MasukThe packhouse vibrated with music, laughter, warm lights…Madeline had miraculously recovered, and the entire pack was celebrating. Tessa had insisted on the party. She handled the decorations, the food, and even Ember’s dress..a soft blue gown matching her own.“You look perfect,” Tessa whispered as she adjusted Ember’s hair, fingers gentle. There was something strangely emotional in her voice.“Thank you,” Ember murmured. “Really.”“I’ll check on a patient quickly. I’ll meet you in the hall.”Ember left her room, heading toward the music-filled corridor, when Ezekiel stepped out from the shadows.“Ember… I need to talk to you.”“Not now, Ezekiel…”“Please.” His voice broke. “Just for a moment.”She paused.He led her outside, under the full moon. The night was windless, tense. He turned to her suddenly, pain in his eyes.“I love you.”She went still, Shocked..“You don’t belong with him. Let’s leave tonight. You and I.”“Ezekiel…” Ember swallowed, breath shaking. “You don’t know what
POVThe night air hit us first.. cold, metallic, and humming with a strange impatience, as though the entire forest had been holding its breath while we were inside. Darius walked ahead of Kellan to quickly see what had been going wrong.., his shoulders stiff, his jaw set in that conflicted way he wore whenever he didn’t understand the storm inside him. Venus’ presence inside him was restless—too awake, too aware.. I had to follow him without him knowing..I just needed to see them, Even though I wasn't running into the forest anymore.And Kaila… the ghost of she still hung between us like lightning.The moment I stepped out of the temple entrance, the world felt wrong. Or maybe too quiet. The Blood Moon, heavy and red and unforgiving, watched from above, staining the grounds in its eerie glow.Darius exhaled shakily. “hold on to the shifting ones long enough..call Gamma. Take the other half human to Tessa…But Don't rush her.. his command came out steadily. The pack must be—”But his v
The packhouse had finally gone quiet, but Darius couldn’t sleep. Even after hours of pacing and standing by his office window, listening to the distant howl of restless wolves beneath the blood-streaked moon, his mind kept circling back to Madeline…his fragile sister who had smiled earlier, actually smiled, for the first time in weeks.He needed to check on her again. Needed the reassurance. Needed to see her chest rise and fall with his own eyes.So he moved silently through the dim hallway, barefoot, steps careful, almost reverent. The corridor smelled faintly of pinewood and lavender…Ember’s scent lingering from earlier visits…and it annoyed him that he noticed it, that it made his chest tighten in ways he didn’t want to acknowledge.He reached Madeline’s door and pushed it open gently, letting only a sliver of hallway light slip through.And then he froze.Madeline wasn’t alone.She was curled on Ember’s lap, her head pressed to Ember’s thigh, small fingers gripping Ember’s dress
Ember didn’t know how long she stood staring into the glowing ravine. Minutes… hours… time bent strangely around that place. Kaila paced inside her, restless and anxious, while Velise hovered like a shadow made of moonlight.The heartbeat under the earth thumped louder.Steady.Ancient.Calling.Ember stepped to the very edge. Her wolf paws tingled as if the ground recognized her. Light spilled upwards, wrapping around her legs, warm and cold at the same time. She lowered her head, sniffing…And everything changed.The world around her vanished, swallowed by a blinding white light.Her body stopped existing. She floated…weightless, breathless, suspended in something too quiet to be real.Then the white faded.And she was standing in a circular stone room.Lanterns burned without fire. Symbols glowed on the walls..symbols she had never seen, yet somehow understood. Footsteps echoed behind her. Ember spun around, but no one was there.Her voice trembled.“Velise?”Silence.Instead, the
The moment the Blood Moon flared again, something inside Ember snapped open like a door she didn’t even know existed. Her pulse thundered. Kaila pressed hard against her skin from the inside, urgent, almost desperate.Shift. Now.Ember didn’t argue.Her bones bent, stretched, reshaped—this time with almost no pain, as if the moon itself had carved a path for her. She didn’t even feel the floor when she dropped onto all fours. The world sharpened instantly: every scent, every heartbeat, every tremble of fear across the territory.But the strangest scent was behind her.Cold. Familiar. Unmistakable.Velise.Her spirit drifted into form beside Ember’s wolf, half-shadow, half-light, walking like she still belonged to the world of the living. She looked stronger than before…clearer, her features no longer blurred by pain.Kaila growled low inside Ember’s chest.Why now?Velise answered without speaking, her voice drifting directly into Ember’s wolf-mind.Because the cycle breaks today. And
Madeline’s last words….You won’t survive the next shift…echoed so violently in Ember’s head that for a few seconds she couldn’t breathe. The floor beneath her felt unsteady, as if the entire pack house was trembling in anticipation of something worse.Madeline stood there…half herself, half Velise…her breathing sharp and uneven, her fingers twitching like she was fighting an invisible force inside her ribcage.“Madeline,” Ember whispered, taking one careful step toward her. “Tell me what’s inside me. Tell me what I’m supposed to find.”Madeline smiled….sad, broken, and far too old for her young face.“It’s not something inside, Ember. It’s something you carry. A bond that didn’t start with you and Darius. It didn’t even start with Velise.”A heavy silence fell.“What bond?” Ember whispered.Madeline’s eyes flickered…green then blue then green again.“The first bond. The original pact. The thread that ties the Blood Moon to your wolf. The reason Kaila rises inside you like she never di







