LOGINI couldn’t stop looking at the photograph.The scratches across the man’s face were deep enough that the paper beneath had started to fray. Whoever did it hadn’t been in a rush. They had taken their time erasing him. My grandmother still stood clear in the image, younger than I ever remembered her, but the space beside her was ruined.Elias.I said the name quietly under my breath, testing the shape of it. I hadn’t spoken it in years. In my first life I had accepted the story everyone repeated — that he preferred solitude, that some people weren’t built for pack life, that he had simply chosen to leave. I never questioned it. I had been too busy trying to be useful.Mira sat on the floor near the window, knees drawn up. She had been quiet since I showed her the damaged photo.“You really don’t remember much about him?” she asked.“Fragments. He came around a few times when I was small. My grandmother always seemed tense when he was near. Then one day he was gone, and no one talked abo
~ Anya Vale ~I read the message again.The paper felt thin between my fingers, like it might tear if I held it too tightly. The handwriting was sharp, deliberate, and completely unfamiliar. No signature. No seal. Just the words, and the cold certainty behind them.*Stop searching for your grandmother’s inheritance. If you reach Ebonreach, the people who killed your family will know you are still alive.*Mira stood a few steps away, arms folded tight across her chest. She hadn’t spoken since I showed her the note. The silence between us felt heavier than the warning itself.“You’re not going to stop, are you?” she finally asked.“No.”“Anya—”“Someone killed them.” I looked up at her. “Or at least this person wants me to believe they did. Either way, they know about Ebonreach. They know about my grandmother. And they were confident enough to leave this where I would find it.”Mira exhaled hard through her nose. “That doesn’t mean you have to keep digging. What if they’re watching you
~ Anya ~I couldn’t stay here.The thought had been circling since I found the symbol under the chest, but now it sat solid in my chest. Blackthorn was a cage with familiar bars. Every hour I remained gave Garrick more time to tighten them.Mira sat on the edge of my bed, arms crossed, watching me pack. I wasn’t taking much. A change of clothes. The few coins I had kept separate. Nothing that would slow me down.“You’re actually doing this,” she said.“I have to.”“He already restricted you to the territory. If you leave without permission, he’ll treat it like a challenge.”“I know.”She dragged a hand through her hair. “Anya, listen to me. Whatever’s going on with you… this isn’t like you. You’ve always been the one who stayed and fixed things. Now you’re ready to walk into open hostility over a missing box and some old family mark?”I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. Mira had been the closest thing I had to real loyalty in this pack. In my first life, she had tried to war
~ Ronan ~The red marks on the map were spreading again.I stood over the table, staring at them, while the others waited. No one spoke. They knew better. The chamber was cold enough that their breath showed in the torchlight, but I barely noticed. I’d stopped feeling the cold years ago.Dante dropped another report on the wood. “Three more. Northern ridge and the old river settlements. Same as the others.”I picked it up. Unprovoked attacks. Wolves shifting halfway and not coming back. Some of them turning on their own pack members under weak moonlight. Eleven dead so far. Probably more that no one was reporting yet.“They’re still calling them territorial fights,” Dante said.“They’re wrong.”I traced the newest marks with my finger. No pattern that made sense on the surface. Different packs. Different regions. The only thing connecting them was the moon. Every time its light thinned, something slipped.“What about the lunar sites?” I asked.“Two scouts came back. The third one’s la
The box was gone.I stood in the center of my room and forced myself to look at the space again with colder eyes. The chest near the window had been opened carefully. Nothing else appeared disturbed at first glance, but the more I studied the room, the clearer the truth became. Whoever had searched it had known exactly what they wanted and where it was kept.In my previous life, that small wooden box had sat untouched for years. I had been too busy healing wounds, settling disputes, and trying to be the Luna everyone expected. I had never opened the sealed document inside. I had never studied the old pendant or the fragile pages written in my grandmother’s hand. I had treated it like a sentimental relic instead of a warning.Now it was missing, and the timing was too precise to be accidental.I dropped to my knees and ran my fingers along the floorboards near the chest. Dust clung to my skin. The wood was smooth from years of use, except for one small section that felt slightly uneven
The guards moved as soon as Garrick gave the order.Three of them stepped into my path before I could take a single step off the platform. Their faces were carefully blank, but their bodies blocked every possible exit. Around us, the pack whispered like a living thing. Some stared in open shock. Others looked at me with something closer to disgust, as if I had committed a crime by refusing their Alpha.Garrick remained on the stone platform, watching me with cold amber eyes. The polite mask he had worn for the ceremony was gone. What remained was the man who expected obedience and was already calculating how to force it.“You have embarrassed this pack,” he said, voice carrying easily over the murmurs. “You will explain yourself. Now.”I met his stare without lowering my gaze. “There is nothing to explain. I rejected the bond. That is the end of it.”A muscle jumped in his jaw. “You do not get to decide that a mating bond is finished simply because you woke up in a difficult mood. You







