LOGINHi readers, What is waiting for Blake tonight?
Lyra's POV:The knock came again.Three times. Deliberate. Patient.Maya and I looked at each other in the specific way that two people looked at each other when they were both wearing significantly less clothing than was appropriate for receiving visitors and one of them had a father with wolves stationed outside the building."How fast can you move," Maya whispered."Faster than you apparently," I whispered back.We were already in motion. Maya grabbed the oversized t-shirt from the back of her desk chair and pulled it over her head in approximately one second. It covered everything that needed covering and then some, falling to mid-thigh, and she smoothed it down and shook her hair out and looked at me.I looked at myself.Black sports bra. Black boxer shorts."Dressing room," Maya said."Obviously," I said.I moved.The dressing room door was narrow and the interior was slightly cramped with both of our things in it from earlier and I folded myself behind the hanging clothes and p
Maya's POV:The dorm room was quiet when I came back from the forest task and closed the door behind me.Quiet was good. Quiet meant nobody was in the corridor asking questions about the scratches visible on my arms or the way I was holding my left side with slightly more care than usual. I had managed the task. I had done what was required under Rolf's leadership which had been efficient and cold and completely without warmth but professionally competent in a way I could not argue with.He had won.Of course he had won.I sat on the edge of my bed and looked at my arms.The scratches from the forest task were more than I had let on during the briefing. The terrain had been rough and Rolf's approach to navigation had prioritized speed over caution and I had taken two branches across the right forearm and one longer one across my left shoulder that was going to need proper cleaning. On top of last night's injuries which were mostly healed but still present in the specific way that heal
Alex's POV:The task briefing happened at the forest edge at ten sharp.Coach Vega stood at the boundary marker with a tablet and the expression he wore when he had designed something he found adequately challenging and was waiting to see if the people in front of him were going to prove him right.The four teams stood in loose formations behind their respective Alpha heirs. I could feel Leo Silver behind me without looking. His pack energy was familiar in the way that Silver pack energy was always familiar, clean and structured, but carrying underneath it the specific quality of someone who was acutely aware that he was standing behind the Alpha heir of the pack his boyfriend belonged to. Complicated was the correct word for that situation and I had agreed with Rafe's assessment and was managing it accordingly.Rolf stood to my left with his team and Maya was at his right shoulder and she was holding her posture with the specific deliberateness of someone who had decided their body l
Alex's POV:The dining hall smelled like eggs and coffee and approximately forty people pretending they had slept properly.I had not slept properly.I had slept for exactly ninety three minutes which I knew because I had looked at the clock when I lay down and looked at it again when my body decided ninety three minutes was apparently sufficient and woke me up with the cheerful efficiency of someone who had not received the memo about last night.I walked to the breakfast line.Every step communicated its feelings to me directly and specifically and I received the feedback with the expression of someone who was not going to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing it.The ribs were a three. The forearm was a two. Everything else was a comprehensive record of the previous twelve hours that I was going to have to carry through what was apparently a semifinal task day and I was going to do it without complaint.I collected a plate and moved toward a table.Each step.Every single one.I k
Blake's POV:I stared at it for exactly two seconds. Then I looked at Maya standing beside her. Then back at Lyra. Lyra's face was completely neutral, watching me.I could not help it. The smile started at the corner of my mouth and I let it go all the way."Interesting night, Lyra?" I said.Lyra raised one eyebrow. She looked unbothered. "We slept.""Sure," I said. "And that thing on your neck is a birthmark."Maya made a small sound that was absolutely a suppressed laugh. Lyra shot her a look and Maya pressed her lips together and looked at the trees with great interest."We are in a hurry," Lyra said flatly. "Can we move.""Absolutely," I said pleasantly. "Just saying. Good to know the night was productive for everyone."Lyra looked at me with that perfectly controlled face she always wore. Then her eyes moved. They dropped down from my face to Alex, and they landed on his jawline. Specifically on the left side of his jawline where I had apparently been less careful than I thought
Blake's POV:The moon had moved. I could tell by the way the light shifted through the north window, softer now, less sharp. The howling from earlier had completely stopped. The forest outside was quiet in that particular way it only gets just before dawn, when even the night creatures have gone still and the world holds its breath waiting for the sun.I was not sleeping.I had not slept at all.Alex was on my chest, breathing slow and even. His hair was a mess and his cheek was pressed flat against my skin. Every now and then he would shift slightly in his sleep, his hand curling tighter against my side like even in sleep he did not want to let go. I stared up at the wooden ceiling of the treehouse and traced the grain lines with my eyes and thought about nothing and everything at the same time.He said he loves me.That was the only thing my brain kept returning to, like a dog going back to the same warm patch of floor. Not the rest of it, not the competition waiting for us in a few
Blake's POV:I shoved him.Stupid. I knew it was stupid the second my palms connected with Alex's chest, the second I felt the solid wall of him barely budge an inch. But the anger had been sitting too hot behind my ribs for too long, and my body moved before my brain caught up.The silence that fol
Blake's POV:His knuckles rested against the leather, unhurried and knowing. Not moving. Just resting there like he wanted me to feel it. To understand exactly where this was going.My breath hitched so hard it must have been audible.And through the haze of the kiss, I felt him smile against my mou
Maya’s POV:The pass feels heavier than it should.It is just a card. Silver metal. A wolf engraved at the center with a faint thunder mark behind it. Selene had placed it in my palm earlier with a calm smile, as if she was handing me a library card and not permission to cross into one of the stron
Blake’s POV:The Academy canteen is loud today. Trays slide. Chairs scrape. Voices rise and fall like waves. I sit with my food untouched for a moment, staring at the steam curling up from the rice and grilled meat. My appetite is there, but my mind keeps drifting. It keeps going back to one place.







