LOGINAstra's POV I had never spoken her name in front of the children.Not once.Even now, standing on the island with the sea wind carrying salt and moon-scent through the air, I kept it locked, like a curse I refused to pass on.They knew me as their father.They knew this island as their world.They knew nothing of the woman whose blood had shaped their existence.Five years ago, when the wolf venom tore through my body, I thought I would die.It wasn’t ordinary poison. It carried fragments of my bloodline, my wolf, my rune signature, woven together with a powerful talisman array meant to devour from the inside out. Whoever had crafted it knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted extinction, not just death.I remember collapsing onto cold stone, my wolf howling as the venom ate through bone and spirit alike. The venom could be neutralized. But the array had bonded to my blood. If I survived, it would echo through anything I created. Through any life tied to me.I remember Aria st
Aria’s POVI woke up, and for a brief moment, I thought I was still trapped in that long, heavy sleep that pressed down on my chest and blurred the edges of time. My wolf stirred first, stretching cautiously, no longer panicked but still alert. The pain hadn’t vanished; it lingered deep and dull, yet it no longer felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside.I was alive.That realization came like light seeping through fog.The room smelled of herbs, faint antiseptic, and moonleaf. Astra always used it when he wanted my body to rest.I tried to move my fingers. They didn’t respond at once.“Easy,” a soft voice said close by. “Don’t rush it.”I turned my head with effort and saw Sera sitting beside the bed.She looked exhausted. Shadows rested beneath her eyes, and her clothes had clearly been changed in a hurry. “Sera,” I murmured. My throat was dry, the word coming out hoarse.Her eyes lit up at once. “You’re awake.”She stood so suddenly the chair scraped against the stone f
Sandra’s POVI kept telling myself it wasn’t my fault.If I repeated it enough times, maybe my heart would believe it too.The room still smelled faintly sweet of burnt herbs and resin. My fingers curled tight against my ruined right hand, watching Lycus pace the length of the chamber with the restless, predatory tension of an alpha who had lost control of his territory.He didn’t look at me. And that hurt more than his anger.Last night replayed in broken fragments inside my head. The incense, the timing. The way the heat had risen too fast. And how even my own wolf had felt unnaturally restless.I had lit the incense myself.It was just one stick.I told myself it was only meant to calm him and ease his rage. To make him truly mine.I hadn’t expected… all of things to go the way they did.And yet, when I looked at the shattered remains of the incense burner on the table, cracked in half by his hand earlier, I felt a flicker of fear slide down my spine.He suspects but just can’t pro
Lycus’s POVThe woman in my bed last night… was Sandra.The realization hit me like a fist to the chest.For a split second, I couldn’t breathe. The room felt too small, the air too thick, the pounding in my head too loud. Fragments of the night before flashed through me in jagged pieces. Heat, disorientation, the wrong scent clinging to my skin, my wolf snarling in protest even as my body betrayed me.It had to be aphrodisiac incense.I was still trying to piece together the chaos in my head, when a bold reporter surged forward, shoving a lens so close I could see my own reflection warped in the glass.“Alpha Vane,” he demanded, excitedly, “is Lady Sandra the woman you’ve been hiding in this residence for the past five years?”Another voice cut in immediately. “Alpha Vane, rumors say you’ve been devoted to only one woman all these years. Is that Lady Sandra?”“And if that’s the case,” a third added, nearly shouting over the others, “when’s the mating ceremony?”Wolves and humans ali
Lycus’s POVThe room smelled weird.I noticed the sweet, heavy, smell, like crushed night-blooming herbs burned too close to the nose. My wolf stirred uneasily beneath my skin, pacing, in warning.I should have stopped right there.Instead, I stepped further in.The lights were dim, the curtains drawn tight. Moonlight leaked through the edges like spilled silver. This was my private chamber in the Grand Pavilion, a place I rarely used anymore. Since Aria’s death, every room felt like borrowed space. Nothing belonged to me the way it once had.I had just come from the shower, cold water still dripping from my hair, but the heat in my veins hadn’t faded. If anything, it had grown worse. Spreading through my limbs, settling low in my abdomen, making my thoughts sluggish and unfocused.What was going on?I clenched my jaw and walked straight to the bed and collapsed on it. Then I froze.Someone else was there.For a heartbeat, the world tilted.I turned my head and saw dark hair fanned ac
Astra’s POVThe room was sealed the moment I stepped inside.No guards. No witnesses. Just stone walls, warded thick enough that even a whisper of killing intent couldn’t leak out. I wanted it that way. What was about to happen wasn't for the pack, it was mine.Felix stood in the center of the room.The moment his eyes landed on me, his brows snapped together. He took one sharp step forward, then stopped short, nostrils flaring.“…You’re poisoned.”I didn’t answer.I closed the distance instead and stopped directly in front of him. Close enough that he could smell the faint, metallic wrongness in my blood, the toxin still clinging to my skin.Felix’s jaw clenched hard.“You’re insane,” he said, voice shaking with fury. “You knew it would transfer. You knew touching her and feeding her your blood would poison you too.”I met his gaze coldly. “And she’s alive.”“That doesn’t make it acceptable!”His fists tightened at his sides, knuckles whitening. “You’re the Alpha of Amurica. You don’







