LOGINJaxon POVSilence shouldn’t weigh this much.But it pressed on my shoulders the moment I stepped into the ruined hallway, like the whole damn pack house was holding its breath - scared that if it exhaled, everything would crumble for good.Evelynn hadn’t moved for hours.Lana knelt at her bedside, one hand around Evelynn’s wrist, the other running gently over her forearm like she could coax her back to consciousness.Her voice was soft, cracked around the edges.“Come on, sweetheart… fight your way back. Your mates and pack needs you.”She didn’t stir.Her IV line dripped steadily. Too steadily. Too quiet.Maddox leaned against the wall, arms crossed so hard his muscles shook with the tension. Calder stood to my left, staring at the window like something might come through it at any second.I looked at her through the open doors - our Luna. The heartbeat of this pack. The girl we all swore to protect even before any bond marks were burned into our skin.She was breathing. But she wasn
Rafe’s POVThe silver glow surged again. Brighter, hotter, alive.For a heartbeat the hallway looked like it had been dropped into moonlight, every shadow carved sharp, every surface shimmering.My wolf slammed into my skin so hard my knees nearly buckled. “GO TO HER. NOW.”Lana stumbled back, shielding her eyes. “This-this shouldn’t be possible-”“What the hell is happening?” Maddox barked.But I didn’t wait for an answer. I shoved the door open.The room exploded in color.Silver light pulsed from the center of the bed. Rayna’s body arching off the mattress, her back bowing like invisible hands were pulling her upward. Her hair lifted around her head, floating as if underwater. The curtains whipped against the windows.The Codex, still lying on the floor, glowed faintly, reacting like some ancient instrument tuning itself to her heartbeat.“Rayna!” I lunged toward her.Calder grabbed my arm, stopping me just long enough to shout: “Touch her and you could burn-”Too late.I caught he
Rafe’s POVThe hallway felt too damn small for four full-grown alphas and four full-grown wolves losing their minds.Jaxon wore a path into the floor, pacing like a caged storm. Maddox leaned against the wall but kept cracking his knuckles hard enough to break bone. Calder’s wolf hovered just under his skin, eyes glowing gold. And me?I stood by the bedroom door listening for Rayna’s heartbeat like my life depended on it. Because it did.Every time her breath hitched, my wolf slammed against my ribs.“She’s in pain. Go to her,” he snarled.“We can’t,” I muttered aloud, dragging a hand over my face. “Lana said to give her space.”My wolf growled, unimpressed. “I don’t care what she said.”Neither did I.Every instinct in me screamed to barge through the door and bury myself beside Rayna, skin to skin, until the pain stopped. But the healer needed her calm, still.Not four frantic mates vibrating like ticking bombs.The door finally creaked.Lana stepped out, wiping her hands on a towel
Calder’s POVEvelynn slept - if you could call that shivering, shallow breathing sleep.We’d pulled the ruined curtains down and laid them over her for warmth. A pathetic substitute for blankets, but the packhouse was half a corpse and had nothing better to offer.Her skin was pale as moon ash. Lips cracked. Faint tremors rippled through her muscles every few minutes, each one stabbing through the bond like a blade.My wolf paced in circles inside me, frantic and furious. “She shouldn’t feel pain alone. Stay close. Stay closer.”I already was. Hell, all four of us were.Rafe sat on one side of the bed, fingers wrapped around her wrist like he was physically willing her pulse to stay steady. Jaxon had positioned himself at the foot of the bed, knees bouncing, eyes snapping toward every sound. Maddox leaned against the wall but his breathing was uneven - barely restrained panic.The wolves inside us pressed hard, howling against our ribs.The mate-bond pulsed between the five of us l
Calder POV For a full breath, the world stopped.No movement. No sound. Not even air dared to move. Just four wolves and one mate… fading.Then something primal detonated inside the room. Instinct. Pure, ancient, mate-bond instinct buried in the marrow of our bones.My wolf lunged through me so hard it knocked the breath from my lungs.“Touch her,” he roared. “Now.”Rafe’s wolf surged first.He didn’t shift, none of us did, but the presence of his wolf slammed into the room like a heartbeat returning after going still. His teeth lengthened, eyes burning gold as he pressed both hands against Evelynn’s cheeks.“Eve,” he rasped, voice no longer a man’s voice. “Come back.”Jaxon was next. His wolf rushed forward in a silent snarl, pushing through flesh and bone until Jaxon’s eyes glowed like twin lanterns. He climbed onto the bed, bracing himself around her body, his forehead tipping to her shoulder.“We’re here,” he whispered, and it sounded like a vow. “We’re not letting you go.”Maddo
Calder’s POVBy the time I hit the door, my wolf had already shoved halfway through my skin. Claws cracked from my fingertips. My spine tried to lengthen. My teeth ached with the need to tear something apart.Something was wrong. Bad wrong.“Open it,” my wolf snarled inside me, pacing, frantic. “Now, Calder. Now.”I didn’t bother with the handle. I shoved the door so hard it slammed into the wall.The smell punched us in the face.Blood.Not the metallic tang of battle. Not a clean wound or a wolf bite.This was soft, raw, living blood. The kind that should never be spilled.Rafe shot past me in a blur, and the noise that ripped out of him didn’t belong to a man. It was hollowed-out grief shaped into sound.Jaxon froze in the doorway, fingers curling like he needed to catch himself on something that wasn’t there.Maddox stumbled, one hand bracing on the wall. His breath hitched like someone sucker-punched him.And Evelynn… Gods.She was trembling on the bed, curled in on herself, one







