Chapter 51
The first rays of dawn stretched over the ruins, bathing the shattered stone in pale gold, breathing light into a place that had only known darkness for centuries.
But Riley knew better.
The light wasn't what would bring this place back to life.
She would.
She stood at the highest point of what had once been a throne room, now nothing more than broken columns and crumbling walls, the bones of a kingdom buried beneath time.
But time had never been stronger than she was.
And time would not decide this city's fate.
She would.
Her fingers curled at her sides, fire flickering between them, a quiet, pulsing promise.
This place had been hers once.
And it would be again.
The wolves moved below, their golden eyes scanning the ruins, their bodies tense with something new.
Not fear.
No hesitation.
But purpose.
Because this wasn't just a graveyard anymore.
It was a battlefield waiting to be claimed.
And they were about to take it back.
Kieran stepped up beside her, his presence steady, familiar.
"You think we can rebuild this?" he asked, his golden eyes sweeping over the destruction below.
Riley didn't hesitate.
"We don't have a choice," she said. "This place was taken from us. We'll take it back."
Kieran nodded, accepting her answer as fact.
Because it was.
Because it had to be.
Lena, standing a few feet away, let out a sharp exhale. "Alright, I love a dramatic comeback story as much as the next person, but this is a lot of rocks and dust, sweetheart. Where do we even start?"
Riley scanned the ruins, feeling them beneath her skin as if the very stones still remembered her.
"We start where it began," she said.
She turned toward the center of the ruins, where the ground sloped downward into something deeper, something hidden.
An entrance.
Not to the throne room.
Not to the palace.
To something older.
Something they had buried along with her.
The pack followed as she descended the worn steps, their breaths slow, their movements silent.
The deeper they went, the colder it became.
Not just physically.
Something about this place felt untouched.
As if even time itself had been afraid to reach this far.
The entrance stood before them now, an archway carved into the rock, its surface covered in runes.
Not just any runes.
Wolves' marks.
Riley lifted her fingers to one, tracing the pattern.
And the moment she did
A shock of power slammed through her.
She gasped, stumbling back, the air around her thick with the weight of memory, of something trying to reach her.
"Riley!" Kieran was beside her in an instant, steadying her.
But she barely heard him.
Because suddenly, she wasn't standing in the ruins anymore.
She was standing in the past.
The chamber was lit with torches, their flames burning unnaturally bright, casting shadows along the stone walls.
She could hear the murmurs of voices, low, urgent, filled with something close to fear.
And then
A name.
Her name.
Not Riley.
Not the name she had now.
The one she had lost.
"We must do this before it's too late."
A figure moved in the dim torchlight, their cloak sweeping the stone, their hands brushing over the runes she had just touched.
"She cannot fall."
Another voice, sharper. Angrier.
"You're asking us to risk everything."
A pause.
And then
"She is everything."
The words hit her like a blade.
Because she knew, deep down, she had been here before.
She had stood in this chamber.
She had listened to these words.
And then everything went wrong.
The vision fractured, splintering apart, the torchlight dimming, the voices fading
And Riley was back in the ruins.
She staggered back, her breath coming fast, her pulse roaring in her ears.
The wolves were staring at her now, waiting.
She wiped a hand across her face, her fingers trembling.
"That wasn't just a memory," she whispered.
Kieran's jaw tightened. "Then what was it?"
Riley looked at the runes, the way the stone still hummed beneath her fingertips.
She exhaled slowly.
"It was a warning."
Lena crossed her arms. "A warning about what?"
Riley turned to face them all.
And for the first time, she said it out loud.
"They didn't just erase my past."
She swallowed hard, letting the weight of it settle over her.
"They erased something much bigger."
Silence stretched between them.
Then Kieran spoke, low, steady. "What did they bury here?"
Riley lifted her chin, her green eyes burning.
"The truth."
She turned back to the entrance, the fire in her veins burning hotter than ever.
And without another word
She stepped inside.
The pack followed, moving deeper into the forgotten chamber, their bodies tense, ready.
Because they knew.
This wasn't just about a city.
This wasn't just about revenge.
This was about something greater.
Something older.
Something that had been waiting for her return.
And this time
She wouldn't fail.
Because the war wasn't coming.
It was already here.
And she was going to win it.
