LOGINLyralei stared at the girl across from her and took a breath.No. It wasn't a mistake.She was here to prove to Joefrey that she wasn't weak. She was here because — she stopped.Wait.Why did she care what Joefrey thought? Why was she standing in a pit with bruised ribs and a throbbing cheekbone, trying so hard to make some cold-eyed Alpha take her seriously? Why was she even fighting in any of this? The shadow wolves, the four packs, the rotating months, all of it — why?The answer to the third one came before she'd finished asking it.Because she'd watched her parents die to those things. Because she'd seen a child strapped to a stone altar for a ritual sacrifice. Because she knew what it felt like to have no one come and she wasn't built for standing to the side while it happened to someone else. That was why. She shouldn't care this hard. She knew that. She had never once been rewarded for caring this hard.But she did. She just did.So fuck Joefrey.She was here. She was going to
The cavern went quiet.Not the gradual kind, where noise bleeds out slowly as people notice something. This was immediate. One moment the pit was loud enough to feel it in her chest, and the next there was nothing except the torches crackling and the last few stragglers realizing everyone else had stopped talking.Every head had turned to find her.Across the cavern, Seran had gone completely still. She was staring up at the ledge with her eyes fixed on Lyralei's face and her expression caught somewhere between disbelief and shock.The crowd broke.It started on the far side of the ledge and spread fast, voices overlapping and climbing, everyone talking at once. Warriors on the floor below started shouting up at the two fighters still standing in the middle of the pit."Get out! Move your asses!""Clear the floor, we have a real fight coming!"Someone near Lyralei's shoulder leaned over the ledge and cupped his hands around his mouth. "If you two aren't out of there in ten seconds I'm
Keziah stared at her like she had just said something profoundly stupid.Lyralei frowned. "I'm waiting."Keziah let out a short, flat scoff. "You want to go to the pit." She stared at Lyra as she repeated her words in her own terms.She shook her head slowly as it slowly dawned on her. "You're crazy. You're actually crazy.""Keziah—""They will break you in two," Keziah said. She wasn't even looking at Lyralei anymore, just muttering under her breath as she turned away, half to herself. "Some outsider who looks like she hasn't thrown a punch in her life walking into the pit like she has any business being there."Lyralei moved to stand in front of her.Keziah stopped."Are you underestimating me?" Lyralei asked.Keziah met her eyes. Then she smirked, for some reason the smirk pissed Thalia off. "You're an outsider. You don't know this pack, you don't know those warriors, and you don't know what that pit does to people who walk in there unprepared." She looked Lyralei over once, top to
Joefrey frowned at her and said, "Talk."Lyralei looked around the room first.Six warriors stood at various points along the walls and every single one of them was watching her. Not even trying to look like they weren't. Two near the door had their arms crossed and their eyes fixed on her face. The one closest to Joefrey's right had his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. The rest were just staring, openly curious, waiting the same way their Alpha was waiting.She cleared her throat. "It's…. private."Joefrey's frown didn't move. "These are my men.""I know." She met his eyes. "But this? This is for your ears only."He looked at her for a moment. Then he grunted and raised one hand.Every warrior in the room immediately turned and walked out.No argument. No exchanged looks. No one dragging their feet near the door or lingering to catch whatever came next. They just left, and soon enough the last set of boots faded down the passage and then it was quiet.Lyralei stood there and sa
The relief that hit her when he stopped walking away was embarrassing.Joefrey turned to face her, and behind him, his six warriors stilled also with their weapons still out, eyes cutting between her and their Alpha, waiting on a word that hadn't come yet. Nobody sheathed anything and nobody moved. They just watched her quietly while waiting for their alpha to make his move or order.She kept her face even.Joefrey crossed the room, rounded the long stone table and pulled out the chair at its head. He sat — back straight with his arms resting on the surface, nothing loose or easy about it. Then he finally, slowly looked at her.It was only then that Lyralei actually took in the room properly.Council chamber. Long table, ranked seating on either side, a map of surrounding territories pinned to a board on the wall with dark ink markings across it. Documents stacked in neat columns. This was where Joefrey ran his pack from — where orders were given, decisions made, and people came to an
The world stopped moving.Lyralei blinked, steadied herself, and looked around.She was in a courtroom. Stone floors worn flat from years of use, vaulted ceilings that ate sound, long benches running in rows on either side facing inward. A raised dais at the far end with a heavy-backed seat that sat empty. Iron sconces along the walls, torches burning low. No colour, no softness. Just stone and cold light and the kind of silence that rooms like this collected on purpose.She was still standing. Barely — her legs felt unreliable and her stomach hadn't quite caught up with the rest of her — but standing.And she was furious.Not about the portal, not about the landing. Just — furious, and it was sitting hot in her chest with no face attached to it, no reason she could pull up when she reached for one. She stood there breathing through it and came up with nothing. No memory. No flash of anything and it just made her even more pissed.She groaned and pressed the back of her hand to her fa







