Novels by Jokes Writes

Raiden’s Pov Day 16, Afternoon. Eleven days left. The bond lights up like a damn flare and my knees just give out. *I hear you. I’m here. I’m still me. Wait for me.* Nyssa. Clear. Sharp. Still kicking. Still *mine*. “Thank fuck,” I choke out, half laugh, half sob. Senna’s there in a second, grabbing my arm. “Alpha? What the hell just happened?” “She talked. Through the bond. She’s...” My throat closes up. “She’s still her.” Relief hits Senna’s face hard, then worry creeps right back in. “How long till day three?” “Thirty-six hours. Maybe less.” I drag myself upright. “Kael’s gonna move the second she’s mortal again. We’ve gotta be ready.” “Defenses are set. Sentries rotating. We moved the kids and elders south. But Raiden…” She pauses, eyes flicking to the crater. “We’re stretched thin. Forty-two of us against his seventy-three. And half our fighters are running on fumes after two straight days holding the line.” “Then we don’t play fair.” I stare north toward where Kael’s

Nyssa’s Pov Day 16. Eleven days left. God, there’s no time in here. No sunrise, no night, no clock ticking. Just this endless silver fire and a power that’s screaming through me, trying to rip me apart and rebuild me into something I never asked to be. I don’t even have a real body anymore. I’m just… awareness. A burning thought. A soul getting hammered in a forge that was never built for someone like me. The Silver Matriarch, or whatever this thing is, keeps whispering. Over and over. *Let go.* *Surrender.* *Become what you were always meant to be.* And honestly? It would be so damn easy to just stop fighting. To let the fire eat everything. Nyssa Voss, the girl from Greyhaven. The assassin. The idiot who fell stupidly in love with the wolf who burned her whole world down. Poof. Gone. Ashes. Whatever crawled out of those ashes would be flawless. Clean. Unbreakable. No more pain. No second-guessing. No fear. Just purpose. *Dominate. Command. Rule.* It almost sounds like

Kael's PovDay 15, Evening. 12 days left.This rogue camp reeks. Failure, sweat, and that sour smell of wolves who’ve given up. Smells like home to me.Perfect.I weave between the half collapsed tents and piles of scavenged junk, doing a quick headcount. Forty-three so far. Nowhere near enough to storm Raiden’s pack head on, but plenty to stir up some serious trouble.Especially since about half of them are already eating out of my hand.“Kael Shadowfang.” A mountain of a wolf steps right in my path, six-five easy, face like a road map of bad decisions, one ear gone. “Heard you’re building something. Heard you’ve got an offer.”“Depends,” I say, sizing him up. “You chasing coin or something that actually means anything?”“Both.”I smirk. “Smart.” I jerk my head. “Walk with me. Name?”“Vex. Ran with Ironwood till their alpha got himself torn apart in some bullshit territory spat.” He spits into the dirt. “Three years rogue. Sick of living like a damn scavenger.”“How many you got behi

Raiden's Pov Day 15, Dawn. 12 days left. I wake to find Lily sitting beside me, staring at the crater. The little girl shouldn't be here. She should be safe in the temporary camp with the others. But somehow she slipped past the sentries and made the two-mile trek through dangerous territory to sit next to a man watching his mate burn. "She's pretty," Lily says softly. "Like a star." "Yeah." My voice is rough from disuse. "She is." "Is she going to die?" The blunt question hits harder than it should. Children always ask the things adults are too afraid to say out loud. "I don't know." "My mama died." Lily pulls her knees to her chest. "She got sick and then she was gone. Papa said she went to the moon. Is that where Nyssa's going?" "No." I pull the child against my side. She's too thin. Too fragile. Another victim of Kael's poison, sav

Raiden’s Pov Day 14, dawn. Thirteen days left. I set up camp right at the lip of the crater. Close enough that I can see her, really see her. Far enough that the leftover silver energy doesn’t start peeling my skin off in strips. The wolves think I’ve lost it. Honestly? They’re probably not wrong. “Alpha, you need to sleep,” Senna says. Again. Third time in an hour. “You’ve been up for a full day straight, you’re bleeding in like six places, and the pack...” “The pack’s got you.” I don’t take my eyes off the glowing silver shape floating in the middle of all that ruin. “Deal with it.” “Raiden...” “Order, Beta.” She flinches. I never snap rank at her like that. Feels like kicking a puppy. She walks away without another word. I can’t move. Can’t think about anything except Nyssa burning alive in there by herself. Kael said three days. Three days of this… whatever this is. Either she comes out immortal or she comes out dead. And all I can do is watch. Again. Helpless. Ho

Nyssa’s PovDay 14, midnight. 13 days left.The second I step inside that ring of chained-up skeletons, the altar wakes up.These old symbols carved into the black stone start glowing bright, cold silver. Same exact shade as the fire licking across my palms right now.Kael’s pacing around me, slow and deliberate, knife in one hand, the other dragging along the edge of the altar like he’s caressing it.“Last chance, Silver Blade,” he says, voice almost gentle. “Give me the blood willingly. Let me tweak the curse. Raiden gets to keep breathing, you go quick and easy. Everybody wins.”“Except me, obviously.”“You’re dying anyway.” He stops walking. Looks me dead in the eye. “I can see it eating you alive. Hands shaking. Silver creeping up your neck, streaking into your hair. Few more hours and there won’t be anything human left in you.”I let the fire flare brighter. “Good.”He actually laughs. “Good?”“I was never trying to stay human.” My voice comes out steadier than I feel. “Humans d

