FAZER LOGINKIRA“It’s good to know I didn't completely ruin their family.” Mom sighed heavily, dropping the last pastry box she was working on. The soft thud of the cardboard hitting the wooden table. “Kira, please stop. You were a child. What happened wasn't your fault.” A part of me wanted to say “I know,” but I couldn't bring myself to do so. This blaming exercise was something I thought I'd put behind me. Glad to know I was wrong. I've had years to come to terms with my actions, triggered or not, and I owned up to my mistakes. But that wasn't the end. There was more, and Mom knew it. I owed Kayla the truth. I owed Harper and her family an apology. For taking their sister and child. For ruining a family that would have blossomed if I had not erratically shifted into my wolf and attacked Caroline. “I…” I began to speak, but Mom stopped me. She crouched near me. Her hands reached out to mine… the hand that was in a sling felt colder than the other. “I know it's hard, darling. To live wi
KaylaI stayed two more nights in Hilda's cottage. The first morning, I woke up to the smell of porridge, a bowl waiting for me on the small table by the fire. The storm had stopped, though it looked like there was still more rain stored in the dark clouds. Hilda was in her garden, her hands buried in the soil, and she did not ask if I had made a decision. She simply smiled and said breakfast was getting cold.I ate in silence, staring at the fireplace that warmed my wolf and kept her at bay. The second day, I helped her gather herbs. She showed me which leaves healed and which ones were harmful. The roots could be brewed into tea and were better left in the ground because they were poisonous.She still did not press me for an answer. She did not mention the power, the sacrifice, nor the choice that waited for me like a door half open. She simply let me be, and I found myself grateful for that. Grateful for the silence and a space where no one expected me to be anything other than
KaylaI stayed two more nights in Hilda's cottage. The first morning, I woke up to the smell of porridge, a bowl waiting for me on the small table by the fire. The storm had stopped though it looked like there was still more rain stored in the dark clouds. Hilda was in her garden, her hands buried in the soil, and she did not ask if I had made a decision. She simple smiled and said breakfast was getting cold.I ate in silence, staring at the fireplace that warmed my wolf and kept her at bay. The second day, I helped her gather herbs. She showed me which leaves healed and which ones were harmful. The roots that could be brewed into tea and which were better left in the ground because they were poisonous.She still did not press me for an answer. She did not mention the power, the sacrifice, nor the choice that waited for me like a door half open. She simply let me be, and I found myself grateful for that. Grateful for the silence and a space where no one expected me to be anything
Kayla Her words hung in the air between us, heavy and charged. I still couldn’t believe my ears about the old woman being a witch, but I was more concerned about how much she knew about me and my chaotic life. I had heard stories of witches, of course. Every werewolf raised in a pack knew the old tales. The covens that had once ruled these lands alongside vampires and werewolves until the great war among all supernatural beings destroyed the peace, and blood magic became outlawed. It was no secret that dark witches still lurked in shadows, waiting to prey on the weak and shake up the peace. But those were stories. Legends. Things that existed in history, not in a cottage in the middle of the forest, and certainly not in the old woman who had just handed me a mug of hot tea and given me dry clothes to wear. And now that I looked closer at the woman, she looked strangely familiar. Like I’d seen her before. Now that I focused on her, she looked like the witch pretending to be a fortu
Kayla I had been running for what felt like hours, but the trees looked the same in every direction… endless columns of dark and dripping branches, their bare limbs reaching toward the sky. The rain was coming down heavily. So heavy I could barely see ten feet in front of me. My dress was soaked through and plastered to my skin, and my shoes were caked with mud. My lungs began burning with every breath that I slowed to a walk. My legs were shaking, and my wolf was screaming at me to slow down, but I could not stop. I could not go back. Going back meant facing Kira, facing Nick, facing the truth that had shattered everything I thought I knew. I wasn’t ready for that, so I kept on moving. The rain muffled everything. The sound of the woods, the rustle of leaves, the birds, and the distant howl of werewolves were swallowed by the relentless rain. I was alone. Truly and utterly alone. And for the first time in my life, I was not sure I knew the way back home. I stopped under a large
Kayla I made it to the front doors of the packhouse before I lost control. My hands were shaking and my chest heaving as the words Harper had thrown at me were still burning in my skull. I stopped in the middle of the grand foyer, my legs frozen, and my breath came out in short gasps. The packhouse was quiet around me except for the occasional thunder that roared in the sky. Since there was no one there to watch me fall apart, I considered crashing out there. I pressed my palm against my eyes, trying to steady myself. The jealousy living inside of me had finally snapped and was begging to be released.I wanted to scream. I wanted to find Harper and make her take her words back. I wanted to find Nick and ask him… no, demand of him… why Kira’s scent was all up in his room. But I did none of those things. I stood in the foyer with my hands over my eyes and my teeth clenched, waiting for the storm inside me to pass. It did not pass. It only grew. I turned back toward the corridor w
The whole house had been quiet since Mom dropped the news of the pack council meeting. It was uncomfortable, but it was a much-needed solace. A few days had passed, and Kayla hadn’t made a fuss about meeting Nick. The only difference was that she spent more time in her room now and did not mind.
KiraThe next morning arrived softer than the chaos of the days before. Pale sunlight streamed through the thin curtains of my bedroom, stretching in quiet lines across the wooden floor and climbing halfway up my unpacked suitcase. For a few seconds, I lay still in bed, listening to the distant chi
The uncomfortable silence hung between each present party in the room. Anywhere but this room would have been paradise, and attempting to avoid Kayla's or even Nick's gaze was harder than I expected. Kayla kept making signs with her hands to stop Mom from saying anything out of turn, but she was foc
His glare was so intense I felt the heat penetrate through my skin. I did not think it would be wrong to fight back since he was so persistent. Although it made him visibly angry. “You can't leave,” he said. “Why?” I scoffed. “Because you're the Alpha? “Because you're mine.” My chest constricte







