LOGIN~ LYSANDRA ~Something is wrong with Cael. I've been turning it over since he walked out of my room with that look on his face, this wasn’t the usual Cael, he's nothing like the man I’ve spent the past year handling with the control of someone who knows exactly which strings to pull and how hard to pull them. This was something else entirely. This was a man who was looking at me and actually seeing me for me.The relic's influence has been weakening for weeks, I felt it thinning the way you feel a fire dying, slowly, by degrees, until the warmth you've been counting on is just memory and cold air. I told myself it didn't matter. That what I had built with Cael over the past year was real enough by now to hold without the relic's assistance. That loyalty and habit and the particular comfort of the familiar would do what the spell had been doing.I was wrong. He asked about Xaden, he fucking checked the CCTV, and worse told me to get out of the packhouse.I need to see Xaden, before Ca
~ DAMON ~With my dick still doing things I'm actively choosing to ignore, I turn my back to her."I'm not going to look," I say, which is possibly the stupidest thing I've said in recent memory, but apparently being a gentleman requires announcing it out loud now.She doesn't respond. Just, looks at me with those soft silver eyes for a second before I turn away.I face the door. Stare at the wood grain. Listen to the shuffle of her feet, the quiet sounds of her dress, and I’m standing like an idiot counting the seconds and telling myself I am absolutely not going to turn around.Why does it feel like an hour already?I shouldn't have walked in without knocking. The thought reminds me of the last time I walked into a room unexpectedly and found Cael climbing out of her closet. Different situation. Same result, me standing in a doorway wanting to put my fist through something.Speaking of Cael. Did he touch her?I don't want to think about this. I am thinking about it. The mark is alre
~ DAMON ~It's been two days of convincing Dr. Bastien I'm functional enough to leave the infirmary, two days of Maddox refusing every argument I make about Laia being the devil, two days of sitting on this couch in my room staring at the wall and pulling apart every scenario in my head like a man dismantling a bomb he doesn't fully understand.The frustrating part is the part that keeps me up until 3 a.m. both nights, the numerous question I pull out and leave unsolved answers itself before I can look away.If she was working the relic spell on me, she would have run when Caden gave her the chance. She didn't run, she stayed and pressed her hands against my wound, kept the blade in because she knew enough to know pulling it out would kill me faster. You don't do that for someone you're manipulating. You don't do that for someone whose usefulness to you has already expired.If she was truly Cael's instrument from the beginning, sent here specifically to seduce me, compromise me, extra
~ CAEL ~Two days after Liam reported Laia missing, I know exactly whose work this is.Going after Damon directly is suicide — not because I fear him, but because marching my men into his territory after he's just survived a coup attempt, a poisoned blade, and three days unconscious would be walking into a trap he's already built and is sitting inside waiting for me to enter. Damon doesn't react. He positions. I've learned that the hard way.So I think differently.Laia carries my mark. She is my mate — confirmed, bonded, marked. The soul bond is established. What Damon has done by taking her from Redmoon Pack without my consent is not a rescue. Under pack law it is an illegal extraction of a marked mate from her Alpha's territory. Taking that to the council doesn't just damage Damon — it disqualifies him from Alpha King candidacy entirely. No Alpha who violates mate bond law gets a seat at that table. And the moment his candidacy collapses, every pack that was backing him recalculate
~ DAMON ~It’s been like an hour since Priestess Selara left my room with the best news ever. It still feels like a dream, a fucking dream, I keep reminiscing over it again and again.Caden walks inside the room, and my attention drifts to him. I sit up from the bed. Hell, I don’t know how long Bastien insists on keeping me here. But damn it! Maddox says we’re fine. All I feel is a light ache, which doesn’t even require me sitting here.“I bet she must have told you about the news,” he mutters, walking right up to my bed, making a pause as he gives a light bow, which I answer with a nod.By “she,” I know he’s referring to Selara. “Yes, she has, and that’s the best news I would have ever woken up to…”“So, finally you can have a son, and thereby giving Xaden zero chances…”Maddox prowls at the mention of Xaden’s name.“Speaking of Xaden… is Casper still in prison?”He nods affirmatively. I exhale lightly… every fiber of my being screaming that lying on this bed would not solve any fuck
~ DAMON ~Waking up to find someone watching you while you sleep is one of the more unsettling experiences imaginable. Especially when that someone is High Priestess Selara.I don’t know how long she’s been sitting there. That’s the part that gets me.Caden said he was going to send her immediately Dr. Bastien approved visiting hours… is it time already?Hell, I fall asleep right after Bastien knocks me out, going on about how my body needs proper rest.Listening to her talk makes me realize that one day, if the relic curse ever gets purged, I’ll have kids… and it would be stupid of me to never let them know their grandmother. And the longer she talks, the more I realize how bad I’ve been at setting boundaries.I have been counting other things.I have been counting every pack ceremony where she stands at the altar in her robes, her authority, her careful, impenetrable composure, while I sit in the front row as the Alpha’s ward and understand, without being told, that we are not suppo
“To see what is right and not do it is the want of courage.” — Confucius, The Analects (2:24)~~~~~~~~~DAMON~“You haven;t touched me since you came back from the Crescent Pack, but thank the Moon Goddess, today’s the Winter Festival,” Seris says, gathering her clothes with
~ LAIA ~Nothing is as annoying as being the constant messenger every time the High Priestess wants something. I mean, is there something special written on my face or what? I’ve lost count of how many times she specifically points me out the door to run her errands.At first, I thought it was casu
LAIAIt's like a repeated routine: swish, scrape, rinse, repeat.I'm outside the temple, scrubbing the floor... As much as I want to skip to the moment when I get the Relic and leave this pack, well I can’t seem to avoid the chores I need to do to get to that point.A low rolling rumble that makes
DAMONI had plans. Simple ones. Go over to the Crescent Pack, get the Twelve, and return to my pack.But of course, nothing ever goes as planned.I’m already pissed as it is., Everyone wants something: loyalty, strength, leadership…, Even when I’m barely holding it together.How the hell am I suppos







