their rear hard. Took out their last supply wagons. The enemy is turning to face them."

Relief and fresh worry twisted together. My mates were out there buying us time with their own lives. I sent the scout back with orders to keep striking and stay alive, then returned to the wall.

The witch-blood heir had moved closer. She stood on a small rise just beyond effective arrow range, braids whipping in the wind, silver and bone catching the light.

Her eyes found mine across the distance and held. She raised one hand and sent another surge of power straight at the main gate. The impact shook the entire wall. Cracks spiderwebbed across the reinforced timber.

I felt the bond flare as Darius moved to my side. Together we pushed back against the invisible force, drawing on the connection that had carried us through every mile and every fight. The pressure eased. The gate held, though it groaned like a living thing in pain.

"She’s getting desperate," I said through gritted teeth. "The alignment is close. She can feel it slipping away."

Darius wiped blood from his face with his good arm. "Then we make her pay for every second."