MasukThe heat inside the lower hold was unbearable. Massive iron boilers hissed and groaned on all sides, piping red-hot steam through the cramped, narrow gangways of the warship's belly. The ambient hum of the vessel's primary engine vibrated straight through the soles of our tactical boots, rattling the heavy brass pressure gauges along the walls.At the far end of the lowest deck sat the heavy, double-locked door of the primary powder magazine—a vault containing enough high-grade incendiary shells to level our entire territory."Ten seconds on the lock," Soren gasped, his face slick with sweat and black coal soot as he pressed his palms flat against the vault's central iron seal. His blue witch fire crackled wildly against the spell-forged deadbolts, melting the heavy iron tumblers into glowing slag. Beside him, Cade kept his long rifle raised, covering the narrow steel gangway behind us where the sound of heavy, armored boots echoed down the iron stairwell."They're coming down the r
The captured landing barge thrashed against the churning ocean swells, its steel hull groaning under the strain of its forced speed. Thick, sulfurous black smoke billowed from the stern exhaust as Brecken wrestled with the iron helm. His knuckles were raw, his muscular frame locked against the heavy vibration of the diesel engine. The sea mist whipped across the open deck, freezing as it hit our clothes, but none of us felt the cold.Out in the open channel, the Shadow Court’s flagship—a terrifying, six-story ironclad warship—loomed through the darkness like an aquatic fortress."Two minutes until we hit their starboard flank!" Cade shouted over the roar of the engines and crashing waves. He was crouched behind the bow plating, racking the bolt of his rifle. "They’ve spotted us! Heavy turrets are rotating, but they can't depress the barrels low enough to hit us at this angle!""They don't need heavy guns for close range," Lucian said, standing on the edge of the iron gunwale with his
The sea breeze coming off the jagged black rocks of Iron-Clad Cove didn’t smell like water; it smelled like grease, wet wool, and old iron. By three in the morning, the rain had backed off into a mean, needles-in-your-skin drizzle. Down on the rocky shore, eighty yards from where the high tide chewed on rusted pylons, our forward scouts were squatting behind a low wall of stacked sandbags. Nobody was talking. Every wolf there had their mouth clamped tight, the scent of high-octane diesel from our idle scout trucks mixing with the sharp, copper sting of tense adrenaline.I leaned against the cold side of an overturned freight container, pulling a fresh length of cloth around my left palm to cover the gash I’d cut back at the dam. My skin felt hot beneath the rag—not the sick heat of an infection, but that stubborn, low-register simmer that always sat in my blood whenever the four Alphas were close by.Brecken was forty feet to my left, his back to the fog, talking in low, clipped grun
The black armored scout vehicle roared down the narrow, unpaved mountain rally track, its tires spewing mud and loose gravel into the dark ravine below. Thick, icy fog clung to the pine trees, blinding us as we took hairpin turns at sixty miles per hour. Above us, the mountain peak was entirely engulfed in dark storm clouds, but down in the valley below, the distant blue glow of our home perimeter wall flickered faintly through the rain.Brecken was behind the wheel, his broad hands locked onto the leather grip, his golden Alpha aura flaring faintly against the dark dashboard."Sixty minutes until Doctor Vance empties his inventory into the central intake pipe," Cade said from the passenger seat, his tablet displaying a live thermal scan of our home valley's water treatment facility. "I’m trying to ping Thomas on the secure frequency, but the mountain terrain is choking out our radio relays.""Keep trying," I said from the back seat, adjusting my tactical harness and checking the sil
The rain had finally tapered off into a cold, clinging mist that settled over the Sovereign Plaza. On the northern bridge, Marshal Krane’s surrendered troops were disarmed, zip-tied, and loaded into the back of our transport trucks under the strict watch of fifty pack fighters. The news had spread down the highway like wildfire: Minister Vane was dead, the Northern and Eastern provincial vanguard legions had surrendered, and the city’s perimeter was completely locked under the golden warding of the Tribrid line.By three in the morning, the High Assembly Hall was functioning as our central staging ground. In the grand main hall, pack wolves from the lower districts were hauling away the debris from the earlier battle, setting up emergency field hospitals, and organizing supply lines to distribute rations to the civilian districts that Vane had starved during the siege.I stood on the elevated balcony overlooking the main floor, resting my hands against the marble balustrade. My tact
The storm over the Capital Court peaked as two hundred armed outer-pack wolves rolled into the city perimeter. Equipped with high-grade tactical vests, heavy automatic rifles, and silver-tipped blades from the Royal Armory, the militia no longer looked like an scattered group of survivors. They moved like a disciplined military vanguard, taking up strategic positions behind concrete barriers, overturned transport trucks, and marble pillars along the city’s outer edge.I stood on the high stone parapet above the Northern Bridge, my black tactical coat snapping violently in the icy wind. Beside me, Cade lay prone on a waterlogged camouflage tarp, his heavy sniper rifle resting on a steel bipod, his scope locked onto the dark highway stretching north into the fog.Down on the bridge deck, Brecken stood alone before a wall of heavy iron tank-traps, his twin broadswords planted firmly into the wet asphalt. Behind him, fifty newly armed pack wolves waited in dead silence, their weapons rai
He didn't get to finish. Not because he changed his mind. Because halfway through the first sentence about my father, a sound cut through the house that nobody else seemed to notice.A heartbeat.Not mine. Not even his of course he didn't have one I could track properly, just this low slow thing th
Gareth was already in the car the light of the SUV kept flashing through my eye's. Chants kept replaying on my head. My witch side has been quiet but observing. Showing things that might take forever to figure out. My wolf curled inside me. My vampire side kept raging. An urge to something or someo
I had passed out on the floor after the three natures tried to tear me apart. When I woke up, I was back on the bed. My heart was beating too fast. It would not slow down. I felt like I had an extra heart. The sunlight was already up and my clothes were different from the previous day. I lifted the
Hearing about the rumours in the pack makes me feel like I will never belong anywhere. Why does Alpha Brecken look at me with so much compassion in his eyes? Something inside me wanted him so badly I could have kissed him right there and then. But then I remembered. I just got rejected and my Tribr







