LOGIN~KAIROS’S POV~The doors to the Council Room hadn't even fully closed before I spun around. My blood was boiling. The air in the room felt thick and heavy, smelling like a predator backed into a corner.“What did you just say?”The words came out as a growl. My wolf, was clawing at my chest. He wanted to tear the stone floor apart.Genevieve didn't look like the woman who had just been attacked in the hallway. She smoothed her silk nightgown, her face shifting from the sobbing to a cold, triumphant mask. She didn't flinch as I stepped into her space, my shadow looming over her.“I said,” she whispered, her voice like a slow-acting poison, “that I am carrying the heir to the Eclipse Pack. Your child, Kairos. The one the elders have been praying for.”I didn't think. I didn't breathe.My hand shot out. My fingers wrapped around her throat. I didn't want to crush her, no, I just wanted to choke the lie out of her. I felt her pulse jumping under my palm. It was fast, but her eyes stayed l
~ELARA’S POV~“What did you just say?”The words felt heavy in my mouth. I gripped the edge of the door so hard the wood bit into my palm, but I wouldn't let my hands shake. Not in front of her.Genevieve didn't flinch. She just smiled—that sharp, polished smile of a woman who knew she had already won. She moved her hand, resting it almost tenderly over her flat stomach.“You heard me perfectly, Elara,” she whispered, her voice like silk over a blade. “I’m carrying the royal heir. The next King of the Eclipse Pack is growing right here. So, you can either accept that you’re just a guest in my palace, or you can get ready to cohabitate with the woman who is giving Kairos the one thing you never could, a future.”For a second, the room tilted. The fourteen-day countdown until their wedding had felt like a distant nightmare, but this? This was a death sentence for the tiny, stupid hope I’d been nursing since I returned.But I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me bleed.I for
~ELARA’S POV~The stone floors of the East Wing were too clean.That was the first thing I noticed. They didn't have the dirt of the ruins. They were polished until they shone like mirrors, reflecting the flickering torchlight and the hem of my dirty, travel-worn skirt. As I walked, the servants I passed didn't gasp. They didn't drop their trays in shock. They just... looked away.They looked at the floor. They looked at the walls. They whispered into each others ear.“She’s back.” “The Shadow girl.” “Fourteen days until the wedding, and he brings her here.”I ignored them. I kept my eyes fixed on the broad, tense shoulders of the guard leading me. I didn't want to see the white silk banners hanging from the banisters. I didn't want to see the gold embroidery that spelled out two names that weren't mine. Every step felt like a betrayal. Every breath of the palace’s expensive, incense-heavy air felt like a lie.We reached the heavy mahogany doors at the end of the hall. The guard pus
~ELARA’S POV~ I sat on a broken stone step, my knees pulled up to my chest. I didn't feel like a powerful Shadow-wolf, didn't feel like a threat, instead I felt like a girl who had been hollowed out, bit by bit, until there was nothing left but the cold.I heard the horses.It sounded like a drum at a funeral. I didn't look up because I didn't want to see the black horses, I didn't want to see the royal crest.And most of all, I didn't want to see him."Elara."His voice was a wreck. It sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass. I kept my eyes on the dirt as I watched a small beetle struggle to climb over a blade of grass. It was easier to care about the beetle than to care about the man standing ten feet away."Go away, Kairos," I whispered. My voice was small. It didn't have the strength I wanted it to have. "Jace gave me your gold. I burned it. Isn't that enough for one day?"The grass made a sound, meaning he was moving closer. I could smell him, that scent of pine and r
~KAIROS’ POV~I paced the length of my study, my boots heavy against the stone, the sound echoing loudly in the quiet room.Up. Down. Three steps to the balcony, four steps to the hearth.My mind was a mess of half-memories and cold, hard facts. The last time I was supposed to stand at that altar, I had seen a supposed dead girl in the crowd. I had seen Elara—dead, or so I thought and the world had stopped. I had been able to walk away then because the moon had given me a sign.But this time? I had walked myself right back into the trap. I had used my own hands to tighten the noose around my neck.Why is she so desperate? The thought kept gnawing at my gut. Genevieve was a Princess of the North. She could have had any Alpha, any beta, any man she wanted. So why was she so focused on me? Especially after I had treated her like a stranger for months. Why did she stay when I ignored her? Why did she come to my room with wine the moment I was at my weakest?Is it just the crown she wa
~GENEVIEVE’S POV~The door clicked shut behind me, and the quiet of the hallway disappeared.For a second, I just stood there with my back against it, listening to my own heartbeat..and then, I did something I hadn't done in weeks.I laughed.It slipped out before I could stop it. It was low at first, then grew into something fuller. Not loud, not wild… just satisfied.I walked over to my mirror and caught my reflection. My hair was still a mess and my eyes were still red from the tears I had forced out only minutes ago.“God… that was tiring,” I muttered, grabbing a cloth and wiping the dry tear tracks off my cheeks. "Who knew acting like a shamed maiden took so much energy?"I thought of the look on Kairos’s face, the raw, bleeding horror in his amber eyes when he realized I was in his bed. Shock. Horror. Guilt.Perfect.He really believed it.He actually believed he had betrayed his precious soulmate in a drunken stupor. It was almost too easy. A glass of wine, a few drops of a
~GENEVIEVE’S POV~The air inside this pack clinic felt thick and suffocating as if something heavy and unseen was pressing down on my lungs and making every breath a quiet struggle.I leaned back against the cold, whitewashed stone wall, trying to steady myself, but my fingers curled into the morta
~ELARA’S POV~Two weeks.Fourteen days of watching the sun rise and set over the broken ruins. Fourteen days of staring at my hands, watching the black marks slowly spread toward my knuckles like something alive.I was no longer the palace maid. I was the Ghost of the Ruins. The servants who brough
~ELARA’S POV~ The stone walls of the cell where Kael was were damp. Jace had told me what happened at the Council. He hadn't told me the details, but he told me enough. Kael had been framed and my mother’s name had been dragged through the mud again. And Kairos... Kairos had admitted his secret to
~KAIROS’ POV~The Council Room smelled like dust, old paper, and stone that had never known warmth.My mother sat beside me, Elder Mara, composed as always. Back straight. Hands folded. Looking all perfect and untouchable.But I could feel it. The tension.It rolled off her in sharp, invisible wave







