POV: Lyra SinclairThe blood wouldn't wash out of my hands.I scrubbed harder, watching the water turn pink in the sink. Three hours of emergency surgery, trying to save wolves who'd been caught in the Council building blast. Three hours of watching people die because I wasn't fast enough."Lyra." Maya, one of the younger therapists, touched my shoulder. "You need to rest.""I can't rest." I dried my hands and turned to face the medical tent full of wounded pack members. "Too many people need help.""You can't save everyone.""Watch me."It wasn't just pride talking. For the past week, since the Mother cultist attack, I'd been the only senior doctor left standing. The others were dead, lost, or too traumatized to work. That left me in charge of medical care for three different packs.I was twenty-four years old, and I'd never wanted this much responsibility."Dr. Sinclair?" A young woman approached hesitantly. She was holding a little girl wh
POV: Marcus HaleThe file burned my fingers as I grabbed it.Not exactly, but it might as well have. The words on the page made my blood turn to ice. I'd been searching through the Inter-Pack Council records for hours, looking for budget discrepancies. What I found was so much worse."Mother's Light will rise again," I whispered, reading the hidden message at the bottom of the supply order. "The false alphas will fall."My hands shook. We thought we'd caught all the Mother followers after their last attack. We thought wrong.The door creaked behind me. I spun around, stuffing the file into my jacket."Marcus?" Councilwoman Elena Frost stood in the doorway. "What are you doing here so late?"Elena had been one of our most trusted friends during the pack merger. She'd helped write the new rules. She'd been at every important meeting.She'd also just signed her name on three different items that made no sense."Just catching up on paperwork," I
POV: Alpha Dorian GravesThe silver blade stopped inches from my throat.I didn't move. Didn't move. The killer behind me was so close I could smell the poison on his weapon."One more step, Alpha Graves, and you're dead," he whispered.I'd been tracking these killers for three days, following their scent through the abandoned warehouse area. They were the same ones who killed my mate, Luna Sarah. The same ones now threatening Amara and her pack."I'm not here to fight," I said carefully. "I'm here to make a deal."The blade pressed closer. "We don't make deals with dead wolves.""Then you're about to miss the opportunity of a lifetime."The pressure lessened slightly. Good. I had his attention."I know why you want Amara Kings," I continued. "Her power threatens your precious High Council. But killing her won't solve your problem. It'll make a bigger one.""Explain.""When Amara dies, her power doesn't disappear. It passes to the nex
POV: Riley Chen The cake burst right in my face. I sputtered, wiping chocolate frosting from my eyes as laughter exploded around me. So much for being the perfect pack member at the most important party in our history. "Riley!" My best friend Jake rushed over with napkins. "Are you okay?" "Just my pride," I mumbled, trying to clean frosting out of my hair. "Leave it to me to mess up the unity ceremony." Today was going to be perfect. The official joining of the Blood Moon and Artemis Packs, with Amara Kings and Elias Beaumont as our new Alpha Pair. After months of chaos, war, and near-disasters, we finally had something to enjoy. And I'd managed to walk face-first into the party cake. "Don't worry about it," Jake said, helping me clean up. "Nobody noticed." "Riley!" Alpha Amara's voice made me freeze. She was walking toward us, and even though she was smiling, I wanted to sink into the ground.
POV: Amara KingsThe vampire's scream cut through the air as my blue fire accidentally touched him."Stop!" I yanked my power back, but it was too late. Lord Castellane, one of the Council of Shadows' members, was on his knees, clutching his chest like someone had stabbed him."What did you do to me?" he gasped, his red eyes wide with fear.I stared at my hands in horror. The blue sparks were still dancing around my fingers, but now they looked different. Darker. More dangerous."I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—""The bond," he whispered, looking at Lady Morgana. "I can't feel our sire bond anymore."My blood went cold. I'd accidentally severed the link between a vampire and his maker. Something that should have been impossible."How?" Lady Morgana commanded, her fangs extending. "That bond has existed for eight hundred years!""I don't know!" I backed away from the group of supernatural experts who had been helping me understand my power. "I was
POV: Elias Beaumont The scream came from inside the abandoned building, and it definitely wasn't human. I pressed my back against the brick wall, signaling for my watch team to stay quiet. We'd been tracking strange reports for weeks - animals found drained of blood, witnesses claiming they saw people with glowing eyes, and worst of all, three missing hikers who vanished without a trace. "Alpha," Marcus whispered beside me. "That sounded like—" Another scream cut him off. This one was definitely human. I made my choice. "We go in. But stay together and stay alert." The warehouse door hung open, creaking in the wind. Inside, everything was dark except for a strange blue glow coming from the back corner. As we crept closer, I could smell something that made my wolf flinch in fear. Death. But not the normal kind. We rounded a stack of old boxes and found something that shouldn't exist.