LOGINROANWe burst into the small, carpeted hearth room just off the main hall. A massive stone fireplace crackled with roaring orange flames. I laid her flat on the thick rug right in front of the heat, collapsing onto my knees beside her. Thane, Del, Kieran, and Selene crowded into the room, closing the heavy oak door against the frantic noise of the main feast outside. "What do we do?" Del asked frantically, dropping a bowl of hot water and clean cloths onto the floor. "Roan, what do we do?" I reached into my pocket, pulling out the small silver hunting blade I always carried at my belt. "Roan, what are you doing?" Selene shrieked, taking a step forward. "Are you out of your mind?!" "Shut up, Selene!" I snapped, unsheathing the blade. I looked up at Thane. "Hold her shoulders down. When the poison hits her nervous system, her wolf is going to fight the release. She'll thrash." Thane didn't argue this time. He dropped to his knees at her head, his heavy hands coming down firmly ont
ROAN The wind on the terrace was freezing, but it did not do a single thing to cool the fire burning under my skin. My hands were still shaking. I could still feel the phantom touch of Sloane’s fingers clutching my jacket. I could still feel her warm, frantic breath against my mouth. When she had whispered yes—when she admitted that I terrified her, and then stepped directly into my space anyway—every wall I had spent two years building inside myself completely crumbled. Thane standing in that doorway had stopped our lips from touching, but he hadn't stopped the truth. She still wanted me. Beneath the anger, beneath the bitter distance, the bond between us was alive, screaming, and starving. I watched Thane lead her back inside the hall, his hand resting near her back. No more, my wolf growled, a heavy, dark pulse rattling against my ribs. No more stepping back. No more letting another man guide her while we bleed in the shadows. I had spent two years hiding behind my guilt, con
VERA The music inside the grand hall felt like an insult. I stood tucked into the deep shadows near the wooden support pillars, my dark wool cloak pulled tight around my shoulders to hide my low-ranking grey garments. I shouldn't have been here. Omegas were meant to tend the fires, scrub the grease from the spit-roasts, and stay out of sight when the high-born alphas held their grand feasts. ‘We belong here’, my wolf hissed inside my head, her claws scraping raw against my mind. We belong at his side. Not her. "Quiet," I whispered under my breath, my fingers clutching the rough timber behind me. "Did you see the way the Moonrise Alpha looks at her?" a female voice whispered nearby. I stilled, leaning my head slightly toward two high-ranking females who were sipping warm ale from carved horn cups. "Prince Thane has never looked at a woman twice in his life," the second female murmured back, shaking her head. "Not the council daughters, not the high-pack heirs. No one. Yet tonigh
SLOANEThe noise of the hall hit me like a physical wall when I stepped back through the archway, but it felt miles away, muffled beneath the thrum of my own racing blood. My lips were still tingling. The ghost of Roan’s breath against my mouth, the sudden, intoxicating heat of his chest pressed against mine, the way my fingers had tangled into the dark fabric of his jacket—it was all loop-playing in my mind, sharper than the reality around me. It was the wine, I told myself, my hand coming up to touch my bottom lip as if to wipe away the memory. The wine, the lantern light, the exhaustion from the sanctuary. That was all it was. "Sloane? Are you alright?" Thane’s voice pulled me back. I blinked, realizing I had stopped dead in the middle of the floor near the platform. He was watching me with that calm, perceptive gaze, a silver cup poised near his chin. "Fine," I said quickly, forcing a light smile onto my face. "Just... a little flushed from the air." "You look like you've se
ROANI didn't follow her immediately. I gave her three minutes. Three minutes to reach the cool night air of the balcony. Three minutes to think she was alone. When I stepped through the heavy timber archway onto the stone terrace, the noise of the feast died down into a muffled roar behind me. The night air was crisp, carrying the scent of pine and crushed frost from the peaks above. Sloane was standing at the edge of the stone hill, her hands gripping the cold granite, her head tilted up toward the pale light of the moon. Her dark hair fell over one shoulder, exposing the smooth curve of her neck. She didn't turn around when my boots scraped against the stone, but I knew she felt me. The air between us immediately grew heavy, electric with that old, unbroken pulse that had always existed between us. "You're tracking dirt onto the stone," she said quietly, her voice barely carrying over the breeze. "It's dirty stone, Sloane," I replied, stopping a few feet behind her. "I
ROAN The noise of the Moonrise Feast carried deep into the perimeter line, but from where I stood beside the stone boundary marker, it felt like listening to a celebration through thick water. I turned the wooden cup in my hand, watching the reflection of the hanging lanterns ripple across the dark surface of the wine. Across the clearing, the Ashborn banners swayed in the night breeze alongside the crest of Thane’s pack. Everywhere I looked, wolves were laughing, drinking, and tearing into roasted meat. Thane had built an island of light in the middle of a war zone, and right at the center of it stood Sloane. I hadn’t moved closer to the primary tables since the delegation arrived. I stayed near the outer edge of the covered pavilion, close enough to keep the Duskmoor warriors within my line of sight, but far enough into the shadows that I wouldn’t force Sloane to look at me every time she turned around. "You look miserable," Marcus said, stepping up beside me. He didn’t bo







