LOGINTHALIA's POVI was on the window seat, wrapped tightly in my blanket with the fire gone low, sitting alone in the dimming light with the empty bowl Constance had brought up and the heavy things she had just told me about Conan's secret ledger, my mind spinning completely out of control with the scale of the trap closing around me as I tried to organize the pieces just to find a way to survive it. That was when I heard his footsteps on the stairs, then my entire body went instantly rigid because I had heard those same boots last night, and the night before that, but tonight the footsteps didn't hesitate, and they didn't stop outside the landing, but instead they came all the way up, steady and terrifyingly heavy, until the door swung open and the Alpha King was just standing there. He hadn't brought a lantern, so it was just himself, still wearing his heavy coat, looking massive and completely dangerous standing in the narrow doorway, which sent a hard prickle of pure fear down my s
THALIA's povI knew something had shifted before I could completely identify what it was, because this pack always operated on sudden behavior changes long before anyone actually made a formal statement. That was exactly how every closed, paranoid community functioned, where the vital information always moved through the way people physically acted around you before a single word was actually spoken out loud.The woman who brought my breakfast tray this morning completely refused to look me in the eyes, which was entirely different from yesterday when she had at least managed the flat, neutral stare of a person simply following instructions. Today, she set the wooden tray down with a loud, frantic rattle that nearly sent my tea spilling over the side, her hands shaking so hard that the porcelain clicked against the wood."Careful," I muttered, trying to sound dry to hide the sudden spike of panic in my chest as I adjusted the plate. "If you break the porcelain, Rael might make me pay
RAEL's povI almost never send for Gerard at the end of the day, because for three hundred long years, my rule has been completely simple. You let Gerard come to you, you let every single motion happen entirely on his initiative, and you never give him the satisfaction of thinking he can move the pieces on your board. When you are the Alpha King, initiating contact creates the weak, dangerous appearance of a leader who is reacting instead of leading, and if you wait, you force your enemies to play on your territory, at your pace, under your terms.But today, I made a massive exception.Today, Gerard stood up in a grand room packed to the brim with my elders, my observers, and my wolves, and he pointed a finger at Thalia in the exact way a man points at a piece of meat he has already decided is his to consume. I have been patient with Gerard for decades, swallowing my pride because patience was the only strategically correct path to take, but today, I am in the specific mood where my w
THALIA's povThey took me directly from the gathering hall to Elodie’s quarters. I didn't bother asking the guards where we were going, because I already knew they wouldn't answer, and frankly, I had stopped believing in coincidences the moment I entered this pack compound. If a king's guard redirects you immediately after a public political strike, it is a planned sequence.Elodie was already waiting for me inside the round stone examination room. She wasn't sitting at her desk this time; she was standing right in the center of the floorboards, near the carved measuring marks. The space smelled exactly like it had during my first visit—dry, earthy herbs mixed with a faint, sharp metallic scent underneath that I still couldn't completely categorize.The fact that she was on her feet meant she had been expecting my arrival down to the exact minute."Sit," Elodie said. Her voice wasn't unkind or aggressive, just perfectly efficient.I walked past her and sat down in the heavy chair in
THALIA's POV "Get up," the guard said, slamming the heavy iron cell door open. "The Alpha King wants you downstairs."I stood up from the edge of the bed and smoothed down the front of my gray dress. "Why? What is happening downstairs?""You don't need to know the reasons," the guard barked, stepping back into the stone hallway and gesturing with his spear. "Move. Now."It was becoming a predictable pattern with this pack. Information always arrived at the very last second, stripped of all useful context, delivered by someone who either didn't know the truth or had been strictly ordered to keep their mouth shut. I walked out of the cell and followed him down the spiral stairs, focusing entirely on the tiny things I could actually control. I checked the corners of my eyes out of habit—the dark contacts were perfectly in place. I kept my chin up and my spine rigid. As we walked through the winding corridors, I memorized every single turn, every door, and every window we passed.When w
THALIA's POVI was at the narrow tower window long before the rest of the pack was even awake. The sky was still a pale, bruised purple, and the air coming through the iron bars was freezing cold. I liked the early hours. It was an old habit from the hiding-world; the early morning was the only time you could look at a place without being looked at. It was the only time people didn't have their fake public faces on. Down below, they were just bodies moving in the dark, before they started performing the roles they wanted everyone else to see.The inner courtyard was damp and completely quiet. A young male wolf was walking the perimeter, doing the very end of a long night guard shift. He moved with a stiff-legged, heavy energy, clearly counting down the minutes until his relief arrived.I leaned my shoulder against the cold stone wall, watching him closely, and started making mental notes.Uniform pattern: Standard leather vest.Gaze direction: Left to right every twelve paces.Sightl







