MasukKeziah's POV:I sat rigid at the long, polished mahogany dining table, a heavy, suffocating silence hanging in the air as breakfast was silently served by a line of nervous maids. The clinking of silver against porcelain was the only sound echoing through the cavernous room, amplifying the static tension that crackled between us like live wires. From across the table, my gaze snapped directly to Kade, locking onto him with a ferocity that matched his own. His eyes burned into mine with an equal, unyielding intensity, dark and defiant. If looks could genuinely kill, he would have dropped dead onto his plate by now. Deep inside my chest, I felt as though my insides were about to violently burst apart from the sheer volume of unfiltered rage threatening to consume me. My inner wolf clawed desperately against my ribs, scraping at my mind with low, vicious growls, threatening to claw its way out to the surface and tear the room apart. Just sitting here, being forced to look at his smug,
Alora's POV:As soon as I managed to slip past the winding corridors and reach the sanctuary of my bedroom, the heavy weight of the morning seemed to crash down on my shoulders all at once. I didn't waste a single second. With trembling fingers, I stripped off my clothes, letting them pool on the floor, and practically stumbled into the bathroom. What I desperately needed right now, after enduring the emotional rollercoaster and physical threats from both Kade and Keziah within the span of a single hour, was an absolute reset. I needed something to numb the static buzzing in my brain. I turned the knob, and a moment later, a cascade of icy water rained down over me. As the frigid shock of the water hit my bare skin, my hyper-active nerves instantly began to untighten. I let out a long, shaky breath, closing my eyes tightly as I leaned my forehead against the cool tiled wall. I imagined the water washing away every ounce of bad energy, every residue of Keziah’s terrifying grip,
Alora's POV:My heart refused to slow down, hammering wildly and erratically against my ribs as I hurried through the corridors of the sprawling pack house. The air felt too thick to breathe, heavy with the lingering echoes of my confrontation with Kade and the raw, stinging memory of the words I had just forced myself to say. All I wanted, all my exhausted mind and body craved, was to retreat to the sanctuary of my room, lock the door behind me, and curl up in absolute isolation where no one could demand anything more from me. As I rounded a sharp corner, completely lost in the chaotic swirl of my own thoughts, I suddenly collided head-on with a solid, unyielding wall of muscle. The abrupt impact knocked the breath straight out of my lungs, stumbling me backward a half-step. “Sorry,” I muttered automatically, keeping my head down as I tried to sidestep the obstacle and keep walking. Before I could take another step, a heavy, iron grip clamped down around my wrist. The sudden for
Kade's POV:Seeing her standing there by the edge of the pond, looking so lost and small, threw my entire being into an absolute, chaotic mess. The moment my eyes landed on her, my inner wolf surged forward with a wild, desperate intensity, practically howling with joy. He was high on the sheer relief of her presence, especially after Thorne had casually mentioned that Alora was looking for me and that she looked worried. Hearing that she cared made something hot and heavy bloom in my chest. I had missed her so much it felt like a physical ache, a maddening, hollow torture. It felt like it had been lifetimes since I last held her, even though it had only been a single, agonizing night.The sudden contact of our lips crashing together only made that hunger exponentially worse. At first, she stiffened in sheer surprise, her lips parting under mine in a breath of total shock. She wasn't kissing me back initially, her body rigid with disbelief, and that hesitation only drove me more ins
Alora's POV:I pushed the heavy door open and stepped cautiously inside the room, my breath trapped in my throat, ready to face whatever injuries or lingering pain Kade was suffering from. But what my eyes met wasn't anything I had prepared for. The room was completely empty. A stark, sterile metal bed sat neatly in the center, perfectly made with crisp white sheets that looked entirely untouched. There were no heart monitors, no medical equipment, and certainly no wounded wolf resting upon the mattress. “Kade?” I called out, my voice sounding small and fragile in the dead silence of the room. There was no sound in response. Not a breath, not a heartbeat, not even the faint rustle of clothing. The room felt profoundly empty, as if nobody had stepped foot inside it for days, let alone a critically injured man who was supposed to be fighting for his life. Confusion instantly overtook my shock. Was this some kind of cruel sick joke? Were Thorne and Keziah playing games with me? Were
Alora's POV:The air hitched.For one breathless, impossible second, the world held still, as if the entire pack house had gone deaf to everything except the frantic, erratic pounding of my own heart. I stood paralyzed at the edge of the room, my gaze locking onto one brother, then the other. Their eyes were fixed on me with a wary, stunned expression, looking very much like men caught red-handed burying secrets they wanted desperately to keep hidden.And underneath the sheer shock of walking in on a physical brawl, the single question that burned bright and heavy in my chest clawed its way to the surface: Where is Kade?My throat worked painfully around the sudden dryness. “–You,” I managed, my voice barely more than a ragged breath. I looked from Thorne to Keziah, searching their tight, guarded faces as if their expressions might somehow answer for the deafening silence echoing behind the walls. “Where is he?”Thorne’s jaw flexed, a residual flush of red still simmering just benea







