LOGINSierraThe lodge sat empty.I stood in the doorway, cold air stinging my face. Asher shoved past, gun out, flashlight stabbing into every corner like he could bully the dark into giving up answers. I already knew he wouldn’t find shit.Empty rooms. Just dust and cold.Jace limped in after us, propping himself against the wall. Face ghostly pale, sweat dripping down his forehead. He looked like hell and had no business being on that leg, but good luck telling him to sit this one out.“They’re gone,” Asher said when he stepped back outside.His face was all locked down tight, the way it gets when he’s stuffing everything deep so it doesn’t show.My phone buzzed. A video.I tapped it open, stomach already in knots. There were Mom and Dad, tied to chairs in that room I knew way too well. Stone walls. Narrow windows. The exact same spot where I’d spent those first awful nights in the palace, staring out at the courtyard, wondering what fresh nightmare was coming.“He took them to the palac
SierraThe warehouse sat way out at the end of this gravel road, nothing but frozen fields and bare trees all around. Garrett stood by the door, hands buried in his coat, breath puffing white. He looked older than Sierra remembered. Or maybe just beat down.Asher parked behind a busted tractor and killed the lights. They sat there in the dark a second.“You stay behind me,” Asher said.“No.”“Sierra—”“He talks to me or we walk away right now.”Asher’s jaw clenched but he let it go.They got out. Cold hit like a slap. Sierra’s boots crunched loud on the frozen gravel. Garrett saw them coming. Face didn’t change.“You shouldn’t be here,” he said when they got close.“My parents are stuck somewhere with Sebastian’s men,” Sierra said. “You set the route. You picked the guards. You know exactly where they are.”Garrett glanced at Asher. “I’ve been with your father since before you were born.”“That’s not an answer,” Asher said.Garrett looked back at Sierra. Something shifted in his eyes.
Asher The morning light came in low and kinda useless through the pack house windows. Same thin winter gold that never warms a damn thing, just shows up anyway.Sierra’s mom stood by the car, messing with her scarf, wrapping it twice like that would actually help against the cold. Dad was already in the driver’s seat, engine humming low. Typical him — always ready first so nobody else had to rush.“You’ll come visit,” her mom said.“We will.”“Before summer. Not after. Before.”Sierra almost smiled. “Before summer.”Her mom yanked her into one of those bone-crushing hugs that says way more than words ever could. When she let go her eyes were shiny but the tears stayed put. She was always good at that.Then Edric came down the steps.Sierra watched him walk over to her dad’s window. Dad rolled it down. The two of them just stared at each other a beat. Territory alpha and a professor who never chased power. They’d sorta figured each other out these past days. Not friends. Just… quiet re
ASHERThe season ended in March.I won't go through every single game from October to then. I remember most of them though. Not in some obsessive way, but because I cared about it the right amount. The kind that actually sticks. We finished fifteen and four in the regular season. More than Harlen expected, less than Petrov wanted. We made it to the conference final as a team that didn't have to explain itself anymore.Callum turned into someone I trusted by November. The kind of guy who saves you from your own stupid mistakes a few times and never makes a big deal about it. Petrov settled into the line like he'd always belonged there. Two other walk-ons became essential in ways nobody saw coming. That's the best kind of thing on a team and the hardest to plan for.Sierra got through her first full season with the women's program without any big incidents and scored one goal that Jace texted me about seventeen seconds after it happened. From three rows up in the stands. All capitals.I
SIERRAWe went back to the pack house that evening.Not because we had to. The council was done, the formal stuff was finished. We could've driven straight back to the city and been home by midnight. But Vera had food going and my mom had already said yes before anyone asked me, and honestly I didn't want to head back to the apartment yet. I wanted one more night in a house that felt like it had real roots.The pack house at night felt warmer than last time. Maybe the fire. Maybe all the people. Rowan came back with us, plus two others whose names I'm still learning, and Rebecca moved around the kitchen like she was already getting the feel of the place. I do the same thing in new spots.My parents had never been to a pack house before.Dad did his usual thing — sat at the long table, talked a little, listened more. Mom found Vera in about four minutes and started a conversation I knew would outlast everyone else in the room.Edric showed up after an hour or so.He hadn't gone to the
ASHERThe council chamber was a room built for heavy stuff.Old stone walls, high ceiling, this long dark wood table that had been there longer than any of us. Seven seats on the council side, filled with people from seven different territories — neutral, by design, no ties to either side. The place smelled like old paper and the kind of cold you get in buildings that only heat when they have to.My father sat to my left. Sierra to my right. Jace was behind us with Rebecca, who'd traveled two days to get here and looked like someone who'd made up her mind and wasn't turning back.Sebastian sat across the table with his advocate and two witnesses. He'd dressed for it — the kind of clothes that say "I'm permanent and legitimate" before he even opens his mouth.He looked across at me once, when we were all seated.I looked back and didn't say anything. That's the best answer when someone's fishing for a reaction.---The senior council member was this woman Aldene. At least seventy, buil
SierraThe next day dawned drama-free, which was odd enough to make me stop once or twice with my eyes open. My phone was silent on the nightstand. No buzzing, no warnings and no shadows pressing at the edges of my thoughts. It was quiet other than the gentle vibration of the building as it began
SierraWaiting was the worst part.Not the terror, not even the texts. It was the quiet lull in between where there was just nothing for hours on end and my mind occupied all that space all by itself. I went to class, took notes, nodded at people, laughed when I was supposed to. Outwardly everythin
SierraI peeked at Asher from the other side of the rink entrance and felt that old familiar twinge in my chest. It wasn’t fear this time. Someone must have been anticipating that’s the best way to describe it: excited, nervous, like I was going to bite my nails down to the quick while I was wait
Sierra.The sirens became louder, ripping through the night air like a warning. Red and blue light glowed in the windows of the house, shattered glass on the floor through the broken window. Asher didn’t release me as the first patrol car pulled in. His arms remained locked around my shoulders, and







