LOGINPOV: LioraI woke to the scent of cedar smoke and crushed wolfsbane.For a moment I did not know where I was.Pain drifted through me first, dull and heavy, before memory returned in jagged fragments. The courtyard. Matthias. Bram’s betrayal. The arrow. Kael’s arms around me. His voice breaking in a way I had never imagined possible.Then the rest returned.I had told him.Gods.I had actually said it.Because I love you.Heat rose to my face despite the weakness in my body.Of all the things I might have confessed while half dying, somehow those had been the words I chose.And he had answered.I love you too.I shut my eyes briefly as though I could steady the storm those words stirred.But it was useless.Everything had changed.Again.When I opened my eyes, dawn filtered through the infirmary windows in pale silver bands. The room was quiet except for the low crackle of a nearby fire.And Kael was there.Asleep in the chair beside my bed.His head rested against the edge of the mat
POV: LioraI woke to the scent of cedar smoke and crushed wolfsbane.For a moment I did not know where I was.Pain drifted through me first, dull and heavy, before memory returned in jagged fragments. The courtyard. Matthias. Bram’s betrayal. The arrow. Kael’s arms around me. His voice breaking in a way I had never imagined possible.Then the rest returned.I had told him.Gods.I had actually said it.Because I love you.Heat rose to my face despite the weakness in my body.Of all the things I might have confessed while half dying, somehow those had been the words I chose.And he had answered.I love you too.I shut my eyes briefly as though I could steady the storm those words stirred.But it was useless.Everything had changed.Again.When I opened my eyes, dawn filtered through the infirmary windows in pale silver bands. The room was quiet except for the low crackle of a nearby fire.And Kael was there.Asleep in the chair beside my bed.His head rested against the edge of the mat
POV: Kael I have faced death enough times to know its scent.It carries a coldness unlike anything else, a silence that creeps in even when battle roars around it. I had smelled it on warriors dying at my feet, on enemies I had killed with my own hands, on blood-soaked fields where victory had cost too much. I had never feared it.Until I felt it clinging to Liora.The moment the arrow struck her and she crumpled against me, something primal inside me fractured. I caught her before she hit the ground, but the force of the impact drove me to one knee, her blood spilling hot across my hands. For one impossible second, the entire battlefield seemed suspended. The clash of blades dulled into a distant roar. Smoke drifted through torchlight. Wolves fought and died around us.But all I could see was her.Her face had gone pale too quickly. Her breath came shallow, uneven. Blood seeped through my fingers no matter how hard I pressed against the wound.And I realized with a terror I had neve
Pov: LoiraThe alarm bell began to ring just as dawn’s gray light touched the stone walls of Nightbane.The sound rolled across the compound like a warning from the gods, heavy and urgent enough to send every instinct in me into immediate alert. At first strike I thought border breach, another attack at the perimeter, another test of our defenses. But when the second bell followed, deep, violent, unmistakable, my blood turned cold.Two strikes meant only one thing.Attack from within.For a fraction of a second, the world seemed to hold its breath.Then chaos erupted.I was already moving before conscious thought caught up, pushing into the corridor outside the infirmary where wolves rushed in every direction. Boots pounded against stone. Orders collided in the air. Someone shouted for eastern patrol reinforcements while another called frantically for healers. The atmosphere carried a different kind of terror than I had felt during border raids. This wasn’t the sharpened readiness of
POV: LioraThe north wing did not erupt into violence after Kael’s final word.That would have been easier to handle.Instead, the tension shifted into something far more dangerous, contained, deliberate, and unresolved. Wolves who had taken sides without openly declaring it remained exactly where they were, their loyalty no longer as clear-cut as it had been just days ago. No one challenged Kael again, but no one pretended the confrontation had settled anything either.Bram stepped back first.It was not in retreat or pdefeat.But in calculated withdrawal.“I’ll comply,” he said evenly, his gaze never leaving Kael. “For now.”There was no respect in the words. Only timing.Kael didn’t respond. He simply held Bram’s gaze for a moment longer, as if making it clear that anything further would be met without hesitation. Then he turned slightly, addressing the wolves in the hall.“Return to your assigned positions,” he ordered. “This territory remains under my command. Anyone acting outsi
POV: Liora The north wing felt different the moment we stepped into it.It wasn’t just the physical shift, the narrower corridors, the dimmer lighting, the way the stone walls seemed to close in slightly compared to the rest of the compound. It was the atmosphere. The air carried a tension that had nothing to do with confusion or fear.This was intentional, deliberate and controlled.Kael walked ahead of me, his stride steady, unhurried, but there was nothing casual about the way he moved. Every step carried purpose, every movement measured. Behind us, a small group of guards followed, carefully selected, just as he had ordered. I recognized most of them, wolves who had proven themselves more than once, wolves who would not hesitate if things turned.No one spoke.There was no need.We all understood what this was.Not a negotiation.Not anymore.As we approached the inner hall, the shift became more obvious. Two guards stood at the entrance, not ours. Their posture was firm, their e
Chapter 12POV: LioraI did not realize how fast I was walking until I reached the far end of the corridor and nearly collided with one of the guards turning the corner. He started to curse under his breath, then stopped abruptly when he recognized me, his expression shifting into mild confusion as
Chapter 11POV: KaelI did not move immediately after she spoke.The silence that followed her denial settled thickly across the room, pressing into the walls, into the space between us, into my chest in a way that made it difficult to draw a full breath. I stood a few paces away from her, my gaze
Chapter 13POV: KaelThe scent hit me like a warning carved straight into instinct.It wasn’t just blood.It was wrong.Controlled. Measured. Deliberate in a way that immediately set every part of me on edge. Rogues did not move like this. They did not leave trails meant to be found. They did not m
Chapter 8POV: LioraKael stopped looking at me after that night. Five days had passed since the rogue attack, since those words hung in the air between us. No man should make me want everything. Five days of Kael avoiding the training yard, sending orders through Vera, staying locked in his office







