ログインPOV: LioraBy the time the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, the pack had already begun to move.Nightbane was not a pack that lingered in uncertainty. Kael had made sure of that. Orders had been issued before the moon fully set, patrol routes doubled, internal rotations shifted without explanation. To an outsider, it would have looked like routine discipline. To anyone paying closer attention, it was clear something deeper had shifted beneath the surface.And I was at the center of it.I stood at the edge of the training yard, arms folded loosely across my chest, watching as warriors cycled through drills with sharper focus than usual. Steel clashed against steel. Wolves shifted and unshifted in controlled bursts of aggression. Commands rang out, clipped and efficient. No one was careless. No one was distracted.But tension lived in the air.It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t obvious. It was quieter than that, threaded through every movement, every glance exchanged between warriors
Pov:KaelThe decision I had made the night before did not feel like a victory.It felt like stepping onto ground I knew was already cracking beneath my feet.By morning, the weight of it had settled fully into place. There was no retreat from it now, no quiet way to undo what had already begun. I had chosen a side, whether I admitted it aloud or not, and that choice would ripple through every layer of the pack.Liora remained under my protection.And my council would not accept that indefinitely.I stood in the war room again, though this time I was alone. The large table before me was covered in maps, territory lines, border routes, patrol rotations, all things I had studied a hundred times before. Yet today, my focus was not on geography.It was on patterns.Matthias had not attacked randomly. The rogue assaults, the timing, the message, it all pointed to strategy. He was testing us. Measuring response time. Looking for weaknesses.And he had already found one.Information.He knew
POV: LioraThe night air was cool, but it did nothing to calm the heat building beneath my skin.Standing that close to Kael had become dangerous in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Not because he might attack me or expose me, but because being near him made it harder to think clearly. Harder to hold on to the careful distance I had been trying to maintain since everything between us started unraveling.He had admitted it now.No more denial. No more pretending that whatever existed between us could be ignored.And that made everything worse.“I shouldn’t have come out here,” I said quietly, though I didn’t step back.Kael’s gaze didn’t leave mine. “Then why did you?”The question was simple, but the answer wasn’t.Because I felt him and the distance felt wrong.Because every instinct I had kept pulling me back to him no matter how hard I tried to stay away.“I needed to know where we stand,” I said instead.Something in his expression shifted, subtle, but there.“And where do you think tha
POV: KaelThe tension in the pack did not ease after the last confrontation, it deepened, settled into the bones of Nightbane like a coming storm that refused to break.I felt it everywhere.In the way the warriors trained harder but spoke less.In the way the guards watched the borders with sharper focus.In the silence that followed whenever I entered a room.But most of all, I felt it in myself.Sleep had become something distant, something I brushed against but never fully reached. Every time I closed my eyes, my thoughts circled back to the same place,to her, to the truth I now knew, and to the consequences I could no longer avoid.Liora.Not Leo. Not a rogue. Not a coincidence.A threat to my council.A target to an enemy Alpha.And somehow… the one person my instincts refused to turn away.That contradiction was becoming harder to manage with each passing day.I stood at the edge of the training yard that morning, arms crossed as I watched the warriors move through their drills
Pov: Liora The walk back to the territory was silent, but it was not the kind of silence that came from calm or ease. It was tense, deliberate, filled with thoughts neither of us chose to voice yet. Eron stumbled more than once along the narrow forest path, his hands bound behind him, his breathing uneven as the weight of what he had done settled over him. Kael walked slightly ahead, his pace measured, his presence radiating a quiet authority that needed no reinforcement. I stayed just behind Eron, watching him carefully, not because I expected him to escape, but because something about the situation still felt unfinished. Catching him had been too easy. Not the chase itself, that had been real, instinctive, driven by training and urgency, but the confession. Wolves did not break that quickly unless they were already close to the edge. Eron had been afraid long before we found him, and fear had a way of loosening tongues. Still, it raised a question I couldn’t ignore. If he had bee
Pov: KaelThe moment the figure broke from the trees, instinct took over.I moved without hesitation, closing the distance in long, controlled strides, every sense sharpening to a single point of focus. The forest floor shifted beneath my boots, leaves and loose soil giving way under the force of pursuit, but I adjusted without thought. Behind me, I could hear Liora keeping pace, light, precise, her movements barely disturbing the silence.Whoever it was, they knew the terrain well.They didn’t run blindly. They cut sharply to the right, slipping between narrow gaps in the undergrowth, using shadows and uneven ground to their advantage. That alone told me this wasn’t a rogue wandering too close to our borders.This was someone trained.“Cut them off,” I said, my voice low but carrying enough authority that I knew she would hear.Liora didn’t respond verbally.She didn’t need to.I felt the shift as she veered away from my side, her path angling wider, anticipating where the runner wou
Chapter 9POV: LioraI couldn't sleep after leaving Kael's office. His words echoed in my head, tormenting me. If you were anyone else, I'd think you're my mate. I paced the barracks, careful not to wake the other guards. My wolf was restless, pushing against my skin, wanting to go back to him. Wan
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
Chapter 7POV: LioraKael strode through the corridors with the scroll gripped tight in his hand. I hurried after him, my shorter legs struggling to keep pace."What are you going to do with it?" I asked, breathless."Keep it safe.""But we need to show people. We need to prove..""We have proven n
POV: Liora I couldn't sleep. Kael's words echoed in my head, over and over like a curse I couldn't shake. Why does my wolf want you? His face had been so close, his eyes burning with confusion and something darker. Something that made my stomach flip and my wolf whined with longing. This was dang







