The world around me spun, and I felt myself falling, my body colliding with the ground as if the earth itself had swallowed me whole. The air rushed from my lungs, and I gasped, my hands fumbling to push against the dirt, trying to regain some sense of control.
But nothing made sense. Not anymore.
The letter—my mother’s letter—was still clutched tightly in my trembling hands, the words seared into my mind, seeping into my bones. The Betrayal. The one you think you trust the most.
Reed’s voice echoed in my head, repeating those words, mocking me. And then the knife, his hand so steady, so sure, as he stood over me. The same face I had once trusted, the same person who had always been there, suddenly so foreign, so wrong.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
I had always known this moment would come.The moment when everything I had fought for, everything I had believed in, would be tested. When the lines between loyalty and betrayal would blur beyond recognition. But knowing it was coming didn’t make it any easier. It didn’t lessen the weight that pressed down on me now, heavy and suffocating.The war council had been called, and every Alpha was gathered around the fire. Each one had been summoned by their own sense of duty—to the packs, to the Prophet, to the world that had shaped us all into what we were. And now, they had to choose.Rebellion, or prophecy.I stood off to the side, my hands clenched tightly at my sides, heart pounding in my chest. My breaths came in shallow gasps, every movement in the clearing seeming amplified in the dead silence that hung
The air was thick with tension. The weight of the moment hung between us like a storm cloud, crackling with unspoken words, unfinished battles.We were standing on the edge of something terrible, something irreversible. The packs, divided for so long, were now beginning to stir. Some had already made their choices, their loyalty to the Prophet undeniable. They believed in his vision—the future he promised. And in the same breath, I could feel the others, the ones who hadn’t chosen, shifting uneasily, waiting, watching. They wanted to believe. They wanted something more. Something that didn’t come at the cost of everything they had known.I wasn’t sure how to give it to them. But I knew I had to try.I stood tall, my shoulders squared as I faced the group of rogue Alphas and warriors gathered around me. The ones who had followed me—wh
The moment the roar echoed through the trees, I knew we were no longer just dealing with shadows. This wasn’t some quiet confrontation anymore. This was war.I turned to the others, my pulse racing, every instinct screaming at me to run, to hide, to escape the weight of what I was about to face. But there was no running from this. No hiding from what the Prophet—my father—had set in motion.I looked at Ronan, his face a mask of stone, his eyes dark with something I couldn’t quite read, but I knew what it was—fear. Not for himself, but for me. For what was to come. For what was already too far gone.“We need to move,” Ronan said, his voice tight, his hands flexing at his sides. He was trying to keep it together, to keep it all together, but the tension was thick in the air, heavy and suffocating. “Now.”
The air felt heavy, like the world itself was holding its breath as I stepped back into the clearing, facing the Alphas. The words I had spoken to Reed still echoed in my mind, sharp and unforgiving, but now, it was time to face the consequences.My truth.I had run from it for so long, buried it beneath layers of lies and broken promises. But now, it was all out in the open. And I had no choice but to deal with it. To confront the very reality that had shaped my existence, twisted it into something I didn’t recognize.The Alphas were waiting for me, their expressions a mixture of concern, anger, and something deeper—something that reflected the weight of everything that had come before. Ronan stood at the front, his eyes locked on mine, his jaw tight with barely restrained emotion. Behind him, Kieran, Kael, and Caspian stood in a tense line, each of
I should have known that there was no way out. That there was no escaping the weight of my bloodline, the consequences of my existence.But in that moment, when my father’s words hit me like a physical blow, I wanted to believe that there was a way. I wanted to believe I could walk away from all of this—walk away from him, from the Prophecy, from the blood-soaked legacy that had been thrust upon me.But I couldn’t. Not anymore.I took a deep breath, steadying myself. The air around me felt heavy, suffocating, as if it was closing in, pulling the very breath from my lungs. The tension between us was so thick that it was hard to tell where my thoughts ended and my father’s voice began. But I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. If I did, if I let myself get lost in the uncertainty of it all, I would break.
The world had stopped. Or maybe it was just me.The shadows that had been so heavy around me—heavy with secrets, with betrayals—grew darker with every passing second. I could feel the tension in my bones, like a storm was about to break, one that I couldn’t control. One that I didn’t want to be a part of.Save me? How could he say that? How could he stand there and tell me he was trying to save me when everything he had done—everything he hadn’t done—had led me to this moment?My father, the man I had trusted, the man who had kept me in the dark for years, was standing in front of me, claiming he was trying to save me.I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were tight, my chest aching as if it were being crushed under the weight of a thousand unspoken truths. And yet, I could hear