Shadows in the SilenceRissa’s POVBeing alone and abandoned was never something I handled well. The night dragged on, and I could feel my body growing weaker, dried out and worn. The power of the knowing surging deep and taking over, the only thing pushing me forward. I had to get Mark back. I needed him now more than ever.The forest pulsed with life around me ,it felt alert and watchful. The Cold air slicing through my coat, but the pain in my chest hurt more. Every leaf that shuffled and twig that snapped reminded me I was alone and hunted. At this moment I was so vulnerable, an easy target.I pressed my back against the rough bark of a gnarled oak, the cold roughness grounding me in the jagged reality that Mark was gone or worse. His fall still echoed inside me, an open wound I couldn’t stop bleeding. Was he truly alive? Or had the Scourge silenced him forever? Doubt ate away at my mind just as sharply as the cold bit into my skin.I clutched the dagger tighter in my hand. The o
Fractured LoyaltiesJosh’s POVThe silence in the Great Hall looms like a whisper unwilling to go, darkness in every nooks and crannies for worry of what lays ahead , the firelight flickered unevenly against the cold stone walls of the Great Hall, casting long, restless shadows that seemed to twist and curl like ghosts from the past. I stood in the center, alone, the silence pressing in like a physical weight. The words Lucan had spoken still hung thick and suffocating in the air: “I don’t trust you.Those words weren’t just a condemnation they were a verdict, the closing of a door I wasn’t ready to see shut. But trust... trust was a luxury I could no longer afford. Not with the hunters closing in, their claws reaching into the very heart of our pack like insidious poison. The words of Lucan were as a mirror revealing my true reflections. I pressed my fingers to my temples, as if I could crush the pounding headache that echoed like a war drum behind my eyes. The choices I’d made dis
Lucan's POVCold Truths, Hot Lies.The cold wind touching everything in it's path, It cuts deep into my skin and shatter my bones as I walk past the threshold of the pack’s compound, the air is cold and unforgiving as the weight of what I was about to face was near. There was a familiar scent of earth and pine, a sharp sour trace lingered. An air of unease had settled deep into the bones of the forest, and into the hearts of those within the walls. The pack was fractured. Restless. Splintered by fears and secrets no one dared speak aloud and I knew why before I even reached the Great Hall.Josh had made a decision. A choice so grave and so reckless, it threatened to undo everything we had built. It wasn’t just his to make not alone. The entire pack would pay the price.My hands dented with bruises clenched around the worn leather strap of my satchel, seeking some kind of anchor in the storm swirling inside me, a storm that was about to consume anything that stood in it's way. I smel
The Blood PriceMark’s POVThe door ripped open before I was ready.The cold slammed into me like a steel fist, sharp and sentient. It wasn’t just air. It was something old. Something wrong. I barely had time to throw up my arm before it hit.Wind, no force tossed me backward. My spine cracked against the far wall. Mid-shift, my bones screamed in protest. Fur bristled along my arms, jaw half-extended, fangs jutting from my mouth. Not wolf. Not man. Stuck in between.I tasted blood. My own.Rissa was already gone her scent vanished into the trees like mist. Thank the gods. She’d listened.I pushed off the wall, vision still vibrating from the impact, and stepped into the wreckage of the motel room. Shards of glass from the shattered lamp glittered across the carpet. The window was blown out. The curtains flapped wildly like flags of surrender. But I didn’t surrender.Not yet.I heard them before I saw them.Low chanting. Throat-sung. Guttural and wrong.My claws extended as I dropped t
You are the blood that remembers.Rissa’s POVThe motel door rattled.Not a knock. A deliberate shake like someone testing the strength of it.My breath caught. I was still curled in the scratchy blanket, my body slick with cold sweat. The remnants of last night’s vision clung to me like smoke. I hadn’t spoken of it. Not to Mark. Not even to myself. But I felt the Knowing stir again a silent ripple deep in my chest.Danger. I felt the presence that came with it.I sat up, heart hammering. My bare feet pressed into the worn carpet as I moved toward the window. Ominous shapes stirred beyond the window.“Mark,” I whispered, my voice shaky, the words snagging in my throat, words began to fail me, the shock within weakening my whole being. The Knowing surged again stronger this time. Like a storm pulling at the edges of my skin.The faucet dripped steadily from the bathroom. Mark hadn’t heard the noise.Another rattle. Louder. Closer. The doorframe trembled. Not a random visitor. This was
The Depths of the Knowing Rissa’s POV The smoky motel room was dusty and filled with the rays of the morning light slipping faintly through the motel window covered in dirt, the worn carpet painted with the long streaks of gold, I barely noticed it's effects . My thoughts spun in relentless circles, knotted with emotion, resentment, confusion, and something else I didn’t want to name. Hope, maybe. The kind that flickers when everything else has gone dark. Mark’s voice still echoed in the fragile silence. His words like smoke choking my mind, impossible to hold and harder to ignore. “You don’t have to face this alone Rissa.” But I had been alone. Since the day I felt the bond shatter, since Lucan turned his back on me and the title of Luna twisted into a chain I didn’t ask to wear, I’d carried this weight by myself. The Knowing stirred beneath my skin. I didn’t ask for this power. No one ever asked for the Knowing. It came uninvited, a haunting inheritance passed down through blo