LOGINKIRA The lake was exactly as I remembered it. The path through the forest had not changed. The same winding trail of sand, the same canopy of bare branches against a blue sky, and the same smell of damp leaves and cold water. The same trail I walked through and ended up colliding with Nick; thus, our entangled story ensued. Back when I was a child, this was also our… I, Caroline, and Kayla’s favorite spot to play until our parents called us home. It was also the same place I succumbed to my wolf’s power and mauled Caroline to death. And now here I was, allowing myself to believe that happiness was something I was allowed to have. My boots crunched on some gravel stones on the path. The morning sun was slowly fading behind thick clouds, and it looked like rain was about to fall. The cold bit at my cheeks and the tips of my fingers. I had stupidly not brought a coat with me, only a sweater, thin and inadequate against the cold air. Ever since we had returned to the pack, I had bec
CHAPTER 64NickThe packhouse was quiet in the hours before noon… Most guards were out on patrol, and the packhouse staffs were moving through their daily routines. Nick sat behind his desk in the alpha office, his gaze fixed on the woman seated across from him.Dalia leaned back in her chair, her legs crossed, a yellow folder balanced on her knee. She had arrived an hour ago, slipping into the packhouse through the side entrance to avoid being spotted by their mom. Nick’s younger sister had spent the last five years rotating in different pack territories and attending schools in the human world to improve her skills and also learn about the supernatural world. She was the only person he trusted to look into the twins' birth history. “You’re sure?” Nick asked. Dalia’s lip quirked. “I wouldn’t be sitting here if I weren't sure.” She opened the folder and slid a photograph across the desk. Nick picked it up. The image was old, showing a woman in heavy robes standing before a stone a
KIRA After Nick left, I stayed on the floor for a long time. I just sat there, my back against the bed frame, and the darkness of my childhood room closing around me like a held breath. His words echoed in my skull. “I will not stop looking for another way. And if I find it, I will come for you.” I wanted to believe him. That was the worst part of all of it. Some treacherous part of my heart had held onto those words like a lifeline, replaying them over and over, turning them into something that felt like hope. A stupid kind of hope that I couldn't afford. I set the wolf figurine carefully into my suitcase and pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes. The pressure of it pushed colors behind my eyelids. The memory of my first shift filled my head, exposing the fire I had always ignored… preventing it from consuming me whole. At fourteen, my first shift was brutal compared to Kayla’s. It was the kind of painful transformation that left me howling in pain, and for weeks, I str
Kira My boxes on the floor had multiplied overnight. I sat on my bedroom floor, legs wide open, surrounded by the mess of a life I had built in this pack. Clothes I would never wear again. Books I had read too many times… the cover page was no more. A ceramic wolf figurine painted a wrong shade of gray that Kayla had made for me after our first shift. It sat on the floor between my knees, and I could not bring myself to put it in the box of my old items. My childhood room looked smaller than my New York apartment, but it felt like home. Like my mother’s favorite lavender scents she used for every bedsheet and diffuser in the house. I was supposed to be sorting out my things, the ones I wouldn't need anymore, and packing what I'll be taking back to the city. Knowing I might never return to the pack had me stalling. I had been sitting there for about two hours, starring at the storage boxes like they held answers to my problem. The sun had set a while back, and the alarm clock on m
NickThe council room had barely emptied before it filled again with a different kind of chaos no one saw coming. Nick had not moved from his seat. He could not bring himself to sit just yet. His hands were flat on the table, his knuckles white, his gaze fixed on the empty chairs where the Jefferson family had sat only moments before. The silence his wolf had craved after Esme left lasted for less than a minute. Sadly, he couldn’t use his authority to forcefully empty the room. Then the voices became louder. Cole Jefferson’s voice carried from the corridor, sharp and rising like he could tear the packhouse apart. “I will not stand by while my daughters are forced to kill each other for the sake of pack politics. There has to be another way.” Lena’s voice followed, softer but no less fierce than her husband's. “They are our children, Marta. Both of them. I won’t lose any to exile or blood.” Marta, the instigator of the fresh argument, was calm with a sadistic smile on her face. “
Nick The low hum of the packhouse had always been a sound Nick connected with normalcy. Not that it lasted for long with the sound of footsteps in the corridors, pack members hanging around, and the distant clatter from the kitchen. Today, he needed the packhouse as quiet as possible, so he mindlinked Alfie to evacuate the packhouse. He stood at the head of the council room, his palms flat against the round, polished oak of the table. Eight chairs lined the round table, the occupants already seated in rigid anticipation. Elder Esme sat beside him, her silver hair tied in a bun, her eyes sharp as an eagle.The other five council members… two senior warriors, the former beta, the former delta, a weathered she-wolf, Marta, who had seen as many alphas come and go like Esme… All wore the same irking expression. A careful one masking deep unease.Nick had not sat down. He wanted to wait till the twins arrived. He stood in front of the chair at the head of the table. Today, the chair felt
Nick POVThe pack house had finally gone quiet.Not the peaceful kind of quiet that settled over the valley during early mornings when mist clung to the rooftops and the wolves slept peacefully. This silence felt heavy. Unsettled. Like the entire building was holding its breath after the chaos of t
As everyone waited for Nick's response to the question, Esme came to the rescue. “I think it is wise we all depart back to our homes before emotions run too high and things we might regret are said.”The twin's father agreed and stood up first before his wife and Kayla followed. They made their wa
The words landed like stones dropping into a pond, thrown from kilometers away. Hearing it said out loud, Kira desperately wished for the ground to open and swallow her whole, erasing her existence from the earth. The situation was bad. Very bad. And having all these people in the room made it ver
The thin line between love and hate theory was real. What better way to confirm it as Kayla's face twisted in horror as her eyes moved between Nick and me.I had never seen that look in her eyes. Disgust, disappointment, and sadness. All at the same time, and I felt a piece of me break.What had I







