Mag-log inMora's POVThe grove was not meant for so many footsteps. It had been built for whispers and for chanting under moonlight, for the quiet stirring of herbs in bowls. Yet today, it carried the weight of warriors and the echo of Aisla's roar.I had watched her fight with them, stand among them and shield them instead of shattering them. I had watched her face them without turning them to ash. My lips had not moved, but I had wanted to smile.Wanted …but I did not.Because victory too soon was as dangerous as defeat.When the warriors left, still murmuring about the Moonblood who had spared them, I stayed. Aisla stayed too, her chest heaving, her cheeks flushed red. She swayed on her feet until I snapped my fingers and shoved a wooden stool at her."Sit," I ordered.She sank onto it with sweat dripping down her neck, but her eyes gleamed. "Did you see it, Mora? I didn't hurt him. I held it back."Her voice cracked with pride."I saw it." I stirred the bowl of herbs in my hand, the steam r
Aisla's POVThe grove had always been quiet in a way that clung to my skin and made me forget the world outside. But now the quiet was gone. My days hummed with voices…the bond tugged like a thousand strings in my chest, Mora's chants beat in my ears, and always, always, the echo of that dark whisper from the Seer."Again," Mora snapped as her staff struck the ground so sharply I flinched.I pressed my hands together, and my palms burned as I whispered the chant under my breath. The words were ancient and jagged, foreign against my tongue. Still, I forced them out."Clear the mind. Silence the bond. Still the fire."The chant echoed, and my chest loosened… just a little. The noise dimmed, and the cords to the triplets quieted enough that I could breathe without drowning in them. The Seer's voice was faint, too. It was almost gone."Good," Mora said, though her face never softened. "But your shoulders still tremble. You think silence is absence. It is not. Silence is control."I swallo
The Seer's POVThe hunters were loud tonight. They always were after their leader spoke of conquest. They sharpened their blades with too much force, laughed too hard at their crude jokes, and raised their mugs in a toast to a victory they had not yet earned. Wolves lingered at the edges of the fire, listening with suspicion with their tails low and eyes darting to me when they thought I was not looking.Fools. All of them.I sat away from both camps with my fire pale silver instead of orange and wove threads through the smoke. My fingers moved with quiet precision as I tugged at invisible strands. With each pull, the girl stirred in her sleep. Her dreams were open ground, fertile soil for the poison I fed her.Aisla flinched in her cot miles away. I felt it ripple through the threads like a shiver. My lips curved.Do you see them, child? Do you see your wolves bleed?Images bloomed in her mind. Kieran's throat torn open, Lucien's body chained in silver, Caelan screaming as arrows p
Head Hunter's POVThe firelight painted the scars across my men's faces and coloured the shadows sinking deep into the hollows of their eyes. We sat in the clearing at the edge of Bloodfang territory, the stench of wolf-scent heavy on the wind. Wolves. Even now, the word left a sour taste in my mouth."You've tied us to beasts," Garran spat, his hand never leaving the dagger at his belt. His face was twisted and half-burned from a raid years ago. "You expect us to fight alongside them? I'll soon slit one's throat while he sleeps."Murmurs rose in agreement. Hunters were not wolves. We were not meant to share fire or ground. And yet, here we were.I raised a hand and the camp fell silent. My voice cut through the smoke like steel. "We did not come to bow. We came to claim."One of the younger hunters leaned forward with gleaming eyes. "But you promised them, didn't you? You promised those dogs that if they gave us the Moonblood, we'd leave their lands. Pull back and find another place
Mora's POVThe girl shook like a reed in the wind when I found her, yet I could see the fire in her skin. Her breath came in ragged bursts, but the bond thrummed steady in her chest. Three wolves tied to her as surely as veins tied to a heart.I guided her back to the grove. She didn't resist but leaned on me as though her bones had melted. When we reached the stones, I lowered her onto the earth and lit the circle with a snap of my fingers. The flames came alive in a pale glow, and the shadows bent away.Her eyes glimmered at me. "It doesn't stop, Mora. Even now, I hear her.""The Seer," I said flatly.She nodded. "She whispers. She shows me things. My mates are dying. The pack is burning. I wake, and I'm already bleeding."I poured water into a bowl and set it before her. "Drink it. Slowly."She lifted the bowl with trembling hands. The water left trails down her chin, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand."You think it is weakness," I said, "to bleed, to hear voices, t
Aisla's POVThe night after the battle remained clear in my head. It was filled with smoke, blood, and the stunned faces of wolves who once saw me as a servant. But in that moment, I was something else entirely. Something they could not name without trembling.And now here I was, back in the training yard.The air was filled with the clang of steel and the thud of bodies against the ground. The warriors sparred in pairs and flashed their claws as their muscles strained. I stood among them with tense shoulders, pretending I belonged."Again," barked the drill master. His eyes darted toward me sceptically before he snapped his attention back to the line of soldiers. "Form up. Defensive stance."I shifted my weight and mimicked the others. My training with Mora had been different, and I had forgotten some steps and movements I learnt before I went into hiding after Thorne tried to kill me. My arms ached from hours of training, but I couldn't stop. I wouldn't stop. If I faltered, they w







