LOGINLILA’S POV Rumors were the sweetest currency in Oxen…in all the lands, in fact. It was a tool that'd been used to maime or make many.Mainly because they cost nothing, spread fast, and could sometimes work faster than any army.Slowly, I had made sure the right whispers were already running through the pack. Whispers about Rune. That he hadn’t slept in days, that he spoke to ghosts in the night, that his wolf no longer obeyed him.All half-truths, of course, but half-truths had a way of becoming gospel in the right mouths especially since Rune was doing a very good job of making some look like full truths.When I stepped into the council lodge, the men stopped talking. The air stilled and I was conciously aware that I was being watched with an intensity that could weaken the minds of many.Not mine though.Egan, the oldest Oxen wolf, looked up from his seat at the center table, his frosty white hair quivering like it had a mind of its own.He raised a veined hand to me in acknowled
RAVEN'S POV I had been sleeping well lately, better than I had in months.The moon was full, the pack was at peace…mostly and I was slowly beginning to relax and take things easier during the day.Nothing was perfect, but I honestly wasn't expecting it to be. Before crawling under the sheets, I'd checked in on the children first. Aurora slept curled against her toy wolf in the adjoining room, her breathing soft and even. The baby’s cradle was beside her bed, his tiny chest rising and falling in rhythm with the flicker of the candlelight. Everything was right as I yawned and slipped into a peaceful sleep.Until it wasn’t.I woke to silence that wasn’t silence, the kind that felt heavy and suffocating. The air had changed, cool but alive, threaded with something prickly. My pulse stuttered. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming. Then the light through the window pulsed once, like a magnetic heartbeat, pulling me.Calling me… “Come, Raven.”I rose, as if under a spell, careful not to
AELLA'S POV"Come on, boys! Try not to look too defeated that I outwalked you all.”The patrol yard rang with laughter as I stomped through the gates, boots caked in mud, hair sticking to my forehead from the morning wind. “Didn’t think you could handle all that mud, Aella,” the shortest of the group teased.“Didn’t think any of you could handle a woman who can actually aim straight, but here we are.”A chorus of “ohhh’s and whoa’s” filled the air, and it grew incredibly hard to keep back a laugh.A handful of men lounged near the stables, pretending to look exhausted when they’d done little more than complain the whole round.Zade was the next to speak, a wide grin splitting his handsome face as his brows quirked upwards.“You’re not bad,” he said, sparkling blue eyes holding mine hostage, “but you’re not field-tested.”“Tell that to the five Oxen wolves I took out last time. Alone.”“And nearly died doing it,” he sneered.I shrugged nonchalantly. “Almost. I’m practically impossible
LOGAN'S POV My beta had been talking for at least ten minutes, his voice a steady rumble in the room, something about patrol rotations, border watch schedules… and ration counts.I’d been pretending to listen, nodding in all the right places, making the right sounds of agreement, but the truth was, I hadn’t heard a damn word since I glanced out the window and saw her.I kept my arms folded and absently stroked my chin as myy gaze kept drifting past him, through the tall window that overlooked the courtyard.There she was again.Raven sat at the stone table near the fountain, sunlight pooling around her like it had been made for her alone.Her hair was unbound, tumbling down her back and catching the light in quiet flames. She leaned over a chessboard, eyes narrowed in concentration, a queen hooked between her fingers.She moved a piece and furrowed her brows as she paused. Then she tilted her head and moved another from the opposite side of the board, all while her friend sat chuckl
RAVEN'S POV“Morninggg, rise and shine, beautiful!”Aella’s voice cut through my dream like sharp blade through butter. Then came the blinding swish of curtains, and sunlight attacked my face.I groaned and pulled the blanket over my head. “You’re not supposed to be so loud in the morning, Aella.”“You think this is me being loud?” she scoffed, far too awake for this hour. “I call it encouragement. The sun’s already halfway up and you’ve been snoring like a dying bear. Also, you're lucky I don't want to wake the little ones, or I’d be banging pots together.”I peeked from under the blanket. “I don’t snore.”“Oh, you do. Sweetly. And very loudly too, with your mouth open and all.”That earned her a pillow to the head. She dodged it with wolfish speed and grinned. “See? You’re awake already.” Then she clapped, then stretched out her hands towards me, “come on, let's get you up and ready for the day.”I smothered a yawn. “Im barely awake, ” I muttered, sitting up. The sheets clung to me,
SERAPHINEThe darkness was alive, and I wasn't alone.Pressing down heavily on my chest until I woke up.There was a sharp pull in the wards woven into my chamber walls, the kind that never stirred unless something uninvited crashed against them.For a moment, I lay still beneath the silk sheets, watching the thin spill of moonlight draw silver veins across the ceiling. Moonfyre was still deathly silent, which meant the night was far gone.It was the kind of silence that only came before blood.When I opened my eyes fully and pushed up to sit in the bed, the air was already wrong. Cold where it shouldn’t be, making the insides of my nose crackle and ache with each breath.“You thought you could burn me out, didn’t you?”I shifted slightly , my hackles raised to the heavens.The voice wasn’t that of a man or a beast, it was something in between, something that had borrowed language and laced it with hate.My heart thudded once, then steadied. Fear had never served me well, not in all







