LOGINA merger? Two Alphas on one throne? Would this even work?😭
LYRAI sat across from Elara on a pew that groaned beneath me, the old wood protesting weight it hadn't carried in decades. I forced myself to hold her gaze instead of letting my eyes wander to the shadows pooling in the chapel's corners."You said we had a lot to talk about," I said. "Start with what you actually want. Not Caelum. Not Thalia. What you want from me, specifically, because I don't believe for a second you set all this up just to hand me information out of the goodness of your heart."Something like approval flickered across her face. "Direct. Good. I have very little patience left for people who beat around the bush." She folded her hands in her lap, completely unhurried. "I want three things, Lyra. Aldric's head. The downfall of Ravenwood as it currently stands. And you, restoring the divinity and pride of the White Wolf bloodline back to what it used to be."The words landed heavier than I expected, each one like a stone dropped into still water. "Aldric's head," I re
LYRA"Absolutely not," I said, backing away from Ana with both hands up. "No. We're not doing this.""It's the most reliable spot," Ana said, completely unbothered as she held up a tracker so small it looked more like a grain of rice than surveillance equipment. "Body heat keeps it running longer, and nobody's going to pat you down there without starting a much bigger conversation first.""That is my exact problem with it.""Lyra." Orion's voice came from across the room, where he was crouched over a laptop with Zeviar, both of them trying very hard to act like they weren't listening. "It's a tracker. It's not a big deal.""Says the guy who doesn't have to walk around for the rest of the day with a fucking microphone in his panties," I said, loud enough that Orion actually choked on whatever he was drinking.Zeviar, to his credit, kept a totally straight face, though the corner of his mouth was twitching. "For what it's worth," he said, "I support whatever placement Ana thinks gives u
LYRAThe night before the chapel meeting, I made a list.Not on paper where Elara or anyone else could find it, just turning it over in my head, again and again, as I sat on the edge of the lake house dock. My feet dangled over water that had gone completely black and still under the late evening sky. Three things. That was all I allowed myself to ask for, because asking for more felt like setting myself up for disappointment before I even stepped through the chapel door.Caelum. Where he was last seen, and anything that might actually lead somewhere real.Thalia. Whether the Circle mentioned in that warning letter was the same one responsible for her death, and if Elara knew who actually gave the order.The Godfather. Whether Elara, after all her years of hunting, grief, and vengeance, had ever managed to figure out a name the rest of us couldn't.“That's an ambitious list,” Sky said, settling quietly and thoughtful in the back of my mind. “For a conversation you aren't even sure wil
ZEVIARTwo days were left until the chapel, and I'd spent most of the morning watching Lyra pretend that number wasn't sitting behind every single thought in her head.She was quiet over breakfast, methodical in a way that told me she was running through backup plans instead of actually tasting her food. Orion wasn't doing much better, he'd snapped at Rhys under his breath twice before we'd even finished coffee, some private argument between a man and his wolf that neither of us needed details to understand. None of us had talked about the chapel directly since the morning we found the note. It hung between every conversation anyway, an unspoken weight none of us seemed ready to bring up again so soon."You should eat something before we go," I told Lyra, watching her push eggs around her plate without actually lifting her fork more than twice."I'm eating.""You're rearranging the plate.""Same thing, functionally," she said, though she did finally take a bite just to prove a point.
LYRAI woke up tangled between the two of them, sunlight already spilling gold across the bed. For a long moment, I just let myself lie there, unhurried, before the day could demand anything from me.Orion was still asleep with one arm thrown over my waist and his face buried against my shoulder. He was breathing slowly and even, in a way that showed me just how much the last three weeks had taken out of him. Zeviar was awake, but he hadn't moved. His fingers were tracing idle patterns against my hip, completely content to just watch the morning arrive instead of rushing to meet it."You're staring," I said, echoing his own words from last night."I've earned it," he said, totally unrepentant. "Considering how much of last night you spent making sure I wouldn't stare at anything else for a while."I laughed, low and warm, and felt Orion stir against my shoulder. He grumbled something incoherent into my skin before finally lifting his head, hair a complete disaster and eyes still half-
LYRAThe door closed behind us with a soft, final click.Orion kept his hand at the small of my back the whole short walk inside, fingers spread wide and possessive, like he needed to keep touching me to prove tonight was real. Zeviar went ahead of us into the living room and turned on the low lamp by the couch. Warm light pooled across the worn wood floors, leaving the rest of the house in shadow.Nobody said anything for a second.Then Orion turned me toward him. He framed my face with his hands, his thumbs brushing the corners of my mouth. The look in his eyes was completely raw, weeks of distance and night calls stripped away. “I missed you,” he said, his voice already rough. “Both of you. More than I kept saying.”I got up on my toes and kissed him.It started out soft, just a simple press of lips to confirm he was actually here. But then Orion made a low, hungry sound in his throat and pulled me in hard. One hand tangled in my hair while the other grabbed my waist, yanking me t







