INICIAR SESIÓNJAX'S POVThe energy on the training grounds had completely changed over the last twenty-four hours, and I hated every single second of it.Ever since that mysterious old man vanished from the throne room into the morning fog, Lena’s presence had taken on a heavy, suffocating weight. It wasn't just something you could see; it was an invisible wave hitting the basic instincts of every single wolf in the estate. The pack dynamics were fracturing right before my eyes.The female warriors were becoming openly hostile. Whenever Lena walked past the weapon racks, they would stop what they were doing, tracking her with hard, glaring eyes, their lips peeling back over their teeth in low, bitter growls. To them, she was a threat to their hierarchy. But the reaction from the male wolves was what really made my blood boil. They were acting strangely protective, stepping too close into her personal space during drills, drawn to her like she was some kind of magnetic force they couldn't figh
LENA'S POVI couldn’t take my eyes off the man who had just stepped out from the shadow of the throne. He wasn't the monster I expected and as the seconds ticked by, the heavy feeling of danger in the room began to break.He didn't look like an enemy. He looked like someone who had survived a war that everyone else forgot."You're looking for monsters in the dark, Lena," the stranger said in a rough. "But you're looking in the wrong direction."Jax shifted balance onto the other foot. His jaw was hard, completely ready to fight. "Step back," Jax warned amidst a growl. "Tell us who you are before I take your head off."The man didn't even look at Jax. He kept his eyes on me. His gaze was deep, tired, and full of a strange, sad familiarity."She doesn't remember," the stranger murmured with a faint smile. "Of course she doesn't. They did their job well.""Who are you?" My voice was barely a whisper, but it cut through the silence."I am the reason you are still breathing," he said sof
LENA'S POVThe night before the eclipse seemed odd in a way I couldn’t explain. The entire night was muted as if the world was holding its breath too long and forgetting how to exhale.The estate had turned into a fortress overnight. Barricades were reinforced, patrol routes doubled, sentries were posted at every blind corner. Even the air felt heavier, like the walls themselves were bracing for impact.Jax didn’t leave my side for once. He stood behind me as I walked the upper corridors, his presence close enough that I could feel him before I saw him.“Your guards are nervous,” I said without turning.“They should be,” he replied.I glanced back at him. “That doesn’t help me feel better.”His jaw tightened slightly. “It’s not meant to.”That was the problem with Jax lately. He wasn’t lying to make things easier anymore. He was telling the truth like it was a weapon. We stopped at the central balcony overlooking the lower courtyards. Warriors moved like shadows below us. Everythi
DANTE'S POVOpened across three screens in my office were Diana’s corrupted file. The data had taken me days to decode.At first it looked like nonsense, but Diana never left nonsense behind, she only left traps, and instructions disguised as chaos.I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my temples.“Talk to me, Diana,” I muttered under my breath.As if she could answer, as if the dead ever did.The file finally stabilized after I ran the last decryption layer, and everything clicked into place at once.My eyes moved slowly across the screen, tracking shell companies, hidden subsidiaries, and internal Blackthorn travel records that should never have existed in the same dataset. Yet there they were, interlinked and entirely deliberate. My stomach tightened. This wasn't random data corruption. This was mapping. Someone hadn't been attacking Blackthorn from the outside; they had been building a network from within, guiding the blade from the inside out.Standing up, I walked over to t
LENA'S POVI never expected to be the one demanding peace, especially not after all the blood, the lies, and the graves. Yet, three days after the Hunter's warning, I was standing in the war room and staring at maps covered in red markers.None of those markers belonged to Blackthorn, and none belonged to Kingshade.Instead, they belonged to something worse: the hunter syndicates.For years, these hunters had hidden in the shadows, making money from conflicts between wolf territories. While Blackthorn and Kingshade destroyed each other, the syndicates grew stronger. Now, they were moving openly. Entire settlements had vanished, scouting teams were disappearing, and supply routes were under attack. The reports arriving every hour painted the same picture. They were not preparing for small raids; they were preparing for a war against everyone.Dante was sitting across the table with his arms folded while Jax remained beside me, silently. The familiar warmth of his presence stead
CALLUM REYES POV The fortress of Kingshade had survived three wars, multiple famines, blood feuds, and Alpha rebellions. I told everyone who would listen that it would survive whatever was coming next. But the truth was far less comforting. While standing on the highest balcony of the keep, I watched hundreds of warriors training below. Preparations were accelerating because war was already coming. The distinction mattered. Blackthorn thought they were preparing for a standard invasion, but they were wrong. They were preparing for an awakening. And those were two entirely different beasts. I closed my eyes, tightening my fingers against the stone railing. Even now, after all this time, the memory of Diana remained entirely intact. It wasn't fading or weakening; it was just waiting, like an old wound that never truly healed. Most people believed Diana Blackwell had been the great mistake of my life. They were wrong. She had been my greatest joy and my greatest terror. The
JAX'S POVI couldn't sleep, I got to find out that Mother had been improsoned, it was better than executing her for the crimes she has committed.Still every time I closed my eyes, I saw my mother's face through the bars of that underground cell with a smile on her face. The smile bothered me mor
LENA'S POVSomething was deeply wrong with me. I was now waking up every morning with itches all over my body as though something buried underneath my skin was waking up. The second sign was the heat. I woke up drenched in sweat for the third night in a row.My sheets were tangled around my legs
DANTE'S POVEveryone wanted Vivienne dead, only the council wanted her head displayed at the gates.Who could blame them? The evidence against her was overwhelming. She had been feeding information to Kingshade for years. Men had died because of those secrets. And then there was the time she tried
JAX''S POVI didn't recall leaving my father's office.One moment I was standing there listening to Dante explain what Vivienne had confessed, The next moment, I was outside, walking, breathing heavily, trying not to tear the entire estate apart.The cold night air did nothing to cool the rage bo







