ANMELDENArselJarek stepped forward and spread a digital scroll across the table, overlaying new data onto our territorial map. Immediately, several points began to flash bright yellow, but they weren’t within the Eclipse Pack’s territory. They were located in neighboring packs: the Silver Fang Pack to the north and the Shadowy Valleys Pack to the east.“Alpha Izan, Alpha Arsel… the news we’re receiving from external networks is alarming,” Jarek began, swallowing hard. “We’re not the only ones being targeted. Over the past forty-eight hours, our informants within the northern and eastern packs have detected serious anomalies along their perimeters.”“Did they carry out attacks similar to those on Crescent and Eclipse?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.“No, sir. And that’s what makes it more dangerous,” Vanya, the tracker wolf, interjected
ArselThe word hung in the air of the waiting room, floating like a curse or a distorted blessing that none of us knew how to process.The silence that followed was so thick I could hear the crackling of the blue-flame torches on the hospital walls.“Oracle?” asked my father, Izan, his voice resonating with a gravity that made the hospital walls vibrate.I stood motionless, staring at the little silver-haired fairy lying on Isaac’s chest. Bless looked at her with a mixture of reverence and utter bewilderment. The leader of the fairies, a man with sharp features and eyes that concealed centuries of secrets, stepped forward, clenching his fists with obvious tension.The impact of the revelation struck us all in the chest.The fairies in the entourage began to murmur in their lilting language, a sound filled with contained panic. The wolves of Eclipse’s guard growled instinctively, sensing the surge of mystical energy that began to emanate from the room.This is crazy, I thought, and Leo
ElaineI woke up with a strange sensation in my body; something was pulling me hard, so I got up carefully and shook my head. Arsel wasn’t beside me, so I figured he was still with his sisters, and I smiled.So I decided to head to the kitchen, walking calmly toward the stairs, when a conversation disrupted the peace and the bed shattered into a thousand pieces, but it was Arsel’s scream that pierced the entire house like a bolt of lightning.I’d left the room thinking I’d go downstairs to get a cup of tea when I heard the chaos erupt on the ground floor.Something inside me screamed so loudly that I couldn’t hold back, and then I realized that what had woken me up was, in fact, the bond between us, perhaps Leo pulling at me.I didn’t think twice; I ran down the stairs.My heart raced when I found the whole family gathered around a figure slumped on the floor.Selene.My heart stopped for a moment when I realized her body lay motionless in her husband’s arms. Izan was completely devas
ArselWhen dinner was over, the family scattered throughout the house.Elaine excused herself to go up to her room for a moment, claiming she was tired, though I knew, through our bond, that she also needed a moment alone to process the day.I waited half an hour before going up after her.I found her by the window, with moonlight streaming in in silvery streaks across the floor, gazing out at the dark forest with her arms crossed over her chest.I didn’t interrupt her right away.I leaned against the doorframe and watched her for a moment, the way she stood so straight even when something weighed on her inside, that stillness I’d learned to read as one of her ways of processing the world.“I know you’re there,” she said without turning around, a barely perceptible smile in her voice.“The bond?” I asked, stepping closer.
ArselCalming Elaine had been a challenge.She had been a source of great calm for me over the past few days, she’d been my anchor, but seeing her distraught over the possibility that she might not be just a human was difficult.She took it all in stride, but with a stoicism that worried me.I let her sleep and got up to go to the kitchen, where I found my father already awake, holding a cup of coffee and staring blankly out the window. He hugged me as soon as he saw me, a tight hug, without saying a word for several seconds, and I let him hold me for a moment before straightening up again.“How are you?” he asked, looking me in the eyes as if he could read directly what lay beneath my skin.“Standing,” I replied, because it was the only honest thing I had to say that morning.I couldn’t lie to either him or my mother.He nodded without pressing further.Tris came down the stairs rubbing her eyes, and as soon as she saw me, she ran toward me without a care in the world, as if she were
ElaineThe meeting with Bless took place at dawn, as Arsel had requested.This time it wasn’t in the map room or the sanctuary.It was in the mansion’s inner garden, the one in the east wing that I had barely explored because I was always busy with the warriors during morning training.Bless arrived alone, without Nora or Pía.That told me something about the nature of the conversation before it even began.Selene and Izan were there. Amelie was there too, with dark circles under her eyes that showed she hadn’t slept. Kiel arrived with a folder, which he placed on the stone table in the garden without saying a word.I sat down next to Arsel, and he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye once—just once—with a question in his eyes, and I nodded slightly to let him know I was okay. I thought I could handle this.He turned his attention back to the table, and he was the one who spoke first.“I need everything I say here to be treated as top-level confidential information,” he said, lo
ArselThe scare changed everything in an instant.The almost unreal peace of our idyllic days vanished in seconds, and what had been complete calm turned into a frenzy of anguish.The distant howl grew more desperate, more intense, and Arsel’s entire body tensed. I felt the echo of that sound rever
MaxonThe first report came in before dawn.It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to make me smile.Narel Voss was more useful than he seemed.Men with forgettable faces had an advantage in this world: no one looked at them long enough to fear them. He had infiltrated Crescent’s minor trade routes a
ElaineHappiness was strange.It didn’t come like a burst of music or like perfect laughter or like that absurd image humans peddled in magazine photos where everything looked clean, tidy, and effortless.It came as warmth, as a breath against my hair, as a large hand covering mine, as Arsel’s hear
ArselElaine wept silently, as if something had finally broken through her restraint, and then she walked toward me. She didn’t move quickly, nor was she driven by panic.My mate walked with determination, as if she had finally decided what to do with the informat







