BloodMoon: Captivated by the Forbidden Lycan Alpha
Chapter 202: A DECOY AND DISTRACTION

Chapter 202: A DECOY AND DISTRACTION

{ "When distraction is hard to access, you don’t have to worry about willpower." }

Tor met my gaze, his eyes steady, almost too calm for the tension in the air. His jaw clenched once, just barely, like he was about to say something he did not want to.

"Freyr," he said softly, his voice almost too controlled, "the mountain’s not just playing games with us. It is singling us out."

I blinked; not sure I understood what he meant. But I could feel it then—the subtle shift in the way the fog curled around us, as though it was drawing a line between him and me on one side, and the rest of the group on the other.

"The stone, the blood..." Tor’s voice dropped, like he was speaking to himself more than to me. "It’s reacting to us specifically, to you and me."

I shook my head, my stomach twisting. "What the hell are you saying, Tor?"

He exhaled slowly, clearly weighing his next words carefully. "This mountain, it is not just about the Kayne stone, Freyr. It is about us. About what we carry." He met my gaze again, that unshakable intensity in his eyes. "The mountain’s interested in us, in you and me. And it is using this fog, using the confusion to weaken us. To make us doubt each other. Doubt ourselves."

I opened my mouth to argue, but the weight of his words sank into me like lead. The stone had always been calling to me, pulling at something deep inside me, but now, Tor was saying that the mountain itself, the very place we stood on, was targeting us, pushing us apart.

"Then we can’t just sit here," I said, my voice firm, desperate. "We have to fight back; we can’t split up."

Tor took a step closer, his hand resting lightly on my shoulder, a brief, grounding touch. "We don’t have a choice."

I stared at him, my chest tight with the fear I refused to give in to. "What do you mean, we don’t have a choice?"

"The only way to counter the mountain’s control is for us to separate. The bond between us is what the mountain is trying to break. If it succeeds, we will be no better than the mindless slaves it is trying to make of us."

I felt the blood drain from my face, the gravity of his words hitting me full force. "So, you are saying... Do you want to split us up? You and me... and leave Rou, Rolan, and Dante to handle things on their own?"

Tor nodded, his expression grim. "It is the only way to break the hold the mountain has over us. If we stay together, it will keep targeting us, but if we split, the pressure will shift. It will focus on them instead."

I could not process it. My mind was a storm of uncertainty, my stomach a heavy knot of fear. I did not want to be apart from Tor, did not want to leave the others exposed to whatever was controlling this mountain. But Tor was not finished. "The only way to stop this," he said, voice low but resolute, "is to capture whoever or whatever is controlling the so-called ’master.’ The one behind all this. We need Rou, Rolan, and Dante to go after them, while you and I..."

He trailed off, as if the next part were just as hard to say as it was for me to hear. "We will distract the mountain. We will do whatever we can to keep its focus on us, to keep it from tearing them apart."

I could feel the knot in my chest tighten, my hands shaking at my sides. "Tor... this is insane. We are not leaving them behind. We are supposed to be a team, not... not splitting off to die alone."

Tor’s gaze softened, but there was something unshakable in his expression. "I will not let anything happen to you, Freyr. I promise you that. But we must trust each other now. This is the only way."

I opened my mouth to argue again, but the words stuck in my throat. Tor’s face was hard, determined. And deep down, beneath the fear, I knew he was right. The mountain was playing a different kind of game, one that forced us to make impossible choices.

I nodded slowly, the weight of the decision pressing down on me.

"Fine," I said, though every part of me fought the idea.

The air felt heavy as we gathered, the fog still thick around us, swirling like an ominous fog of doubt. My heart was pounding in my chest as Tor stood before the others, his expression as unreadable as ever. But I could feel the tension rippling off him, a force trying to hold everything together when everything was threatening to fall apart.

"We need to split up," Tor said, his voice low but firm.

I could hear the shock in Rou’s voice immediately. "What? You have got to be kidding me."

Dante, ever the sceptic, crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing on Tor. "That is insane. We are supposed to split up now. After everything that has happened. You saw what that fog is doing to us. You want to risk it?"

Tor stood his ground, never breaking his gaze from the group, his jaw set. "It is the only way we will survive this. The mountain’s controlling us, controlling our minds, our powers. If we stick together, it will tear us apart. We need to separate to break its hold. But it is not just the fog or the whispers that we need to deal with. There is someone behind this. Someone is controlling the core of the mountain. We need to find Lord Marcel or whoever is pulling the strings and we need to use Freyr as bait to draw them out."

I felt the weight of his words, like a cold stone dropping into the pit of my stomach. I wanted to speak up, to protest, but I did not know how to argue. This was the mountain’s game, its manipulation of our minds, and it was playing all of us like pawns. And now, it was my turn to be bait.

Rou’s eyes flashed with something I could not place: concern, frustration, even anger. "Bait? You are going to use Freyr as bait? You want to put him in the line of fire just to lure out whoever is controlling this place?"

Tor’s gaze hardened, his voice sharp as a blade. "We do not have a choice. The only way to get them to reveal themselves is to make them think we are weak, to make them think we are divided. Freyr is the key, and he is already tied to the mountain. That is why the fog is targeting us, trying to pull us apart. We must use it use Freyr as a distraction. It will draw them out."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Tor silenced me with a single look.

"You’re the key to this," he said, his voice low but steady. "The mountain knows you. It is pulling on you, Freyr. We use that. And when we draw them out, that is when we strike."

Rolan, ever the pragmatist, shook his head. "This is madness. We are supposed to rely on each other, not throw one of us in the middle of it. This is exactly what the mountain wants to divide us."

Tor shook his head, his voice unyielding. "If we do not do this, the mountain wins. It takes all of us, piece by piece. The only way we will defeat this is by turning its own game against it. Freyr is the one it is after. He is the one it is trying to control. And if we do not act, it will continue using him, using all of us until there is nothing left."

I felt a lump in my throat. Part of me knew Tor was right. The mountain had always been after me, always pulled at something deep inside me. But to use me as bait? I was not sure I could handle that.

Rou shook his head again, his eyes intense. "And you think that is a good idea? Just let the fog cloud our minds even more. That is what is happening now. We do not need to make it worse."

Tor stepped forward, his eyes locked on Rou, unflinching. "It is already bad enough. But we are not going to stand here and wait to be picked off one by one. The longer we stay here, the more the mountain digs into our minds. We must act now. We will succeed, but we need to split up. You three, Rou, Rolan, Dante, you go after Lord Marcel. Find the source, take it down. Freyr and I will distract whatever is controlling this place. We will hold their attention while you do the hard part."

The weight of his words settled heavily on me. I was the distraction. The bait. The very thought of it made my skin crawl.

But what choice did we have? The mountain was not just going to let us waltz through. It was not playing fair. And if we did not act, it would eat us alive, piece by piece, until there was nothing left of us.

"I’ll do it," I said, my voice barely a whisper, but it was steady. Resigned. The truth settled in like a burden, one I could not avoid.

Tor looked at me, his expression softening for a moment. "Thank you, Freyr."

But I could see the hesitation in his eyes too. He did not want me to carry this weight. He never wanted me to be in this position. But he had no other choice.