Chapter 111: Ugo… Since when could you do that?

Just as he stepped into the bushes to find the entrance, Ugo suddenly spoke in a low voice.

"Wait."

He stepped forward, pressed both palms against the frozen ground, and closed his eyes.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then the bushes around them shivered.

The thick alpine shrubs shifted sideways like living curtains, opening a narrow path that had not existed a second ago.

Behind them, other bushes quietly slid into place, covering their footprints and the broken snow.

Even the frozen branches above rearranged themselves just enough to block any line of sight from the trees.

Moon stared in awe.

"...Since when could you do that?"

Ugo opened his eyes. A faint green light faded from his pupils. "Recently. I can move the smaller ones. And some vines."

Axe looked at him like he had grown a second head. "You can command vines, and you didn’t say anything?"

Ugo just shrugged, a little awkward. "Didn’t think it was useful."

Moon exhaled. "Ugo, you’re hiding something."

Ugo gave a small smile. "Later, baby. We’ll talk later."

Moon didn’t press further but noted that he needed to teach this man a lesson. Neither Axe nor Nox spoke more about it.

They silently dropped down into the cave tunnel.

Behind them, the bushes slowly moved again, rearranging themselves so thoroughly that no one would ever suspect people had passed through.

The deeper they went, the heavier the air became.

That old fishy, rotten, poisonous tang of the Black Sea Gorge began to crawl into their noses again.

They didn’t stop until they reached the vacuum cave entrance under the Black Sea Gorge.

Moon looked up.

The water above already held a faint silver sheen under the moonlight.

On the cliff slopes and near the water’s edge, the scavengers moved—hairless, sludge-slick shapes pacing in loose groups. Their low growls rolled up the rock like distant thunder.

Moon took out the vial of sleeping powder.

"Let’s wait a little," he whispered. He stuffed an anti-sleep pill into each of their hands to keep the powder from affecting them.

Then he flicked his wrist and wrapped the powder with his spiritual force. The fine gray-green powder drifted in the void as he slowly sent it upward.

As the powder broke the water surface, the scavengers started to sniff.

Once.

Twice.

Then the first one staggered. Its front legs folded. Another tried to howl and only managed a wet choke before collapsing face-first into the sludge.

One by one the deformed hounds dropped, jaws still half-open, bodies twitching once before going still.

Nox muttered, "Such a waste we can’t harvest the cores."

"Umm." Moon was silent.

He felt uneasy.

He couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

His divine sense spread far, yet found nothing. Still, the feeling of being watched refused to leave.

He thought for a few agonizing moments. In the end, he decided to gamble. He needed the resources inside the caves.

"Let’s go up. Stay close and stay alert."

"Okay."

Moon wrapped all of them in his spiritual boundary and swept upward from the safe space under the water.

Just before they broke the surface, five shadows dropped from the high cliffs around the gorge.

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Alpha Vaelis POV

Cold Fortress, 6th Garrison.

The stone walls never warmed, no matter how many braziers burned. The air smelled of damp iron and old frost.

But deep in the lowest keep, behind three layers of spirit-suppressing seals, was another world no one could ever imagine inside this iron-clad fortress.

The outer ruthlessness never reached this corner.

Not once.

The room was filled with the most luxurious bed, curtains, cushions, and lamps. The decoration could easily rival the Luna’s bedroom.

The lantern hanging from the arched roof could illuminate the entire fortress if it were ever lit.

It never was.

It stayed dim.

Always.

No one would ever guess that the locked-up, supposedly neglected Second Nova of the pack was sitting on one of the finest couches the pack could afford—though she looked at all the luxury with clear disdain.

Emma leaned back against the soft cushion, hands resting lightly on her knees, reading a book with quiet leisure.

She did not look up when the distant stone floor thudded with deliberate steps.

She did not look up when the iron door of the main gate cracked open hard.

She did not even lift her eyes when the door of her own room opened.

Alpha Vaelis stepped inside, frost still clinging to his red cape.

His amber eyes swept over her once, then again, slower.

She still looked the same as the day he had forced her into this pack.

The same as the day he locked her inside this territory.

The same as the day he ordered her confined to this Cold Fortress—pale skin like fresh snow, long dark hair falling over one shoulder, features so refined they bordered on an ethereal deity.

Even the plain dress she wore could not hide it.

Sometimes Vaelis wondered if she was even human, or if the Moon itself had shaped her to stay this detached and distant.

He hated that.

"Your sons are still alive," he said coldly, throwing his cape onto a nearby table. "Five defective mutts. Running around like rats. Dragging the Vaelis name through the mud."

Emma did not answer.

Her gaze stayed on the book, as if the pages held the entire world.

Vaelis’s jaw tightened.

He walked closer until his shadow fell over her.

"They failed the awakening. They fled the pack. They colluded with a witch. And still they dare to hide and refuse to listen."

His voice dropped lower.

"Do you feel nothing? No shame? No regret?"

Silence.

Only the soft sound of a page turning echoed inside the room.

Alpha’s fingers clenched into a fist. The more indifferent she remained, the hotter the irritation burned under his skin.

He reached out, pinned her shoulder down against the couch, and gripped her chin, forcing her face up.

Her skin was cool under his fingers.

Her eyes met his without fear, without anger, without anything at all.

That emptiness enraged him more than any curse ever could.

"Don’t give me that look," he muttered. "I hate it."

He leaned down.