Se connecterThe council meeting should have settled something.It didn’t.If anything, it made everything worse.The compound felt different after that—quieter in the wrong ways, louder in the ones that mattered. People still talked, still worked, still laughed, but it all felt… cautious. Like everyone was waiting for something else to explode, preferably not me.I tried to go back to normal.Keyword, tried.By late afternoon, I was back in the garage, buried under the familiar comfort of grease and stubborn bolts. If I focused hard enough on the engine in front of me, I didn’t have to think about silver fire, ancient symbols, or the fact that my life had officially turned into a council-approved disaster.“Careful,” Nina said from behind me, lounging like she owned the place. “You’re tightening that like it personally offended you.”“It did,” I muttered. “It exists.”She snorted. “Bold stance. Very anti-engine of you.”I almost smiled. Almost.The sound of boots on concrete ruined it.I didn’t n
The room felt smaller the moment I stepped into it.Not because of walls or elders or the way their attention snapped to me like a pulled trigger, but because Enid was standing there, back straight, chin lifted, fire barely leashed behind her eyes. The bond surged, sharp and furious, like it had been waiting for this exact second to remind me what I was risking.I didn’t look at her. Not yet. If I did, I wouldn’t stop.The council chamber buzzed with half-raised voices, accusation layered over fear. Someone was saying cursed. Someone else was saying unstable. I heard my pack spoken about like a problem to be solved instead of people who bled for this territory.Enough.I moved forward, boots striking wood with deliberate weight, and placed myself between Enid and the elders before anyone could object. It wasn’t a gesture I planned. It just happened, instinct louder than reason.Every gaze locked on me.“Alpha,” one of the elders began.“No,” I said, voice calm and cutting, the way it
The summons came with all the warmth of a punch to the throat.A runner found me in the garage, oil on my hands, sweat on my neck, and a half-fixed engine glaring at me like it knew I was about to abandon it. He didn’t look at me directly, just cleared his throat and said my name like it tasted wrong.“Enid, the council wants you. Now.”Not asked. Not requested. Wanted. Like a faulty part they needed to inspect before deciding whether to toss it or tighten the bolts.I wiped my hands on a rag that had seen better days and worse lies. Nina, who had been perched on a crate pretending not to eavesdrop, slid off it in one smooth motion.“Well,” she said brightly, “that escalated faster than my last bad haircut.”I shot her a look. “You cried for three days.”“It was a very emotional fringe.”We walked together across the compound, my boots heavy against the concrete, the air thick with something sour. Eyes followed me. Some curious. Some afraid. Some reverent in a way that made my skin it
I first noticed something was off when Jasper stopped pretending everything was fine.He did that thing where he leaned against the railing outside the command hall, arms crossed, jaw set like he was bracing for impact. Beta posture without the warmth. Brother posture without the patience. I should have known then that he’d found something out.“You’re meeting Corvin,” he said, no greeting, no preamble. Just dropped it between us like a live wire.I didn’t turn around. The compound was loud behind me, engines revving, metal clanking, wolves laughing too hard to drown out nerves. Normal noise. Necessary noise. “Careful,” I said. “You sound like you’re accusing your Alpha of gossip.”He snorted. “If you were gossiping, this pack would already be dead.”That got me to face him. His eyes were sharp, searching, the same eyes that had watched my back in blood and fire. “How do you know?”“You forget I still have friends who don’t report everything straight to you,” he said. “Retired shaman
I woke up with the smell of smoke still in my nose.Not the comforting kind—the garage kind, oil and metal and heat—but something sharper, wilder, like the forest itself had been set on edge. My body ached in places I didn’t remember hurting, muscles pulled tight as if I’d been clenching all night. When I swung my legs over the bed, my palms tingled, faintly warm, like embers that hadn’t quite decided to die.“Please tell me I didn’t burn down half the territory,” I muttered to no one.Nina, who had apparently decided personal space was optional this morning, lifted her head from my spare pillow. “If you did, I want it on record that I told you to stretch first.”I snorted despite myself. “You’re not helping.”She grinned, then frowned when she really looked at me. “Okay, scratch that—you look like you wrestled a bonfire and lost. Come on. You need to see this.”That was how we ended up at the edge of the woods where I’d trained the night before. The air felt wrong the second we cross
Corvin lived exactly where men like him always did—half a mile past where the road gave up pretending it was useful.I parked my bike beside a crooked fence that looked like it had lost more fights than it had won and killed the engine. The sudden quiet pressed in, thick and watchful. The woods around his cabin felt older than IronClaw, older than the council, older than my patience.“Of course you live in a horror story,” I muttered, pulling off my helmet.The door opened before I knocked.Corvin stood there barefoot, gray hair tied back, leather vest hanging open over skin inked with symbols I didn’t recognize and didn’t like. His eyes—sharp, bright, too knowing—flicked over me.“Took you long enough, Alpha,” he said. “Moon’s been screaming for days.”I scowled. “You could’ve sent a memo.”He snorted and stepped aside. “Come in before the forest decides you’re rude.”Inside smelled like smoke, herbs, and old oil. A biker shrine met a shaman’s den—candles beside engine parts, bones h
The next morning I steered clear of the garage as though it had suddenly transformed into a war zone. Wrapped in my blanket, I lay staring up at the ceiling hoping the secrets of my life were hidden within the cracked paint and the spiderweb I chose to ignore.Nina hovered above me her hands restin
I ventured into the woods before sunrise, the engine humming beneath me as if sensing the turmoil within my heart. The breeze bit at my skin as I sped along the twisting trails, yet no velocity could quiet the connection gnawing at me. My wolf stirred beneath my flesh agitated and growling craving
Nina didn’t give me time to really think about things.That was her gift and her curse.I was halfway through my third round of staring at the same bolt on my workbench—thinking absolutely nothing useful—when she leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, mouth already twitching with that look. The
The compound had started to feel like a place that was building up a lot of tension. It seemed like something bad was going to happen. It was like a pot of water that was getting hotter and hotter and it felt like it was going to boil over at any moment.The engines were really loud now. Patrol bik







