ANMELDENElara's POV The quiet that settled between us afterward was different from any quiet I ever found myself in with him before. Not tense, not careful, just still, the good kind of still that came after something shifted between two people and neither of them needed to fill it with words right away.He was the one who broke the silence, his voice low and easy even then."You need to go back, you've been gone two days and people will have noticed.""I know," I said, turning to look at him."Your friends are going to ask where you were," he continued, his eyes on mine. "And when they do, I need you to tell them the truth. Tell them who I am."I shook my head before he even finished. "No," I said, sitting up straighter and meeting his gaze. "I don't want to. What we have, who you really are, all of it feels like something that belongs just between us and I'm not ready to share that with anyone else yet. Not even them."He looked at me for a long moment, and I could tell he was actually wei
Elara's POV The words settled over me like something I was waiting to hear without knowing it.I looked at him, standing right in front of me with his jaw tight and his eyes on mine and everything he felt sitting just under the surface, barely contained, and something in my chest broke open in a way that was nothing to do with pain."I love you too," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I expected given that nothing else in this moment felt steady at all. "I do, I love you too, Ravin."Something moved across his face. Not fully open, not all the way there, but softer than anything I ever saw on it before, and he looked at me for a long moment without saying a word, like he was letting what I said reach him properly.Then he exhaled slowly and his eyes moved over my face in that careful way of his, the way he did when he was checking something without wanting to make it obvious that he was doing it."How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice quieter now, all the sharpness from
Ravin's POV The walk to Darkhowl territory felt longer than it was.Not because of the distance but because of her weight against me, the way her breathing was still too shallow and too uneven for someone who had supposedly been through the worst of it already. I kept my arms steady and I did not slow down and I did not let myself think about how close the margin had been, because thinking about it right now was not going to help either of us.Cord and Sable found us at the border before I even had to call for them, and I didn't give them room to ask questions."Get Alex," I said. "Right now."They went.Alex was ready by the time we got inside, already set up with what she needed, and I didn't leave the room while she worked. I stood against the far wall and watched every assessment, every check, every careful movement, and I kept my face still and my arms folded and said nothing."She'll be fine by tomorrow," Alex said, straightening up after a long few minutes of work. "The poiso
Lyris POV The clearing erupted before I had finished giving the signal.I watched the wolves surge forward from my position at the edge of the tree line, already shifted and braced for whatever resistance the rogue Alpha was going to put up.I had eight of Kol's best warriors at my back and the numbers were in my favour and every calculation I had run on the way out here said this was going to go one way.I had finished that thought before the first wolf even reached him.What happened next took less time than I want to admit. He moved through them in a way I had no reference point for, not fighting the way trained wolves fought but ending things, each encounter over before the next one began.The first wolf went down and didn't get back up. The second barely made contact before it was over. I watched three more go down in the space of a few breaths, the carnage fast and absolute, and the wolves still standing started doing the math before I could order them to hold.Two of them brok
Ravin's POV I looked at her for a long moment with Elara still against my chest and the clearing quiet around us."What exactly does that mean?"Lyris didn't blink. "It means Elara stays with us until you surrender your Alpha title and leave Velthorn completely. Those are Kol's terms, they are not up for discussion, and you have until sunrise to make your decision."I let the words sit and looked at her face, finding nothing there that suggested she was bluffing or waiting for some kind of reaction, nothing uncertain or nervous about any of it. She meant every single word of it, and she was comfortable standing here saying it because she came out here believing this conversation had already gone the way she planned.It hadn't, and the longer she stood there watching me not react the way she expected, the more that was starting to register."You just told me," I said, keeping my voice level, "that Elara was never going to be harmed. You said it yourself, not five minutes ago.""That
Ravin's POV I turned around and Lyris was standing at the edge of the clearing, arms loose at her sides, watching us with an expression that hadn't shifted at all from the one she wore in the school halls every day. No urgency, no panic. Just that same controlled stillness, except now I understood exactly what it was and where it came from.She looked at Elara first, then shifted her gaze to me."The poison wasn't meant to kill her," she said. "I need you to understand that."I didn't say anything."I'm not a monster. She's my friend." She held her voice steady, like she genuinely believed what she was saying. "Why would I kill someone who trusted me?"There was something wrong about hearing her say it that plainly, she had poisoned Elara, carried her off school grounds in the dark and dragged her all the way out here toward Vespera territory, and she was standing in front of me using the word friend like it still meant something.I looked down at Elara. Her eyes were barely open, h
Elara's POVI noticed him during second period.He was sitting three rows ahead of me and two seats to the left, not doing anything particularly noticeable. Just sitting there, head slightly angled toward the front of the class, pen moving across his notebook. But there was something about the way
Ravin's POVI told myself I was gathering information.That was what I called it the first night I stood in the treeline beyond the academy fence and watched the students move between buildings. I came back the second night. And the third.By the fourth I had her routine mapped. She left the dormit
Ravin's POVThe pull hit me without warning, right in the middle of watching two of my warriors settle a dispute on the training ground.My hand was at my chest before I understood why, and my wolf went completely still inside me, the way it only did when something had its full attention. I had fel
Elara's POVThe lunch hall was loud the way it always was on Fridays. I was staring at my food and not eating it when Professor Aldric walked to the front and clapped twice.The noise dropped."The annual forest camping trip begins today. Buses leave at four. Attendance is mandatory."The hall erup







