LOGINThe forest was too still.
No wind. No sound. Even the crickets had gone silent.Selene stood by her window, staring at the bundle of black feathers now sealed inside a glass jar on her desk. The witches’ mark looked harmless, almost delicate but her wolf wouldn’t stop pacing.
They’re here, the wolf murmured in the back of her mind, not a voice but a warning pulse. They’re Close.
Her stomach twisted. She knew better than to doubt that instinct.
Footsteps sounded outside her door heavy, purposeful. Damien.
He didn’t knock. He never did when the pack was on edge. The moment he entered, the air thickened.
“You saw it?” he asked.
Selene nodded. “The guards brought it in.”
He moved to the desk, eyes narrowing on the jar. “Feathers bound in blood twine. Northern coven signature. Message or curse maybe both.”
“Message for who?” she asked, even though she already knew.
His jaw tightened. “You?.”
Morning did not arrive gently.The pack was already moving before the sun fully broke the horizon. Wolves crossed the central grounds with purpose, some shifting out of patrol forms, others heading toward training, weapons in hand. The air carried urgency.Damien stood at the center of it.He hadn’t slept much. Few Alphas did when the edges of their territory felt wrong.“Korven.”The beta stepped forward immediately. “Alpha.”“I want double patrols along the western and northern lines,” Damien said, voice carrying without effort. “Rotations every four hours. No one moves alone. If you see anything,anything you report back before engaging.”Korven nodded. “Understood.”Damien’s gaze swept the grounds. “No heroics. No testing strength. We protect the pack first.”A chorus of agreement followed. Orders given, structure restored. The pack mo
The training grounds had long since emptied, but Selene remained.The earth beneath her feet was scuffed and uneven, marked by hours of movement footwork, pivots, controlled strikes. Sweat clung to her skin, dampening the loose fabric of her training clothes, yet she didn’t slow down. The night air brushed against her heated body, cool and sharp, grounding her even as power stirred beneath her skin.She lifted her hands again, slower this time.The moon answered.It responded the way it always did now quietly, obediently, like it recognized her not as a vessel, but as its equal. A soft silver glow curled around her fingers, trailing up her arms in faint threads of light before sinking into her chestSelene closed her eyes.Years ago, the power would have frightened her. But now?Now it felt like breath.Like muscle memory.Like something that had always belonged to her, simply waiting for her to stop running from i
The pack did not celebrate the victory.They cleaned blood from in silence, burned what could not be buried, and spoke in low voices that never quite rose above the wind. Fires were kept small. Songs were absent. Even the pups, usually restless after chaos, stayed close to their mothers, sensing the weight in the air.Selene moved through it all like a ghost.She helped where she could binding wounds, steadying shaking hands, offering quiet words but something inside her felt frayed, stretched thin. The rogue attack had been sharper than before, that it made her wonder if they would be able to counterrattackt if they decided to come with full forcShe climbed the steps to the pack house as the night settled fully, her body aching in ways that had nothing to do with the fight. The moon hung high and bright, silver light spilling across the roofline.She didn’t stop until she reached the rooftop.Up here, the air was cooler. Quieter. The
The uneasy calm that followed the rogue encounter didn’t settle the pack it sharpened them.By dawn, patrol rotations doubled without announcement. Wolves moved with quieter steps, conversations shortened, eyes lingering on the tree line longer than usual. No one said it aloud, but everyone felt it the rogues hadn’t come to fight, they were sent once again .Selene felt it in her bones and it made her shiver.She stood at the edge of the eastern perimeter, fingers brushing the rough bark of a cedar as she scanned the forest beyond. The air carried too many overlapping scent sold trails, disturbed earth, the faint metallic tang of blood from the skirmish the day before. Nothing was fresh enough to justify alarm, yet nothing felt right either.Behind her, footsteps approached.“You didn’t sleep,” Damien said quietly.She didn’t turn. “Neither did you.”A pause. Then he stepped beside her,
Veyra moved through the shadowed corridors of the pack hall with quiet precision, her mind mapping every detail of the upcoming day. Small gestures, subtle words, positioning of wolves all of it mattered. She paused at the edge of the training grounds, watching from a distance as the younger wolves practiced combat stances, noting where attention lagged and where she could quietly guide.Selene, patrolling nearby, caught the faintest movement of Veyra’s figure in the corner of her eye. Her instincts flared, a subtle prickle under her skin that she had learned to trust. Veyra’s posture was calm, almost casual, but there was something deliberate in the way she moved, a controlled precision that didn’t belong to ordinary wolf behavior.Selene’s lips pressed together as she slowed her pace. She watched as Veyra approached a small group of trainees, kneeling to adjust a wrist position, murmuring something low enough that only they could hear. The wol
Selene woke before the sun rose.It wasn’t the kind of waking that came from nightmares or restlessness. There was no sharp intake of breath, no instinctive reach for power or claws. It was softer than that. Subtler.The bond stirred.She lay still for a while, eyes open, listening. The world outside was quiet in that early, suspended way not night anymore, but not yet morning. Somewhere in the distance, an owl called once before falling silent. The pack house creaked faintly as it settleBeside her, Damien slept.That alone still felt strange.unfamiliar in a way that hadn’t fully settled yet. His breathing was steady, deep, One arm lay loosely around her waist, warm, grounding, She could tell even in sleep that he was careful with her now.Selene swallowed.There had been a time when she’d imagined waking like this and feeling complete.Now, what she felt was quieter than that. But also more real.She shifted sl







