RAVENNA POV"Why do we have to do this again?" I asked Mia for the hundredth time. "Because Beta Lucian asked us to," she replied, voice patient. "Lucian can go to hell." Mia and a few people near me snapped their heads to me, their eyes hard. I suppressed a sigh and held up my hand. Their eyes left me and I released a breath. So we're training with the pack today. Since the weeks I've been here I've only ever trained alone with Mia. But then today Lucian walked up to us with his expressionless ass and declared we were going to train together with the pack. I had wanted to tell him to fuck off but Mia had stepped in and agreed we'll train with the pack. Not like we had a choice. It was a goddamn order from Lucian. So here we were, standing with the rest of the pack who were either snarling at us or ignoring us—I liked the latter better—with Lucian nowhere in sight. We didn't know what to do without our trainer so some of us just stood and waited while others started training.
DARIUS POV I brushed myself off and rose to my feet. This was the second time this woman had swept me off my feet. It wasn't unwelcome, not at all. In the privacy of my own thoughts, I even admitted to liking it. Though I would never let that slip, not to anyone. My pack would surely think I'd lost my mind. Perhaps I had. Ravenna has unraveled my senses, made me a man with less reasoning. Training had always been a chore, something I endured rather than enjoyed. But now, I've found a new challenge. One that ignited my blood, drove me wild, and strangely enough, brought me a strange sense of peace. That challenge is staring at me right now, her eyes wide with panic and… fear? "Is this how you plan to kill me?" she whispers–yells. I wanted to tell her that there was no need to whisper. We were surrounded by wolves with sharp hearing. I bit down those words and instead said, "What do you mean?" Ravenna opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Her gaze swept across the p
RAVENNA POV Darius had said I was his, had said his heart has claimed me as its own. And now Darius was close to me, our bodies almost touching, his lips hovering over mine. My eyes left his lips and raised to his eyes. Those beautiful mismatched eyes were soft, softer than I've ever seen them. And they seem to be asking a question. They seem to be asking for permission. My eyes dropped back to his lips—his wonderful looking lips—and I took a deep breath and pulled away from him, even though my heart was screaming for me to close that space between us and kiss him. My heart was a confused bitch. My head was more reasonable. "We-we can't do this, Darius," I said softly, avoiding his gaze. "This can't happen between us. I am the prisoner, and you are my captor."Even as I said the word they sounded bland, unreasonable, an excuse. I managed to raise my eyes to Darius' and the hurt I saw shining in them had me looking away. Darius cleared his throat and straightened. "Of course," he
DARIUS POV "How did they manage to get past our border without us knowing?!" I yelled at Lucian as he handed my sword. "The guards at the border were killed before they could raise the alarm," he replied, as calm and composed as ever, but I wasn't having any of that. "All the guards couldn't have been killed before they could have rang the alarm," I said. "At least one of the idiots could have escaped and rang the goddamn alarm! What type of fools are you posting at the border, Lucian? Is your job too much that you can't station capable guards?" I knew it wasn't fair, it wasn't Lucian's fault. But I was so fucking furious. We haven't had a rogue attack in years. Why are they starting now? How the hell did they managed to breach my fucking border? Rogues didn't need a lot of reason to attack. Those fools didn't even reason. All they needed was blood, violence. They no longer had the humility to reason, they only think like animals. Lucian clenched his jaw as he fastened his armo
RAVENNA POV"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked Darius, confused by the look on his face. The look was a mixture of shock, confusion, awe, and confusion again. "Your… your eyes," Darius whispered, his voice tinged with something I couldn't place. I crossed my arms. "Yes, Darius, they're beautiful. I know that," I replied. "But that can't be the reason why you have that look on your face."Darius finally abandoned the spot where I thought his feets were glued on and walked to me, his steps slow and careful as if he was walking to a spooked horse. He got to me and took my face in his hands. I wanted to yell at the bastard that his hands were covered in blood but that look on his face stopped me. "Your eyes flashed silver," he said carefully. I snorted and tried to shake my face off his hands but he wouldn't let me. "I swear, Ravenna. Your eyes flashed goddamne silver."I stopped then. His voice were hard, his face harder. Darius was barely serious but when he did I ten
DARIUS POV I stood at the edge of the clearing, the moonlight casting a silver glow over the makeshift pyres. The air was heavy with the scent of wood smoke and the bittersweet fragrance of wildflowers. I took a deep breath, gathering my thoughts as the members of my pack gathered behind him, their faces etched with grief.This never gets easy—the loss. Each of my pack members were like a piece of me. Each time one of them dies, I lose a piece of myself. I would have given anything to save them. If it was my life I would gladly give it. Gladly. I didn't know all my members personally—that wasn't possible when I had hundreds in my pack—but they were still my responsibility. Their burdens were mine, their pains mine. So when one dies, I mourn them like I would mourn anyone close to me. The fact that I may be the cause of their death has been eating at me since last night. The rogues had attacked because I had made an enemy of them. This was the way I got my pack killed when I ma
