Mag-log inADRIAN'S POVThe war room smelled of smoke, dry paper, and fear.Maps covered the table, ink spilling across the edges from too many sleepless nights.Outside, the wind moved through the towers, carrying the faint echo of Moonfang drums.Silas, one of my father's most trusted council men, slammed a hand down on the table. “You should never have brought her here.”I didn’t look up. “You’re repeating yourself.”“I’ll keep repeating it until you listen,” he barked.“She’s Moonfang’s heir. Every second she breathes inside these walls, you curse us.”Kai stood behind me silently with his arms folded. The elders lined on both sides of the table….some tired, some furious, but all afraid.“She’s not the curse,” I said
LENA'S POV“Hold still!”“I am holding still!” I snapped.The healer gave me a look that said you’re the reason my hair is gray.If anyone had told me I’d wake up in Ironclaw territory surrounded by six angry grandmothers with herbs and boiling water, I’d have laughed.Now I wasn’t so sure.The room smelled like smoke and something sour. One of them pressed a warm cloth to my shoulder, and the sting made me hiss.“See?!” I said. “You’re doing it on purpose!”The old woman glared. “You move too much. I can’t heal air.”“I’m not moving!”She muttered something sharp in her native tongue that sounded suspiciously like an insult. The others murmured
ELIAS CARTER POV“He what?!”The roar ripped out of me before I could stop it. Every head in the war room dropped.Rowan, my Beta, flinched but didn’t back down. “He took her, Alpha. Adrian Holt crossed the border himself. Our scouts saw him carrying her toward Ironclaw territory.”I stared at him. The words barely made sense. “And you’re sure?”“Yes.”The room filled with the smell of fear and smoke. The torches burned low, throwing light across the cracked map table. Outside, the courtyard still reeked of blood and ash from the battle.“My daughter,” I said slowly, “Was taken by him?”No one answered.Rowan tried again. “She was found on the eastern field after the explosion. By the time the soldiers reached her, Holt was already gone.”My hands curled into fists. “You let him walk into my land, take her, and leave?”“Alpha—”“Spare me the excuses!” My voice slammed against the walls. The echo sounded like thunder.One of the elders cleared his throat, trembling. “Perhaps he meant
LENA'S POVThe first thing I noticed was the ceiling.High, stone-gray, with a faint crack running through it. It wasn’t mine.The second thing was the smell.Ash, steel, and pine….it was out of place.Then the ache hit. Every muscle in my body throbbed, like I’d been torn apart and stitched back together wrong. I tried to sit up. Bad idea. The room spun, and my vision began to blur at the edges.“Easy.”The voice came from the corner, it was low, rough, and unmistakable.I turned my head slowly. Adrian Holt stood a few feet away, his arms crossed, and eyes darker than the room itself. His shirt was half torn, with blood drying on one sleeve.“Where—” My voice cracked. I swallowed hard. “Where am I?”“Ironclaw fortress,” he said simply.That woke me up faster than anything else. “You what?”He didn’t move. “You were dying. Your people were gone. So I brought you here.”My pulse stumbled. I looked around again. The walls were carved of stone, the window barred, torches burning low.
ADRIAN POVThe world went white.One second there was fire and screaming; the next, nothing. And then light… it was so bright it burned through my eyes. Then, silence.When it faded, half the fortress was gone. Smoke rose in thin columns. The ground was littered with ash instead of bodies. Wolves that had been dead seconds ago dissolved into dust and vanished into the air.No one spoke and no one moved.Kai stood beside me, heaving heavily. “What the hell was that?”I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Every instinct in me was screaming, but not about the fortress.The bond.It pulsed once, it was faint but steady. Then again, this time weaker.My heart clenched hard enough to hurt. “Lena.”Kai turned toward me. “What?”“She’s in trouble.”He shook his head, still dazed. “Adrian, we’ve got wounded wolves, half the walls are gone—”“She’s dying.”He froze. “You can’t and you know that.”“I can.”The bond wasn’t quiet anymore. It was fading away, slipping, like water through my hands. The stead
LENA POVMy father said to stay inside.Obviously, I didn’t.The fortress walls shook with every blast, dust raining from the ceiling like the building itself was afraid. The guards outside my door stood stiff, pretending not to see me pacing back and forth like a caged wolf.“Alpha’s orders,” one of them said again, giving a side eyed look.I stopped pacing. “Yeah, I heard him. About twenty times. Anything else you want to repeat?”He said nothing.Figured.I went to the window. Outside, the night burned orange. The air shimmered with heat and smoke. Wolves ran across the yard in formation, steel blades flashing under torchlight. Farther out, dark shapes moved fast through the mist, it was too fast for a regular wolf.Rogues.My pulse picked up. The wolf in me stirred, she was restless.I turned from the window, crouched by the bed, and pulled out a small wooden box. It was old, with splintered edges, dust was thick on the lid. I flipped it open carefully.Inside lay my brother’s swo







