로그인I felt their eyes on us the moment we entered the council chamber, trailing over the mark I'd left on Lukas's neck; a visible claim that violated centuries of tradition. Their scents spiked with disapproval, a bitter tang that filled the air as Lukas and I moved in perfect synchronization toward the two chairs positioned at the head of the massive redwood table. My emerald gown whispered against the stone floor, the sound too loud in the weighted silence. Three decades of tradition dictated t
I woke to the sound of Lukas’s voice, low and controlled in the way that meant he was keeping a leash on his temper. My eyes stayed closed out of habit more than necessity—years of servant life had taught me the value of listening before being seen—and the medical wing resolved around me through sound alone: the steady beeping of monitors, the soft rustle of fabric, Dominic’s gravel voice answering Lukas with the particular precision of a man delivering bad news.“The rogue isn’t talking to me or Nico,” Dominic was saying, each word clipped with frustration. “Whatever Sera did to him, it left enough of him intact to recognise an enforcer when he sees one. He clams up the moment either of us enters the room.”Lukas made a sound that wasn’t quite a growl. “We need answers, Dominic. The blood moon…”“I’m aware of the timeline, my King.”I opened my eyes and stretched my neck, feeling the pop of vertebrae tha
The water hit my back like a physical blow, too hot by any reasonable standard but exactly what my exhausted body needed. I braced my forearms against the shower wall and let my head hang between my shoulders, water sluicing down my spine in sheets that turned the bathroom into a steam-filled cavern. Four days without proper sleep had left me running on something beyond exhaustion, a hollow, buzzing alertness that made every sensation too sharp and every thought too slow.I’d been standing there for—minutes? longer?—when Lily’s presence brushed against my mind. Not words. Just images, pushed through our tenuous connection with the particular lack of finesse that was pure Lily: Amelia, awake, propped against her pillows with one wrist still cuffed to the bed rail but the other free, a glass of water balanced carefully in her freed hand. She was rolling her eyes at something I couldn’t see, her copper hair falling around a face that had colou
Sleep pulled at me like a tide, dragging me under then releasing just enough to let me taste the surface before dragging me down again. My body felt wrong, heavy in a way that had nothing to do with exhaustion and everything to do with the poison still working its way out of my system. Each time I surfaced, the world resolved a little more sharply, the beeping of the heart monitor a constant I’d learned to track through the fog.The last time I’d woken, Lukas had been there. Now the chair beside my bed was empty, but the imprint of his weight remained in the cushions, the scent of him clinging to the air like a promise.I reached for Athena without opening my eyes, testing the bond between us the way I might test a bruise. For days—or had it been weeks?—the connection had been thin, frayed at the edges, the familiar copper warmth of her presence reduced to the barest flicker. But this time, when I reached, something solid met me.She was there, coiled in the depths of our shared consc
The drugs held me beneath the surface, a current I couldn’t fight no matter how hard I kicked. Sera’s poison lingered in my veins like winter frost, numbing everything from the inside out. I could feel Lukas’s hand on mine – warm, solid, real – but reaching him meant swimming through layers of something thick and cold that pressed against my consciousness from all sides. My body existed somewhere distant, separate from the part of me that was still trying to surface. Voices drifted through the haze, none of them clear enough to catch. The steady beeping of machines, the rustle of fabric, a low murmur that might have been Lukas speaking. I tried to focus on his voice, to use it as an anchor, but the drugs kept pulling me under. Sera’s presence had left stains on my mind, cold fingerprints I couldn’t scrub away no matter how hard I tried. In the deepest part of my consciousness, where the human mind met wolf instinct, Athena paced. Her copper form was dim
The following day, I kept vigil at Amelia’s bedside, my hand wrapped carefully around hers as she slept. Her breathing had steadied, the awful rattling quality gone from each inhalation, but she still hadn’t woken. Her skin had lost that terrifying, deathly pallor, the natural warmth of her body returning as the worst of the Voice’s poison worked its way through her system. But her eyes remained closed, her copper hair spread across the pillow in tangled strands, and my heart remained lodged firmly in my throat.Elara had been in and out all morning, checking vitals, adjusting medications, her expression carefully neutral though I caught the concern in her eyes. The Elders from the southern packs had come too, three of them with silver-streaked hair and eyes that held centuries of knowledge. They’d conferred with Elara in hushed tones, examined Amelia with careful hands, then left with quiet promises to return later. Whatever they’d seen, whateve
The drugs burned through our body like liquid fire, trapping me beneath layers of consciousness I couldn’t penetrate. I pushed against the barrier between us, my copper fur standing on end with frustration as Amelia remained beyond my reach. Something was happening to her—something terrible—and I couldn’t get to her through the chemical haze that separated us.‘AMELIA!’ I howled, the sound echoing through the empty space of our shared mind. ‘FIGHT!’But she couldn’t hear me. The door between us remained firmly shut, slammed by whatever poison the Voice had forced into our system. I paced the confines of my prison, a sleek copper wolf with emerald eyes that matched my human’s, my powerful body trembling with rage and helplessness.Through the thin membrane separating us, I could see fragments of what was happening to Amelia. She was dreaming—no, not dreaming, trapped in some vision the Voice had created. She ran through a twisted forest, trees reaching for
My muscles burned with familiar pain as I circled Nico in the gym, sweat trickling down my spine despite the cool air. Twenty-four hours. That's all that remained before I would face Lysander in the arena. Twenty-four hours to prepare my body, my mind, my wolf for a fight that would determine not j
I watched, every muscle in my body coiled tight as a spring, as Nico suddenly moved toward Amelia. Three days of knowing she was training with my best fighters had done nothing to ease the knot in my gut. Ares paced within my mind, his golden presence radiating protective fury. 'Stop them,' he ur
Athena snarled within my mind, her presence surging forward with protective fury. 'Kill threat,' she growled, golden warmth flooding my veins with aggression. 'Tear apart. Protect mate. Protect position.' I kept my face carefully neutral. The parchment felt impossibly heavy in my hand, its formal
I hit the training mat hard enough to knock the air from my lungs, a familiar pain after three days of Nico throwing me around the royal gym. Sweat plastered my copper hair to my forehead and neck, my muscles screaming in protest as I forced myself to stand again. Athena growled her approval with







