ANMELDEN~AidenThe river path was quieter than it should have been.Not empty…never empty…but the kind of quiet that felt… aware. Like the land itself was holding its breath, waiting to see what would unfold within it.I stood partially concealed behind a thick cluster of trees, their shadows stretching long and uneven across the ground as the last traces of daylight faded into dusk. From where I was positioned, I had a clear line of sight to the decoy.The Moonstone core.Or at least, what anyone watching would believe was the Moonstone core.It sat exactly where it should…secured within a reinforced casing, faintly glowing under its protective layer, just convincing enough to pass for the real thing. The illusion wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t need to be.It just needed to be believable.Convincing enough for someone to take the risk.Convincing enough for a traitor to act.My gaze swept over the area again, slow and deliberate.The guards were in position, spread out just enough to look nat
~AidenSuspicion, I had learned, was a dangerous thing.Handle it too loosely, and it slipped through your fingers like smoke…intangible, useless. Act on it too quickly, and you risked burning everything in your path, including the innocent.That was the problem with this.Elder Damian was not just anyone.He was a pillar of Ashenhowl. A man my father trusted without question. A man the pack respected… revered, even.Accusing him without proof wasn’t just reckless…it was destructive.Which was why I needed certainty.Not instinct. Not guesses.Proof.I stood at the far end of the strategy hall, my gaze drifting over the spread of maps on the table before me, though I wasn’t truly seeing them. My mind was elsewhere…replaying everything that has happened since after the attack. Everything pointed in one direction.But “everything” wasn’t enough.A quiet knock pulled me from my thoughts.“Come in,” I said.The door opened, and Rowan stepped in first. He carried himself with the kind of g
~LucianI wasn’t expecting a storm.Just a conversation. And some intimate moments, as always.I expected a little bit of tension…Nadia had been distant, sharp around the edges lately…but nothing I couldn’t handle. Nothing I hadn’t already prepared myself for.So I walked toward her room like I always did…measured steps, controlled breathing, the familiar weight of authority resting comfortably on my shoulders.I didn’t knock. I never needed to. The door opened with a quiet click, and for a second, everything felt… normal.She sat on her bed, her back to me. Still. Silent. The moment she noticed my presence, she stood up. Too fast. The suddenness of it made me pause just inside the doorway.Something was wrong.Then she turned. And everything inside me went still.She had a file in her hands.My eyes locked onto it instantly, recognition hitting before thought could catch up. My chest tightened, something sharp and cold digging into my ribs.No.No, no, no…That file.How did she get
~NadiaThe name did not change.No matter how many times I blinked, no matter how many times I forced my eyes to refocus on the page, it remained the same…clear, steady, and unmoving.Lucian Ryker.My fingers tightened unconsciously around the edge of the file, the paper crinkling faintly under the pressure. My breathing had lost its rhythm, coming in shallow pulls that did nothing to steady the sudden unease rising inside my chest.It didn’t make sense.It couldn’t.Lucian’s name being here… it had to mean something else. Something ordinary. Something that didn’t twist my thoughts into something I wasn’t ready to face.He was the Alpha.Of course his name would be on official documents. Of course he would authorize things. That was his role. That was what he did.This didn’t mean anything.It didn’t.I shouldn't think like that of himI swallowed, forcing that thought deeper into my mind as I lowered my gaze back to the page. My hand moved almost automatically, reaching for the dicti
~NadiaIt had been a few days since Aiden said what he said…the words that got me thinking, no matter how hard I tried not to. The pack house was quiet. It had always been. But the noise from many thoughts going on in my mind made the quiet feel less like silence and more like a battle to find the truth.It wasn’t the kind of quiet that brought peace. It pressed. It lingered. It made every thought louder than it had any right to be.I sat on the edge of the bed, my fingers loosely gripping the edge of the mattress as my mind replayed the same moment over and over again.Aiden’s voice.Slurred. Unsteady.But clear enough.“You think my father is perfect, huh? He is the reason your mother was cast out.”I squeezed my eyes shut.“No…” I whispered under my breath.He had been drunk.He didn’t know what he was saying.That had to be it.It had to be.Because anything else didn’t make sense.Lucian…?No.I shook my head, forcing the thought away as I pushed myself up to my feet. Sitting her
~AidenThe engine hummed beneath my hands, but I didn’t turn toward the pack house.Not yet.My fingers tightened slightly on the steering wheel as I drove past the familiar turn that would have led me home. The road stretched forward instead, narrowing as it veered away from the structured order of Ashenhowl’s main territory and into something older… quieter.More forgotten.The dossier sat on the passenger seat beside me… still. Closed… But it didn’t feel like an ordinary object anymore. It hadn’t since the moment I touched it in Damian’s house.Even now, without looking at it, I could feel it there…Wrong. Not visibly. Not in a way I could prove yet… But wrong enough that it refused to leave my thoughts.I exhaled slowly, my gaze fixed on the road ahead. If there was one thing I had learned growing up in Ashenhowl, it was this…Not everything left a physical trace.Some things needed to be seen differently. And there was only one person I knew who could do that.The road grew roughe
~NadiaI didn’t sleep when I got to my room.I lay on my side, staring at the wall, listening to the house breathe around me. The quiet felt heavier than Lucian’s anger ever had. It pressed into my chest, slow and suffocating, until every inhale felt borrowed.Lucian’s words wouldn’t leave me alone
~ Lucian The room still smelled like her. Not perfume. Not soap. Something quieter. Something that settled into the walls and refused to leave. I stood near the window with my back to the bed, arms crossed, staring out into the dark stretch of the compound as if answers might rise from the shadows
~ Aiden I didn’t say anything. Not because I had nothing to say…but because if I opened my mouth, something irreversible would come out. Vanessa’s room felt smaller than it had minutes ago. The walls pressed in, thick with her words, her confession looping in my head like a curse that refused to
~LucianThe house swallowed us in silence the moment the door closed.No voices.No movement.Just the echo of her uneven breathing and my footsteps behind her.She stood in the middle of my room like she was waiting for judgment. Like she expected a verdict to be delivered at any second.I told he







