Raven POV “What the f**k just happened?” I asked, finally breaking the silence, my voice sharp and trembling. “Did we just…?”The words died before they could form. Nothing I could say would fit what we’d just been through.I looked around at all of them—alive, bloodied, shaken. “How did you guys even find me?”“It’s a long story,” Gwen muttered, still catching her breath.“But that bitch betrayed us again,” Ansel added, venom in his voice. “And like a fool, I followed her.”“It’s not your fault,” Rowan said, placing a hand on Ansel’s shoulder. “We all fell for her tricks. But next time I see her…” His voice dropped into something colder. “Her head would roll. I promise.”Gwen shivered. “Was that… enough to kill her?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.“I don’t know,” I said slowly.Then I looked down at my hand.I hadn’t even noticed it until now.But I was still holding something.Her heart.Still slick with blood.Still warm.Still… beating.My own breath caught.Everyo
Raven POV “Let them go,” I said—only, it didn’t sound like me. My voice was deeper, layered with something primal and ancient. My wolf had risen, and she was speaking through me now.“Let my mates and friends go!” I screamed, lunging at Morgan, no longer willing to play along with her twisted mind games.My claws burst from my fingertips, sharp and gleaming, just the way Rowan had taught me. The memory of his firm grip on my hands, his calm voice guiding me through every strike and stance, it all surged forward now, weaponized by rage.Morgan laughed again, but this time it was tighter, less amused.She moved with the elegance of someone who had lived for centuries. Graceful, swift, infuriatingly calm. She leaped back, avoiding my strike with ease, her cloak swirling like smoke around her. But I didn’t stop. I refused to stop.I slashed again. Missed. Again. Came closer.“You think you’re ready for this?” she sneered, her voice like velvet laced with venom. “You think you’re stro
Raven POV Something told me that getting those ashes would be the end of the road for us all.Queen Morgan was already far too powerful, and I had learned that what we had seen so far was just a fraction of her strength. She had been using the earth, manipulating others, draining what she needed to stay alive through the centuries.Breathing hard, I tried to steady myself. She didn’t have the Moon Stone yet. That was our only sliver of hope—that if she didn’t possess it, we still had time to prepare.Loira had hidden it well.I forced myself to focus.“How do I get the ashes?” I asked, my voice betraying me with a slight tremor I couldn’t hide.“We have to go to the exact place where the Pact was made,” Morgan said. “And I’ll remake it—with you.”“You carry the blood of the goddess. That alone will be enough. Once the bond is reforged, I’ll be able to claim and wield the ashes.”“And if I say no?” I asked before I could stop myself.It seemed I’d developed a reckless habit of flirt
Rowan POV It had been two days since we set out for Hallow Valley, and if the map was to be trusted, we were only a few hours away.In those two days, exhaustion had clawed bones, but I kept Raven in my mind. She was the only thread tethering me to reality now.We kept walking until the path led us to a towering hill...three massive rocks jutting upward to form a jagged, steep peak. They were beautiful in a brutal kind of way, but climbing over them looked damn near impossible.“What do we do now?” Alpha Markus asked, turning to look at Ansel.“There should be a path we can follow,” Laura said, biting her lip.I turned to glance at her. In the past two days, she’d barely spoken except only when necessary. The rest of the time, she drifted through the journey like a ghost. She wasn’t the same woman who had stayed with us before. Something in her had shifted.But I can’t afford to think about her right now.Elisha stepped forward, sniffing the wind. “This place is wrong,” he mutte
Raven POV “I can’t choose either of them,” I said, my voice trembling as I looked up at her.“I’d rather die instead.”Morgan’s eyes blazed with cruel amusement. “So you’d choose your death over that of a stranger?”“Yes,” I whispered, swallowing hard. “Please… just let them go.”“Do you know how I found your dear mother, Raven?” she asked, voice soft and venom-laced.My heart dropped. “What?”“It was your beloved ex-fiancé—Matthew.”I turned to him slowly, waiting, hoping, begging for him to deny it.He didn’t.Morgan’s smile widened. “He offered me your life and your mother’s in exchange for his own. Told me exactly where to find you—in the Silver Crescent Pack.”She turned her gaze to me like a cat toying with a wounded bird.“So tell me now, would you rather I kill him instead?”I shook my head, my chest rising and falling so hard it felt like my lungs might split.“I don’t want anyone to die,” I whispered. “Please. Just stop this.”Morgan sighed dramatically as if I were a tir
