تسجيل الدخولJoefrey lowered them both toward the fire-warmed floor.The moment they left the table everything shifted. The table had been messy and heated and intense. The floor felt closer and more vulnerable. There was no table between them now. No maps or reports or war plans. Lyralei's back met the thick fur rug near the hearth and Joefrey settled beside her. The firelight cast shadows across his face and she could see something in his expression that hadn't been there before. Not quite fear but close to it.He was still careful with her shoulder as he moved over her. His hand stayed firm beneath her, keeping the weight off her injured shoulder even as he moved closer. But he wasn't trying to stop the moment anymore.Lyralei reached up and touched his face, tracing her fingers along his jaw and down his neck. She touched the scars on his chest, grounding him in the moment instead of letting him slip back into being the Alpha.Joefrey went still under her hands like he wasn't used to being to
"Tell me to stop," Joefrey said, voice rough.Lyralei's fingers tightened in his tunic and she felt her breath catch. "I don't want you to stop."He went still against her throat and she could feel the tension in his body where he pressed against her."Your shoulder—""I know my own body," Lyralei cut him off. "I know the difference between pain and fear." She pulled back enough to meet his eyes. "I'm not afraid of you."Something in Joefrey's expression shifted and he kissed her again, harder this time.This kiss was different from the one on the ledge. The restraint was thinner now and she could feel the edges of his control fray even harder. He kept one hand behind her neck and the other at her waist where she sat on the edge of the map table.Lyralei pulled him closer and wrapped her legs around him, refusing to let him hide behind careful movements. She kissed him back with heat and challenged him between breaths, pushing until his calculated rhythm began to break.Her hand swept
Their lips were a breath apart.Lyralei froze for half a second because she realized she wanted him to kiss her. Not carefully or gently. But to just kiss her.Joefrey noticed that too and she could see it in the way his eyes darkened.But just before their lips touched, he stopped.Not far, just enough to keep the kiss from happening.Lyralei felt the sting immediately but then she saw his face. His expression wasn’t cold. His jaw was tight and his eyes were darker than before. His fingers were still wrapped around her hand.He wanted to kiss her.He was just refusing to let himself.“You’re still injured,” Joefrey said quietly.Lyralei stared at him. “That’s a very convenient excuse.”He didn’t answer and that told her she was right.Lyralei pulled her hand back, not angrily but sharply enough that he felt the loss. “Don’t do that.”“Do what?”“Don’t lean close enough to make me forget how to breathe and then hide behind my injury like that was the real reason.”“I’m being careful,”
They stood there staring at each other across the corridor and neither of them said anything for a long moment.The silence felt awkward because they’d both come looking for the other and now neither knew what to say first.Joefrey’s eyes dropped to her hands.The gold glow was gone and the marks had settled back into dark lines against her skin. They looked like tattoos burned permanently into her body, black instead of gold now but still visible. He could see they’d spread farther than before, covering her palms and fingers and disappearing beneath the sleeves of her tunic where more marks crawled up her arms.Lyralei noticed him looking and tried to act like it was nothing. She crossed her arms loosely and leaned against the wall with what she hoped looked casual.“Do they hurt?” Joefrey asked.“No,” she said automatically.He raised an eyebrow and his expression made it clear he didn’t believe her for a second.Lyralei sighed. “Fine. They ache. Like a bruise that won’t fade. Happ
Lyralei heard the warriors before she saw them.Boots hitting stone and the scrape of weapons being drawn echoed across the hilltop. Voices shouted commands that carried on the wind. She looked up from where she was kneeling with the boy's arms wrapped around her neck and saw figures cresting the ridge.At least thirty of them, maybe more. Shadowfang warriors with weapons drawn and eyes scanning for threats.They stopped when they reached the ritual ground.Nessa was in front with her blade drawn and her expression cold until her eyes found Joefrey. Something in her face shifted when she saw he was alive. Then her gaze swept across the scene and Lyralei watched her take it all in. Black stains scarred the stone where shadow wolves had dissolved. Broken bodies from the ritual lay scattered near the stones. Blood filled the cracks in the rock and reflected the moonlight.The corrupted Alpha's corpse lay face-down near the center with black veins still crawling across his dead skin like
The wolves lunged through the flickering gold light.Lyralei's mind was still reeling from the look in the boy's eyes and the shield didn't come back strong. The light stuttered and wavered like a candle flame in the wind. A gap opened on the left side wide enough for a wolf to push through.One did.It charged straight for the boy with its jaws open and void eyes locked on his throat.The boy froze.Lyralei moved.She threw herself sideways and slammed into the wolf mid-charge. The impact knocked the air from her lungs and sent pain shooting through her ribs. The wolf's jaws snapped shut on her shoulder instead of the boy's neck. Teeth punched through her tunic and into her flesh.Crunch.She screamed and grabbed the wolf's head with both hands. Her fingers dug into its skull and she felt bone crack under her grip. The wolf released her shoulder and she shoved it away hard enough that it stumbled backward into the gold light. The barrier burned it and it yelped before dissolving.Blo
Lyralei was shocked in that space between thoughts as she realized she remembered everything now, every detail of that vision crystal clear in her mind like it had just happened. The woman in the red gown, the rejection, the pain written across that Luna’s face as her world shattered in front of ev
Lyralei stood shocked as she stared at the massive wolf and then it moved toward her with its silver eyes fixed on where she stood. She felt that pull again, that strange attraction her mark had been resonating with, stronger now that it was closer.The wolf approached slowly with its head tilted s
Lyralei felt the full brunt of Alpha Malachai’s aura crushing down on her shoulders and honestly…. she was just tired, so bone-deep tired of everything that had happened in the past few days that she could barely think straight anymore. Tired of being stepped upon like mud beneath boots, tired of b
The voice came from directly behind her, so close his breath stirred the wet tangles of her hair. Lyralei spun around in panic as she hadn't noticed him sneak up on her, the borrowed dagger coming up in a defensive position that was purely instinct and fear. Malachai stood there looking completely