RAVENNA POV As Darius and I walked to his training room, I kept telling myself that the reason I had hugged Darius, had tried to console him, was because he was grieving. But deep down I knew that was just a load of bullshit. I had wanted to hug him, had wanted to see that dead look in his eyes gone because I cared. I care for Darius. It was like there was a thread always pulling me to him. When I had seen him just standing there while the pyres were burning, a part of me had wanted to reach for him and hold him. I didn't care much about this pack. I mean I was a prisoner. How could I? But I cared for soft Mia, for always scowling Anya, even stonecold Lucian. And I cared a whole lot for Darius. For this man who was cruel, savage and had killed my best friend. But I was starting to see a heart beneath all that. I was starting to see the real Darius beneath the masks he wears. And he was hurting The death of their pack members had affected the people I cared about. Mia didn't s
DARIUS POV Ravenna tasted addictive, like the first sip of smooth whiskey on a cold night, igniting a fire that spread through your veins. Each encounter was a complex blend of smoky richness and sweet undertones, drawing you deeper into its embrace, where every moment lingered like a cherished memory, intoxicating and impossible to forget.Why had I turned into a poetic bastard? Since I've heard a taste of Ravenna's lips.I curled my hands under Ravenna and lifted her while I sat up, placing her on my lap, all the while never breaking our kiss. My hands went to the back of her neck and I deepened the kiss. When she parted her lips I slipped my tongue inside, tasting and exploring every bit of her mouth. There was a taste of cinnamon and… something else, something that was all Ravenna. The little sound she made when I sucked on her tongue was nearly enough to make me cum on my pants like a teenager. We broke the kiss to breathe and I've never hated needing to breathe the way I d
Something was wrong. The trio had been driving half the day, and according to the GPS, they should reach the town by mid-afternoon. But it was now evening, and the sky was orange, casting that glow on the trees and the ground, but they still hadn't reached the town. “Something’s wrong,” Mia voiced out, at the edge of her seat, her nose pressed against the window. “Terribly wrong,” Dalian agreed, his hands tightening around the steering wheel. “We should have gotten there hours ago,” Lucian muttered, looking down at his phone with his eyebrows furrowed. “And… and I don't understand. Both the GPS and the map showed that we were close, and then suddenly we were back miles away from where we were meant to go. It doesn't fucking make sense.”Mia’s nose stayed pressed to the window as they reached near the town again, just almost to the border, and then she felt weird. Like she wanted to turn around. And she was forgetting why she wanted to come to the town, her head pounding. “Stop th
“Hmmph!” Mia moaned loudly as she felt Dalian everywhere. This new position made her feel him so deeply, and that need for more seemed to lessen. “Yes, Dalian!”He slammed into her without restraint, panting, his balls slapping against her, giving a different sensational feeling, his nails digging into her ass. Yes, this was what she wanted. Needed. Her thirst for more was finally quenched. “So fucking good,” he growled, withdrawing until only his tip remained and he slammed back in. “So tight. So goddamn warm. Look how your cunt is swallowing my dick. So fucking eager for it.” Sounds Mia didn't know she could make poured out of her. She sang for him as she pushed back to meet his thrust, her ass slapping against him. Dalian leaned down until his front was resting on her back, his teeth grazing her neck as he continued to pound into her, not once faltering. His hand reached down and rubbed her clit, and Mia’s eyes rolled to the back of her head. “For the whole time we were apart,
Shit, Dalian was so fucking stupid. That wasn't news, right?He was so damn stupid and he didn't possess self-control. That was nonexistent when it came to Mia. But how could he? When she was so perfect. When she wanted him back.How could he have even thought she didn't want him? When he had heard her say those words in her sleep, that she wanted him, it had taken everything in him not to slam his lips on hers and take her. Because he had been dying without her. Everything seemed bland and just lifeless without her touch, her scent, her everything. Fuck, he was in too deep. Too damn deep. But as Mia sucked him, her hot mouth perfect around him, he didn't care how deep he was. He would fall into a depth as deep as the ocean if it meant he could remain in this bubble she had blown around him. He never wanted to leave it. “Mia,” he moaned, his hands aching to reach for her, to touch, but he didn't want her to stop. He might fucking die if she did. He thrust his hips up, hitting the
