INICIAR SESIÓNLira’s POVSome mornings, I reminded myself that patience was stronger than anger.This morning was not one of them.I walked through the palace courtyard with Nessa following closely behind me, a leather folder tucked beneath her arm. The courtyard was already busy. Guards stood at every entrance, servants hurried from one building to another carrying baskets and trays, and a few nobles lingered around, talking quietly before the day's council sessions began.The palace never truly slept.It simply changed the people who occupied its halls.I had barely stepped onto the stone path leading toward the council wing when someone appeared from the opposite direction.Sera.She was dressed in a deep emerald gown that suited her far better than I cared to admit. Her dark curls were gathered neatly behind her head, leaving a few loose strands framing her face. She looked every bit the Luna the palace believed she had become.Mira walked a respectful distance behind her, carrying a few rolled
Voss’ POVLove had a strange way of making people forget.That was what worried me the most.I stood quietly on the edge of a cliff overlooking the endless Borderlands, my eyes fixed on the thick forest stretching toward the Duskborne Dynasty. Dawn had only just begun breaking through the trees, and a pale mist floated lazily above the ground. Birds sang somewhere in the distance while the wind carried the scent of damp earth and pine.Most people avoided this place.They believed monsters lived here.In truth, the Borderlands were much quieter than the kingdoms on either side. The humans feared it. The wolves respected it. Neither stayed long enough to discover its secrets.That suited me just fine.My shelter rested beneath the cliff, hidden behind thick vines that made it look like nothing more than another wall of rock. It wasn't much to look at. A small wooden cabin built by my own hands years ago, with a roof covered in moss and branches to keep it hidden from wandering eyes.In
Lira’s POVSometimes, the most terrifying news came wrapped in the happiest voices.I was halfway through reviewing the training roster for the eastern guards when my chamber door flew open without warning."My Lady!"The voice belonged to Nessa, my right-hand lady.She was breathing so hard that for one ridiculous second, I thought the palace had come under attack.I frowned."What is it?"She tried speaking but only managed to gasp for air."Nessa."I placed the parchment on my desk."Breathe first."She inhaled deeply before blurting out the words that instantly made my blood run cold."The Luna... she's moved into the Alpha King's wing."Everything around me became eerily quiet."...What?""They've moved all her belongings."She nodded repeatedly."The servants have been talking about it since this morning. Everyone says they're finally living together."I stared at her.No.No, no, no.This wasn't supposed to happen.Not yet.I slowly stood from my chair."Who confirmed it?""I s
Sera’s POVThere were decisions that took months to make.Then there were the ones my heart made before my mind even realized there was something to decide.This was one of them.I had spent the better part of the night staring at the ceiling, replaying Cael's words over and over again."I want you to move into my wing."It was simple and direct, yet those seven words had somehow robbed me of sleep.I wasn't afraid of moving into his wing. If anything, I had found myself smiling more times than I cared to admit every time I thought about it. That alone should have worried me. The Commander in me would have laughed if someone had told her months ago that she would lose sleep because of a man, especially because of the Alpha King.Yet here I was. Hopelessly awake.I sat on the edge of my bed, letting out a long breath before glancing around the room that had been mine since I arrived at the Duskborne Dynasty. It had never really felt like home. It had simply been somewhere to stay. Some
Cael’s POVThere was a dangerous kind of happiness.Not the loud kind that arrived with celebrations or victories on the battlefield. This one was quieter. It settled into ordinary moments until they no longer felt ordinary at all.I realized that the morning after I kissed Sera.Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say the morning after Lira walked in on us.Logan had been unusually silent since then.That alone should have warned me something was wrong.He wasn't a man who remained quiet unless he was observing something.And lately, I had become the subject of those observations."I suppose you're going to keep staring."I looked up from the report in my hand.Logan leaned against one of the pillars outside the council chamber with an expression that suggested he had been waiting for me to acknowledge him for quite some time."I wasn't staring.""You've been looking at the same corridor for nearly ten minutes.""I was thinking.""You were waiting."I folded the report and tucked
Sera’s POVIt amazed me how easily people confused duty with trust.One could exist without the other.Every morning, I worked alongside the elders, smiled when protocol demanded it, and stood beside Cael whenever the people expected to see their Alpha King and Luna together. From the outside, we probably looked like the perfect couple. United. Unshakable. Deeply in love.Only I knew how complicated that picture truly was.The palace had become strangely familiar over the past weeks. I knew which corridors remained quiet after sunset, which servants secretly shared fresh gossip before breakfast, and which nobles smiled too much to be trusted. Every day, I learned something new, tucked it away inside my growing web of observations, then reminded myself why I was here.I had come for my people.Not for him.Yet every time I repeated those words, they sounded a little less convincing.I stood by the window of my chambers with my notebook resting in my hands. The page before me contained
Sera's POVI stopped a few inches from him, studying him for a long moment.He let me, didn’t rush me, didn’t smile, just stood there in my yard with the morning light caught in his copper hair, waiting like a man entirely certain time was on his side.I sheathed my sword."I will give you my answe
Sera’s POVThe alarm bells of Thornwall hadn’t rung in three years.When they rang now, I was already running. I’d been in the war room, staring at a map that kept telling me the same terrible truth; we had food for forty more days, ammunition for twenty, and hope for about three.I’d been trying t
Sera's POVWe arrived at Dusk borne Palace by nightfall, which I suspected was deliberate. The palace looked almost impossible at night, lit from within by thousands of lights that turned every window gold, the dark stone towers rising against the sky like something that had grown there rather than
Sera’s POVMorning came grey and cold.I hadn’t slept all through the night. I’d sat at my window and watched the cooking fires light up one by one in the settlement below as people rose before dawn the way hungry people always do… because empty stomachs don’t let you sleep past first light.I wash







