MasukNalini I had volunteered to be a strategist because it felt safer than standing in the arena itself. Or maybe that was a lie I told myself to feel useful without being seen too clearly. Either way, the Academy’s Alpha Games turned the entire grounds into something feral and electric, and there was no hiding anywhere—not even on the strategist’s platform.The morning air had carried iron and dust, the kind that clung to the back of the throat. Wolves paced everywhere in half-shifted states, muscles coiled too tightly beneath skin, eyes glowing faintly with anticipation. The Alpha Games were not a tournament, not officially. They were training. Preparation. But everyone knew what they really were: a display of dominance, control, and restraint—or the lack of it.I stood with a slate pressed to my chest, fingers digging into the wood as if it could anchor me. Below, the field had been divided into zones—forest simulation, urban ruins, open combat ring. Each team rotated through them, te
Nalini I felt like I was walking through water when I returned to school.Everything around me looked the same—the stone arches, the banners snapping in the wind, the buzz of voices layered over one another—but I was not the same girl who had walked these halls weeks ago. My body still remembered ropes, darkness, the way fear tasted metallic at the back of my tongue. My wolf lay restless beneath my skin, no longer quiet, no longer small. She stirred at everything now. Sound. Emotion. Proximity.Especially them.I stepped through the academy gates with my bag clutched tight against my side, breathing carefully, deliberately, as if one wrong breath would make me unravel in front of everyone. Students slowed when they saw me. Some stared outright. Others pretended not to, whispering behind cupped hands. News traveled fast in a place like Silvermist—faster when it involved the Rudrah princes and the omega who had disappeared and come back wrong.I hated that word. Wrong.I wasn’t wrong.
Timothy She seemed smaller than the Nalini I’d seen in my dream, more human, more fragile. There were faint shadows under her eyes, like sleep hadn’t been kind to her lately. She wore one of Myron’s sweaters, the sleeves too long for her arms, the scent of him wrapped around her.The sight hurt more than I expected.But fear pushed past it.“I need to talk to you,” I said. My voice came out rougher than I intended. “Now.”Something in my tone must have warned her, because she didn’t argue. She nodded and led me further inside, sitting across from me on the couch. She folded her hands in her lap, waiting.That patience nearly broke me.I dragged a hand through my hair and exhaled slowly. “I had a dream.”Her brow furrowed. “A dream?”“It wasn’t just a dream,” I said. “It was… a vision. Or something close to it.”The bond stirred between us at my words, tightening slightly, like it recognized the truth even before she did.I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “I saw you. And Myron. An
Timothy I woke up choking on my own breath.For a few long seconds, I didn’t know where I was—only that my chest burned like something had clawed its way out of me and left scars behind. The sheets were twisted around my legs, damp with sweat, my hands shaking as if I had just come back from a fight I hadn’t finished.The dream clung to me.Not the vague kind that faded the moment consciousness returned, but the kind that rooted itself deep in the bones. The kind wolves remembered.In it, I stood in a place that didn’t exist anywhere on our maps—a vast white expanse beneath a sky split down the middle. Two moons hung above me instead of one, one silver and whole, the other cracked straight through the center like it had been struck by divine fury. Their light bled into each other, twisting, colliding.Between them stood Nalini.She didn’t look hurt. That was the worst part. She looked calm, glowing faintly, her wolf half-visible beneath her skin like starlight trapped in flesh. Two b
Myron I had always known danger wore a hundred faces, but I had never imagined one of them would be fear sitting quietly in Nalini’s eyes.She told me everything in a rush at first, words tripping over themselves, her hands clenched in the fabric of my shirt as if letting go would send her tumbling into something bottomless. Then she slowed, breath hitching, and forced herself to explain again—properly this time. Selene. Julie. The way their voices had dropped when they thought no one was listening. The words contamination and royal bloodline whispered like curses instead of concerns. The intent beneath them sharp enough to cut.I listened without interrupting, even though my wolf was already pacing, snarling, slamming itself against the inside of my ribs. Every instinct I possessed demanded blood, demanded protection, demanded I lock her away somewhere no one could ever reach her again. But I stayed still. I let her speak. I let her finish.When she was done, silence settled between
Nalini I had not planned to stay long.That was the lie I told myself as I stepped onto the familiar gravel path leading to the house that had never truly been mine. The air around it still smelled the same—old pine, damp earth, and something sour beneath it, like resentment that had soaked too deep into the walls to ever be scrubbed out. Myron had protested when I told him I needed to come. He had tried to hide it behind concern, behind logic, but I felt the tension coil in him the moment the words left my mouth.“I’ll be quick,” I had promised, pressing my palm to his chest, feeling the steady, grounding beat of his heart. “I just need a few things. Clothes. My books. I can’t keep borrowing yours.”He had looked at me for a long second, his jaw tight, eyes dark with something close to fear. “You don’t owe that place anything,” he had said quietly.Maybe not. But I owed myself closure. Or at least, that was what I thought.The front door creaked when I pushed it open, the sound cutt