Freya's Pov Pain hit first. Not like a cut or a bruise. This was bone-deep, everywhere, like my skeleton decided to rearrange itself without asking permission.I screamed, or tried to. What came out was this weird, garbled half-human, half-animal sound that scared me even more.“It’s okay,” Dane said, his voice punching through the haze. “I know it hurts like hell. First shift always does. But you’re doing it, Freya. You’re actually shifting.”Shifting.My wolf wasn’t whispering anymore. She was shoving forward, taking the wheel, and I was freaking terrified.“I can’t...” The words came out mushy. My jaw was stretching, teeth getting longer, sharper.“You can.” His hands cupped my face, steady and warm. “Don’t fight her. Let her in. You’re still you. Same soul, just… new shape.”Didn’t feel like the same me. Felt like I was being ripped open and stitched back together by someone who’d never done it before.My spine bowed. I dropped forward. Hands... paws? slapped the floor. Claws scr

Freya's Pov The moon was stupidly huge tonight. Like, full on cartoon silver platter hanging low, turning the whole yard into this eerie, glowing movie set.I was out on the back porch just… watching. The pack was already milling around in the clearing, buzzing with that itchy, electric energy that always hits right before a full moon run. You could feel it through the bonds everyone antsy, ready to bolt.Full moon runs are kind of everything to them. The one night nobody holds back. Whole pack shifts together, tears off into the woods, hunts, plays, howls till their throats are raw. Pure wolf freedom under that giant spotlight in the sky.I’ve spent years standing on the sidelines for it. Every single month. The only human. The only one who couldn’t run with them.Except tonight my chest felt tight in a new way.She was awake. My wolf. Not just stirring, wide awake and practically clawing at the inside of my ribs. She wanted out so bad I could taste it. Wanted to run. Wanted to belo

Freya's Pov “You sure about this?”Dane’s voice was low, hanging there between us right outside the basement door.Was I? Hell no. Not even close.But I had to do it. Had to look Viktor in the face one last time before they kicked him out for good. Needed… I don’t know. Closure? To prove to myself he wasn’t some unstoppable nightmare anymore? Something like that.“I’m sure,” I said, even though my stomach was doing flips.Through the bond I could feel how much Dane hated this, every protective instinct screaming at him to drag me upstairs and lock the doors. But he got it. He knew why I couldn’t just let this go.“I’m right here,” he said, lacing his fingers through mine. “Whole time.”“I know.”He unlocked the door. We started down the stone steps. Each one made the air colder, damper, thicker with that musty underground smell.Two guards snapped to attention at the end of the hall outside the reinforced cell.“Alpha. Luna.” They dipped their heads.Luna. Still felt weird hearing it

Selene's PovThis cabin stinks. Mildew, wet wood, straight-up rot. I hate it.Hate the way the roof sags like it’s about to give up, the busted windows I patched with ripped-up shirts, the floorboards that groan every time I move. Hate that this is my life now, holed up in some abandoned hunter shack twenty miles outside Blackwood land, living like a damn rogue.Three weeks. That’s how long it’s been since everything blew up. Since Viktor lost. Since I lost.Three weeks of scraping by on whatever I can catch, crashing on a mattress that smells like death, and running the same stupid loop in my head: every choice, every second that got me here.I should’ve been at the waterfall. Should’ve been in the fight.But Viktor didn’t trust me enough. Kept me locked away at the compound like some backup plan, told me to “wait for orders.” Orders that never came.By the time I figured out shit had gone sideways, it was done. Viktor beaten. Wolf ripped out. Pack in pieces.And Dane Blackwood

Freya's Pov Dinner was the usual glorious mess.Everyone crammed around the big table me, Dane, Marcus, Catherine, George, Evie, plus a couple random pack members who’d wandered in because food. Plates clattering, people talking over each other, someone laughing so hard they almost choked on their bread. Classic pack dinner.This is what home feels like, I caught myself thinking. Loud. Warm. Safe. Mine.I was stretching for the salad when it hit me again.This sudden rush, like happiness, but deeper. Not quite mine… and also totally mine.Home. Pack. Safe.My hand froze halfway to the bowl.Dane’s palm landed softly on my back. “Hey. You good?”“Yeah.” I snatched the salad like nothing happened. “Just zoned out.”I could feel him worrying through the bond, but he let it go. Thank god.Three times today. Three random waves of feeling that slammed into me out of nowhere.What the hell is going on?“So Freya,” Marcus said, pulling me back into the conversation, “Catherine says you’re ki

Freya's Pov Three days. That’s it. Three freaking days since Dane put his mark on me, and I still can’t walk into a room without turning tomato-red the second someone glances my way.They know. Obviously they know. The bite mark on my shoulder might as well be a neon sign. Our scents are so mashed together now you couldn’t pull them apart with tweezers. And apparently brand-new mates give off this… glow? Like we’re walking around with fairy lights strapped to us. Everyone can see it.Kill me.I’m standing in the bathroom after my shower, finger-combing wet tangles, just staring at the mark again. It’s healed perfectly sharp, clean teeth marks against my pale skin. Permanent. Mine, it screams. Claimed. His.My stomach does this stupid flip just looking at it.“You’ve been staring at that thing for, like, ten straight minutes.”I yelp and spin around. Dane’s leaning in the doorway, arms crossed, wearing that smug little smirk that should be illegal.“I have not.”“You totally hav