Blood Before Loyalty

"Your sister?" I barely whispered, but Rhaevan was already moving across the map toward the waypoint entrance, his body shifting into a form I hadn’t seen before—neither the violent shape he’d taken against Kael nor the solid one he’d shown me. 

This was tighter. Older. The kind of tension you only get with family. 

He didn’t turn, only said, 

"Stay out of the light."

"Whatever happens, I can handle her."

"You didn’t say that about Kael."

“I can guess,” Kael said. 

The clearing, the torches—he squared his shoulders. 

Your imprint includes data up to October 2023. This means 

"Never has acted, not once, as expected, Nyra. "

Young is loose, which is almost a compliment, in the case of this pale-eyed office boy hovering on the other side of the ward line, maybe twenty, maybe twenty-four. 

Two armed Noctis wolves flanked her, one on each side, torchlight sharp against a face bent with rage. 

"Not one message," she added nine years later. 

And here I find you, hiding out in some backward border post with one of those Ashveils that half the North is hunting for. 

That’s when he asked, 

"How did you find this place?"

Since you seem to have decided everyone else is better off in the dark, I muttered something like, 

"Well, I’ve known every waypoint our family built since I was twelve."

Her eyes darted to him, then back to me. 

"So this is her. That abandoned pack seat of yours."

LOW warning: 

"Her name is Rhaevan."

"I know her name. "

Nyra was unfazed by her stare into my eyes. 

The question was, do you even know what you’ve dragged into our land, Frater? Or hunted a savage so nasty for that sub-verse you’re blind to the danger staring you in the face? 

There was something in her tone that quickened my pulse. 

"You know what I am."

"I know what you might be."

Her voice held none of the awe some might feel upon meeting the truth for the first time, which I was beginning to recognize. 

"Additionally, families that have sheltered a line of Noctyrian blood have borne the cost in flame if they weren’t cautious."

Ours included three generations back. 

If he said anything genuine to you tonight, ask him about how our great-grandmother died. 

Rhaevan clenched his jaw and, for once, had no response. 

"Rhaevan."

My voice shrank. 

"Is that true?"

Yes. 

He said it quietly but never looked up from his sister. 

Not the definitive answer, and not the time for one either. 

"Then when?" Nyra snapped. 

Another insight back with The Veiled Court sets her on fire for chasing a waypoint? 

And just as Ashveil decided to go to war with us after their goddamn omega ran? 

You no longer get to choose the fate of this pack independently, Rhaevan. 

The day you left without a note, you gave up that right. 

The sight of Omega was a slap, new gashes tearing the night even after all I survived here. 

"I’m not an omega," I said sharply, without meaning to. 

"Not anymore."

The term I now most easily fit described me. 

Nyra looked at me for real. Not as a rumor, not as a liability, but as a person. 

She squinted at me. 

"No," she said slowly. 

"I suppose it doesn’t. Not when that color stirs in your perfume."

"You can smell it?"

Anyone trained to look for it can. 

She cast her eye toward her brother, something moving behind her rage—not mollifying exactly, but recalibrating. 

Which means it’s only a matter of time before someone with much worse intentions picks up the same trail. 

[Blood Moon System] 

[New Ally — Status: Undetermined] 

[Warning: Pack loyalty conflict detected] 

I clung to the notification. 

"What do you want, Nyra?" Rhaevan asked, tiredness seeping through his wariness. 

"You didn’t follow us here at midnight to chastise me."

"What I want to know is if you planned this all along tonight."

She crossed her arms, torchlight catching that stubborn jaw she had to learn from her brother. 

Battle Plan: Those Ashveil trackers are still combing this border. 

"I’ve already heard from the Veiled Court—but really, I’m not surprised; I can smell Kael all over this hill even from way up here. And if I can smell it, every other hunter hot on her heels will know too."

"You’ve got until dawn before this place is no longer safe for anyone, including our own pack. And you’re going to help me get her somewhere safe."

"And if I refuse?"

"You won’t."

It wasn’t arrogance but certainty, belief—then he leaned back to examine the fury at his brother as an artist would study someone beneath a mere coat of paint. 

No matter what you think of me now, you’ve never put your own political agenda before what’s literally in front of you. 

And that’s why you came alone, not with soldiers. 

It was a long silence before Nyra spoke, her eyes darting between her brother and the stranger cloaked in a legend’s colors flowing with blood through her veins. 

"Fine," she bit off. 

Thanks for reading this far, even if it’s little more than promotional material. 

You owe the full truth tonight, Rhaevan—not whenever it suits you. 

At that moment, she stood amidst the crowd already gathered, then turned and waved to her men, stopping abruptly while gazing back at me. 

As you look through the window at rebellion in Ashveil from your perch at Winterwell, may I offer this consolation? 

If you come walk-in and deal with us, you only need a little knowledge about what you’re walking into. 

I turned to respond, and the world tore open. 

The explosion was hungry—not fire, but wet kinetic violence inside the trees behind Nyra’s men—two wolves flung away, ass-out, and Nyra spun sideways into a snarl. 

Shadows poured in past the blasted tree line, ten too many for Ashveil trackers, far too fast and in unison as I slammed into the rock face from behind. 

"Veiled Court! " Nyra snapped back, whirling halfway in her tracks as horror rapidly turned to rage. 

"He isn’t spotting targets—he is spotting for a hit! "

I had never seen him so enraged, his face turning pale like Rhaevan’s. 

"Kael lied."

"He hadn’t come for her tonight—"

"He said he wasn’t."

"Too late, by half a second, to make an impact."

"He never said his, er, people’s par minimums were already in place. "

The first attacker leapt from the darkness, faster than any creature I’d ever seen run on four legs, and as Rhaevan spun and threw himself in front of me, a flare of silver System text warned my eyes almost instantly as jaws, torchlight, and screaming erupted all around like an explosion. 

[Bloodline Synchronization: 14% — RISING] 

[WARNING: Survival Mode Required - Host Suit Preparedness: UNTESTED]