Se connecterPOV: LYRA I wake up choking on darkness. Not the kind of darkness where you close your eyes and still see shapes. This is worse. This is the kind where there is nothing. No light. No shadows. Just thick black silence pressing in from every side. My lungs drag in a sharp breath and cold air scrapes down my throat. “What…” My voice sounds strange in the dark. Small. I try to sit up. Metal snaps tight around my wrists. The sound echoes through the space with a violent clank and pain shoots up both my arms. I gasp. “What the hell?” I pull harder. The chains jerk again and my shoulders slam back against something hard. Cold stone presses flat against my spine. My breath stutters. For a second my mind feels foggy. The last thing I remember is visions from the temple flashing through my eyes as if I was there.. The ritual. The power surging through the air while the curse twisted and snapped and everything started collapsing. Darius. Elara. That annoying little bo
POV: ARINONE YEAR LATER.The night of the next full moon starts with my chest suddenly feeling like someone pressed a hot coal straight into my skin.I bolt upright in bed.“Ah!”The sound leaves my mouth before I can stop it and my hand flies straight to my chest because the mark there is burning so hard it almost feels alive.Not just warm.Burning.Pulsing.Like something under my skin is trying to wake me up.“What the…”I push my shirt up quickly and stare down.The lunar mark is glowing.The mark had moved to my chest the night mama died.Bright.Way brighter than it has been since the night of the temple.Silver light spills across my chest and reflects faintly on the walls of my room.My heart starts pounding.Because the light is moving.Not flickering.Moving.Like a slow heartbeat.One pulse.Then another.And every time it pulses I feel something tug inside me.A pull.Not painful.Just strong.Strong enough that my body already knows what it means.I swing my legs over t
POV: DARIUSThe first light of morning creeps slowly through the trees while the forest still smells like smoke and broken magic.I stand at the edge of the clearing and stare at the well dug ground in front of me..No one speaks.The entire pack stands quietly beneath the branches of the Moon Tree.It is the oldest tree in our territory.Huge.Ancient.Its trunk is so wide it would take five wolves just to circle it and the branches stretch out over the clearing like giant arms. Pale white bark glows faintly under the early morning light and the leaves whisper softly every time the wind moves through them.Normally this place feels peaceful.Sacred.Today it feels heavy.The air is thick with grief.Three graves wait beneath the tree.Fresh earth piled beside them.Three.My chest tightens when I look at them.The war is over.The curse is gone.But standing here right now it does not feel like victory.It feels like loss.I kneel beside the first grave slowly, my knees pressing into
POV: DARIUSThe moment the silver light forms into her shape, my wolf collapses inside me.It is not slow.It is not gentle.It is like something huge just slammed down on top of him and forced him flat.The rage burning through my veins vanishes so fast it leaves me dizzy.One second my head is full of noise, claws, blood, instinct, the need to tear and destroy everything moving around me.The next second it is silent.Completely silent.My wolf whimpers once inside my mind.Then he goes still.My body jerks violently and the shift hits me like a truck.Bones crack.Muscles twist.My claws disappear while my massive wolf frame folds in on itself and shrinks down into human form.The pain of the shift barely registers.Because my head suddenly clears.For the first time in years my mind is quiet.No whispering voices.No burning anger pushing me to attack.No fog twisting my thoughts.Just silence.Clear.Sharp.Real.I drop to my knees on the cold stone floor.My hands press against
POV: ELARA The second Darius moves, I know exactly what is about to happen. His body shifts forward fast, muscles snapping tight like a spring that has been held down too long, and his wolf launches straight toward the smallest movement in the temple. Arin. My heart stops. Everything inside me reacts at once. There is no thinking. No plan. No hesitation. Just instinct. “ARIN!” I scream. My body moves before my mind catches up. I run. My boots scrape hard across the cracked stone floor while Darius’s massive form rushes forward at the same time, his claws already slicing through the air as the wolf inside him locks onto the nearest threat. My son. “Dad!” Arin shouts. His voice breaks in the air between us. The sound makes something twist violently inside my chest because there is so much hope in that one word, so much belief that the man rushing toward him will stop. But the wolf does not stop. His eyes are wild. Bright gold and burning with ye
POV: ArinMy head lifts slowly from the cold stone floor just as my father turns toward me.The first thing I see is his eyes.They glow bright gold in the dark temple and the light in them does not look calm or warm or anything like the stories Mama used to tell me about him.They look wild.Hungry.Like the wolf inside him is looking at the world for the first time in a long time and does not trust anything it sees.My stomach tightens.For a second I forget how to breathe.“Arin,” Mama says somewhere behind him.Her voice sounds tight.Scared.I blink hard because everything around me feels strange and blurry, like the whole temple is spinning slowly while I lie here on the ground.My body feels heavy.Not just tired.Heavy like someone filled my arms and legs with sand.When I try to push myself up my elbows shake and my chest burns like I just ran for miles.“Ugh,” I whisper.The word comes out weak.My head throbs.The ritual took everything.I can still feel it inside my bones,
POV: DARIUSThe world stops breathing the second I see her.Not slows.Not quiets.Stops.It is like someone hits pause on everything except me and her.The hall is packed.Alphas everywhere.Voices.Power.Heat.Ego.But it all drops away like it never mattered.The hall is buzzing, full of chatte
POV: ELARAI am dreaming when it hits.Not a soft dream. Not a safe one.I am laughing.I am younger. I can feel it in my body. Lighter. Warmer. I am standing barefoot on the pack house balcony, cold stone under my feet, but I do not care. Darius is in front of me, hands rough, eyes bright, smile n
POV: LYRAThe pain hits me while I am standing in the hall, arguing with one of the quartermasters about supplies. Sharp and blinding it almost sends me to my knees I do not even get to finish my sentence.My breath cuts off like someone punched me from the inside, and the world tilts hard to the
POV: KAELSomething shifts before anyone says a word.I feel it in the air.Not magic.Not scent.People.The way heads turn too fast. The way voices dip and then stop. The way bodies angle without meaning to. Like gravity just changed and everyone is pretending it did not.We are in the main hall.







