LOGINLENA“Who is it?” I asked.Varik looked at Kael first. “A summit server named Dorian. He was assigned to the east kitchens tonight.”Kael’s face remained unreadable. “Bring him.”The guard hesitated and that made my stomach sink.“He’s not here, Alpha.”Silence.Kael’s eyes narrowed. “Explain.”The guard swallowed. “When we went to fetch him, his quarters were empty. But we found a pouch of coin hi
LENAFor one terrible moment after reading the note, I couldn’t breathe. The words blurred beneath my fingers, then sharpened again as though my eyes refused to decide whether they wanted to understand what I was seeing.‘If the wolfsbane didn’t work, perhaps the next thing will.’My stomach turned so violently I thought I might be sick right there at the table.The dining hall around me was still alive with noise… glasses clinking, low conversation drifting between tables, servants moving through the aisles with silver trays in hand, but all of it suddenly sounded far away, muffled, as though someone had shoved me underwater.‘Not everyone at this summit wants you alive.’I read that line again and again, each time hoping the words would change into something less horrifying.They didn’t. Slowly, I lifted my head and Kael was already standing.The movement had been so quiet I hadn’t even noticed it, but the effect on the room was immediate. Conversations thinned and several nearby no
LENAThe summit grounds were bright beneath the morning sun, but whatever calm the day might have offered was ruined by the fact that Kael was indeed following me but it was close enough to make it obvious to everyone else, but close enough that every time I slowed down or turned around, there he was watching, existing and. Ring impossible. After ten minutes, I stopped in the middle of a garden path and turned to face him.He stopped too.“This is ridiculous.”“No,” he said. “It’s necessary.”“It’s irritating.”“That too.”I folded my arms. “I’m going to a courtyard full of nobles in broad daylight, not marching into enemy territory.”“Those are often the same thing.”I stared at him for a moment, then sighed because unfortunately, that also sounded true. “Do I at least get to know where you’ve assigned the guards?”“No.”“Why not?”“Because if you know where they are, you’ll look for them.”“That is absolutely something I would do.”“I know.”That answer annoyed me more than it shou
LENAI did not sleep and it wasn’t because I didn’t try. Goddess knows I tried very hard, I closed my eyes, turned onto my left side, then my right, then onto my back, then back to my left again as if changing positions might somehow trick my brain into shutting down. It did not.Because apparently being told that someone had poisoned your dessert was not the kind of information a person could simply hear and then sleep peacefully through.Who knew? By the time dawn finally crept through the curtains, I had managed perhaps ten minutes of actual rest and even that had been interrupted by dreams involving tarts, knives and Kael glaring at me while I died in an extremely inconvenient manner.When I finally gave up and dragged myself out of bed, I looked exactly how I felt… terrible.I stared at my reflection while pinning back my hair and sighed. “You look haunted.”My reflection offered no useful feedback. After another moment, I leaned closer, checking for any sign that I had, in fact,
KAELI stayed in the study long after he was gone, staring at reports I wasn’t reading and hearing none of the noise from the corridor outside. My thoughts kept circling back to the same impossible point.Lena should have been sick.The fact that she wasn’t made the entire thing more dangerous, not less. If someone had poisoned her and failed, they might try again. If they realized she hadn’t noticed anything was wrong, they would assume they still had time.And Lena, being Lena, would probably accept another dessert from the same hand just to avoid seeming rude.I swore under my breath and pushed away from the desk.By the time I reached her room, the corridor was quiet.A single lantern burned near her door, throwing warm light across the stone. I knocked once, then opened it without waiting for permission because if Lena was asleep, she would forgive me eventually or she wouldn’t. Either way, I didn’t care.The room was dark except for moonlight spilling across the bed.Lena was un
KAELBy the time dinner ended, I knew something was wrong and it wasn’t because of Lena. If anything, Lena had been the only predictable part of the evening. She had accepted the tart with the same reckless lack of suspicion she brought to most things, then eaten it while half the table watched her as though they expected the floor to open beneath her feet.No, Lena hadn’t been the problem, Cara had.The moment she approached our table with that plate in her hand, the room shifted. Adrian had gone still, Raven had gone quiet, and Cara had smiled too brightly, too carefully, like someone performing kindness rather than feeling it. Then Lena had taken the tart, eaten it, and spent the rest of the meal making ridiculous comments while Cara watched her with an intensity that bordered on obsession.I had seen fear before, I had seen guilt too and Cara had looked like both.I said nothing during dinner because a summit hall filled with nobles was not the place to start a war over a suspicio
LENA“Lena.” His voice cut through the dining hall like a final verdict.I froze mid-step, my fork still half-raised from the plate I had been aggressively eating out of sheer frustration. Kael’s earlier words still echoed in my head—experiments in the bedroom—and my brain refused to decide whether
LENA“You’re smiling like you didn’t just have a corpse in your room.”The words slipped out before common sense could stop them, and for one dangerous second, the entire hallway went silent.Alpha Kael stared at me.Then he laughed.My jaw tightened. “You’re insane.”“I’ve heard that before.”He st
LENAMy body was trembling.“Alpha kael,” Elder Marsh said and the room went still. My mind was blank but my wolf had backed into a corner.Who was Alpha Kael?And why was my wolf acting…strange?My eyes flickered, landing on Cara. A coldness seeped into my skin as something glinted in her eyes. P
I had barely slept a wink when a horrible pounding sent me scrambling to the corner in fear.The mark burning on my wrist burned but it was strangely comforting. Slowly, the door opened to reveal a pack warrior and I frowned, standing up in confusion.Why would a warrior be here by this time of da