Yes!!! Those were the words ringing like alarm bells in Mia’s head. Yes.Yes.Yes.Yes to everything Dalian. Yes to the way he was kissing her like her lips were bread and he was a starving man. Yes to the way his tongue entered her mouth and dominated hers. Yes to the way his lips molded against hers, hard, starving, eager, perfect. God, so perfect. Yes. Oh God, fucking yes. Mia moaned as she hooked her legs around his waist and pressed him tight against her, not caring about his weight. She shuddered when his zipper rubbed against her naked, wet flesh, moaning into his mouth and he swallowed every damn sound. His tongue curled around hers and he sucked it, grinding against her, and his zipper rubbed against her again. He did it again. And again. And fucking again. Until she was shaking, moaning into his mouth, moving her hips to match his rhythm, his passion. He held one of her legs open and rolled his hips, panting into her mouth, not breaking the kiss even when both their l
Mia felt like she couldn't breathe and at the same time, she felt flooded with too much breath in her lungs. Dalian was naked, his well-ripped and tanned body in full view, and Mia drank him in, her eyes raking over his body. This was the first time she had seen his back, and she could it was littered with tiny scars, some white and long, some a bit red and tiny. He bent to get his boxers on and her eyes dropped to his round, firm ass, and she could see his ball sac. She bit her bottom lip, her hand going with its own mind to touch herself from her clothes. Fuck, she wanted him. So damn bad. Why the hell had she agreed for them to be just friends? But then, friends do fuck each other, don't they? They could still be friends and do things to each other. Because Mia needed him, more than she needed to breathe. Dalian slipped into his boxers and then into his trousers. He picked up his shirt and that was when he finally turned to her. Their eyes met and held. She didn't look away l
Lucian exhaled and looked out the window, as if the words would come easier if he didn't meet their eyes. “It's like… something is calling me. Not just a hunch or instinct—it’s deeper than that. It hurts. It pulls.”Silence. The car engine hummed beneath them, steady and oblivious. “I know this sounds crazy,” Lucian added quickly, his voice quieter. “But it’s like a part of me is already there, waiting. Like if I don't find it… I’ll lose something I never had. And my wolf… my wolf has been damn restless, at the edge.”Dalian spoke, his voice even, “That sounds like–”“I know what it sounds like,” Lucian snapped, then winced. “Sorry. I just… I'm not ready to say it out loud yet.”Dalian nodded, his eyes fixed on the road. Nobody said anything for a while after that. The forest on either side of the road blurred into movements, the radio once again filling the silence. “Do you think that was how Darius felt when Ravenna… left?” Mia asked, her voice quiet, her eyes following a bird t
“What was that?” Lucian asked the couple, an eyebrow raised. “Hmm?” Darius said, feigning innocence. “What was what?” Ravenna asked, blinking at Lucian. Lucian stared at them with a bored expression. “That.” He waved at them. “Whatever it is the both of you just did.”“I do not know what it is you speak of,” Ravenna said. Mia’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why are you talking like that?”Ravenna turned to her. “Like what?”“Like that stressful way people of the old age speak,” Dalian was the one who answered. “You could have said that sentence in like five words, but you chose to prolong it.”Darius rolled his eyes. “Nerd.”Ravenna nudged him with her elbow. “He’s not. Or maybe just a little.”“People!” Lucian cut in, frustration tightening his features. “Can we just go back to what we were talking about?”“Ah, yes,” Darius answered. “We were talking about how Mia was going to accompany Dal
The silence in the hall was so heavy, you could hear the dust settle. No one moved, no one even shifted as if they feared something would get them if they did. This was one of the things they had feared. Ravenna had said the pack wouldn't agree and that was what was happening. They were scared. Mia could feel it, smell it. The plan wouldn't continue if they didn't agree, so now they would think of something. But this plan was the most solid they had. Ravenna sighed, her shoulders dropping. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words got caught in her throat when a young girl stepped forward, about the same age as Mia. She stepped out from the crowd and stood in front of the platform, looking at Ravenna with bold eyes. She was a Lupinarian. “I’m in, Luna,” she said, loud enough for the others to hear, her voice small but bold, sure. Then she turned to her people. “You’ve all been talking about how this peace won’t last. And here is a solution looking you all in the eyes. Yet, yo
“Thank you all for gathering here,” Ravenna began, her voice loud and clear even though she didn't raise it. “For too long, we have only known conflict and violence—both packs. Territory disputes. Power struggles. Bloodshed. But I believe–” she glanced over at Darius before she looked back at the pack. “–we believe that we’re capable of more.”She paused, sweeping her gaze across the sea of faces. Some curious. Some uncertain. All listening. “It's time we stopped surviving and started living. We've built something strong here—something worth protecting. But we all know that wouldn't last. That something is coming. So we have to build. Plan. And that means risk. It means trust. It means opening a door that has been shut since.”Mia looked around her and she could see some people had already figured out where Ravenna was going with this. Some shifted in their feet. Some faces grew hard. Mia winced inwardly. This was going to be hard. Absentmindedly, her eyes trailed to Dalian. He was