LOGINAuthor’s povHenry’s steps echoed down the long hallway, soft but deliberate, as if each footfall was a drumbeat of the storm raging inside him. His hand curled tightly at his sides, slick with sweat, and the dread sitting low in his stomach gnawed at him like a living thing. He was nervous. Not the kind of nervousness he had ever felt before—not at war councils, not at battles where the pack’s lives had hung in the balance, not even at the moment he had been presented as the new Alpha. Never had he felt this way before a conversation with one person.Two voices clashed inside his head, vicious and insistent. One whispered that he was being cruel, that placing the pack’s stability above Isyra’s heart was monstrous. The other reminded him that the pack had always come first anyway, that this was the way of things, that Isyra—kind, understanding Isyra—would see the necessity if she wanted him to remain alive.They argued violently, hammering against his thoughts so hard that he felt th
Author’s POVHenry came back to himself slowly, like a man dragged up from deep water.The first thing he noticed was the scent in the air.It was sharp and heavy, thick with crushed herbs and something bitter that clung to the back of his throat. It filled the air so completely that it almost masked the faint scent of ink and parchments that lingered beneath it.The second thing he noticed was the floor. It was hard, cold and unforgiving beneath his back.His brows pulled together slightly as memory began to return in fragments—talking about rejecting Lysera, the pressure in his chest, the way his vision had gone dark too quickly. The sharp, tearing pain that had dropped him without warning.Henry inhaled slowly, testing his lungs, then pushed himself up onto his elbows. His muscles protested, but they obeyed.“You’re awake.” A voice said calmly.Henry lifted his gaze. Healer Apollo stood a few feet away, arms folded behind his back, his expression grim and unreadable. He made no mov
Lysera I woke again with a sharp gasp, like my body had forgotten how to breathe and was only just remembering.Air rushed into my lungs in uneven bursts. My chest rose too fast, too hard, like I had been running for miles instead of lying still. For a few seconds, I didn’t know where I was. Everything felt wrong. My body. My head. My heart.Especially my heart.It hurt.Not the pounding ache from before. This was different. A tightness. A lingering squeeze that made me afraid to take in too much air at once, like if I did, something inside me would snap.I stayed still, staring at the thatched ceiling above me, trying to steady my breathing.In.Out.Slow.But my chest still felt strange.A memory flickered—Pain. Crushing pain in my chest. Darkness swallowing me whole.My fingers curled weakly against the hard wooden surface beneath me. I almost died. What has caused that pain? One minute I was fine and then the next I was gasping for breath.The door creaked open. My head turned s
LyseraI woke up slowly.It felt like I was being dragged up from deep water, my body heavy and uncooperative. My head throbbed with a dull, pounding ache that made it hard to even think. For a long moment, I didn’t open my eyes. I just lay there, breathing shallowly, trying to understand why everything hurt.The surface beneath me was hard. Too hard.My back protested immediately, a sharp discomfort spreading along my spine. Even in my parents’ house, I had never slept on something this rigid. The bed in my room at the pack house had always been soft, layered with thick furs and cushions that made sinking into it feel like disappearing into warmth.This felt like wood. Rough and unforgiving. Who slept on something as hard as this?I shifted slightly and winced as the movement sent a fresh wave of pain through my head.Slowly, I forced my eyes open.The light from the small window in the room stabbed into my vision at once, making me flinch. For a moment everything was blurry, shapes
Author’s POVHenry’s silence stretched across the room like a tightening rope.He sat very still behind his desk, one hand gripping the armrest as if grounding himself to the physical world while his mind searched desperately inward.Apollo watched him carefully. After a moment the healer spoke again, his tone gentle but firm. “Alpha… what exactly did you promise your wolf?”The question snapped Henry out of the spiral of his thoughts. He blinked slowly and lifted his head.“I don’t know.”Apollo frowned slightly. “Think carefully.”Henry inhaled slowly and leaned forward, resting both elbows on the desk as he closed his eyes.He forced himself inward.Past the quiet.Past the emptiness.He searched for memories. For flashes. For the faintest echo of the confrontation Apollo had described.His wolf trying to slit his throat.His wolf fighting him.His wolf demanding Lysera.But every time he reached for the memory, his mind returned empty.Nothing. Just the same suffocating quiet.Sev
Author’s POVMorning came slowly to the Alpha’s chambers.The first rays of sunlight slipped through the tall windows, brushing softly across the stone floor and climbing gradually toward the bed where Henry lay awake.He had not slept much.Isyra slept peacefully beside him, her breathing slow and steady as she lay curled against his side. One of her hands rested lightly across his chest as if even in sleep she feared he might disappear if she let go.Henry stared at the ceiling.The events of the past two days replayed again and again in his mind.The elders’ cowardice.Hudson’s anger.The letters.The pack’s fearAnd the strange silence inside his own mind. That was the part he could not ignore.For as long as he could remember, his wolf had always been there.Not always speaking. Not always loud. But always present. Always alive.Now there was only quiet.Henry could feel the wolf somewhere deep inside him. A distant presence, hovering at the back of his mind like a shadow just ou
LyseraFor a moment, I was certain I had misheard him, because the words made no sense. They hovered in the air, heavy and wrong, as if they belonged to another language entirely, something twisted and unfamiliar.Give my baby… to Isyra?I stared at my father, my thoughts scrambling uselessly, my h
LyseraThe second healer’s words had barely settled when movement stirred at the edge of the pack square.My mother arrived.She walked in without hesitation, her steps steady and purposeful. The pack shifted instinctively to make way for her, bodies parting without a word. A few wolves bowed their
Lysera Panic hit me all at once the second Isyra disappeared back into the hall, a sick certainty curled in my gut. I didn’t trust that she hadn’t already slipped back inside, tears ready, lies sharpened to cry to whoever cared to listen that I attacked her.I couldn’t stay out here.I gathered my
Lysera Alpha Samuel guided me onto the floor with a possessive hand at my waist, his palm warm and heavy, as if he were reminding me, constantly, that I belonged where he put me. The orchestra swelled, slow and indulgent, and the dancers fell into pairs around us. Silk brushed silk. Laughter drift







