Chapter: Chapter sixty As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm orange glow over the kingdom, I felt a shiver run down my spine. The ritual was about to begin, and I was both excited and terrified. Arianna stood beside me, her eyes fixed on the king as he prepared the sacred circle."Kael, are you ready?" the king asked, his voice firm but laced with a hint of concern.I nodded, trying to appear braver than I felt. The power surge earlier had left me drained, but I knew I had to push through. Arianna's hand brushed against mine, a gentle reminder that she was there for me.The king began to chant, his voice rising and falling in a soothing cadence. The air around us seemed to vibrate with energy, and I could feel the power stirring within me. Arianna's eyes met mine, and I saw a spark of encouragement there.As the ritual progressed, the energy built in intensity. I felt myself being lifted out of my body, my spirit merging with the power that coursed through the circle. The king's chanting grew
Last Updated: 2025-04-26
Chapter: chapter fifty nine I stormed out of the castle, the cool night air hitting me like a slap in the face. The darkness seemed to match my mood, and I felt a sense of liberation as I walked away from the oppressive walls. I didn't know where I was going, but I needed to get away from the castle, from Kael, and from the suffocating expectations.As I walked through the quiet streets, I felt a sense of clarity wash over me. I realized that I had been living in a state of denial, pretending that everything was fine when it wasn't. Kael's infidelity was just a symptom of a larger problem - our relationship was a sham, a duty-bound obligation rather than a love match.I thought about my conversation with my father, and the sacrifice that was to come. Was I truly doing it for the kingdom's sake, or was it a desperate attempt to hurt Kael and Arianna? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my motivations were mixed. But one thing was certain - I would see this through, no matter the cost.As I turne
Last Updated: 2025-04-24
Chapter: Chapter fifty eight Arianna povI stood before the king, my heart heavy with the weight of my decision. I had come to offer myself as the key to Alpha Kael's survival, but also to ensure his departure from our lives. The king's piercing gaze met mine, and I steeled myself for the conversation ahead."Your Majesty," I began, my voice steady. "I've come to tell you that I'm willing to proceed with the ritual. Let's begin the preparations."The king's expression turned calculating, and he nodded thoughtfully. "Very well, Arianna. I'll summon the elder and the necessary materials. But are you certain you're prepared for what's to come?"I nodded resolutely, pushing aside the doubts that threatened to creep in. "I'm ready, Your Majesty. For Alpha Kael's sake, and for mine."The king's gaze lingered on me, and for a moment, I thought I saw a glimmer of curiosity. "Very well, Arianna. We'll begin the preparations immediately. The ritual will take place at sundown."I nodded, feeling a sense of relief wash over
Last Updated: 2025-04-23
Chapter: chapter fifty-seven Kael pov As I leaned against the wall, a weight pressed down on my shoulder, and I swallowed hard against the pain. It felt like a thousand needles were piercing my skin, and something was crawling under my flesh. My heart ached as I tried to rise from the couch, but my legs buckled beneath me. I fell hard onto the floor, the impact jolting through my body. Powers long dormant began to stir within me, like a beast awakening from a deep slumber. I could feel it coursing through my veins, burning like wildfire. My alpha instincts were rising to the surface, and I was powerless to stop it. The room around me began to blur, and I felt like I was being consumed by a force beyond my control. The pain was intense, like my body was being torn apart and put back together again. I gritted my teeth, trying to ride out the wave of agony, but it only seemed to intensify. Sweat dripped from my brow, and my vision began to tunnel. I was losing myself to the power, and I knew I had to fight back.
Last Updated: 2025-04-22
Chapter: Chapter fifty sixElaine’s POV I clenched my fist so hard I felt the sting of my nails biting into my palm. The room was cold—silent—but inside, I was burning. They were doing this in the open now. Flaunting it. Kael, the Alpha—the one I was meant to stand beside—choosing a rogue-blooded stray over me? Over everything we’d built? The alliance. The power. The future. And her—that girl, walking around with his scent, wrapped around her like a trophy, like she belonged here? She didn’t. Arianna didn’t understand what it meant to be part of this pack, this legacy. She wasn’t raised for it. She wasn’t trained. She was chaos wrapped in temptation, with eyes that made even the strongest men forget their purpose. But not me. I didn’t forget. I remembered everything. The years spent preparing. The sacrifices. The smile Kael used to wear when we were younger—carefree, before duty sharpened him into steel. Before she came along and made him soft. And now? Now, the council was slipping through
Last Updated: 2025-04-18
Chapter: chapter fifty five Kael’s POV The rain was still whispering against the windows when I stepped back into my quarters, the scent of her still hanging in the air—wild rain, warm skin, and something else. Something of mine. She was sitting by the fire, wrapped in a blanket, legs tucked beneath her. Her head turned at the sound of the door, and for a moment, the world just... stopped. Arianna. Goddess, I didn’t know how she did it. How she made me feel like the ground beneath my feet was shaking and solid all at once. One look from her could settle my wolf or drive him into a frenzy. The patrol had been dealt with—quick and clean. A couple of rogues testing the borders, nothing serious. But the entire time I’d been out there, all I could think about was her. The fire in her eyes. The vulnerability in her voice. The way she had looked at me before I left, as if handing me a piece of her and daring me not to drop it. I hadn’t. I wouldn’t. “Did you win?” she asked, eyes glinting with tired amusement.
