Mag-log inROLAN'S POV I had always known betrayal would come from inside. It was never the outsiders I worried about. Enemies who screamed my name and threatened my borders were easy to crush. Predictable. Loud. Stupid. But the quiet ones? The ones who bowed with perfect posture and spoke with honey in their mouths? Those were the ones who made my fingers itch for blood. So when Curtis came into my office that morning, face stiff and jaw locked, I knew something was wrong. My beta rarely looked shaken. He was the calmest wolf in my entire pack… almost too calm sometimes. “Alpha,” he said quietly, closing the door behind him. I raised my head. “What is it? You look like you swallowed a blade.” He stepped forward, placed a folded parchment on my desk, and didn’t speak for several seconds. That was my first warning sign. He always spoke quickly when it concerned security. “Speak,” I said. He exhaled slowly. “We found something disturbing. You need to see it yourself.” I opened
ANYA’S POV He wants me to…For a moment, Curtis didn’t answer my question. He simply stared at me like he was trying to decide the best way to break something delicate. Then he clicked his tongue softly and leaned forward again.“What do I want?” he repeated with a smirk. “I want you, Anya. As my mate.”My heart stopped.“What?”He nodded slowly, as if he had just told me something normal and not something insane. “I want you as mine.”A harsh breath escaped me. “You… you can’t be serious.”“I’ve never been more serious,” he said. “You think I’m here because I enjoy feeding sick girls and taking temperatures? No. I’m here because I see something Rolan doesn’t.”“And what is that?” I whispered.Curtis lifted one finger and pointed it at me.“You.”I shook my head vigorously. “You’re Rolan’s beta. His second-in-command. How can you talk like this? Aren’t you supposed to be loyal to him?”Curtis laughed. Not loudly. Not cheerfully. It was a sharp, humorless sound that scraped against t
ANYA’S POV He brought me food, medicine… and fearI woke up to the sound of something metal scraping against stone.For a moment, I honestly thought I was dreaming… or that I was still lying half-frozen in the Silverfang woods with thunder roaring over my head. But when my eyes finally focused, I remembered exactly where I was… the cold dim room Rolan had locked me in after dragging me to Bloodfrost like some… cursed relic.My entire body ached. My throat burned. My skin felt hot and cold at the same time. I pushed myself into a sitting position, slowly, carefully, like a very old woman.Then the door creaked open.I stiffened immediately.Footsteps entered my room… calm, slow, almost casual… and a man set a silver tray on the small wooden table beside my bed. The scent of warm broth drifted toward me, mixing with the cold air of the room. There was also a small wooden box and a cup filled with something that steamed faintly.He didn’t look at me at first. He simply adjusted the tr
Chapter 8Rolan’s POVWhat the hell was wrong with me? How could I have thought I was walking to my room and somehow, stumble unto Anya’s? The same room I had sworn this morning to never visit again?This was beginning to get out of hand. She was eating into my thoughts too much. 'This has to stop,' I thought angrily to myself, heading down the hall towards my actual room.“Is everything okay, Rolan?” Curtis’ voice boomed downstairs, just as I passed the staircase. Typical Rolan… of course he had stayed behind to see if everything was fine with me. Even after demanding to be left alone. How many times do I have to say it!?That quality of Curtis started out okay with me, until recently when he couldn’t just seem to mind his own damn business!Something in me though, eagerly wanted to admit that it was ever since Anya stepped her leg in the castle. But my shame wouldn’t let me do it. Not even to myself. “Yes, Curtis,” I answered, noticing how he referred to me casually when we were a
Chapter 7Rolan’s POVI sat alone in the spacious palace, feeling the weight of my situation press down heavily on my shoulders. It was bright outside, the morning sun stretching over everything. But I had ordered that the curtains remained shut.I couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol I seem to have been consuming for days straight, or if I was hallucinating… or maybe it was all really happening to me?How could I have been talking to myself alone in the hallway? I could have sworn to have seen Anya there with me.And then Curtis caught me in the trance. I tried to brush off the idea of talking to myself when he questioned me, but I knew he didn’t buy any of my excuses. Still, I was desperate to keep my pride and honor in his eyes intact. My thoughts then traveled and landed back to her… Anya. For some awkward reason, they seem to always do that these days. It was starting to seem as if I couldn’t stop thinking about her. But that couldn’t be.“Pull yourself together,” I whispered to
Chapter 6Anya’s POVI lay in my bedroom, locked up for days. Every night I cried myself to sleep, usually after Rolan was done taking advantage of me and had stormed out of the room, in a manner one could even say… half-mad.I was also not eating well, sometimes starving myself for hours straight. The only time I managed to eat something was whenever Rolan forced me to have breakfast with him in the large royal dining hall.I hated the moments I had to sit across from him at the long table, barely resisting his alluring presence and enduring the hateful gazes and whispers of his comrades around. Sometimes it was just the two of us.As I laid on the bed this morning, sheets scattered around, my hair disheveled and dried tears mapped across my face, I thought about my home. Not the terrible environment… which was ruled by Elda’s cruelty... that I grew up in, but the little memory of my parents I still clung to.Flashes of Rolan’s recent abuse pierced my sweet memory, but I had less tea







