MasukChapter 369SHAWNThese five-year-olds were the strangest children I'd ever met."Why did you come out here alone?" Samuel asked, his voice gentler now. "Without telling anyone where you were going or what you were planning?"I hesitated, not sure how to explain the tangle of fears and doubts that had driven me into the woods."I didn't want to hurt anyone," I said finally. "My power—it's not like Lake's portals or Lyn's gravity manipulation. It's not controllable or reversible. When I hit someone, they're just... gone. Completely. And I was scared that if I lost control, if something startled me or I got angry, I might accidentally hit one of the kids. Or you. Or anyone else in the house."Silvia and Samuel exchanged a look I couldn't quite interpret."So you came out here to practice," Silvia said. "To figure out your limits and learn control. Without asking for help or supervision because you didn't want to risk hurting anyone.""Yes," I said, feeling defensive. "Is that wrong?""I
Chapter 368SHAWNI kept going. Forty-seven. Forty-eight. Fifty.Still no fatigue. No sense that I was depleting reserves or using up some finite resource.Was this sustainable? Could I do this indefinitely? Or was there a wall I'd hit eventually, some point where my body would give out or the magic would fail?I needed to know. Needed to understand this power that had manifested so suddenly, that had changed everything about what I thought I was capable of.Fifty-five. Sixty. Sixty-five.The forest around me was starting to look like a war zone. Trees reduced to stumps, craters dotting the landscape, the smell of ozone and burned wood thick in the air.Seventy. Seventy-five.A small part of my brain registered that this was probably not great for the local ecosystem. But the larger part was too focused on testing limits, on pushing myself to see where the breaking point was.Eighty.That's when I noticed the smoke.Not from the individual trees I'd been targeting, but from a spreadin
Chapter 367SHAWNI stood at the edge of the forest behind Alpha Xenois's house, trying to process the fact that my entire life had changed in less than seventy-two hours.Three days ago, I'd been a runaway werewitch with no home, no family, and no future. A kid who'd spent his entire life hiding what he was, suppressing his magic, pretending to be a normal werewolf just to survive.Now I was apparently being adopted by legendary territorial war veterans who'd decided I was worth keeping.I'd overheard Silvia and Samuel talking that morning—not on purpose, I just happened to be passing by the office when I heard my name mentioned. They were discussing lawyers, paperwork, making it official. Making me officially their son.Which meant I'd be Xenois's stepbrother.Stepbrother. At seventeen years old, I'd suddenly have a twenty-six-year-old stepbrother who was also an alpha, who'd lost his sister five years ago, who probably had feelings about his parents adopting a random werewitch teen
Chapter 366LUMINA"I'm terrified," Lyn admitted."That's normal," I assured him. "I was terrified when I found out about the twins. Terrified of pregnancy, of childbirth, of being responsible for tiny humans who would depend on me for everything. And then Riley got kidnapped at birth and I didn't even get to hold him, and that was a whole different kind of terror. But Lyn? Despite all the fear and complications and absolute chaos, having my children was the best thing that ever happened to me.""Even with everything you went through?""Even with everything," I confirmed. "Because they're mine. They're part of me and Xenois. They're proof that love can create something beautiful even in the middle of darkness."Lyn wiped at his eyes, clearly fighting tears. "How do I tell Zade? How do I even start that conversation?""Honestly and directly," I said. "Tell him exactly what you told me. That you're not certain but you think something might be different. That male werewitch pregnancy is
Chapter 365LUMINAI moved to sit on the bed again, my legs suddenly feeling unsteady. "Okay. Okay, let's back up. Start from the beginning. Does Zade know about this possibility? That male werewitches can... can get pregnant?"Lyn shook his head, still hovering near the door like he might need to make a quick escape. "No. It's very rare. Like, extremely rare. And it's been a secret kept by werewitches for a very long time. There was no reason to tell him. Or maybe there was a reason not to tell him. I don't know. The pack might not accept this. Other packs definitely won't accept this. It's complicated.""Complicated," I repeated faintly. "That's one word for it."My mind was racing, trying to understand the implications of what he was telling me. Male pregnancy. In werewitches. A secret kept hidden for generations.And Lyn thought it might be happening to him."How rare are we talking?" I asked, latching onto the practical details because my brain needed something concrete to proce
Chapter 364LUMINAThe strategy meeting had barely ended when Lyn grabbed my arm with surprising force and practically dragged me toward one of the guest rooms. I barely had time to exchange a confused glance with Xenois before we were in the hallway, moving fast enough that I had to jog to keep up."Lyn? What's going on?" I asked, but he didn't answer. Just kept pulling me along with single-minded determination that was completely unlike his usual calm, measured demeanor.We reached a guest room at the far end of the hall—one of the ones we kept for overflow visitors, rarely used. Lyn pushed me inside and immediately closed the door behind us.Then locked it.The click of the lock engaging sent alarm bells ringing through my head."Okay, now you're freaking me out," I said, watching as he leaned against the door like he was blocking an escape route. "What's wrong? Is someone hurt? Is there new intelligence about Jerome? Did something happen with—""I need to talk to you," Lyn interru







