LOGINJax left the destroyed throne room and headed toward his own quarters. The citadel felt emptier than usual, echo-y in a way that had nothing to do with actual acoustics. Most of the staff had fled after Winter's disappearance, unwilling to deal with Ezekiel's deteriorating mood. Only the most loyal pack members remained, and even they kept their distance. His rooms were modest compared to Ezekiel's sprawling chambers. Just a bedroom, small sitting area, bathroom. Functional. Comfortable enough. He collapsed into the worn chair near his window and stared out at the moonlit courtyard below. Tomorrow night he'd meet Alice. Ask about Winter. Try to navigate the impossible situation of being loyal to his alpha while also trying not to start another war between species that had already destroyed each other once. ( When had his life become this complicated? He'd signed up to be beta, not a diplomatic negotiator between supernatural factions.) A knock on his door interrupted the brooding
Jax's mind spun through implications. If witches had taken Winter, that complicated everything. The witch enclaves were notoriously difficult to find, protected by layers of magical wards and geographical confusion. And if they'd specifically targeted Winter, that suggested they knew something about her heritage that Ezekiel didn't. (Or Winter had known all along. That possibility sat heavy in Jax's gut but he wasn't stupid enough to voice it.) "So we find the witches," Jax said. "Track them. Follow the magic." "Can't track magic." Ezekiel's frustration bled through every word. "Tried. Scouts tried. It disappears. Like they're not even there." This was the part Jax hated. The helplessness. Ezekiel was the strongest alpha in generations, cursed with power that made him nearly invincible, and he couldn't find one small woman with white hair. The irony would be funny if it wasn't destroying his alpha from the inside out. "We need a different approach," Jax said. Thinking out loud no
Jax had seen Ezekiel destroy furniture before. Chairs, mostly. The occasional table when pack disputes got particularly heated. Once, memorably, an entire bookshelf when a visiting alpha had made the mistake of questioning Ezekiel's authority during the blood moon.But this was different.The throne room looked like a battlefield. Shattered stone littered the floor where Ezekiel had ripped chunks from the walls. Deep claw marks gouged the ancient pillars. The massive oak table where the pack council usually gathered had been reduced to splinters. And in the center of the destruction, Ezekiel stood with his back to the door, shoulders heaving, both hands clenched into fists that still dripped blood.Jax cleared his throat. Carefully. "You know the masons are going to charge extra for this."Ezekiel's head turned slightly. Not enough to actually look at Jax, just acknowledging his presence. His profile was sharp in the torchlight, jaw set, golden eyes fixed on some distant point only
Alice studied Winter's face in the crystal light. Whatever she saw there made her expression shift into resignation. "You're going to do it anyway, aren't you?" "Maybe. I don't know." Winter pulled her hand back and wrapped her arms around her knees again. "Right now I'm just trying to get through each day without Olivia spreading new rumors or the Council deciding I'm too risky to keep around." "For what it's worth," Alice said quietly, "I don't think you're a spy. I think you're exactly what you look like. A girl caught in an impossible situation trying to figure out where she belongs." Levi had said almost the same thing. The repetition should be comforting but just made Winter feel more trapped. Everyone could see what she was (confused, divided, struggling), but no one had solutions. Just sympathy and warnings to be careful. "I should go back," Alice said reluctantly. "Jax is visiting tonight. we're having dinner together." That was new information. "Jax? The Alpha King'
Alice settled onto the floor across from Winter, her back against the opposite wall. The space was too small for comfortable distance, their knees almost touching. "Levi's worried. Says your training has been off. That you're distracted." "Hard to focus with an audience judging every shadow movement." "I know." Alice's voice went soft. "Olivia stirred up trouble and now everyone's watching you like you're about to betray us. It's not fair." Fair stopped mattering around the time Winter had been chosen as tribute. Life just happened, fair or not, and people dealt with the consequences. "I'm thinking about leaving," Winter said. The words came out before she'd consciously decided to speak them. "Not going back to wolves. Just......somewhere else. Somewhere no one knows what I am or cares about bloodlines and ancient feuds." Alice was quiet for a moment. "Do places like that exist?" Probably not. The war between witches and wolves had spread across territories, poisoning relat
Winter's chest hurt thinking about it."He told me I could leave," she said to the darkness. "That the gates weren't barred. And I almost believed him. Almost thought maybe he wasn't as terrible as everyone said."Then the witches had taken her. Rescued her, according to Sophia and Levi. But Winter hadn't wanted rescuing. Not really. She'd wanted time to understand what was happening between her and the Alpha King. Time to figure out if the mate bond was just biology or something more complicated.(She'd been outside in that forgotten garden. Fresh air and growing things. The first freedom she'd felt since arriving at the citadel. And Ezekiel had given her that freedom, even though it clearly cost him something to do it.)The memory of him at the fountain merged with the memory of him killing the wolves who'd tried to hurt her. Blood splattered across his face and chest, his golden eyes blazing with fury, his hands still dripping when he'd t
[Crescent Citadel, West Wing Garden, Late Autumn Afternoon, Three Days After the Storm]Winter had been walking the library garden for nearly an hour, her fingers trailing over the rough bark of the gnarled trees, her breath misting faintly in the cooling air. Gareth stood his usual post by the ir
He found himself moving, his feet carrying him through the darkened, storm lashed corridors of his own accord. He told himself he was just checking the citadel's defenses, ensuring the storm wasn't causing undue damage. It was a lie, and he knew it. He found her in a lower corridor of the West
She found him in the northern forge, just as Jax had described. It wasn’t a weapons smithy, but a smaller, private place. The air was hot and thick with the smell of metal and coal smoke. The forge fire burned low, casting the room in a hellish red orange light. He was standing by a quenching barr
“It’s just a cake, Snow,” Jax sighed. “It’s not going to bite.”As if summoned by the tension, the bond’s hum intensified slightly. Winter’s gaze flickered to the main door. The shadows in the small gap beneath it seemed to shift. He was out there. Listening.She stared at the cake, her stomach twi







