BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 192: DEEPER INTO SAGSTONE

Chapter 192: DEEPER INTO SAGSTONE

{"The mountains are calling, and I must go" }

RITA’S POV

The deeper we moved into Sagstone Mountain, the more the world narrowed—stone walls pressed in on either side, the air thick with ancient silence and the sharp bite of minerals. Every footstep echoed like a whisper from something older than time.

Flora walked ahead, her flame-threaded hair catching bits of light from the small lantern she carried. She didn’t speak. Neither did I. We didn’t need to.

Because I felt it and Not just the shift in temperature, or the way the wind had stopped entirely—but something beneath the surface. Wrong.

My skin prickled, and the familiar weight stirred deep in my bones with the realization that Something was here. Something that shouldn’t be.

Flora turned slightly. "You feel it too, don’t you?"

I nodded slowly, letting my hand brush the damp stone beside me. "They’re not far. Just past the hollow ridge... cloaking themselves, but not well enough."

My voice came out lower than usual, rough around the edges. My Rogourau blood was waking. Rising. It always did when we were being huntedor when I was about to become the hunter. A flicker of heat bloomed beneath my sternum.

Guardianship.

The ancient bond I’d been born into, the one that tied my spirit to this mountain, to every root and echo that lived within its stone heart, and my claws were already beginning to press against my fingertips.

"Flora," I murmured, "stay behind me."

She didn’t argue. She never did when that tone slipped into my voice—the one that said I wasn’t just Rita anymore but the guardian, and someone had just trespassed into sacred ground.

I moved forward, the stone guiding me like an old friend. My senses sharpened with every breath smell, sound, energy. The intruders were trying to mask themselves, but the mountain spoke to me and it was furious.

"They’re close," I whispered. "Three of them. Maybe four. Trying not to leave a trail."

Flora tightened her grip on her blade. "Vampires?"

"Some of them," I growled. "Worse. They know they shouldn’t be here."

My eyes shifted, glowing faintly now. The Rogourau within me clawed toward the surfacenot wild, but controlled. Focused. Ready, and this was our land, and tonight, it would remember who guarded it.

The scent hit me like a slap to the face, familiar and foul all at once.

I stopped dead in my tracks, head tilting slightly as I inhaled again, slower this time. There it was. Hidden beneath layers of stone and shadow, buried in the stale mountain air... but unmistakable.

"Two shifters," I said under my breath, "from the Bay pack."

Flora moved up beside me, eyes narrowing. "Here?"

I nodded, jaw tight. "And not alone."

I sniffed again, deeper, letting the layers unfold like pages in an old book. A second smell curled at the edge of my senses—cold, metallic, ancient.

"Two vampires," I added, voice flat.

Flora sucked in a breath, fingers tightening around the hilt of her blade. "You sure?"

"I’m sure," I growled.

The combination didn’t sit right. Shifters and vampires didn’t work together—they couldn’t be trusted to. Not unless desperation or treachery tied them together.

I turned to Flora, voice low. "They’re not here by accident. They’re searching for something."

"What kind of something?" she asked.

I looked down the winding passage ahead of us, where the stone began to curve inward toward the old chambers. The forgotten vaults. The sealed paths no outsider should even know existed.

"I don’t know yet," I said. "But if they’re this deep, this careful... they’re not just wondering. They’re hunting."

The mountain shivered under my feet. Not literally, but I felt it. Like it, too, knew something sacred was being disturbed.

My claws flexed slightly, the Rogourau in me stirring with slow-burning anger."They’re not getting what they came for," I said coldly. "Not here. Not on my mountain."

Flora smirked, eyes sharp. "Then let’s make them regret every step they took." I gave her a single nod and stepped forward again, this time moving with purpose. The stone beneath my feet pulsed and not just a vibration but a warning. A low, rhythmic beat that traveled up through my soles, into my legs, and wrapped itself around my spine like a whisper with weight.

The mountain was speaking to me again, and I stilled, pressing my palm against the cool wall of stone. It warmed beneath my touch almost instantly recognizing me. Accepting me. Calling me.

My heartbeat synced with the pulse.

Return.

The message came not in words, but in sensation. A pressure behind my ribs. A stirring in the blood I shared with this land. A vision cracked open behind my eyes.

Golden fur. Dozens of them. Shimmering, ancient, hidden in the deepest hollow of Sagstone creatures unlike anything walking this world today. Powerful. Sacred. Born of the earth and bound to it by blood, by ritual, by guardianship.

