LOGINChapter 61 — The Festival’s Pulse Late afternoon settled over the festival grounds with a softer warmth, easing the sharp edge of the midday heat. The second day of the festival always shifted around this time—less structured competition, more wandering, more laughter, more wolves sprawled in the grass pretending they weren’t exhausted.I stood beneath the healer’s canopy, sorting supplies while Mother finished checking an elder’s knee. The tent was quieter now, the rush of injuries from the trials tapering off. My bruises ached, but they didn’t slow me. My hands stayed steady. My breathing stayed even.Sylvie stretched inside me, slow and loose, like she was finally letting herself relax.You’re not bracing, she murmured.“I’m trying not to.”Good.Mother handed the elder a salve and sent him off. She glanced at me. “You’re quieter.”“I’m fine.”Sylvie huffed softly. You’re not lying. That’s new.I didn’t answer her, but she wasn’t wrong.The festival smelled like roasted meat, pine
Chapter 60 — The Festival's Heartbeat Midday heat settled over the festival grounds like a warm blanket, thick enough to taste. The second day of the festival was always louder than the first—more games, more competitions, more bragging rights on the line. Younger wolves ran, leapt, and collided across the field with the kind of reckless enthusiasm only teenagers and early‑twenties wolves could manage.Aldrich stood beside me, arms crossed, expression carved from stone. He didn’t speak much during the trials. He didn’t need to. His presence alone kept half the younger wolves from doing anything catastrophically stupid.The other half… well, they were already trying.A boy from the Riverfang pack attempted a sprint start that looked more like a stumble. His wolf surged too early, claws scraping dirt, sending him face‑first into the ground. His friends howled with laughter.Aldrich exhaled through his nose. “Again.”The boy scrambled up, brushing dirt off his face. “Yes, Alpha.”I watc
CHAPTER 59 — Where Secrets Settle I woke before the sun finished climbing the wall.Not because I wanted to. Because my Drago wouldn’t let me stay asleep.He paced under my ribs, restless and unsettled, pushing at me with the same single‑minded urgency he’d had since last night.Her.I sat up slowly, rubbing my face. The pack house was quiet—too quiet for the morning after a festival, too quiet for the morning after an elder attack. The kind of quiet that settles only after fear has burned itself out and left exhaustion behind.I hadn’t taken a single hit. Not one bruise. Not one scrape.I arrived after the worst of it—after the elder broke and ran, after the orchard was torn apart, after the ground was cracked and the stones were split. I stepped into the aftermath, not the fight.But the mark under my skin didn’t care about timing.It sat there like a low hum, steady and present. Not painful. Not dangerous. Just… there. A truth waiting to be acknowledged.My wolf pushed again
CHAPTER 58 — RevelationsI awake the next morning stiff and sore from the night before. Sunlight gleamed through the window onto my pillow.I yawned and tried to stretch. My muscles protested at the attempt, so I quit trying to stretch.I felt Sylvie yawning and trying to stretch, which made me flinch.That hurt."Yes, it did," I said, my eyes still closed, half‑asleep.I heard a soft snore coming from my right.I opened my eyes to see my father sitting on the window seat, braced up against the wall, sleeping. The burn across his chest still red and angry looking.I smiled.Sylvie focuses on him and Ghost inside him.They protect us even in sleep.I look over toward the window. My mother is in bed beside me. Bruised but safe and sound asleep. Sula sleeping peacefully with her.I look back up at the ceiling of my room and close my eyes, smiling.Sylvie whispers in my head.They won't admit it. They did not want to leave you alone last night.I chuckle at what she said.That chuckle w
CHAPTER 57 — The Night Settles Around Our WoundsThe pack house was warm.Too warm compared to the orchard. Too clean. Too intact.It made the bruises feel louder.My ribs ached every time I breathed. My shoulder throbbed from hitting the ground. My legs felt shaky, like they weren’t sure they wanted to keep holding me up. My mother’s arm around me wasn’t gentle — it was steady, keeping me upright because she knew I wouldn’t ask.Sylvie stayed curled under my ribs, tail low, ears forward. Not braced for danger — just watching. Guarding. Settled.Dad sat at the kitchen table, shirt off, burn across his chest angry and red. Blood streaked down his arm, dried in places, fresh in others. He didn’t complain. Betas don’t complain.Elias sat beside him, leg stretched out, jaw clenched. His thigh was wrapped in a quick bandage. He looked like he wanted to pretend it didn’t hurt, but Dad kept giving him Beta looks that shut down every attempt.My mother checked my ribs again, fingers gentl
CHAPTER 56 — Dad Holds the LineThe scar stayed quiet.Not gone. Not dormant. Just quiet in a way that felt deliberate, like it had stepped back but not away. The warmth under my ribs wasn’t fading. It was holding. Waiting. Settling into a place that felt too intentional to ignore.Sylvie didn’t trust it.She stayed pressed under my ribs, ears forward, tail stiff, her entire body locked in a posture that meant she wasn’t convinced the silence was real. Her attention wasn’t on the scar now. It was on Adrian.Adrian stood exactly where he had been, posture grounded, shoulders squared, breathing steady. His wolf wasn’t snarling anymore. His aura wasn’t flaring. But his eyes… his eyes were still wrong. Not glowing. Not unstable. Just wrong. A color that didn’t belong to any wolf I’d ever seen.Aldrich stood a few feet away, aura low but wide, the way he held it when he needed to stabilize a room without crowding anyone. “Adrian. Report.”Adrian didn’t answer immediately.Jason didn’t







