Percival
Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion.
My ears weren’t working right. Like they were underwater. All I could really focus on were Edeline’s wide, green eyes, staring into mine like she couldn’t believe what she was saying.
“I love you.”
That was it. The only words I could make out—barely. Everything else got swallowed up by the rushing sound in my ears, like a storm was howling through my head.
I couldn’t hear her anymore. Just saw her lips moving as she dropped to her knees, clutching at her shoulders. My eyes locked onto the silver weapon sticking out of her chest.
 
MaximusI didn’t speak. Couldn’t.I just ran a hand through her hair, slow, grounding her. Grounding myself."I thought the moon gave me that pregnancy for a reason,” she whispered. “So I’d have someone to love. So I’d stop waking up next to strangers who already had mates of their own. I thought that pup… maybe it was meant for me. I wanted to believe it. I wanted it so bad.”She broke again, eyes fluttering shut, tears still slipping down her cheeks. “I used to tell Tatiana, tell Nixx, about Edeline and Percival… how fate could be cruel but maybe, just maybe, it was also kind sometimes.”
MaximusIt was my seventeenth birthday. I knew the second I felt the bond snap into place. She was mine. I loved her instantly.But my father? That sick bastard lost it. He couldn’t stand the idea that his “accident” son had a mate from an Omega family. Even if she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.He was ashamed of me.And I’ll never forgive him for what he did next.It was a year later—after relentless fucking harassment from both of us. He’d finally told me he was selling her. Just like that. After all the torment, the threats, the power games. His rage couldn’t hold a damn candle to m
NixxHer scent led me around the building, pulled me like a lifeline, and then I heard it. Gurgling. Choking.There, hunched in the shrubs, was Tatiana—retching violently, her body convulsing with grief. She was coughing up what felt like her soul.Shivers crawled up my spine.She had just lost the last piece of her family who gave a damn about her. All she had now… was me.I stepped closer, my wolf growling softly, protective, aching. Her back straightened slightly. She felt me. Her body trembled under the weight of my presence. Her hair clung to her sweat-slicked face, and the mark I left on her neck glimmered faintly in the moonlight.
NixxI stood frozen, watching Percival disappear into the trees like a ghost possessed, his howl still ringing through the territory.Even my wolf flinched. A pitiful whimper escaped him as we listened to the mournful silence that followed. That wasn’t just pain in his voice—it was soul-deep devastation.And the pack heard it.Every wolf felt it like a punch in the chest. And one by one, they answered. They howled back. Mournful, broken cries to the moon. They gave him their hearts in sound, their strength in the only way they could—because we couldn’t touch him. Couldn’t stop the pain chewing him from the inside out.I turned
PercivalShe was Luna. That meant she was VIP. Priority. Any doc in here worth his salt would’ve dropped everything to keep her alive.“Alpha X!” a voice squeaked behind me, the skittering of footsteps catching up. I turned fast—too fast. A nurse stood there frozen, eyes wide as saucers. Her hands trembled as she held out a pair of basketball shorts like a peace offering to a beast. My lip curled. A low growl climbed up my throat without my permission.I didn’t even look her in the eye. I reached out, snatched the shorts from her fingers, and yanked them on in one fluid motion, my gaze locked instead on the sterile wall behind her. I had no fucking time for explanations or pleasantries. I had a friend to find. A lifeline to protect.
PercivalMovement. Amid the corpses.Daisy Meadow was now Blood Meadow.And in that sea of red, one shape stirred.My eyes locked on the familiar frame. The blood covering him couldn’t hide who he was."Dad!" I sprinted toward him, nearly slipping on the gore-drenched earth.I dropped to my knees beside him, hands flying over his wounds. "We have a survivor!" I bellowed, voice cracking with hope and desperation. "Someone help!"Wolves broke from the haze, rushing toward us.