LOGINRyan spent most of the afternoon walking the outer edge of the training grounds, staying close enough to hear the warriors practicing but far enough to keep an eye on the tree line. Patrol wasn’t too exciting today, which normally would’ve annoyed him, but Logan’s nonstop talking filled the silence anyway.Logan had recently found his mate, and apparently that meant he had to talk about it every five minutes.“I swear, Ryan, the first week was weird as hell,” Logan said, kicking at a rock on the ground. “I kept pretending I wasn’t losing my mind every time she walked into a room.”“That sounds like a you problem.” Ryan said rolling his eyes.Logan ignored him and kept going. “But now? I get it. Everything just… fits. Makes sense. Like Anna was always supposed to be there.”Ryan didn’t respond. He lifted his hand to shield his eyes from the sun and kept walking, pretending like he was too focused on the patrol to listen. Truth was, he was listening, probably more than he wanted to.He’
MikaelaThe second I stepped into the meeting room, the whole place went weird.Everyone stopped talking. Every head turned. Wolves who might have been arguing literally froze mid sentence. For a split second, I honestly thought I walked into the wrong room.Or maybe I had something on my face.I touched my cheek quickly, pretending to brush away imaginary dirt. Nothing. My clothes looked fine. My hair wasn’t sticking out like a firework. So why the hell was everyone looking at me like I just crash landed in the middle of their important discussion?It made my skin crawl a little. I wasn’t used to all eyes turning to me. Most meetings I’d ever been in, I was the quiet shadow in the back. Today… I felt like someone put me under a spotlight.And then I made the mistake of glancing toward Ryan.Yeah. That was a mistake.He was staring at me. Not casually. Not politely. Full on and locked in, like his eyes forgot how to look anywhere else. My stomach knotted immediately, and I snapped my
RyanThe morning after the battle felt heavier than the night before. Everyone looked like they had aged ten years, but nobody complained. Warriors were already out in the yard working.Dragging out damaged things and clearing whatever mess the rogues left behind. The air still smelled like smoke, but at least there were no more bodies lying around.I spent most of the morning checking the grounds, walking through the training yard to see what needed fixing first. The place looked like it had been torn apart by a storm, broken barriers, claw marks everywhere, splintered wood scattered across the ground. A few Betas asked me for instructions, and I gave them quick ones so we could at least make the place usable again.After that, I went back to the borders with two patrol teams. We took our time, searching every inch of the trees for leftover rogue scents. The forest was quiet, unnaturally quiet. No movement. No lingering smell of blood or unfamiliar wolves. It felt secure, but I still
MikaelaI didn’t like the way Ryan told me to leave. At first be didn’t even try to soften it, he just threw it at me like an order. I understood why, sure, but it still stung. I wanted to finish Lydia myself. After everything she’d caused… walking away felt wrong.But I left anyway.By the time I got back to the front lines, most of the fighting had slowed. Rogues were scattering or getting pinned down by the warriors. My anger eased up a bit when someone shouted across the field that Lydia had been captured. I actually stopped moving for a second. Relief washed over me so fast I almost laughed. Good. At least Ryan didn’t let her slip away.The battle finally ended not long after that. Just like that, the chaos dropped, leaving behind the mess.I made my way straight to the infirmary because Tobias had taken a nasty hit earlier. The place was already overflowing with wounded wolves, the air thick with herbs, blood, and that sharp metallic scent from medical tools. I spotted Tobias on
RyanThe moment Tobias went down, everything else around me blurred. One second he was standing strong, fighting like he always did, and the next there was blood pouring down his chest. I didn’t even think. I shifted and tore through the rogues blocking my path, ripping into them just to get to him.Mikaela was already there, luckily, and she was pulling him away from the fight.She grabbed Tobias before he collapsed completely, dragging him backward as two younger warriors rushed to help her. I stayed planted in front of them, blocking any rogue stupid enough to try to follow. One lunged at Mikaela’s back, and I slammed into it so hard its bones cracked. Another tried to circle around, but Kane came in from the side and threw it to the ground.By the time Mikaela got Tobias inside the healer’s tent, I was already turning back toward the mess in the yard. The healers shouted for space and I let them handle it. I didn’t have time to stand there and hope Tobias stayed alive. If Lydia wa
MikaelaThe storage room smelled like metal and antiseptic, comforting in a weird way. I was sorting through emergency packs, restocking the ones June had used earlier. My hands were busy but my mind kept drifting. I’d felt Ryan’s presence the moment he got back from patrol, that familiar pressure in my chest that always showed up before I even saw him. I ignored it. I had things to do, and thinking about him always made me… distracted.I was shoving another roll of gauze into a kit when the alarm ripped through the pack house.A loud, blaring howl through the speakers. Followed by the pounding of footsteps and shouts echoing down the hallway.“Rogues on the east border!”My heart slammed against my ribs so hard it felt like it knocked the breath out of me. I froze for half a second, just half, then grabbed the blades on the table and strapped them to my thigh.The hallway was chaos. Warriors sprinting, shifting mid run, voices layered over each other. I moved with them, pushing towar







