ログインBella’s POV
By evening, Stormfang had begun locking itself against its own people.
The surviving raider had been moved somewhere beneath the council wing, and Kael had doubled the guards at every entrance before ordering the drainage passage sealed. No one was allowed beyond the inner grounds without permission. Servants who had worked near the nursery were being questioned, warriors we
Lucian’s POVBy dawn, three warriors were still fighting for their lives, and Kael was one of them. I stood outside the healers’ chamber with blood drying beneath my nails, listening to Mara issue clipped orders behind the closed door while bowls scraped, glass clinked, and Kael fought for every breath as though his own body had turned against him. The poison had spread quickly, dark veins crawling beneath his skin before Mara forced enough antidote into him to slow its progress.Slow it.Not stop it.Bella stood farther down the corridor in a dark cloak thrown over the clothes she had slept in, her hair loose around her shoulders and exhaustion shadowing her eyes. She had ignored every attempt to send her back to her room, which I understood because I had ignored the same orders.
Lilith’s POVBy the time word reached me that Stormfang had uncovered one of the traitors inside its council, I was already standing beneath the pines beyond the northern ridge.So Varick had finally been caught.I stared through the mist at the fortress carved into the mountain, its watchtowers glowing beneath scattered torchlight. From this distance, Stormfang looked almost peaceful. Repairs had begun along the damaged walls, wolves moved in pairs along the battlements, and somewhere behind all that black stone, Lucian was probably turning Varick’s betrayal inside out until every secret fell from him.Finding one traitor had a way of making people believe they had found the only one.Cold wind slipped beneath my cloak as two patrol w
Bella’s POVLucian did not wake when we carried him back through Stormfang’s gates. I walked beside the stretcher with blood dried between my fingers and more soaked into the front of my dress, most of it his. That fact followed me through the entire ride home no matter how hard I tried to focus on the wounded warriors around us, the exhausted horses, or the wolves limping behind the column. The dagger was still buried beneath his ribs, exactly where Lilith had driven it.Mara had sent instructions the moment Tomas dispatched a rider ahead: do not remove the blade, keep pressure around the wound, keep Lucian warm, and for the love of the goddess, stop letting the Alpha collect knives in his body. The last part sounded suspiciously like Mara rather than medical advice. I agreed with it wholeheartedly.“Move!” Tomas
Bella’s POVBy midday, everyone in Stormfang knew the poison had been meant for me.I discovered that before anyone bothered to tell me the news had spread. The healers had finally forced me out of Lucian’s chamber so he could sleep, and I had crossed barely half the lower courtyard when conversation began dying around me. Wolves who had once stared openly suddenly found fascinating things to examine—their boots, the walls, the baskets in their hands—while others watched me with an intensity that made the back of my neck prickle.The strangest part was that not all of those looks held hatred anymore. An older warrior near the armory bowed his head when I passed, his fist touching his chest in the traditional Stormfang salute. A woman carrying folded linen did the same, followed awkwardly by the young girl beside h
Bella’s POVBy evening, Stormfang had begun locking itself against its own people.The surviving raider had been moved somewhere beneath the council wing, and Kael had doubled the guards at every entrance before ordering the drainage passage sealed. No one was allowed beyond the inner grounds without permission. Servants who had worked near the nursery were being questioned, warriors were checking storerooms and tunnels, and every familiar face seemed to be studying the next with new suspicion.I hated what it did to the packhouse. Stormfang had never felt like home to me, but I had never seen its wolves afraid of one another.I escaped to Lucian’s chamber partly because it was quieter there and partly because Mara had cornered me in the corridor and informed me that her patient w
Bella’s POVThe Moonstone sanctuary stood higher than the rest of Stormfang, carved into the mountain where the fortress walls gave way to open sky. I had seen the narrow path leading toward it before, but I had never been allowed beyond the silver gates. Humans weren’t forbidden exactly, according to Kael, but the way he had explained it made the distinction sound suspiciously polite.Tonight, Lucian apparently had no interest in tradition.He walked several steps ahead of me, his black cloak snapping in the mountain wind while one hand remained pressed discreetly against his wounded ribs. He was moving too quickly for a man who had recently been stabbed, stitched, poisoned through the bond, and nearly dragged himself into another battle. I had already told him this twice.He had
The corridors of the packhouse stretched long and dim, their torches guttering in the late hour. Most wolves had retired after the hunt, leaving the halls quiet but not silent—there was always the echo of distant voices, the faint shuffle of boots, the murmur of life within Stormfang’s stone heart.
The midday sun burned through the cloud cover, silver light pouring across the training grounds. Warriors moved in drills, their blades flashing in rhythm, the thud of boots striking the earth in unison.Bella walked the outer edge, her arms straining under the weight of two buckets filled with wat
The alarm bells rang through Stormfang lands, sharp and sudden as a blade.The copper clang echoed from the watchtower above, splitting the stillness of dusk into chaos. Bella startled, nearly dropping the bundle of bandages she carried for the omegas. Her gray-green eyes darted upward, catching th
The battle still raged at the borders, but Bella no longer heard the clash of steel or the roars of wolves.Her world had narrowed to pain.Her back burned where claws had torn through flesh, each breath a ragged knife. Her arms trembled from holding the boy so tightly, her body swaying as if it no







