LOGINDRAVEN“Left.”Darius didn’t slow down when he said it. He just turned sharply into the corridor like he already knew I’d be right behind him.I was.We moved fast, but not recklessly. Every step was controlled, every turn calculated. The packhouse wasn’t unfamiliar to us, but tonight it felt different. Or maybe that was just Malrik.“You’re sure it’s this way?” I asked quietly.Darius didn’t look back. “I can feel her.”That made something in my chest tighten.“I thought you said the bond was weak.”“It is,” he replied, his voice clipped. “Doesn’t mean it’s gone.”Fair enough.We took another turn. The further we went, the quieter it got. Fewer guards. Fewer voices. That alone was enough to tell me we were getting closer to somewhere important.“Too quiet,” I muttered.Darius huffed softly. “You complain when there are too many guards, now you’re complaining when there are none.”“I’m saying it’s wrong.”“I know.”That was the problem.We both knew it.A shadow moved at the far end o
DARIUSLyra stood at the entrance like she had all the time in the world.That alone told me something was wrong.Or rather… something was about to go very right.Draven didn’t move, but I felt the shift in him instantly. The way his body went still, the way his gaze locked onto her like he was measuring the distance between where he stood and how fast he could get to the door if this turned into something else.“Close the door,” he said quietly.Lyra raised a brow. “No ‘hello’? No ‘thank you for coming to rescue us from this charming little dungeon’?”“Lyra,” I said, my tone flat, “close the door.”She sighed like we were inconveniencing her, then nudged it shut with her foot. The click echoed through the room, and just like that, the space felt smaller again.Selene stepped in behind her.She didn’t speak at first. Her eyes moved over us—slow, precise, taking in everything. The collars. The restraints. The tension sitting on our shoulders like we were seconds away from tearing the p
DARIUSThe first thing I noticed was the silence.Not the kind you get when a room is empty, but the kind that presses in on you, thick and suffocating, like the walls themselves are waiting for you to break.I sat with my back against the cold stone, one knee drawn up slightly as I tried to steady my breathing. It wasn’t working. Every inhale felt wrong, like something inside me wasn’t aligning the way it should.Across from me, Draven didn’t sit.He paced.Back and forth, slow at first, then sharper, restless, like he was trying to burn through whatever restraint still held him together. His shoulders were tense, his jaw locked, his hands curling into fists every few seconds like he was imagining tearing something apart.Or someone.The collar around his neck caught the dim light every time he moved.I hated the sight of it.I hated the one on mine even more.I shifted slightly, the metal pressing uncomfortably against my skin, the faint hum of whatever power it held crawling under
AURORAThe silence in Malrik’s chambers didn’t feel empty.It felt deliberate.Like the room itself was watching me, waiting to see what I would do next.I stood where they had left me, right in the middle of the space, my arms wrapped tightly around myself as if that could somehow hold me together. It didn’t. Nothing did.The longer I stayed here… the worse it got.It wasn’t just the absence of sound.It was their absence.Draven.Darius.The bond didn’t disappear completely, and that was the problem. If it had, maybe I could have convinced myself it was all in my head. Maybe I could have ignored it.But it was still there, faint and distant. Like something just out of reach no matter how hard I tried to grasp it.My chest tightened again, that same hollow ache spreading slowly, like something inside me was stretching too far without anything to anchor it.I exhaled shakily.“Stop it,” I muttered under my breath, pressing my palm harder against my chest as if I could physically forc
AURORAI didn’t struggle as they dragged me through the halls.Not because I couldn’t but because I already understood that this was all Malrik’s plan and I fell into it. Fighting now wouldn’t save me. It wouldn’t bring them back. It wouldn’t undo what had just happened.The damage was already done.My feet dragged slightly against the stone floor as they pulled me forward, their grip tight around my arms like I might snap at any moment.Maybe I would have… a few minutes ago.Now? I just felt… empty.The further we moved, the worse it got.At first, I thought it was just exhaustion. The aftermath of everything that had just happened. The surge of power. The chaos. The fear.But it wasn’t that.It was something else. Something was missing.My breath caught slightly as I slowed.The guards didn’t notice or maybe they didn’t care.But I felt it. A hollow pull in my chest. It wasn't sharp or painful, it just felt wrong. Like something that had been there moments ago had suddenly been ri
AURORAThe moment the elders hit the wall, everything fell apart.Gasps filled the room. Some of the wolves stepped back immediately like I had just turned into something monstrous right in front of them. Others froze completely, eyes wide, like they couldn’t decide if they should run or attack.I didn’t move.I couldn’t.My chest rose and fell too fast, my fingers trembling slightly as I stared at what I had just done.The elders were on the floor because of me. “I didn’t—” My voice came out hoarse. “I didn’t mean to—”“Restrain her.”The command cut through the room before I could finish.My head snapped up.The elder who spoke wasn’t shouting. He didn’t need to. The fear in his eyes said enough.“She has proven exactly what we feared,” he continued, pushing himself up slowly with the help of another elder. “She is unstable.”Something twisted painfully in my chest.“I’m not—”“Enough,” another elder snapped, her voice sharper this time. “You attacked the council.”“I didn’t attack
AURORAI woke up choking as my body jerked violently, lungs seizing as if I’d been dragged out of deep water too fast.Pain exploded across my back and ribs, so sharp it ripped a scream out of me before I could stop it. The sound came out broken, barely more than a rasp.I collapsed back onto the g
AURORAI woke up choking on heat but it wasn't the type that came from fire or fever alone, it was something deeper than that, like something was pulling me from inside, stretching, and burning like my body was being torn in opposite directions. I heard the voices before I opened my eyes. I heard
DRAVENThe pain hit without warning. One moment we were close to the den, the forest thickening around us, the wards humming faintly beneath my skin. The next, something ripped through my chest like a blade driven straight into my heart and twisted.I collapsed.The world tilted violently as I hit
MALRIKSilence followed the chaos the moment Draven stormed away with his two shadows.It wasn’t peace. It was the kind of silence that crawled under the skin, filled with judgment, fear, and uncertainty. The pack didn’t know where to look, so they looked at me.The courtyard still reeked of blood.







