Elvira I barely slept that night. The relic sat heavy in my palm, it's cold metal biting against my skin. When dawn barely crept through my window, I found myself unable to hold the silence anymore. I had to tell Jaxon. I found him in the great hall, leaning against the stone archway like he was carved from it himself. His dark eyes caught mine, sharp with concern. “Jaxon,” I said, my voice trembling more than I wanted. “I need to show you something.” He straightened, knitting his brows. “Elvira? What’s going on?” I swallowed, heart pounding so loud I was sure he could hear it. “It’s about the relic. Last night, when I touched it… I saw something. I heard something.” He stepped closer, eyes narrowing, studying me like I’d suddenly become fragile glass. “Tell me,” he urged, voice low. I lifted the relic from beneath my shirt. “I had a vision. A memory, or maybe it was a warning. It was my mother’s voice, angelic, but filled with urgency. She spoke about my bloodline. About me b
Deric The sheets still smelled like Ava, warm, faintly sweet with a hint of something floral she always wore. The warmth of Ava pressed against me was a comfort I hadn’t realized I’d craved so badly. We lay tangled in the sheets, breath still mingling after the kind of intimacy that leaves your skin tingling and your heart stubbornly full. Her fingers traced lazy circles on my chest as I tried to steady the erratic beat in my chest. “I learned some new tricks,” she murmured, voice thick with that sultry, slightly tipsy that made my stomach flip. “You’ve got to come out with me tonight. You have to see them, drunk Ava style.” I laughed softly, pulling her closer until her head rested on my shoulder. “Drunk Ava is a whole new level of dangerous, huh?” She smirked, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Dangerous, yes. Freaky, absolutely.” Her grin was infectious, the kind that made you forget everything else for a second. I should’ve been exhausted, but the idea of losing ourselves to musi
Elvira I woke up with my throat dry and a weight pressing against my chest, not from a nightmare, but something real. I swung my legs off the bed and padded across the cold floor to my desk, where the relic sat. Even in the dim light, the silver crest shined faintly, as if it were alive. I hadn’t meant to bring it with me, but… I couldn’t leave it behind either. It called something in me. And that confused me more than ever. I stared at the etched sigil, it was beautiful, ancient, and wrongfully familiar. Jaxon had mentioned the possessor’s name earlier. Liora, my mother’s name. Coincidence, I had told myself. People shared names all the time. But still… I reached for the relic, my fingers trembling. The moment my skin brushed the crest, something inside me clicked. A lock turning, a door opening. And then I heard it. “Elvira, I guess you already found out. You are more than they told you. Carry on my legacy, the next Alpha Queen.” My breath hitched. That voice, soft, melodic
Jaxon For the third day in a row, Kairo was a damn ghost. No messages. No returned calls. His office remained empty, the assistant offering me the same tight-lipped excuse: “He travelled.” But where the hell did he go without fulfilling his promise? I stared at the list of numbers on my phone, Deric’s name highlighted at the top. Thirteen missed calls from him. I didn’t bother opening any of them. Whatever Deric wanted could wait. What couldn’t wait was the growing knot of unease under my sternum. Callan’s absence, the council’s aggression, Ronan acting cagey, the cryptic signs Elvira kept seeing in her dreams, I felt the noose of it all tightening. I had spent my entire life taking up the ranks, dragging Morrien Pack out of its cursed history and into something respectable. But now? Now it all felt like it was fraying in my hands. So, when Magnus Blackwood requested a second meeting, I didn’t have the luxury to say no. Not anymore. …. The private club he selected sat atop t
Elvira The dusky amber light of early evening washed over the balcony corridor, but my skin prickled. I miss Brielle. I haven’t seen her in weeks, and nobody knows if she’s alive or dead. Just then my eye caught a figure. At first, I thought I was hallucinating. She stood there at the far end of the entrance, backlit by the sun, hair dancing around her face in the wind, that slender silhouette too familiar to ignore. My breath caught in my throat. My hand gripped the wooden rail. No… it couldn’t be… “Brielle?” I whispered, but the word barely left my lips. I took a step forward, heart pounding. She turned slightly. That face, the high cheekbones, the almond eyes with their moonlit sheen, the lips that always curved mischievously, even when she wasn’t smiling. My heartbeat roared in my ears. “Brielle!” My feet didn’t wait for my mind to catch up. I sprinted down the corridor, nearly tripping over my robe as I flew down the staircase, the railing blurring past me. I burst thr
Ronan Two days. Just two damn days of silence, and she was already clawing at my attention like a cat in heat. Calls. Texts. Even one pathetic voice note that ended with a huff and a slammed door. Lila was persistent like a storm, beautiful to watch from afar, but a disaster when it got too close. I’d ignored them all. Until now. I sipped whiskey, leaning on the polished mahogany of the rooftop bar’s counter. Soft jazz filled the air, its rhythm slow, a lazy kind of seductive. One of the bar dancer, Sienna, a sharp-mouthed woman was seated beside me, laughing at something I’d said. Her red lips curled around the rim of her glass, eyes trained on me like I was a game she couldn’t wait to win. And then Lila walked in. My glass halted halfway to my lips. I’d seen her in plenty of moods, blood-smeared from training, sulking in fur coats, flashing those cunning eyes during council meetings, but this was something else. She was dressed in a sleek black satin gown that shined every