Mag-log inLittle Zo does not like mornings where everyone stands too still.She sits on the carpeted steps leading down to the castle's foyer swinging her legs, watching Uncle Beau tighten the straps on his bag.He has the travel pack—the one he only brings out when he's leaving for longer than a day. She knows this because he once told her so, and Zo always remembers things like that."Why do you need all of it?" she asks, her nose scrunching up in a small frown.Uncle Beau smiles at her, but it is the wrong kind, the kind that doesn't stay but withers away the moment he looks away."Just in case," he says.She feels something squeeze inside her chest.Mama walks down the stairs a moment later, coming to stand at the foot of the stairs, one hand held by Papa. They are quiet, a little too quiet.Papa is very big, and when he is quiet like this, it usually means someone else is making a choice he won't stop.Does that mean Uncle Beau is leaving and will never come back?Zo slides off the step an
The Great Hall of the Castle in Crasmere had never known silence like this.Stone pillars carved with the history of the North rose toward the vaulted ceiling, their runes aglow beneath the slow burn of braziers. Lycans filled the hall in ceremonial armor and furs, their presence a wall of restrained power.Among them—seated not apart, not behind, but with them—were humans of the North and the West. Shoulder to shoulder, on equal ground, with no chains and no fear.A single aisle cut through the center of the hall, the floor draped in a long blood red carpet that stretched past the gigantic double doors where two Lycans guards stood on either side.The sound of the ceremonial trumpets followed, the people rising as the guards pulled the heavy doors open.When Rey stepped into view, the breath left the room.Her maroon gown swept the carpet as she walked, rich and unyielding, the fabric catching the firelight like dark embers. Her dark hair fell freely down her back, untouched by crown
Both of them stumbled across the concrete floors toward the side hallway that led to Rey's temporary living quarters.Their boots clanged rhythmically as they half-ran past confused residents with their fingers interlaced so tightly her knuckles ached.She couldn't tell if the racing of her heart came from the excitement humming through her or from the way Orion's thumb kept tracing hers, promising obscene things once they were alone.Door after identical door blurred past until Rey slammed her palm on the access pad of her quarters. The panel slid aside with agonising sluggishness before she shoved him inside and thumbed the lock, sealing them in the hush of her small room.The instant the latch clicked into place, his mouth crashed back onto hers, rougher now. Her spine hit the cool concrete of the wall just beside the door, and breath was punched out of her.Orion's hands raked down her sides, tracing the curve of her waist before hooking under her thighs and lifting it. She wrappe
The office smelt faintly of ink and wood burning low in the hearth.Files and ledgers were stacked in uneven towers beside Orion's desk—treaties awaiting seals, clan reform petitions marked and re-marked, supply routes. It was evidence of days without rest and of a realm still stitching itself together.Orion sat amid it all, his dark cloak draped over the back of his chair, but his fingers were no longer turning pages. Instead, he leaned back, his stormy gaze lifted to the vaulted ceiling as though the stone itself might offer reprieve.This was necessary work. He knew that, but necessity did little to quiet the ache beneath his ribs.Across the room, Vega occupied the smaller desk by the bookshelf, shoulders squared and his eyes squinted down in concentration as his pen moved steadily over the parchment.The new General hadn't complained once, not about the hours and definitely not about the burden Orion had placed upon him. The Lycan was a general in truth, not just in title.Orion
The days that followed blurred together.Rey threw herself into the work of helping human families leave the North, organising supplies, walking frightened children through the streets of the clans and standing beside elders as they crossed borders they never thought they'd survive to see. Most chose the long road west, toward the ruins and the promise of rebuilding. Only a handful remained behind, stubborn or weary or simply unwilling to uproot again.She didn't judge them because freedom meant choice, even when the choice was to stay.It was in the castle corridors—quite now in a way that felt earned—that she ran into Indie again.Indie froze when she saw her, her eyes going wide, and in the next second, she rushed forward, arms wrapping around Rey in a tight, desperate hug."Oh my God, Rey!""We thought you were dead," Indie blurted out, her voice shaking. "When Iver punished you and when you escaped, everyone in the castle was talking about it. We were all praying that they never
That evening, Rey walked towards her brother's room in the cabin; her steps were slow as she fisted the hem of her shirt. She chewed harder on her bottom lip the closer she got to the door, but even that did nothing to quell the nervousness that threatened to eat her alive.She hadn't seen her brother since the day she'd pulled him off their father's dead body, right before Orion died in her arms.She'd been so drowned in the grief of losing him that she hadn't thought of Beau, not even once.She remembered the lack of emotion in his eyes, almost like something had died in him. She should have been with him; she should have never left his side.Was she a bad sister?The answer to that question terrified her more than she'd like to admit.She came to a stop in front of the wooden door that separated her from her brother, and with trembling hands, she knocked before pushing the door open.She found him sitting in the window nook, staring out into the dense forest. It didn't seem like he





![The Omega's Wrath [ A Werewolf Romance]](https://www.goodnovel.com/pcdist/src/assets/images/book/43949cad-default_cover.png)