Last Updated: 2025-04-17
Chapter: Kaia — POV Some things only bloom when no one is watching.That’s what the old woman said as she handed me a pouch of seeds.She didn’t ask permission to stay. Didn’t announce her name. Just wandered into the edge of the Weave on the thirty-third morning, skin like bark and eyes like dusk. She wore a coat of stitched-together herbs, and her laugh startled the crows.“What kind of seeds?” I asked.She cackled. “The kind that don’t ask for permission either.”Then she wandered off, leaving footprints that smelled like rosemary.---I planted them anyway.Not because I trusted her.Because something in me was tired of being afraid of wild things.They went into the cracks—between stones, under steps, near the water basin that leaked like an old memory. I didn’t label them. Didn’t tell anyone.Just pressed them into dirt and whispered, “Grow how you want.”And maybe that was selfish.Or maybe that was holy.---Demian found me in the half-built archive two days later, cursing over the splinter I’d j
Last Updated: 2025-08-05
Chapter: Kaia — POVWe didn’t crown a new leader.Didn’t build a throne.Didn’t bow.Instead, we got to work.And maybe that was better.Maybe that was what rebuilding meant—not replacing the center, but learning how to spin without one.There were questions, of course.There always are when the world forgets its shape.But no more prophecies. No omens. No pre-written maps.Only hands.And hands could be trusted, at least more than fate ever could.---I stood at the river’s edge the next morning, where the last of the Mirror Water had run dry.It hadn’t bled silver in weeks.Now, it was just water. Cold. Clean.Mortal.Aelira stood beside me, her hair pulled back in rough braids, wrists still faintly shimmering with the ghosts of burned threads. She looked older now. Not aged—weathered. Like a shoreline after storm season.“There’s a bend farther upstream,” she said quietly. “Good for building.”“For the city?”“For something. Doesn’t have to be a city. Could be a school. A sanctuary. A place where no o
Last Updated: 2025-08-05
Chapter: Kaia — POV
I didn’t know how to breathe in a world where the threads no longer whispered.The silence was almost louder than the song.It pressed against my ribs like a cage of old bones, like the remnants of a scream I couldn’t remember making. For the first time in years, I didn’t hear the echoes in the corners, didn’t feel the weight of her voice laced through the wind.She was gone.And yet…I could still feel her.Not in my bones.In the absences.Where she used to be.---I stood alone at the edge of the Hollow.Not the deep places—those had gone still.This was the outer rim, where the snow fell in crooked circles and the old birch trees leaned toward each other like gossiping ghosts. The sky had gone soft, grey, unmarked.Even the stars were quiet.I let the silence hold me.Let the air brush against the places where her threads used to bite.And still, I didn’t feel free.Because freedom, it turned out, wasn’t peace.It was choice.And choice was a kind of grief.---They held a fire th
Last Updated: 2025-08-04
Chapter: Isabella POVThe Hollow didn’t breathe.It waited.And I didn’t know how to walk through a place that once knew me and now watched me like I was a trespasser. The halls that had once flared with sigils and memory now pulsed dull and slow—like veins on the verge of clotting.I passed the old threshold into the map room.Not war room. Not anymore.Because war had shape.This was something else.Corrin stood over the table, palms flat, spine like stone. The dagger lay between us all like a question we already knew the answer to. Everyone had gathered—Kaia, Aelira, Asher, even Demian. The old guards. The new marked.And Rowan.He didn’t stand.But he watched.And I felt it again—the ghost of the thread that used to bind us.Not severed.Dormant.He hadn’t forgiven me.And I hadn’t forgiven myself.But he still came.That mattered more than I wanted to admit.“Asher,” Corrin said, breaking the silence. “Tell them.”I turned to him, and he met my eyes like the blade knew both our names now.He spoke low
Last Updated: 2025-08-03
Chapter: Asher — POV The moment she screamed, the walls cracked. Not stone. Not sigils. The walls. Reality bent like someone had gripped the edge of the Hollow and tried to fold it in half. I heard it in my bones before I saw it. A low-frequency hum that pressed against my teeth, my skull, like something ancient, grinding its teeth in the dark. And then— Silence. For almost an hour, Isabella was gone. Not hidden. Not unconscious. Gone. It's like a thread cut too fast to bleed. I’d seen a lot of things. Watched flesh pulled from bone, and souls scream through the veil. But nothing compared to that hour. Corrin paced the war room like a blade without a sheath. Kaia was still singing — that song that made the windows sweat saltwater and turned the shadows into things that breathed. And Aelira? She just sat. Watching the corner. The same one the Mother’s voice had come from the night before. I didn’t ask what she saw there. Because I already knew. And I was starting to wonder if she was
Last Updated: 2025-08-02
Chapter: Isabella — POV Rowan’s breath was shallow. Too shallow. The kind you didn’t hear—you felt it, if you were close enough to count ribs and time and prayers. Asher laid him down on the stone, blood trailing from his mouth in threads that didn’t match the wounds. I pressed my fingers to his neck. It's still warm. Still there. Barely. “He’s tether-sick,” Asher said. I nodded. “But not hers anymore.” “No,” he said quietly. “Yours.” I froze. Then, I looked down—and saw it. A thread. Thin. Crimson. Tied to Rowan’s wrist. The other end? Wrapped around mine. My breath caught. Not metaphor. Not vision. Real. Asher reached for it, and it burned him. Not me. I held still. Heart thundering. “She tied him to me?” “No,” he said slowly. “You did.” He was right. I didn’t know when. Or how. But something inside me had reacted—to the blast, to the rupture, to the echo of her voice—and it reached out. Anchored. Bound him back. “I didn’t mean to,” I whispered. “I know,” he said, but the tightnes
Last Updated: 2025-08-02
LOGIN
