LOGINDarius POV Pain spread through my body so intensely that it became difficult to separate physical agony from the damage happening inside my mind. My muscles kept tightening uncontrollably, and every few seconds my claws pushed halfway through my fingers before retreating again. The constant shifting left my hands covered in blood. My breathing sounded uneven in my own ears, rough and strained, while sweat rolled down the side of my face despite the cold night air surrounding the battlefield. Around me, the other corrupted wolves struggled just as badly. Some paced violently across the ruined clearing while muttering to themselves. Others crouched low against the ground with their hands gripping their heads as if they were trying to physically stop the voices tearing through their minds. One wolf slammed his fist repeatedly into the dirt hard enough to break the skin across his knuckles. Another growled nonstop beneath his breath, unable to stop the sound no matter how ha
Elara pov Jacob’s body tensed beneath my grip the moment I stopped him. I could feel the desperation radiating from him, sharp and unstable, like he was seconds away from tearing himself apart to reach Faye. His breathing was uneven, and the fury in his eyes told me he was already blaming himself for everything that had happened tonight. Riven’s death had broken something inside him. I saw it clearly every time his eyes drifted toward the blood still staining the battlefield. He carried guilt heavily, and guilt made people reckless. Right now, recklessness would kill Faye faster than Korran ever could. “If you touch her now,” I repeated firmly, tightening my grip on his arm, “you’ll kill her.” Jacob stared at me in disbelief. “What are you talking about?” His voice came out rough and strained. “She needs help.” “She does,” I answered quietly. “But not like this.” He looked past me immediately, his attention snapping back toward Faye standing in the center of the clearing.
Jacob POV The ground remained cracked beneath our feet, and the air still carried traces of the strange energy that had exploded from the baby’s echo moments earlier. Wolves were scattered across the clearing in different states of injury and exhaustion. Some were struggling to stand while others remained on the ground, breathing hard and trying to regain their strength. Blood stained the dirt in several places, and the scent of smoke mixed heavily with the sharp smell of fear. Pain spread through my ribs every time I inhaled, but I barely paid attention to it. Blood had dried along my jaw from a cut I did not remember receiving, and my palms burned from scraping against the rough ground earlier. None of those injuries mattered enough to hold my focus. The only thing I could see was Faye standing at the center of the clearing with the baby in her arms. Something about her had changed. At first glance, she still looked like herself. She still held the baby close against he
Korran povThe battlefield had fallen silent, its quietness making my teeth ache. Not quite like peace, but like the pause before a storm finally tore the sky apart. Every wolf, loyal or corrupted, seemed suspended, caught between motion and hesitation, like the world itself was holding its breath, waiting for the next movement, the next surge, the next choice that would reshape everything.I ignored the chaos around me—the scattered wolves, the injured struggling to rise, the blackened earth still smoking from the last surge. My eyes were locked on her. Faye. The vessel. She held the child against her chest, light radiating from it, a fragile beacon of something far older and far larger than either of us. Every tense muscle, every flicker of her breath, every tiny shift of the glow told me she was on the edge, balancing between fear and faith.Decades of preparation had brought me here. Years of study, careful patience, sacrifices I had never let anyone see, all led to this momen
Faye pov The voice inside her mind had been growing clearer with each passing moment, evolving from a faint whisper that felt almost like her own thoughts into something undeniably separate, something with its own weight and presence that she could no longer dismiss as a product of stress or fear. It was no longer brushing against the edges of her consciousness like wind against glass. Instead, it had settled into her awareness with the kind of permanence that suggested it had always been there, waiting patiently beneath the surface for the right moment to reveal itself fully.Faye felt the shift happen as the baby's glow steadied in her arms, no longer flickering erratically but pulsing with a rhythm that felt ancient and deliberate, like the heartbeat of something far older than anything she had ever encountered. The battlefield around her remained frozen in the aftermath of the surge, wolves scattered and disoriented, some struggling to rise while others remained motionless wh
Faye POV The battlefield fell silent so suddenly that it felt like the world itself had drawn a breath and held it. Wolves paused mid-step, teeth bared but still, ears swiveling toward the faint hum that seemed to rise from the baby against my chest. Even the corrupted ones—the twisted shadows of the pack—stopped moving as though some invisible force had frozen them in place. The echo, my child’s connection to the Lunaris bloodline, had shifted again. No longer pulsing outward in defense, no longer flaring in reaction to threat—it was listening. Waiting.My heart pounded against my ribs as I tried to make sense of it. Not fear, not anticipation—something deeper, something infinite, threaded through the silence. It brushed against my thoughts like wind across a calm lake, unsettling and intimate all at once.“You are not meant to carry it alone,” a voice whispered inside my mind, soft and steady, yet resonating with power far beyond anything I had ever felt.The grip on the baby tight
Faye pov The silver glow on the stone had already started to fade by the time Harlan finished speaking, but the energy in the circle refused to settle. Wolves didn’t rush off right away. They drifted apart slowly, in twos and threes, with their heads bent close as they talked in hushed voices. Yo
Faye povI sat on the edge of my cot with my daughter cradled in my arms again. She nursed quietly, with her small mouth working in steady pulls that made my chest ache in the best way. Every time she fed it reminded me why I had stepped forward in the courtyard, and why I had offered my life witho
Faye pov The soft light filtering through the white canvas felt gentle on my face when I first opened my eyes. It was morning, or close to it. The tent smelled like wood smoke, herbs, and the faint metallic tang of healing salves. My body felt heavy, as though every muscle had been squeezed and le
Faye povI had barely finished the tea Lila brought earlier, barely had time to hold my daughter close and breathe in her clean baby smell, when the tent flap opened and three warriors stepped inside. They wore the pack’s dark green tunics, with their faces serious, and weapons at their sides. One







