LOGINFaye pov Everything changed the moment Riven fell. It did not happen slowly enough for my mind to prepare for it, and it did not happen quickly enough for me to dismiss it as something temporary. Instead, it unfolded in a strange distortion of time where every detail became painfully visible while still refusing to feel real. I saw Jacob drop to his knees beside him, saw the way his hands tightened as if refusing to accept what his eyes were already confirming, and I saw the stillness that began to spread through Riven’s body. That stillness was the part that broke through everything else. It was not fear that came first. It was not even a shock. It was a loss, immediate and irreversible, settling into me with a weight I could not push away. My chest tightened as if something inside me had been pulled out and left open, exposed to everything I had been trying to hold back since this nightmare began. Riven was gone from the fight. Not wounded in a way that could be managed
Jacob POV I have learned over the years that battle rarely gives second chances, and when it does, it only does so to expose the weakness you were trying to hide from yourself. I had always believed my strength was in decisiveness, in the ability to act before doubt could take root. That belief had carried me through wars, uprisings, and betrayals that should have broken me long before I ever stood here. But this time, I hesitated. It happened in less than a heartbeat, yet it stretched inside me like something far longer, something that refused to collapse back into instinct the way it should have. I saw the attacker moving toward Faye with clear intent, his body already committed to the strike, his focus narrowed to a single target. My body reacted immediately, pushing forward with everything I had, closing the distance the way I had done a hundred times before. And then I saw him clearly. Not an enemy. Not a threat. Riven. Recognition struck me like a sudden weight, for
Faye pov I felt the change before I could fully understand what it meant. It moved through the air like something subtle and unseen, not loud enough to draw immediate attention, but strong enough that my instincts reacted to it without hesitation. The baby shifted in my arms at the same moment, her small body tightening against me as the Lunaris echo stirred with sudden intensity, as if it had sensed something approaching long before I had. That was when I lifted my head. At first, nothing seemed obviously different. The camp still looked fractured, with wolves scattered in uneven formations, some standing rigidly, others shifting with uncertainty, and many watching one another instead of focusing outward. But as I forced myself to look more carefully, I began to see the pattern that had been forming beneath the surface. They were moving. Not in a rush, not in a chaotic surge, but slowly and deliberately that made the shift feel even more dangerous. Wolves who had been st
Jacob POV I had faced enemies before who relied on strength, on speed, on overwhelming force meant to crush resistance before it could form. I understood those battles because they followed a pattern. There was always a moment of impact, a clear beginning to the fight, and a direction in which everything moved. This was not that kind of battle. Korran did not attack when he entered the camp, and that absence of violence unsettled me more than any direct assault could have. He walked forward with a calm certainty that felt completely out of place in the middle of a fractured battlefield, as though he had stepped into a space that already belonged to him. There was no hesitation in his movement, no sign that he expected resistance, and that lack of expectation told me more than anything else. He did not see us as a threat. Behind him, the wolves who had opened the gates followed without needing instruction. Their movements were controlled and deliberate, and their expressions ca
Faye pov The silence arrived before he did. It was not the kind of silence that followed destruction or exhaustion, the kind that came when everything had already broken and there was nothing left to react to. This silence was different. It felt deliberate, as if the world itself had paused to make space for something that did not need announcement or resistance. Even the air felt wrong. I tightened my hold on the baby instinctively as I stood near what remained of the inner perimeter, my senses straining to understand why everything suddenly felt suspended. The camp had been preparing for impact, for confrontation, for the inevitable clash that everyone had been bracing for since the horn sounded. But there was no impact. That was what unsettled me the most. Waiting meant expectation. And expectation meant something had already been decided. Elara stood slightly behind me, her presence tense but controlled in a way that no longer reassured me the way it used to. After e
Jacob POV I had always believed that the hardest part of leadership would be making decisions under pressure. I was wrong. The hardest part was realizing that decisions no longer guaranteed outcomes, no matter how carefully they were made. The camp around me was still standing, technically intact, but it no longer functioned as a unified force. It felt more like a collection of fractured instincts trying to remember what coordination used to be. We were no longer losing because we were outmatched. We were losing because we could no longer trust the people beside us. That realization sat in my chest like a weight I could not fully dislodge, no matter how many orders I issued or how many formations I tried to rebuild. Every attempt to restore structure only exposed another layer of uncertainty beneath it. I stood at what remained of the central gathering point, watching as wolves who had once moved with precision now hesitated before even simple commands. Some responded im
Jacob’s POV I stood in the middle of the council circle and looked around at the pack. Half the wolves stood on my left with their arms crossed and eyes locked on me. The other half stood on my right and kept glancing at Faye and the baby she held tight against her chest. Tension sat thick in the
Faye’s POV Jacob leaned heavily against my side on the horse while I kept one arm around him and the other around our daughter. The baby’s echo pulsed steadily through my chest and gave me just enough strength to hold us both upright. Every wolf in our group stayed close. Lira rode on the left w
Faye’s POVThe moment my daughter was back in my arms, everything inside me shifted.Not into peace. Not into safety. But into something sharper and more fragile. Relief so strong it almost made me dizzy. Fear so deep it refused to loosen its grip.Jacob helped me onto the horse, then climbed up be
Faye’s POV The training ground had become the only place where I felt even a fragment of control over myself. Every morning, I forced my feet to carry me there, my body aching from long days of human exhaustion and my mind heavy with what I had lost. Umfa. My bond. The instinct I had relied on to







