LOGINNOTE: DUAL POV AHEADRAFE'S POVThey hit us again at dusk, like they knew we'd be tired. Like they knew we'd spent the day burying our dead and tending our wounded and pretending we weren't terrified.The first howl came from the east, followed by the west, then everywhere at once.I was already running before the third howl finished. The wall was crumbling, we'd rebuilt the wall with stone after the last attack. But the creatures didn't care about the stone, they climbed over it, through it and around it. They poured into the compound like water finding its way through every crack.I killed three of those ugly creatures before I reached the training grounds. Four more before I found Lyra, she was exactly where I expected her to be at the frontline of the battle, in the thick of it, her sword singing through the air like it was part of her…..I saw her life energy flowing through it. Silverpeak's Alpha didn't hide behind her warriors, she stood beside them, just as a real Alpha shoul
ZAYNE'S POVI moved through the forest like a ghost, the old powers left trails. Not tracks nothing so simple. They left... Ash Cold spots where the air didn't move. Silence where birds should sing and patches of earth where nothing would ever grow again.I followed the ash for hours. Maybe longer. Time moved strange in places like this, stretched thin and wrong like the air before a storm.Behind me, the compound had disappeared. Ahead, the forest grew darker, older, more twisted. Trees I didn't recognize, shadows that moved when I wasn't looking.I kept moving, the others thought I was scouting. Looking for the next attack, counting their numbers, finding weak points. That was part of it.But there was another reason I came alone.Something I'd felt during the battle. Something I'd seen in Luca's fire. Something old. Familiar.I needed to know what it was.---The camp appeared without warning. One moment, forest. The next, a clearing filled with shapes that hurt to look at. Old pow
LUCA'S POVThe night before, I held him like there was no tomorrow, funny how that worked out.Rafe's arms were wrapped around me, his chest warm against my back, his breath soft and steady against my neck when I woke up few hours later.The cabin was dark, quiet and ours. For a few hours, the world outside didn't exist. No visions. No whispers. No face in the dark with my eyes. Just him. Just us."I love you." He'd murmured, half asleep. I'd turned in his arms, pressed my forehead to his. "I know."He'd smiled, that stupid smile that made my heart do things I couldn't name. "Good. Just checking." I kissed him. Slow and soft like we had all the time in the world.The battle bell rang out before dawn, but the sound this time was different it was deep, rumbling, like the earth itself was screaming. It shook the cabin, rattled the windows, sent dust falling from the rafters.Rafe was on his feet before I opened my eyes. Already dressed, moving, and shouting."Luca! NOW!” He yelled and I
RAFE'S POVNOTE: SPICY INTIMATE CHAPTER AHEAD (R18)I jerked away. "Patient baby…..be patient let daddy play with you.” I teased him, twisting his right ni**le“Strip for daddy now.” I ordered him and he hurriedly stripped out of his boxers, standing bare and hard for me. I smirked and bent a little and took his hard d**k in my mouth tasting his sweet precum, while my hand s caressed his balls.As my fingers and mouth increased their speed i could feel him approaching the edge. He was on the brink when I pushed him gently back on the bed and shifted back a little….watching ng his lustful expression.I reached for the lube in my nightstand, the motion was so familiar it was almost automatic. How many times had I done this? How many nights had we spent like this, tangled together, learning each other's bodies, creating something beautiful between us? Too many to count. Not nearly enough.But my hands shook as I opened it, they shook as I coated my fingers. They shook as I reached betwe
RAFE'S POVNOTE: SPICY INTIMATE CHAPTER AHEAD (R18) I couldn't stop touching him, Luca lay beneath me, alive. "You keep staring," Luca whispered.His voice was rough, still recovering from whatever magic or miracle had pulled him from the other side, from whatever darkness had tried to keep him. "Because I keep thinking you'll disappear." I replied fondling his ni**les. He reached up and pulled me down.His mouth met mine and I forgot how to breathe for a whole different reason. Soft at first, his lips gentle against mine like he was relearning the shape of me, like he was memorizing me the same way I was memorizing him. Then deeper, hungrier, his tongue sliding against my lips until I opened for him and let him in.I melted into him, Into the taste of him. It was still the same, Luca. Still the boy who'd stolen my heart without trying, who'd looked at me across a crowded room and decided I was the one. He was still the mate who'd chosen me, fought for me, loved me through every st
NOTE: FLASHBACK AHEAD.LUCA'S POV“My love how did you survive?” Race asked holding me close to his chest as we sat on the bed.“I don’t really know……but I remember the darkness.” I replied fondling his chin.“Darkness?” He asked and I nodded, explaining everything i remember.FLASHBACK…….I found myself in the darkness before creation. I just floated around in it for what felt like forever. I had no body, no breath and no heartbeat. All i had was just... awareness. The barest flicker of consciousness, wondering if this was death, if this was what everyone feared, if this was the end.Is this it? I thought. Is this all there is? The darkness didn't answer. I was about giving up when I felt a pull, it was gentle at first, like a thread tugging at my chest.I remebered Rafe. His voice echoed in the void, distant but clear. He was talking to me, telling me about the first time he saw me after my shift, about the waterfall and about cauliflower.I tried to reach for him, but I had no hand
RAFE'S POVDuskwind wasn't just leaderless, it was broken. I learned this slowly, painfully, in the weeks after the ceremony, every day brought a new crisis, a new wound, a new reminder that twenty years of corruption didn't disappear because we'd killed the man responsible.The food stores were ne
RAFE'S POVThe elders came to me that night. I was in the small cabin Luca and I shared, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at nothing. Luca was finally and mercifully asleep, his head was placed on my lap, his silver hair tangled across my knees. Morwen's death had shaked him in ways he would
Luca's POVThe rogue's grip was so strong, like an iron vice. He dragged me through twisting tunnels, his breath hot and sour against my neck. The silver light from my skin, which had just filled the cavern with wonder, now felt like a beacon of my own stupidity."Let me go!" I twisted, trying to k
Rafe POVThe forest at night was a cathedral of shadows, but we were no longer safe in the pews.Luca slept against my chest, his exhaustion finally pulling him under. I watched the torchlights seven distinct points now fanning out through the trees a mile back. The dust from Luca's melted stone s







