ログインLexara didn’t walk like someone entering new territory. She walked like she’d always belonged there — just hadn’t bothered to announce it yet.Seraphine led them no further than necessary.Once through the ivy-framed threshold, the Luna gave them room to breathe. No fanfare. No handlers. Just a quiet glance over her shoulder as if to say, “Find your own way now. This pack will show itself to you.”Lexara adjusted her pack against her shoulder, boots sinking softly into moss-lined soil.Her pace was unhurried — not slow, but precise. Eamon stayed close, silent as ever, his tall frame absorbing the sideways glances of passing wolves. But none of those wolves were looking at him.Hidden at the edge of the ridge above, another figure watched. Still. Silent. Calculating. Caelum Rook, Gamma-Prime of Seraphine’s territory, watched her walk — and cataloged everything.From the moment Lexara stepped beyond the gate, his mind was already mapping vectors:Her gait: unguarded, despite knowing she
The sun had just slipped below the tree line when they crested the final ridge. The wind quieted. No guards. No patrol scent markers. No formal challenge at the border. Only the subtle shift in resonance — like stepping from one song into another.Veyra and Aerin slowed at the top of the slope, the forest falling away below them into wide, open woods touched by light that didn’t seem to come from the sun. It was softer here — deeper greens, richer shadows, and that hum beneath the soil that made it feel like the trees themselves were listening.Ahead, near a natural stone arch wrapped in trailing ivy, a figure waited. Alone. No wolves flanked her. No weapons. No ceremonial garb. Just Luna Seraphine — standing barefoot in dark robes that swept the moss. Her silver-blonde hair was pulled into a long braid threaded with tiny bone charms and fragments of crystal, her arms bare, marked with old runes that shimmered faintly in the dusk.She smiled when she saw them. Not politely. Not polit
The wind changed before the border. Not suddenly. Not sharply. It shifted like a tide pulling back, slow and invisible, leaving only the scent of pine and something… quieter. Older. The air began to smell less like Blackridge and more like something waiting — moss-heavy stillness, deep cedar, the lingering hum of another Alpha’s resonance pressing gently along the edges of the land.Veyra slowed first. Her paws landed silently in the underbrush. No crunch of branch. No snap of twigs. And no imprints left in the earth behind her. It had always been that way. As if the land itself hesitated to hold her presence. As if her wolf — the fire-bright, storm-anchored soul of Lexara — didn’t belong to any single place long enough to leave a mark. She paused beside a narrow stream that coiled through the thinning trees, the water clear and fast, catching light like moving glass. Her reflection flickered in it for a heartbeat — burnished copper fur, silver along the spine glowing faintly where th
The gates of Blackridge were open. Not ceremoniously. Not for spectacle.Just... open.The guards at either side bowed low as Lexara approached, dressed in soft leathers and layered in scent: hearthsmoke from the Beta house, pine from the ridge, and still — faintly — the burn of Alaric.Eamon walked beside her, his expression unreadable. His body relaxed, but Lexara had known him too long to miss the signs of alertness beneath it. Shoulders subtly back. Ears turned toward every whisper. He didn’t ask if she was ready. That wasn’t his way.He just said: “Packs are reinforced. Double-strap spine rigs, quick-release knots. Stretch-fit threading for shift.”Lexara nodded once. “Tested them already?”“Last night.”“Thought you just went for air.”“I did,” he said. “While wearing a twenty-pound dummy rig and sprinting through the trees.”Lexara smirked. “So… normal for you.”Eamon didn’t answer. But the corner of his mouth lifted. Each of them carried a custom shift-pack — reinforced with e
The Beta house was still dim with early morning light when Lexara entered the kitchen. Her mother was already there. A pot of something warm simmered on the stove, and her mother’s hands moved slowly — not because she was tired, but because she was thinking. Deeply.Lexara paused in the doorway. Tried to pretend this wasn’t harder than facing down an Alpha. Tried to pretend her mother didn’t already know that.“You packed light,” her mother said without turning.Lexara exhaled a soft laugh. “Didn’t know how long I’d be staying.”Heather Veyne — their mother — stirred the pot once more before setting the spoon aside and wiping her hands. When she turned, her eyes were sharper than Lexara had braced for. Not angry. Not wet with tears. Just full of the kind of knowing that made you feel seen all the way to your bones.“Seraphine’s a wise wolf,” her mother said gently. “And she’ll treat you with the care you deserve.” A pause. Then she added: “But that Alaric… he’s a wildfire waiting to f
Lexara thought she might be able to leave without seeing him. But of course, Alaric never stayed gone for long.He was waiting near the edge of the northern trail, perched on the stone fence like he’d been there all night. A dark jacket pulled tight around his frame, hair windblown, expression unreadable.She paused several yards away. “You came to see me off?”“I came,” he said, “because you didn’t say goodbye.”She walked closer, boots crunching lightly on the gravel. The air between them buzzed with tension that hadn’t quite burned away since that night in the woods — the scenting, the words whispered into her skin, the hunger in his voice.“Wasn’t sure I needed to,” she said softly. “You said a lot, Alaric. Some of it… hard to forget.”He stood slowly. “Good,” he said. “Then it wasn’t wasted. You needed to hear what it felt like to want you — openly. Not quietly. Not carefully. Not later.”Lexara held his gaze. “And now?”“Now I let you go,” he said, stepping closer. “But I’m not







