LOGINNyssa's POVDay 14, Evening. 13 days left. Four hours until midnight.We find a room on the second floor that hasn’t completely fallen apart.A bedroom. King-sized bed. Mattress probably rotted through, but the frame’s still holding. Windows looking out over the courtyard where our pack is camped.I can see Garrett holding Lily. Senna pacing. Wolves on edge, waiting for us to come back, or die trying.“They think we’re not coming back,” I mutter.Raiden steps up behind me, wraps his arms around my waist.“They might be right.”“Always so optimistic.”“One of my best qualities.”I lean back, let his warmth ground me. The silver on my skin burns hotter now, spreading fast. Up my neck, into my hairline. Soon it’ll be everywhere.“I need to tell you the plan,” I whisper.“I’m listening.”“The curse… it needs willing sacrifice. Blood for blood. Life for life.”“Nyssa...”“Let me finish.” I turn in his arms, face him. “Kael thinks he can use my blood to rewrite the curse. Make it serve him.
Nyssa's POVDay 14, Early Afternoon. 13 days left.The mansion feels alive, in the worst way. Like it remembers everything.Every room we pass is a story I don’t want to read. Portrait halls with faces ripped out. Bedrooms draped in sheets thick with dust. A nursery where the crib is shattered, splintered like something clawed its way free.“This is where my father grew up,” Raiden says quietly. “Where his father died. And his father before that.”“Cheerful place,” I mutter.“The curse didn’t just kill mates. It poisoned everything. This estate, it’s sick,” he says, running a hand along the wall. The wallpaper peels at his touch. “After my grandfather died, my father swore he’d never come back. Said the place is haunted by every Shadowfang who died screaming.”“Is it?”“I don’t know. But… it feels like something’s watching.”And he’s not wrong.I can feel it too. Eyes in the walls, breath in the shadows, the heavy press of old death.The silver on my face tingles. Responding to… somet
Nyssa’s PovDay 14. Noon. Thirteen days left.The estate is a corpse.No other word fits. Three stories of rotting grandeur. Windows like empty eye sockets. Vines creeping up the walls, twisting like veins, not plants. Everything smells of decay, of old death.The silver gate slams shut behind us with a clang like a coffin lid. I grab the bars, yank. Nothing.“It’s locked,” Kael calls from the mansion steps. “Blood lock. Only opens for Shadowfang blood. Mine.”Raiden shifts back to human, furious, naked fury.“Open it.”“Nope,” Kael says, sitting like he’s got all the time in the world. “See, this estate was built on the exact spot the curse was anchored. That clearing? Just a stage. The real power—it’s here. In these bones. Every Alpha for six generations died here. It’s soaked in curse magic.”“What’s your point?” I ask, jaw tight.“You can’t leave,” he says. “Not until I let you. And here’s the deal. Give me what I want—or I kill everyone you care about. Starting with you, Silver B
Nyssa’s PovDay 14. Mid-morning. Thirteen days left.The forest changes as we head north.Not the normal kind of dark you expect under thick trees. This is wrong-dark. Like something rotted underneath and the treesigger trees are trying to lean away from it. Branches twist. Trunks curve. Even the air feels off, heavy in my lungs.We’ve been walking for two hours.No one talks.Just boots crunching over dead leaves. A branch snapping now and then. Too loud every time.The wolves keep their distance from me.They’re subtle about it, but I notice. Always just out of reach. No one walking directly behind me. No accidental brushes. And when I look at them, their eyes slide away like they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t.They’re scared of me.Fair.The power under my skin won’t sit still. It coils and presses against my bones, like it’s trying to tear its way out. Keeping it contained takes focus. Constant, exhausting focus.Like holding your breath forever.Raiden falls into
Nyssa’s PovDay 14. Dawn. Thirteen days left.I wake up knowing something’s wrong.Not oh shit, I’m dying wrong.More like oh shit, I’m changing wrong.My face is buzzing. Tingling. Burning. Itches so bad I have to fight the urge to rake my nails across my skin like that’ll fix anything.I stagger out of the tent, we’re still camped near the caves, and almost crash straight into Senna, arms full of firewood.She freezes the second she sees me.Drops the wood.Then drops to her knees.Head bowed. Neck exposed. Full submission.“Silver Blade,” she whispers, voice shaking like she’s about to cry. “Forgive me. I didn’t see you. I should have...”“Senna, what the fuck...”She doesn’t hear me. Or can’t. She’s stuck there, trembling, like her body forgot how to stand.I look around.Every wolf in camp is staring at me.Then, one by one, they drop too.All of them.Twenty wolves. Battle-hardened scouts. Warriors who’ve survived shit I don’t even want to think about. Flat on their bellies in t
Third Person Pov Spring Gathering, ten years back – Raiden’s 19 Raiden Shadowfang only showed up to the Spring Gathering because he pretty much had to. No way was he there for fun. He’d been Alpha for two whole years now, but honestly? He still felt like a kid wearing his dad’s too-big jacket. The other Alphas picked up on it right away, the sideways glances, the quiet judgments, all of them waiting for the day he’d finally buckle. God, he hated these things. All the scheming, the phony grins, everybody sizing each other up like it was some contest over who had the bigger pack or the tougher bite. He was off by himself next to the bonfire, sipping whatever was in his cup and mentally counting down until he could bail, when she just strolled right up. “You look like you’d rather be anywhere else.” He turned around. Damn. She was gorgeous in this effortless way that made his wolf perk up instantly, deep red hair glowing in the firelight, green eyes full of trouble, and a smile t







