Alpha Kael’s Regret (Lisa) novel Chapter 132

_Rylan’s POV

Kael’s shout cut through the trees while the phone was still in my hand.

“There she is!”

The woman on the line went dead. Static hissed and then, there was complete silence. I dropped the phone and it hit the ground with a soft thud. For a second, I stood very still. The knife at my belt felt like it burned into my skin.

Avarok growled low in my chest. He wanted out. He wanted to tear the night and find her. I felt him like a second heartbeat. I tried to slow him. I tried to slow myself.

“Move!” Kael snapped. His men sprinted. Torches flared like small suns through the dark.

I ran too. My lungs felt too small for the cold. Branches slapped my face. The trail slipped under my boots. The white dress flashed ahead and then was gone. My head filled with a single bright want. Find her. Bring her home.

We pushed through scrub and pines. Jared and Alex spread right and left. Kael was a dark shape cutting the line. Morana kept close. Her voice was quiet as she chanted under her breath. The compass was swinging steadily in her hand. It pointed the way like a heart tugging a string.

The figure kept appearing and vanishing. I cursed under my breath. Each time she showed, my hope lifted. Each time she slipped away, the hope dropped like a stone.

When I finally caught sight of her again, she was moving down a low rise toward the old fence. The shadowed line where the Shadowrune territory began. Her nightdress was white under the moon. The fabric skated over the grass.

My throat tightened. I had seen her in a thousand small and careless moments. Her laugh in training rings. How she liked to place her hands in mine. Her fear the night we nearly lost her. All of it flashed in me now and slammed into the blankness on her face.

“Lisa!” I called. I wanted to run the last yards. I wanted to take her to me and feel her solid and warm and real. Avarok pushed. He smelled her on the air and wanted to be with her.

She turned her head when I shouted. Her face looked at me. It was the same curve I knew. But it held none of the soft edges. Her eyes were calm the way a statue’s eyes are calm. No quick pupils. No blink of surprise. No emotions.

That wrongness was a blade in my gut.

Morana came up beside me. She narrowed her eyes. “Something is not right,” she whispered. “Be cautious, Rylan. Don’t rush.”

Then, the forest shifted. From between the trees, figures began to appear. Cloaked shapes and faces pale in the torchlight. They were warlocks; Fenric’s men. They moved with quiet purpose, forming a dark arc behind Lisa, just a few paces from the Shadowrune boundary.

The one in front gave a short bow. It was a mockery of respect. “Alpha Rylan,” he said softly, his voice smooth as smoke. “You should not have come so close.”

My wolf answered with a hot snarl. I could feel every hair lift. “Let her go” I said. I tried to make my voice steady but it sounded too thin.

Lisa did not flinch when they drew near. She let their hands touch her. She let one man guide her wrist. She did not pull away. Her body moved as if pulled by a string.

The warlock smiled like he kept a secret that could burn a man. “We mean no harm, Alpha. Let her come with us, and you and your men may walk away untouched.”

A laugh rose in my chest that was more pain than humor. He was taking me for a fool. I looked at Lisa again. She did not look afraid. She did not look like the Lisa who tangled her fingers in her hair when she was nervous. She looked….strange. She was calm and composed. Like someone else lived in that body and dressed it for a night.

I stepped forward a little. I wanted to see her closer. I wanted to burn the blankness out of her face with recognition. My voice came low. “Lisa.” I used the name like a rope. “Lisa, come here.”

For half a breath, her eyes seemed to reach at me. A flicker crossed them like a bad film. I thought I saw something small….an almost smile that did not fit. Then she bent her head like someone listening to an order. She took another step toward the gate.

Morana’s hands clenched at her sides. “No…” she hissed. “They’ve done something to her. I can feel it. Dark magic coils around her like chains.”

“Lisa!” she cried suddenly, her voice breaking. “Lisa, fight it! It’s not you!”

Her steps were light, steady and deliberate…..as if guided by invisible strings. The warlocks moved closer, one of them resting a hand on her shoulder.

My stomach twisted. I wanted to believe this was her, that somehow she was just lost or afraid. But that blank face… it wasn’t Lisa.

“Lisa,” I tried again, softer this time. “Come here. Come back to me.”

For a heartbeat, she stopped walking. The torches flickered, their flames stretching tall as the wind shifted. Then she turned toward me.

A smile touched her lips. Not the soft kind I knew; the one that used to melt the edges of my anger.

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