Leo’s POVThe moment the mindlink pulsed…sharp, urgent…I knew the hour had come for me to face my people.I lay there for one last breath, watching my mate sleep.Ivy’s lashes like two dark crescents against her cheek, the slow, even rise and fall of her chest. The cold tremors were gone and the shudders that were wracking her earlier had stilled. Relief uncoiled inside me, a soft, dangerous thing I refused to name. I brushed hair from her face and felt the fine silk of it on my fingers, warm and real. She tucked herself deeper into me and murmured something I couldn’t quite catch, and something in my chest unclenched.For the first time in an age, my head did not hum with Dina’s whispers. The claws that had raked at me in dreams, the dark corridors of memory where her shadows had held me captive…gone. It felt obscene to be so simple…alive, whole, and wanting nothing more than to press my face into her hair and memorize the way her scent mingled with mine. I smiled and the memory
The Trance…Dina’s smile spreads slowly and poisonously, as if savoring the taste of every holy thing Shina just spat out. Her voice slides through the hollow like oil on ice, soft, mocking, and full of teeth.“Your watch?” she purrs, amusement folding into contempt. “Oh, Shina, always the martyr. Always the circle of hands and sticky prayers. Do you truly believe a braid of light and a few pretty words can hold me where I belong? How quaint.”She leans forward, and the nothing around them knuckles into shape, a tiny, impossible throne of shadow that grows sharp at the edges. “The queen?” Dina laughs, the sound like a knife dragged over glass. “That small, pale brat? You would have me fear her?” Her head tilts, eyes narrowing to cold pinpricks. “Tell me, which of you taught her to weld claws? Which of you forged her a war cry that could split bone?” She sneers. “I’ve seen children with spoons make more havoc than your golden sovereign. She flutters in gowns and human etiquette and bed
Back at the hall...The grand hall shook as Lila’s last laugh continued fading, her body unraveling like smoke scattered by the wind. For a breathless moment, the room was silent…until Shina and the circle of priestesses dropped to their knees, palms slamming against the cold marble floor.They formed a circle, their mouths moving as though they were rehearsing a play.A roar shook the palace walls…not stone cracking or storm raging, but the raw echo of Dina’s fury, clawing against the protective wards, a sound only her sister Shina could hear.The invisible wall around the kingdom had held for years, locking Dina’s presence out, but now… cracks were spreading. Her magic, dragged inside through Lila’s forged mask, was fighting to burst free.“Hold the line!” Shina’s voice rang out sharp, though blood already trickled from her nose. She gritted her teeth, fingers twitching as she poured raw energy into the ward.The other priestesses linked hands tighter, their chants overlapping in a
IVY’S POVThe room went dead silent after Daniel’s comment.Cole shifted uncomfortably by the door, pretending not to hear, but his jaw ticked. The priestess kept her eyes shut as though she was meditating, but I could tell she was listening too. Daniel just stood there, arms folded, smirking like an idiot.“You reek of sex, princess,” he repeated, like he wanted to provoke me.I tilted my head and gave him a slow, deliberate smile. “You’ve always had a big mouth, Danny boy. Want me to give you details about it or will you just shut up?”He actually stepped back, blinking, but his nose wrinkled again. “You’re different,” he muttered. “You don’t smell like Ivy anymore.”He wasn’t wrong. I didn’t. Something inside me had changed since Leo. Nyxara was pacing in my head, claws dragging over my skull like sparks. She wasn’t the only one ready to tear someone apart if they messed with us.The king’s beta inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent clinging to my skin. His e
IVY’S POVNyxara was ecstatic. Even before Leo’s paws touched my fur, even before his mouth brushed my neck, she was prowling in my head like a cat that just smelled prey.Mate, she purred, low and obscene. I want him. Now.I nearly choked on my own breath. Excuse me?Her voice dripped with hunger. You heard me. Give me total control. I want to feel him, Ivy. Not you. Me.My cheeks blazed with embarrassment. I tried to hide my face, to recoil into my furs. Nyxara, you’re such a slut, I shot back, half-playful, half-shocked. Haven’t we gotten enough already? We literally had him three…four times already.Her growl came like a laugh. Correction…you got some dick, little human. Not me. I’ve been trapped inside you listening to every whimper, every gasp, every moan, and now I’m done waiting. I want to feel our mate with my own furs.She was actually whining. God. My wolf…the ancient, shadowed part of me that I’d spent years yearning for…was sounding like a horny teenager. The desperation,
Leo’s POVI thought about the first time my fangs found her…how the world split open and the dark that had been my constant companion for so long recoiled as if burned.For months I’d been a hollow thing, a shadow walking the edges of myself. I moved through the cage I was locked in that smelled like ash and old blood, craved things that never satisfied me. When she collapsed earlier, when she’d fallen limp against my hand and the scent of her was a whisper in the wind, I felt a part of me disappear with her…like someone had unplugged a lamp and left me in pitch black. Confusion glazed my mind then; I couldn’t tell whether the void was mine or hers. The shadows inside me fed on that confusion. They hissed and crowded, urging me to finish what they’d already started: end her, drink deep and drown the pain that was never mine to hold.But the wolf… my wolf… was there too. Not roaring, not tearing through me the way he once did…just a low thrum beneath my skin, steady as a heartbeat. Pa