They seek the golden ones.

My breath caught, and Flora moved closer, concern etched across her face. "What is it?"

"They’re not just here to spy or trespass," I said slowly. "They’re looking for the Golden Fur Creatures."

Her eyes widened. "The ones you introduced me to? Why ?"

I trailed off. The mountain answered for me. Their ancient power.

Flora looked grim. "We have to stop them."

I nodded once, already turning toward the path I hadn’t walked in years, one only a true guardian could follow. My claws itched to unsheathe. My body was already shifting, bones lightening, senses sharpening.

"They think they can steal power," I said, voice dropping low. "But they don’t understand what they’re waking."

And as I sprinted into the dark with the mountain at my back, I knew one thing with crystal certainty, they would not leave Sagstone alive and not with what they came for and not while I still breathed. I ran like the mountain itself had set fire to my heels. The paths twisted tighter the deeper we went, roots clawing through stone, old air pressing against my skin like breath from something ancient. Flora kept pace behind me, silent and steady, trusting me to lead her into a place few were ever meant to return to.

The closer we got, the louder the call in my blood became and then I saw it.The cave yawned before us like a mouth carved from gold-veined rock, silent and sacred. The air shifted. Warmth curled around my limbs like a welcome. Not heat but presence.

"They’re here," I whispered.

Flora slowed beside me, eyes scanning the shadows. "Where?"

Because in the next breath, they moved. And the Golden fur shimmered into sight, emerging from the stone and shadow like they’d grown out of it. Tall, powerful creatures, half-beast, half-myth, walked toward us without a sound. Their eyes held no fear but recognition.

The leader stepped forward, fur rippling with otherworldly light. He didn’t speak, but he didn’t need to. The bond I’d made with them as a child still held. I bowed my head. "They’re coming," I murmured. "Four intruders. Two vampires. Two Bay pack beasts. They seek your power."

The guardian beast blinked slowly, then moved closer until his forehead brushed mine and a wave of something passed over me like stepping through fog, only softer, cooler. I looked down and gasped, and then Flora choked out a breath. "We’re camouflaged."

I turned, and she was almost invisible too, the creatures surrounding us like silent sentinels of gold and moonlight and they were shielding us, hiding us in preparation. We sank low into the cave’s curve, crouched in the silent glow as the guardians positioned themselves at the edges, melting once more into the rock and gold.

Flora sat to my right, her back pressed against the rock wall, every muscle in her frame coiled tight like a string pulled to the edge of snapping. I was still, heart slow, breath quiet, head bowed toward the stone beneath us.

I listened, not with my ears but with the part of me the mountain had shaped since I was a child. The rock beneath us vibrated in low, rhythmic pulses, almost too faint to notice. But to me, it was a language I’d been raised to understand. One I couldn’t forget, even if I tried.

"They’re close," I whispered, my voice no louder than a passing breeze. "One of the vampires is impatient. Heavy steps. Reckless. The mountain doesn’t like him."

Flora gave the barest nod, her eyes flicking to the entrance. "Can you tell how many?"

"Four," I said, closing my eyes, tuning in to the subtle shifts of air and ground. "Two on the left ridge. They’re sticking close. The other two... they split off for a moment. One of them is sniffing the earth. Tracking."

"Tracking us?" she asked.

"No," I said, narrowing my eyes. "They’re looking for the cave. They can’t sense us."

The golden fur guardians around us remained perfectly still, nearly indistinguishable from the rock and gold around them. They breathed with the mountain, silent protectors of something the world was never meant to hold.

I laid a hand on the stone floor, fingers splayed. "She’s speaking to me," I murmured. "The mountain."

Flora didn’t look at me like I was crazy. She never had.

"What’s she saying?"

"She says the greedy one is leading them. He smells of blood and ash. He’s been here before but not this deep."

I opened my eyes, the pulse of the mountain echoing in my chest now. My claws pressed just beneath my fingertips. "They think they can take the golden ones," I said softly, "and leave unchanged."

Flora let out a slow breath. "They’re fools."

"They are," I agreed. "And they’re about to learn what it means to be hunted by the mountain’s daughters."

The air shifted barely noticeable, but enough. I could feel it. "They’ve found the mouth of the cave," I said, eyes sharpening. "It’s time."

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