Chapter 11The Vessel

The passage stank of rust and old blood.

Rissa pressed her palm flat against the stone wall, feeling the vibration of the pack's howls through the mountain. They were close now. Too close.

Lorna moved ahead, her silver hair catching the dim light of the glowing glyphs that lined the walls. She paused at each one, tracing a finger along the edges, muttering words that made the air taste like copper.

"Tripwires every three steps," she said without turning. "Vance had this place warded after the last escape attempt."

"Last?" Dorian's voice was tight. He was favoring his left arm, the wound from Kellan's attack still seeping through the makeshift bandage.

"Three years ago. A turned wolf named Soren. He made it to the chamber before the glyphs took his legs." Lorna's hand hovered over a faint blue symbol. "Vance made the rest of us watch him bleed out."

Rissa's stomach turned. She forced herself to focus on the passage ahead, on the faint pulsing light that grew stronger with every step. The Moonstone. She could feel it now, a pressure behind her eyes, a whisper at the edge of her thoughts.

*Come closer.*

She shook her head, but the voice didn't fade.

Lorna stopped at a narrow archway. "The chamber is twenty feet ahead. There's a viewing gallery above the ritual circle. You'll be able to see—"

A blade shot from the wall.

It caught Lorna across the ribs, slicing through her jacket and skin in one clean motion. She gasped, stumbling back, and Rissa caught her before she fell.

"Secondary ward," Lorna breathed, pressing a hand to her side. Blood seeped between her fingers. "I missed it."

Dorian was already tearing strips from his shirt. "We need to stop the bleeding."

"No time." Lorna pushed herself upright, her face pale but her eyes hard. "He knows we're here now. The glyphs send a pulse when disturbed. You have minutes."

Rissa looked at the wound. Deep, but not fatal. Not yet. "Dorian, stay with her."

"The hell I will—"

"*Dorian.*" She grabbed his wrist. "If I don't come out of that chamber, you need to get Elara out. You need to *live*."

Something flickered in his eyes. Fear. Anger. Love.

He pulled her close, his mouth against her ear. "You come back. That's not a request."

Then he let her go.

---

The chamber was bigger than she remembered.

The Moonstone dominated the center of the space, a jagged pillar of black crystal that pulsed with veins of sickly green light. It hummed, a low thrum that vibrated through her bones, through her teeth, through the soft tissue behind her eyes.

Elara was chained to its base.

Her sister's head hung forward, dark hair obscuring her face. Her wrists were bound in silver shackles that left burned marks on her skin. She didn't move when Rissa stepped through the entrance.

"Elara."

A twitch. A whisper. "Rissa... get out..."

Vance stepped out from behind the stone.

He was already shifted, his body half-transformed, claws extending from his fingertips, eyes burning with that familiar green light. He looked at her the way a predator looks at wounded prey.

"I knew Lorna would betray me," he said. "I counted on it."

Rissa's hand went to the knife at her belt. "Let her go, Vance. This is between us."

"No." He reached down and grabbed Elara by the hair, yanking her head back. Her sister's eyes were glassy, unfocused. "This is about *her*. About you. About what you're going to become."

He dragged Elara closer to the Moonstone. The crystal pulsed brighter, and Elara screamed.

"Stop!"

"Then *submit.*" Vance's voice was calm. Almost gentle. "Drop your weapons. Kneel. And I'll let her live."

Rissa's blood memory howl burned in her throat. She could do it now. She could open her mouth and let the frequency tear through the air, shatter the stone, destroy everything—

But Elara was too close. The shockwave would kill her.

She let the knife fall.

Vance smiled. "Good girl."

Two wolves emerged from the shadows. They seized her arms, forced her to her knees. She didn't fight. Not yet.

Vance approached, circling her like a vulture. "You think I don't know what you've learned? The frequency? Fenris's little trick?" He crouched in front of her, his claws tracing a line down her cheek. "You're immune to the stone's madness. Do you know how rare that is? How *valuable*?"

He stood, gesturing to the Moonstone. "For decades, this stone has fed on us. On our rage, our blood, our very souls. It gives us power, but it takes everything else. Every alpha before me has gone mad within a decade." He touched the crystal. "But you... you could *hold* it. Contain it. Be its vessel without being consumed."

"Never."

"You don't have a choice." Vance grabbed her chin, forcing her to look at the stone. "The transfer ritual is simple. The stone's essence enters you. You become the new anchor. The pack bends to you—or rather, to the stone *in* you. And I remain alpha, pulling your strings."

"Kill me instead."

"That would be a waste." He released her. "Besides, your sister would die anyway. And your journalist friend. And Lorna. And everyone you've ever cared about."

He nodded to the wolves. They dragged Elara away from the stone, chaining her to a wall instead. Then they forced Rissa forward, pressing her hands against the crystal's surface.

It was cold. So cold.

The hum became a scream.

---

Vance began the ritual.

His voice rose in a guttural chant, words that weren't born from human throats. The Moonstone responded, its green light intensifying, tendrils of energy reaching out like fingers.

They touched her. Entered her.

Rissa felt the corruption pour into her veins like poison. Images flashed through her mind—Vance's memories, the pack's history, centuries of blood and fury and sacrifice. She saw the first alpha, the one who found the stone, who made the pact. She saw the madness spread like a disease.

She saw her own future.

*No.*

But the stone was inside her now, coiling around her heart, her lungs, her thoughts. It whispered promises. Power. Safety. Revenge.

*You could end them all. You could be the most powerful alpha who ever lived.*

She felt her wolf rising, hungry, eager.

*No.*

The frequency was there, buried under the stone's noise. She reached for it, grasping at the blood memory like a drowning woman reaching for air.

Vance's blood was close. He was standing beside her, his hand on the stone, feeding the ritual with his own power.

Just a scratch. Just a drop.

She turned her head. Met his eyes.

And smiled.

The frequency erupted from her throat.

It wasn't a howl. It was something older, something primal, a note that split the air like a blade. The Moonstone *screamed*.

Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. Green light exploded outward, throwing Vance across the chamber. The shockwave hit Elara, hit the wolves, hit the walls.

The stone shattered.

Shards of black crystal rained down like hail. The green light died, replaced by darkness, by silence, by the sound of Rissa's own ragged breathing.

She was still standing. Still alive.

But something was wrong.

The corruption hadn't left. It was *inside* her, coiled around her spine, whispering in a voice that sounded like her own.

*You're mine now.*

Vance rose from the rubble. His body was shifting, growing, tearing apart and reforming into something monstrous. His eyes were pure green. His claws were the length of daggers.

"You *broke* it," he snarled, his voice layered with something inhuman. "You broke my stone."

Rissa backed away, dragging Elara's unconscious body with her.

"I'll rip you apart," Vance continued, his form swelling, his muscles splitting and reforming. "I'll tear your heart out and start again. There are other stones. Other vessels."

A tunnel. She needed a tunnel.

She saw it—the opening Lorna had mentioned, half-hidden behind fallen debris.

She ran.

Vance's roar shook the mountain.

Rissa reached the tunnel, pulling Elara through, feeling the stone's corruption burning in her chest. She looked back.

Dorian was there, at the chamber's edge, Lorna leaning on his shoulder. He was shouting something, but she couldn't hear it over the ringing in her ears.

Vance lunged.

Rissa dove into the tunnel.

And the mountain collapsed behind her.