LOGINThe fortress felt strangely gentle in the quiet after war, as if even the stones were exhaling after holding their breath for too long. Lyra stood in the healing wing with Vera curled against her chest, tiny fingers gripping her tunic with absolute trust, the kind that always disarmed her. For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Lyra let herself breathe without expecting blood or betrayal in the next breath. She had chosen finally, entirely her own path. Not Luna. Not weapon. Not exile. Healer. A role built from her own hands, not inherited wounds. And as she looked around at the wounded lined in neat cots, the herbs simmering over low flames, and the people who no longer flinched at her presence, she felt the quiet click of belonging settle into place.Aziel entered without ceremony, without guards, without the heavy mantle of Alpha weighing down his shoulders. His steps were slow, careful—his wound still
Fire roared against the high tower walls, its glow staining Aziel’s blade a molten gold as the final echoes of combat faded. Lyra’s chest rose and fell in ragged breaths beside him, her eyes fixed on the bleeding traitor collapsing against the shattered stone railing. The courtyard below still burned with battle cries, but here on this wind-lashed balcony, it felt as though the world had narrowed to only three people: Alpha, Luna, and the devil who had poisoned both their lives.“You’ve lost,” Lyra hissed, voice low, shaking with fury and revelation. She stepped forward, blade dripping, shadows clinging to her like a second skin. “You killed my father. Not Aziel’s. Not his blood. Yours.” Her voice cracked on the last word, but she didn’t look away.The traitor laughed, wet and uneven, blood bubbling at his lips. “Poor little Luna,” he tau
Smoke curled into the night sky, thick and suffocating, mingling with the coppery scent of blood across the courtyard. Lyra’s sword sang through the air, striking down an enemy who had thought her distracted. But even in the rush of steel and chaos, the traitor’s words echoed, sharp and insidious: “Your fathers’ sins are yours. Every drop of blood that haunts you, they are part of you.”Lyra’s amber eyes faltered for the briefest instant, seeing her father’s face in every fallen soldier, every betrayal whispered into the shadows. Rage flared, sharper than the firelight. “I fight for the present,” she snarled, voice cutting across the clash of steel. “Not for ghosts who left me nothing but ashes and lies!”Aziel moved beside her, relentless, but his own body stiffened at the traitor’s words. The bond throbbed violently, carrying pain
Flames licked the walls of the fortress courtyard, casting long, jagged shadows that danced across the chaos. Bodies collided with the stone, steel ringing against steel, cries of fear and fury merging into a single, relentless roar. Lyra moved through the inferno like a shadow of fire herself, her amber eyes blazing, her sword arcing through the air with precision born of desperation. Every strike, every parry, every step was guided by a single purpose: reach the traitor and end this night of carnage.From the stairwell above, a figure plunged into the battlefield, cutting a path through the traitor’s forces with the weight of command behind each blow. Aziel landed amid the chaos, boots skidding over scattered rubble and blood, cloak trailing in the smoke like a banner of war. “Lyra!” he shouted, voice carrying over the clash of co
Lyra’s boots clanged against the stone stairs of the high tower, echoing in the narrow shaft like the pulse of her own racing heart. Smoke from the courtyard fires below curled upward, smelling of charred wood and blood, and each breath she drew was heavy with it. Her hands were slick with sweat, fingers tightening around the hilt of her blade, though her heart threatened to betray her resolve. Every step she took brought her closer to the traitor, closer to the man whose whispers had poisoned her past, whose plots had led to the massacre of her pack and the death of those she loved.The wind rattled the broken windows, carrying distant screams and the clash of steel from the courtyard. Lyra paused for a heartbeat, listening, feeling the bond flare with pain and fury. Aziel was moving somewhere through the chaos below, a shadow of an
The moment Lyra burst through the shattered archway into the courtyard, the night exploded around her in a frenzy of steel, fire, and screaming voices. Flames rolled across the sky like a second dawn, throwing long shadows across bodies already strewn across the stones. She didn’t flinch at the carnage her eyes locked immediately on the northern battlements, where she had seen him flee minutes earlier. The traitor. The one who had puppeteered this entire nightmare.Her blade was still slick with the blood of the guard who had tried to stop her escape. She didn’t bother wiping it off. “You don’t get to slip away tonight,” she whispered to herself, jaw hardening as she started forward. The courtyard roared with chaos, but every step she took seemed to sharpen her resolve rather than shake it. She moved like a wolf born for war.A soldier stumbled int







