LOGINDear Ink loversšøš If you're reading this, you made it through the fire. And I don't just mean the flames that burned Nightfall Pack. I mean the flames of betrayal, of heartbreak, of watching characters you loved fall apart and get back up again. I mean the flames of a story that never promised you a happy endingāonly a truthful one. This book was never meant to be soft. It was never meant to be safe. It was meant to feel realāraw, broken, and achingly human, even in a world of wolves and curses and fated mates. When I started writing this story, I knew exactly how it would end. Not because I wanted it to end that way, but because that's what the characters deserved. Adrian's death was never a punishmentāit was a completion. He spent twenty years running from his curse, hiding from himself, pushing everyone away because he was terrified of hurting them. In the end, he didn't die as a monster. He died as a man who had finally found something worth dying for. He died as a m
šŖ·ISORAšŖ· Six months had passed since the fire, and I was still standing. The pack had found its rhythm again. The warriors trained in the courtyard, their swords clashing and their voices calling out commands. The servants moved through the halls, their footsteps soft on the stone, their hands busy with their tasks. The children played in the gardens, their laughter echoing off the walls like a song that had been missing for too long. Life had not stopped. It had simply continued, the way it always did, the way it always would. Garrick had stepped into the role of acting Alpha with a steadiness that I admired, his presence filling the spaces that Adrian had left behind. He had not tried to replace him. He had simply held the pack together, the way Adrian would have wanted. Olivine had become his anchor, her green eyes always finding him across the room, her hand always reaching for his when she thought no one was looking. I watched them sometimes, the way they moved around ea
šŖ·ISORAšŖ· The journal trembled in my hands as I stared at the third page. The tears were already falling, blurring my vision, but I could still see it clearly. A two year old baby girl sitting on the steps of a house, her dark hair a mess of curls, her hazel eyes wide and innocent. The baby who had smiled at the beast. The baby who had made him shift back for the first time. The baby who had been me. My fingers shook as I turned the page. Another drawing. A girl in a plain gray dress, standing in his study, her eyes burning with hatred. The first day I had walked into his pack. The first day he had seen me. The day I had tried to kill him. I remembered that day so clearly, the way he had looked at me, the way he had asked me to look at him, the way the bond had snapped into place before I even knew what was happening. I turned the page again. Me in the bathroom, water dripping from my hair, my body wrapped in a towel. He had been watching me, drawing me, memorizing me. I had n
šŖ·ISORAšŖ· The fire was still burning. I was sitting on the cold ground, my knees pulled to my chest, my eyes fixed on the flames that were consuming him. The rain had stopped hours ago, but the sky was still dark, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and ash and grief. I had been sitting here for hours, watching the fire burn, watching the flames lick at his body, watching the last traces of him disappear into the sky. My hands were numb from the cold, my face was raw from the tears, and my throat was raw from the screaming, but I could not move. I could not look away. I could not do anything except sit here and watch him burn. His face was still there, through the flames, through the smoke. I could see his eyes, his lips, the scar on his jaw. I could see the way he had looked at me when he said I love you. I could see the way his hand had fallen from my face. I could see the way the light had faded from his eyes. I reached for him, my hand stretching toward the fire, tow
šŖ·ISORAšŖ· The healer's hands were still on Adrian's chest, his fingers pressed against the place where his heart should have been beating. I watched his face, watched the way his eyes darkened, watched the way his jaw tightened. "The wizard." The healer said, his voice low and urgent. "The tether was bound through him. Azrian used his magic. If the wizard dies, the bond might break." I did not wait to hear the rest. I was already on my feet, running toward the dungeon, my legs carrying me faster than I had ever moved. The rain was still falling, soaking through my clothes, mingling with the tears that were streaming down my face. I did not feel any of it. I could not feel anything except the hollow emptiness where the bond used to be. The absence of him was a physical weight, pressing down on my chest, making it hard to breathe. My lungs burned and my legs screamed and my heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my throat, but I did not stop. I will not let him die. I b
šŖ·ISORAšŖ· I watched Adrian fall to his knees, and something inside me snapped. Kira had been pacing beneath my skin since the moment Azrian appeared at the gates, her fury building with every taunt, every laugh, every time my mate's blood spilled onto the stone. But when I saw Adrian stumble, when I saw him struggle to rise, when I saw his hand pressed against his side and the blood seeping through his fingers, I could not hold her back any longer. "You promised me his death." Kira's voice was a snarl in my head, raw and ancient and filled with years of grief. "You swore on our parents' ashes. Now take it." I did not think. I did not hesitate. I shifted with the speed of light, my bones cracking and reforming, my body surging forward before my mind could catch up. My white wolf was faster than anything I had ever known, a streak of silver and fury that crossed the distance between us in the span of a heartbeat. The ground blurred beneath my paws, and the wind roared in my ears, an
šŖ·ISORAšŖ·I walked closer to Asher, studying his wounds, the way the blood had dried on his skin, the way his chest heaved with each labored breath. He was in pain. Good. He deserved worse."You really thought you could have me?" I asked, my voice soft and dangerous. "You thought that after years o
šŖ·ISORAšŖ·The harsh light from the window woke me, and I opened my eyes slowly to find myself in Adrian's room. The curtains were pulled back, sunlight streaming through the glass and flooding the space with a brightness that felt almost aggressive after the darkness of the night before.Since when
šAZRIANšThe wave of distress hit me from nowhere, slamming into my chest like a physical force, and I had to grab the edge of the table to keep from stumbling. Kylian snarled in my head, restless and agitated, and something was wrong, something burning through the twin bond that connected me to
šŗADRIANšŗI pushed the door to my room open and laid her down on the bed, her body limp and trembling, her skin still burning with a heat that should have cooled by now. The drug was still in her system, still making her whimper and squirm, still making her reach for me with hands that did not kno







