เข้าสู่ระบบAkira's ConfessionWe found her in the library the next morning, exactly where I'd expected, surrounded by the same stacks of old books she'd once led me through by candlelight, back when I still thought she was the only person in this pack keeping secrets from me."You know why we're here," Kieran said, before either of us had said a word of greeting.Akira set down the book she'd been reading, her expression giving nothing away, though something in the careful way she folded her hands told me she'd been expecting this conversation for longer than either of us had given her credit for."The eclipse," she said."Twenty-six days," I said. "You've known, and you never said a word.""Twenty-five, now," Akira said, and the correction landed like a small, cold stone dropped into my stomach. "And yes. I've known for weeks.""Why," Kieran said, his voice tightly controlled. "After everything else you've told her. The covenant, the prophecy, the bloodline. Why hold this back?"Akira rose slow
I found Kieran awake when I returned, standing at the same window in the entrance hall where we'd once stood together after the council first placed me under his protection, his silhouette dark against the pale moonlight pouring through the glass."You went out," he said, without turning around. "I felt you leave."My stomach dropped. "You felt me leave.""The bond isn't fully formed," he said, "but it's not nothing either, not anymore. I've felt small things shift since the clearing. Tonight I felt you cross the boundary of the castle grounds, and I made myself wait, because I trusted you had a reason, even if you hadn't told me what it was yet."I crossed the hall to stand beside him, close enough that our shoulders nearly touched, and I let out a long breath before I spoke."I need to tell you something," I said. "Several somethings, actually, and I need you to let me get through all of it before you react to any of it."He turned to face me then, and whatever he saw in my expressi
"It involves the eclipse."The word meant nothing for half a second. Then I remembered the old stories, the ones the maidens used to whisper about when they thought no elder was listening, about what happened to a pack when the moon disappeared and left the old magic without anything to answer to. Stories about wolves who shifted and never changed back. Stories about the dead walking for one full night before the light returned and put them back where they belonged.I hadn't believed most of it, growing up. Standing in that clearing with Kaiden's face gone pale in the moonlight, I found I believed all of it at once."What eclipse," I said, though some part of me had already started dreading the answer before I finished asking."There's a lunar eclipse coming, Rory. Soon." Kaiden's voice had dropped lower, careful, like he was measuring out how much of this I could hold at once. "Twenty-six days, if the founding families' astronomers have calculated correctly, and they usually have. Th
I didn't tell Kieran about the note.The decision sat heavy in my chest the entire walk back to the castle, heavier than it should have, given everything I'd already survived tonight. But some old, stubborn part of me needed this one thing to belong to me alone, some small piece of the choice that hadn't already been decided by a council, or a covenant, or a man who signed his threats with a single letter instead of a name."You've been quiet," Elara said, walking beside me through the dimly lit halls, her voice pitched low enough that the guards trailing a few paces behind us wouldn't catch it."I'm tired," I said, which wasn't a lie, exactly, even if it wasn't the whole truth either.She didn't push. I was grateful for that more than I could have said out loud.I waited until the castle had settled into something like sleep, the halls quieting, the guards at my door finally relaxing into the particular stillness of men who believed the danger for tonight had already passed. I waited
The doors closed behind Shane, and for a long moment nobody in the hall moved, as if the whole room had been holding its breath through the entire confrontation and only now remembered how to let it out.The presiding elder cleared his throat, and the sound seemed to break whatever spell had settled over the benches."With Alpha Gledova's claim dismissed," he said, "this council returns to the original matter of tonight's hearing. The standing of Aurora Devine Wood within this pack."I felt my stomach tighten all over again. Somehow, in the chaos of Shane's confrontation, I'd let myself forget that the actual question of my fate hadn't been settled yet, only interrupted, pushed aside by a bigger and louder danger that had, in its own strange way, done some of my arguing for me.Kieran stepped forward before the elder could continue. "Then let me speak plainly, so there's no confusion left in this hall by the time the vote is called. Rory is not a threat to this pack. She has fought fo
The ReckoningFor a long moment, nobody in the hall moved. Shane stood at the center of it, the summons stone still raised in his hand, its red glow suddenly looking less like a declaration and more like something exposed, caught mid-motion with nowhere left to hide."Every payment," Victor said again, letting the words carry through the silence he'd created, "traces back through three intermediaries to accounts registered under your seal, Alpha Gledova. I have copies. I have witnesses among your own former couriers, several of whom were more than willing to talk once they understood what you'd been planning to do with the girl you paid this council to hand over.""Lies," Shane said, but the word came out thinner than his earlier composure, less certain, and I watched the crowd hear the difference too."Then dispute it," Kieran said. "Here. Now. In front of this entire hall, with your own ledgers, if you have nothing to hide."Shane's eyes moved across the room, taking in the packed b
CHAPTER 5.He killed her.My body froze in shock, as I was suddenly being pulled away by some mighty hands. Swiftly, I was picked up like a piece of trash, and thrown into a large black van, which resembled an ambulance. Then, the journey began.As I sat behind that van in darkness, the wave of un
CHAPTER 4.Claimed by the mortuary attendant.The stench of decayed smell suddenly hit my nostrils. It was just so much to ignore. As I tried to open my eyes, I felt a direct sharp pain directly at the back of my head. Just then, the dawn of realization hit me."Where am I?" I mumbled in weakness.
CHAPTER 3.As I ran back to my abode with a heavy heart, the thoughts of what surrounded me seemed to overwhelm me. It felt like there was a big eye which was watching all my movements. "Run... Run... Run...!" My inner wolf growled from the inside, and I melted down in fear. This was just the seco
CHAPTER TWO.I was woken up by the sharp ray of sunlight directly on my eyes. "Are you okay?" I heard a blurry voice, and as I made to lift up my head, I felt a sharp ache on my head. My head was really hurting."Where am I?" I asked with an overwhelmed voice. "Stay still, Rory..." I heard Becky







