LOGINZORYAThe city turned against me without warning.One moment I was crossing the lower concourse of Lunaris—stone bridges, glowing sigils embedded in the streets, the comforting thrum of wards beneath my feet—and the next, the air shifted. The sound vanished first. Then the light bent, shadows stretching unnaturally long.My wolf snapped to attention.Trap.I barely had time to pivot before the ground erupted.Shadow wolves poured from the cracks between stones—wrong things, half-formed, their bodies made of smoke and hunger, eyes burning with borrowed Alpha magic. Chains followed, forged of enchanted silver-black metal, snapping around my wrists and ankles before I could fully summon my power.I cried out as the restraints locked, draining warmth, tugging at the bond like hooked claws.“No—!”The bond flared in response.Pain lanced through my chest as something pulled—not ripping, but siphoning. Drawing power outward through me like I was a conduit instead of a person.Kaelen.I felt
ZORYAI didn’t sleep.None of us did.By unspoken agreement, we gathered in Kai’s secure planning suite just before dawn—steel, glass, wards humming softly beneath the floor. It was the one place in Lunaris where strategy felt heavier than instinct. Where thinking could, at least briefly, outrun blood.I stood at the center of the room, arms folded, trying to steady the restless energy coiling in my chest.“We stop reacting,” I said. “That’s the first rule.”Ares leaned against the wall, arms crossed, jaw set like stone. “You don’t react when someone circles you like prey.”“I do when I refuse to be bait,” I shot back.Finn, sprawled across a chair like he didn’t feel the tension clawing at the air, lifted a brow. “She’s right. Kaelen wants us snarling at shadows while he moves the board.”Gunner paced, boots heavy against the floor. “I’d rather tear his throat out.”Kai’s voice cut through us all—calm, precise. “And that is exactly why you won’t.”Silence fell.Kai activated the proj
ZORYAThe air between Kaelen and me felt charged long after Finn pulled me away.Even once the gala noise swallowed us again, even once I was safely surrounded by light and laughter and the subtle press of power, I couldn’t shake the echo of his words—or the way my wolf had reacted, not with curiosity, but with a sharp, instinctive recoil.Later, when the evening finally fractured into goodbyes and false smiles, Kaelen found me one last time.Not cornering me.Not touching me.Just standing beside the tall windows overlooking Lunaris, moonlight painting his profile in silver.“You handled yourself well tonight,” he said mildly. “You listened more than you spoke. The Council noticed.”“I didn’t come here for praise,” I replied.“No,” he agreed. “You came because you feel it. The pressure. The way the world leans toward you.”My jaw tightened. “You’ve been saying things like that since the beginning.”“Because they’re true.”I turned to face him. “Then say what you mean.”For the first
ZORYAThe invitation arrived sealed in silver wax, my name etched in elegant script that shimmered faintly when I tilted it toward the light.Zorya Veylor.You are cordially invited to the Lunar Council Gala.Attendance requested. Confidential seating arranged.My stomach tightened.The Lunar Council Gala wasn’t just another university event. It was power on display—senior faculty, council members, visiting Alphas, political wolves whose decisions shaped Lunaris from behind marble walls and gilded smiles.And it was exclusive.Too exclusive.Kaelen stood across my desk when I finished reading, hands folded behind his back, posture relaxed in a way that set my instincts on edge.“You earned this,” he said smoothly. “Very few students are ever invited, much less personally requested.”“I noticed,” I replied carefully. “You didn’t mention my mates.”His lips curved, slow and deliberate. “The council requested your presence as an individual, Zorya. Not as an extension of four Alphas.”The
ZORYAThe cracks didn’t appear all at once.They crept in quietly, like hairline fractures in glass—easy to ignore until the whole thing shattered under pressure.It started the morning after the exam incident.Kai was unusually silent at breakfast, his attention divided between his tablet and me. Finn cracked jokes that fell flat. Gunner watched the windows like he expected something—or someone—to crash through them. Ares stayed close, his hand at my lower back, possessive in a way that felt both comforting and sharp.I tried to pretend it was just nerves.Then the whispers started.“You didn’t hear it from me, but Professor Drayke said—”“I heard one of her Alphas pulled strings to get her out of disciplinary review.”“No, apparently it was another Alpha. The rogue one.”“I thought it was Kai. He’s faculty-adjacent.”By noon, the rumors had taken shape—ugly, specific, and devastatingly targeted.Someone had filed a confidential report suggesting that one of my mates had tampered wit
ZORYAThe exam was supposed to be routine.That was the first lie.I felt it the moment I stepped into the eastern examination wing—an old structure carved partly into the mountain stone, used for advanced Lunar Law simulations. The air was too still. The wards hummed at the wrong pitch, vibrating against my wolf like a warning bell struck underwater.My wolf paced inside me, uneasy.“Stay sharp,” I murmured to myself as students filed in around me, murmuring nervously. This wasn’t a written exam. It was a scenario-based assessment—reactive law, emergency protocols, energy containment. High stakes, but nothing we hadn’t trained for.At least, that’s what we were told.The doors sealed with a heavy thud behind us.The light shifted.And then the screams started.A pulse of corrupted lunar energy ripped through the chamber, throwing students off their feet like rag dolls. The illusion wards shattered instantly—this was no simulation. Shadow-forms bled through the cracked sigils, malform







