LOGINALPHA VOSS (Seraphina's Father)THE NEXT DAY "I will speak plainly." I sat across from Buttercup and the rest, with suspicious eyes looking at me. "Silas is not a rival. He is a slow death, and I have watched him strip pieces from my territory for years... with a contract. I am here because I am out of ground to lose."Buttercup did not blink. "You spent months trying to destroy me and this pack. Now you want a seat at my table." Every sleepless night I had caused her live in that sentence. "Give me one reason to believe this is not another game.""Just one reason. Make it good," Draven snapped, his fingers striking the table gently.Kai leaned forward, his face twisting with curiosity. "You backed Seraphina's every move against Buttercup. Why switch sides now?"Asher said nothing. His eyes never left me, as if he meant to peel the truth from my skin.I kept my hands flat on the table, feeling the weight of their combined scrutiny like a blade at my throat. "Because Silas does not st
Buttercup"We need more than our own pack," I stated, standing in the meeting hall before the first group of representatives. Their faces ranged from doubt to openly hostile, and I forced myself to meet each gaze in turn. "Silas collects bonded people and turns them into weapons. If he comes for us, he will not stop there. We either stand together or get picked off one by one."A gray-haired Alpha from the southern hills pack leaned back on the chair, his arms crossed over a chest scarred by decades of territorial disputes. His curled his lips. "Your safe house is young, and barely more than a rumor with walls. Your pack is already stretched thin. Why should we bleed for your fight?"Kai answered before I could. "Because his network already has seventeen pairs. When he finishes with us, your Territory will be next. You can wait for that knock on your door, or you can act like it matters now."An older woman from a trading faction shook her head, the beads in her graying braids clicke
LILA"I'm not sitting this out." I strode onto the training yard in the early light. My stomach was already showing a small curve as I was already at the second trimester. The guardian mark on my wrist glowed as if it agreed with me before I had even finished speaking. "Drills will start now."Kai stepped in front of me, blocking my path outright, as his eyes searched my face for a crack he could argue his way into. "Lila, no. You're carrying our child. The front-line training is too much risk.""Don't," I raised my hand, gesturing he shouldn't try to intervene even before he could say another word. "Don't stand there and tell me what I can carry."Draven defended. "He's right. We need you to be safe. The pack needs the child safe.""I am the pack," I shot back, whirling on him. "Or has that changed since yesterday?"Buttercup hovered at the edge of the group, worry pulling her brows together. "There are other ways to help. You don't have to prove anything.""I'm not trying to prove a
DRAVEN "Gather the warriors. Now!" I stood in the center of the training yard, my voice carrying across the packed earth and into the surrounding trees. "Silas is no longer a guest. He is a threat, and we need to prepare for war." Marcus, my beta, nodded and started shouting orders. Wolves moved fast, scrambling from the barracks and quarters, pulling on gear as they ran. Some looked ready, others looked unsure, glancing sideways at each other as if searching for a reassurance nobody could give them. Kai joined me. "My crew is already on the outer roads. They'll watch for movement from the west. If Silas so much as breathes wrong, we'll know." Asher walked up, his footsteps barely disturbing the dust. "The refusal changed his timeline. He will not wait long." I could see the weight of knowledge he hadn't yet shared. He bit his lips as though he were biting back words he didn't trust himself to say. Buttercup stood close, her shoulder brushing mine. "How bad is this going to
BUTTERCUP A WEEK LATER."I heard that Silas is here to see me. Bring him in," I told the guards at the safe house gate.Draven stepped up beside me, concerned. "Are you sure you're ready to face him alone.""Yes, and I mean it," I snapped.Kai cracked his neck, his eyes already scanning the gate for threats. "I don't care what you promised him. He shouldn't dare try anything funny...""You'll do nothing unless I say so," I shot back, and Kai held his tongue.Asher muttered. "He will try to sound reasonable. That is his strongest weapon."Lila watched from a short distance, one hand resting on her stomach, the other braced against the wall as if steadying herself. "Rose and the others, stay behind the inner wards, just in case this goes wrong.""It won't go wrong," I said, though my voice cracked.Silas walked through the gate with the same calm smile as before. He had no guards with him this time. Just him, confidently. "Buttercup. I hoped you would call. Have you decided about it?"
Rose"I can't keep sitting in this room staring at the walls," I told Buttercup when she checked on me that morning. "The empty place still hurts, but staying alone makes it louder. Please, put me to work."Buttercup studied me for a long moment before relief broke across her face. "Good. Because I was about to force the issue myself. We need hands in the garden and the common hall. Come on."I followed her outside, blinking against the brightness of a sky I had barely noticed in days. The safe house grounds felt more real every day. There were new walls, fresh earth. People moving with purpose, calling to each other, carrying baskets and tools. I kept my arms wrapped around myself at first, bracing against a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.Then came a tall wolf who shoved a shovel into my hands, his gaze neither pitying nor prying. "Name is Marcus. You're Rose, right?""Yeah," I nodded, testing the shovel's weight. "Still figuring out how to be here."He nodded, which
BUTTERCUP I covered my mouth with the back of my palm and I was barely breathing. “A human? Don’t be ridiculous,” Seraphina said below me. “But if you’re serious about this double mate bond thing with her, we handle it quietly. She can never know the full truth.” Draven’s voice came next, low a
“Well, well, well...” Seraphina said again, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. “Am I interrupting the show?”I froze under Draven, my dress still bunched around my waist, his body covering mine as heat rushed to my face as I tried to push him off. “Get off me.”Draven sat up fast, shielding me
BUTTERCUP I watched the door close behind Draven as he went to see Seraphina, and I felt my emotions finally snapping inside me. “Enough of this shit,” I muttered to myself, sliding off his bed. My legs still felt weak but I forced myself to move. I grabbed my dress from the floor and pulled i
BUTTERCUP I sat there on that damn couch, my legs still trembling and his words ringing in my ears. “I’m sorry, little one.” The door had barely closed behind Draven before I jumped up. My dress was wrinkled, my thighs sticky, and my chest felt like someone had punched a hole right through it.