Raven POVAfter that awful dinner with the Queen, I wasn’t able to stop throwing up. I was just grateful I made it back to my room in time.She was vile—cruel in ways I didn’t think possible. Who kills and cooks our kind like it’s some sick joke?I swear, I’ll kill her.Even when night fell and bled into morning, the anger still hadn’t left me. The only good part was seeing Rowan, and I’m sure my mind was playing tricks on me. The anger pressed against my chest like a weight I couldn’t lift. But worse than the rage was the hollow sense of helplessness gnawing at my insides. She was toying with us, twisting lives, fates, everything for her amusement.And I knew she wasn’t done.I sat curled on the floor, with my back against the wall, just trying to breathe through the heaviness when the knock came again.I jolted upright.Opening the door slowly, I found someone new. It was a beautiful she-wolf I hadn’t seen before. She had long, flowing brown hair, warm brown eyes, and soft pink
Rowan POV Thanks to Layla’s help, we were finally able to finish the plan properly—and now, at last, we could move to get Raven back.But I didn’t trust her.Not really. Not after all the damage she’s done. Her sudden change of heart felt more like desperation than redemption.Still, I was in no position to argue.Queen Morgan had the dagger.And I was growing weaker by the day.Too weak to find the other two artefacts. Too weak to fight. Too weak to even think clearly, some days.The priestess hadn’t shown her face since that night. Guilt had locked her away from the world. I didn’t blame her, not after the horrors we’d all seen. Some things you don’t come back from.Groaning, I rolled onto my stomach, trying to shift the searing pain in my chest. It was unbearable today—like the curse was lighting me up from the inside. I pressed my face into the pillow and cursed under my breath.The weather outside was frigid, yet I was burning alive.Some days were worse than others. Today was
Raven POV “I am quite famished,” the queen said, snapping her fingers. The surrounding air shimmered for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, I was no longer standing in the cave, surrounded by the oppressive weight of Queen Morgan’s power. Instead, I found myself back in the palace so suddenly that it took my breath away.How does she even do that?I shook my head, frustration bubbling up as I struggled to make sense of everything. There were too many things I couldn’t explain, too many ways that the world felt off-balance. And Morgan… she was one of them. I had no idea how she could pull me through realms, how she could bend reality like that. But right now, it doesn’t matter.I turned away, fully ready to go back to my room. I’d had more than enough of their presence for one day.The cries still rang in my ears, echoes of people burning alive, their screams swallowed by the flames. Another group of innocents was erased by the Queen’s hand.“And Raven,” Morgan said with a sm
Raven POV I’d never seen flowers like these before.They looked like they belonged in dreams or in the pages of one of Gwen’s old fae stories—petals like spilled wine, silver-dusted edges, some glowing faintly in the shadows as if they held moonlight in their veins. If I weren’t walking beside a monster, I might’ve stopped to run my fingers over the soft blooms, to let my boots slip off and sink into the moss, to believe for one wild moment that the world hadn’t gone entirely to ruin.Maybe, if this place survives Morgan’s wrath, I’ll come back one day—with Rowan, with my mates—and I’ll pick every flower that dares to bloom here.But not now.I shook the thought from my head and kept walking, the cave yawning before us like a mouth that hadn’t decided if it wanted to swallow or speak.We hadn’t gone far before I heard a voice, not spoken with words but slipped like smoke into my thoughts.The Walking Dead Queen.It echoed, reverent and amused all at once. I froze.The goddess in fl