The darkness swallowed them whole as they stepped into the hidden chamber, the air thick with age, with memory, with something ancient stirring beneath the surface.
The walls whispered as they moved, the runes carved into the stone glowing faintly beneath Riley's fingertips.
This place wasn't dead.
It was waiting.
Waiting for her.
Waiting for them.
And as Riley inhaled slowly, she felt it settle into her chest the weight of history, the weight of what had been taken, the weight of what she was about to reclaim.
The passage led them downward, deeper into the heart of the ruins, where the air grew colder and heavier.
The others felt it too.
Kieran's breath came slow and measured beside her, his presence steady, protective.
Lena's usual smirk had faded, replaced by something more thoughtful, more dangerous.
Even the rest of the pack, wolves who had once followed Tobias without question, stood differently now.
Because this wasn't just about following Riley anymore.
This was about belonging to something greater.
And that was what had been stolen from them all.
The tunnel widened, leading into a vast, open chamber, and the moment Riley stepped inside, she knew.
This had been the heart of the kingdom.
The true throne room.
Not the grand halls above, not the palace that had once overlooked the city.
This.
This was where it had all begun.
This was where everything had changed.
The ceiling stretched high above them, curved and carved with symbols she had never seen before but somehow understood.
Wolves.
Fire.
A sun and a moon locked in battle, their light bleeding into the sky.
And at the far end of the chamber
A throne.
Not gold.
Not silver.
Not draped in jewels and vanity like the ones in human palaces.
This throne was carved from the very bones of the earth.
Stone, dark and smooth, embedded with veins of something that glowed like embers.
It had been here for centuries.
And it had been waiting for her.
The second Riley stepped forward, the air shuddered.
Not just the air.
The stone beneath her feet.
The entire room reacted to her presence.
Lena let out a sharp breath. "Okay. I don't like this."
Kieran reached for his blade instinctively, muscles tensing. "It's not natural."
Riley barely heard them.
Because she knew what this was.
She could feel it.
This wasn't just some forgotten chamber beneath the ruins.
This was power.
The power that had once been hers.
Power that had been locked away when they had erased her.
And now
It was waking up.
She took another step forward.
The glowing veins in the stone flared, pulsing like a heartbeat.
A whisper curled through the chamber, low and distant, not from the past, but from the present.
From the wolves who had followed her here.
From the ones who were watching, waiting, holding their breath.
Because they knew what this meant.
This wasn't just a place.
This wasn't just a memory.
This was a reckoning.
A throne without a ruler.
A kingdom without its queen.
And Riley had just returned to claim it.
Kieran exhaled, slow and even, his golden eyes locked onto hers.
"This was yours, wasn't it?"
Riley didn't look away.
She didn't blink.
"Yes," she said.
No doubt.
No hesitation.
Because she knew.
She turned back to the throne, the fire in her chest burning hotter, her pulse roaring with certainty.
"They took it from me," she said.
She reached out, her fingers hovering just over the stone, the heat beneath her skin merging with the fire thrumming in the throne itself.
The energy welcomed her.
Recognized her.
And she knew
If she sat, if she took her rightful place, everything that had been lost would come back.
Everything she had been.
Everything she had forgotten.
And there would be no turning back.
Kieran shifted beside her, his voice low. "If you do this, they'll know. They'll feel it. You won't just be making a statement, you'll be making a declaration of war."
Riley smiled.
A slow, sharp, unbreakable thing.
"Good," she said.
She turned, facing the pack.
Her pack.
The ones who had followed her through fire and blood.
The ones who had chosen her.
The ones who were waiting for her to lead.
"We don't wait anymore," she said.
"We don't run. We don't let them decide how this ends."
Her voice echoed through the chamber, settling into the stone, into the bones of this place, into the hearts of those who stood beside her.
"We make them remember."
She took one last breath.
Then she turned
And sat on the throne.
The second her body met the stone, the world erupted.
The chamber shook, pulsed, and awakened.
A surge of power slammed through her veins, golden light bursting from the cracks in the stone, filling the room with fire and fury.
The past crashed into her
Not just memories.
Names.
Voices.
Everything they had stolen.
And outside, in the world beyond the ruins
They felt it.
The ones who had erased her.
The ones who had rewritten history.
The ones who had spent centuries making sure she never returned.
They felt her rise.
And they knew.
She was coming for them.
And this time
She would not fall.