MasukRAVENThe world was quiet after the storm. Too quiet.Smoke still curled up from the ruins of what had once been our home… our territory, our war, our nightmare. The earth was soaked with blood and rain, and for a long while, I just stood there, watching the dawn crawl across the wreckage. The sky bled from black to gray to gold, a slow kind of mercy after the night we’d survived.Kieran stood a few feet away, his back to me, shoulders bare and bruised, his body still trembling from the change. Even like that, covered in dirt, blood, and loss; he looked unbreakable. Unforgiving. And mine.When he turned, his eyes found me instantly, like they always did. There was exhaustion there, and grief, but also something gentler… something that made my chest ache.“You should sit,” he said quietly, his voice rough.I shook my head. “If I sit, I won’t get up again.”A small smile tugged at his lips. “Then don’t. Stay standing. You always did like proving me wrong.”I walked toward him slowly, th
KIERANThe sky burned red with fire and fury when the first roar split the air. The ground trembled beneath our feet, the scent of blood already thick before the first body hit the dirt. My claws ached for release, my wolf pacing restlessly inside me, snarling to be freed. And then I saw them…Lucian’s men, pouring into our territory like a plague. A dark tide of betrayal and vengeance.“Alpha, they’ve broken through the eastern line!” Jax shouted over the chaos, his voice hoarse.“Hold them!” I barked, turning as a massive black wolf lunged at me. I caught it midair, slamming it to the ground with a snarl. My claws tore through flesh before I even realized what I was doing. The copper tang of blood filled my mouth, and something inside me snapped.Lucian’s laughter echoed from the ridge. “You should’ve stayed hidden, Kieran! You were never meant to lead!”I bared my teeth, my chest heaving. “Then come down here and see if you can take my crown, coward!”He didn’t move… but his men did
LUCIANI knew things would go awry sooner or later, especially if I didn’t find a way to break into Kieran’s pack. Every day that passed, he and his men were getting stronger…more organized, more ruthless; and if I didn’t move soon, they’d bring the war straight to my doorstep. I could already feel it like a storm brewing in the distance. That thought alone was enough to keep me pacing in my office long after midnight, my hands clenched so tight that my knuckles cracked.“Lucian,” Markus said from the doorway, his tone cautious, “you’ve been at this for hours. You need to rest before you burn yourself out.”I shot him a glare, half tired and half irritated. “Rest? You think I can rest when Kieran’s planning something? He’s been gathering rogues…strong ones too. And the spy we sent? He never made it back alive. You think that's a coincidence?”Markus sighed, stepping fully into the room. “You’re seeing ghosts again. Maybe he’s just guarding his borders tighter. It doesn’t mean he’s pla
KIERANThey came to me in the night because that was the way of it…men in oilskins and furs, faces half-swallowed by shadow, voices that never rose above the low tones of wolves on the hunt.“Alpha,” Marcellus said, when the door closed and the candles guttered low. “Lucian moves like a fever across the borders. He’s coaxing your enemies, stirring up rogues. The scouts saw him with Raven’s banner on his hip.”I let the name roll in my mouth like a stone. Lucian. He had the audacity of fire: always two steps from cinder, always close enough to scorch.“Raven?” I asked slowly. “You mean the woman who crawled from under my own men’s boots and lived to whisper at taverns?”“Aye.” Marcellus thumped the table. “And he’s using her. They say she promised him…” He stopped because there were rules to how much a man could say when the Alpha’s temper could tilt the world.“Promised what?” I demanded. My voice was steady, but inside something like a wire pulled taught.“Promises are knives that cu
RAVENI’d been pacing the edge of the northern woods when the news reached me. A scout…mud-splattered and trembling, came running through the trees, his chest heaving. The look in his eyes told me everything before he even opened his mouth.“They let him go,” he gasped.For a moment, I didn’t move. The wind shifted, carrying the scent of pine and blood…faint, but there.“What do you mean they let him go?” I asked, my voice calm, though the tension in my jaw betrayed me.He swallowed hard. “Alpha Kieran’s men… they released the spy. Left him at the border…half dead, Alpha. He’s barely hanging on.”My hands clenched at my sides. I felt that familiar heat crawl up the back of my neck…the one that came every time Kieran reminded me who he was. He didn’t kill the spy because he wanted to send a message. I knew him too well. Death would’ve been mercy.“Where is he now?” I asked tightly.“With Lucian’s healers,” the scout replied. “They say he might not make it through the night.”I turned a
ROWENAI was stacking plates by the counter when I heard two of the kitchen maids whispering by the hearth. Their voices were low, but sharp enough to cut through the clatter of pots and the hiss of the simmering stew. I tried to ignore them at first…Kieran’s business was his, not mine…but something in their tone made me pause.“Did you hear what happened to that spy?” one of them, Mara, whispered, glancing around before leaning closer to the other girl.“Alpha Kieran let him go. Said he wasn’t worth killing.”“What? Let him go?” the other gasped. “After what he did?”I stilled, my hands hovering over the stack of plates. Let him go? That didn’t sound like Kieran at all. He wasn’t known for mercy…especially not when it came to rogues sent by Lucian.Mara shook her head quickly. “No, not like that. They left him half dead, apparently. The guards said the man could barely crawl when they dumped him by the eastern border.”My breath hitched slightly, and I forced myself to keep wiping th







