The door shut with a heavy thud, silencing the storm she’d left behind.Rayne Valen stood alone in her chambers, her breath shallow, her heart hammering like war drums in her chest. The fire had long since died out. The hearth was cold. Her hands trembled—but not from fear.From fury.From heartbreak.From the way Lucian had looked at her when she said their relationship was complicated.She hadn’t meant to humiliate him. Or herself.But what was she supposed to say? That she still loved him? That her nights were haunted by memories of him? That despite all her strength, she still ached for the one thing she could never truly have?No.She was Alpha of Valen. And Lucian was not hers.The door creaked open behind her.She didn’t need to turn to know it was him.Lucian closed the door slowly, then leaned his back against it, his arms folded, gaze heavy on her. The silence between them stretched like a taut wire—ready to snap.“You didn’t have to say it like that,” he said quietly.Rayne
Morning sun streamed through the canopy of Rayne's bed. The fire had died down to glowing embers, the air kissed with the scent of ash, musk… and Lucian.Rayne stirred, warmth still lingering on her skin from the night before—their first night in five years, not as strangers, but as lovers again. Her hand reached across the fur-strewn bed, only to find cool linens where he should have been.Gone.She blinked the sleep from her eyes, rising with a soft groan. The room was still cloaked in silence, but something felt off. She dressed quickly, tugging her cloak over her shoulders, and stepped into the hall—where Garran was already waiting, arms crossed, jaw clenched.“You’re late,” he said grimly.“For what?”“The council summoned an emergency meeting… Lucian’s already there. With Cain.”Rayne’s blood ran cold. She didn’t wait for another word. She moved fast, heart thundering in her chest, boots echoing through the stone corridor.Lucian Wolfe stood like a dark sentinel at the center o
The storm hadn’t broken outside, but it had inside her.Rayne stared at Lucian as they walked through the dim corridors of the Valen stronghold. Her home. Her legacy. And now, the place where the man she once loved had returned—not as a conqueror, but as something far more dangerous.A memory.A weakness.A truth.Lucian walked beside her in silence, heavy armor still caked with dirt and blood, his golden eyes sharp despite the hour. Their warriors had already retreated to their quarters. The Ironfangs were driven off. For now, they had peace.But Rayne knew that peace was only surface-deep.As they entered her private quarters, the door clicked shut behind them, muffling the wind outside. Her chambers weren’t grand—stone walls, a long oak table strewn with maps and war reports, a hearth that still flickered low with dying flames—but they were hers.She turned to face him.“Why are you really here?”Lucian removed his cloak and tossed it aside. “I told you—”“No. Tell me the truth, no
Later that evening, in the war room…“The Ironfangs have repositioned,” Garran reported. “They’ve abandoned their usual post and are gathering along the East Ravine.”Rayne frowned. “Too close for comfort.”“Too coordinated to be coincidence,” Garran muttered. “They’re planning something.”“Let them,” Rayne said, rising. “If they want a fight, they’ll get one.”But even as she spoke the words, a strange unease crept into her chest. Not fear. Foreboding.She glanced toward the empty seat at the end of the table.Cain wasn’t present.He’d excused himself, claiming a scouting matter.Liar, she thought.Rayne stood. “Double the outer sentries. And summon the guards. I want our best warriors ready to move by nightfall.”The elders blinked.“You want to move first?”“No,” she said, turning to face them all. “I want to be standing when they think we’ll fall.”----Far away, in the Eastern Highlands… Lucian stood on the high cliffs of his territory, wind tearing through his cloak.The Valen
Later that night, as shadows blanketed the mountains, Cain slipped through the side halls of the fortress and descended into the abandoned war crypts beneath the keep.Only a few trusted wolves followed.Among them was Rurik, a former soldier stripped of rank by Rayne’s father long ago, and Elda, a healer exiled for poisoning a rival's mate years prior.“She’s winning them over,” Rurik whispered. “Most of the council members seem impressed.”“She has fire,” Cain admitted, lighting a torch. “But fire burns too fast when it’s not tempered by stone.”He led them into the inner chamber, where old relics and forbidden scrolls lay untouched. Dust curled around his boots like ghosts of the past.“She wants to make us warriors again,” Cain continued. “But a queen who leads without fear… is a queen waiting to be destroyed.”Elda stepped closer, eyes glittering. “You plan to take the seat?”“I plan to return it to the gender it belongs to,” Cain replied. “Rayne Valen is girl, a rogue wearing st
The title of Alpha was not a crown—it was a mantle of fire.Rayne Valen learned this the moment she stepped into her late father’s war hall.The stone walls still bore the marks of his reign—burn marks from old raids, deep gashes where claws had scraped in fury, banners faded by years of battle. But everything else had changed.The elders sat stiffly, their judgment hidden behind wrinkled expressions. The warriors didn’t bow when she passed—they watched. Measured. Waited for her to falter.Cain had not made it easy.Though she had bested him in the Trial of Alpha, his influence still festered in the hearts of many. He spoke with poisoned civility now, calling her “Alpha Rayne” in public while whispering insurrection in the shadows.“It’s tradition, Alpha,” an elder insisted one morning during the war council. “No female has ruled the Valen Territory before. Not since the Old Ages. Even your mother—bless her soul—stood beside your father, not in front of him.”“My mother didn’t wear ar