LOGINI had never been to the dungeon before. No….that was a lie. I had heard of it. The stories were enough to keep any sane wolf away. The stairs spiraled downward, each step colder than the last. The air grew thick with damp stone, iron, old blood, fear. Torches burned low along the walls, their flames hissing as if even fire hated this place. I pulled my cloak tighter around me, my heart hammering. Damon thought I was resting. For once, I was grateful he trusted me enough not to question it. The guards stationed at the dungeon entrance were nothing like the ones at the pack house. Their eyes were sharper. Their stances rigid. These were men who had seen monsters up close and become harder because of it. They straightened when they saw me. “Luna,” one said cautiously. “You shouldn’t be here.” “I know,” I replied softly. “But I need to see someone.” Suspicion flickered across their faces. “Marcela,” I added. That did it. Their jaws tightened. One of them shook his head. “S
Morning training always had a sharpness to it. the smell of dirt, sweat, steel, and wolf. The sun had barely risen, yet the training ground already thrummed with life.Damon stood at the center of it all.Shirtless, muscles taut and scarred, he moved like a storm among the warriors. Every strike he landed was precise, controlled, devastating. One by one, men twice my size hit the ground, gasping for breath, dust clinging to their skin.And yet….his eyes kept drifting to me.I felt it even when I wasn’t looking.I trained with the omegas on the far side of the grounds. Usually, they were firm but fair. Today? They were overly cautious, as if I were made of glass.“Careful, Luna,” one murmured when I stumbled during a dodge.“Slow down,” another urged, hands hovering but never touching.I clenched my jaw.Damon had warned them.“Not even a bruise should appear on her skin.”It irritated me more than I wanted to admit.“I can handle it,” I said, adjusting my stance. “I’m not broken.”The
Steam curls lazily toward the ceiling, carrying the soft scent of lavender and crushed herbs. The bath chamber is warm, almost too warm and for a moment I simply sit in the tub, letting the heat seep into my bones.Aria kneels beside me, sleeves rolled up, dark hair tied back neatly. She pours warm water over my shoulders, her movements practiced and gentle, like she’s done this a hundred times before.“Lean forward a little,” she says softly.I do, and she begins to scrub my back with a cloth, careful but thorough.I sigh without meaning to. “This still feels unreal.”Aria smiles. “The bath or the soft life?”“Both,” I admit.She laughs quietly and moves to my hair, working scented soap into my scalp. Her fingers are firm, soothing.“You know,” I say after a moment, “back at my aunt’s place, there was no tub. Just a deep well behind the house.”Aria pauses. “A well?”I nod. “Far back. Hidden behind old trees. I used to fetch water every morning and evening. Even in winter.”Her eyes
Morning comes quietly, as if the night before never happened. Sunlight filters through the tall windows of Damon’s chambers, painting soft gold across the stone walls. I sit at the edge of the bed, wrapped in a thick robe, my hands resting protectively over my stomach. My body feels heavy, not with sleepiness, but with the lingering echo of fear. Damon stands near the window, already dressed, his posture rigid. He hasn’t stopped moving since dawn, pacing, watching, listening. The Alpha who tore through the forest like a beast last night now wears control like armor again. But I can feel the tension through the bond. It hums beneath his skin. “I want every camera along the eastern and northern borders forest checked,” Damon says sharply. Antonio stands before him, head bowed, fists clenched at his sides. “Yes, Alpha.” “Focus on anything unusual,” Damon adds. “Anyone masked. Anyone who doesn’t belong.” Antonio nods again. “I’ll start immediately.” When he leaves, the heavy doo
Being Luna is nothing like I imagined. It isn’t sitting on a throne or wearing fine dresses all day. It is walking through the pack with people watching you from the corners of their eyes, weighing your words, measuring your heart. It is listening more than speaking, smiling even when your legs ache, and pretending you don’t hear the whispers that still follow you sometimes. But I do it every day. I attend to disputes. I check on the injured. I sit with grieving families. I learn names, stories, fears. Slowly, the pack begins to soften around me, the way frozen ground thaws when spring comes quietly instead of all at once. The only problem is Damon. He has become unbearable. Not cruel. Not distant. Overprotective. He shadows me like a storm cloud, always near, always watching. If I visit the healers, he waits outside. If I walk through the square, warriors trail behind me. If I so much as pause too long near the forest line, his voice slips into my head, sharp and commanding.
Sleep does not come gently, It pulls me under like dark water.At first, the dream feels warm,too warm. My body is heavy, wrapped in a strange comfort that doesn’t belong to sleep. The air smells of smoke and wet earth. I try to move, but my limbs won’t obey.Then I hear it.A voice.Low. Female. Sharp as a blade drawn slowly across stone.“Little wolf.” It said.My eyes snap open,but I am not in my room.I stand in a clearing drowned in fog. The moon above is wrong, bleeding red at the edges. The trees around me are blackened, twisted, as if they’ve been burned and grown back crooked.I clutch my stomach instinctively.The fog parts then she steps forward.Her hair is white, long and wild, floating as if underwater. Her eyes glow an unnatural violet, bright enough to pierce my skull. Symbols crawl faintly across her skin, pulsing with slow, living magic.The witch.The air thickens around her, pressing down on my chest.“You carry what is mine,” she says calmly.My heart slams violen







