LOGINThe western slope was a graveyard of dead pine and jagged granite. The air was thin, the kind of cold that didn't just bite your skin but settled into your joints like lead. We moved in a formation that shouldn't have existed. Rowan led the way, his eyes darting between the grey-black horizon and the shale beneath his boots. Donovan and the other two wolves were behind me, hands never more than an inch from their steel.We weren't allies. This wasn't a team. It was a forced alignment of people terrified of the same man. Kael’s group was somewhere in the mist behind us, a ghost pack left in the mud."Stop," I said.The word was quiet, but Rowan pulled up short. He didn't ask why. He just crouched, his boots making a faint, dry crunch on the frosted ground. Donovan moved to my left, his nostrils flaring as he caught the scent of the wind."He’s not ahead of us anymore," I said.Rowan turned, his brow furrowed. He looked at the ridge, then back at me. "The gap is another mile west. Magnu
The mud between us was a graveyard of lines and circles. Rowan’s shale shard dug into the frozen earth, carving out a map of a place I didn't recognize. There was no trust here. No one was pretending. Donovan stood behind me, his hand white-knuckled on his knife, his eyes never leaving Rowan’s throat. If Rowan breathed too loudly, Donovan would open him up. Rowan knew it. He didn't seem to care. “You’re thinking like a victim,” Rowan said, his voice flat. He didn't look up from the dirt. “You’re thinking Magnus wants to take you back to a throne and keep you in a cage. That’s what Kael told you, isn't it? That you’re the prize he needs to protect.” “He said Magnus wanted the bloodline,” I said. My voice was tight. The cold was getting deeper, settling into my marrow. Rowan let out a short, sharp bark of a laugh. It wasn't a happy sound. “Magnus doesn’t want a bloodline to follow. He wants a bloodline to consume. He doesn’t want you alive long-term, Lyra. He wants the power extracte
The sheep track was a nightmare of loose shale and vertical drops. My lungs burned with the kind of cold that felt like swallowing glass. Every time I reached for a handhold, the rock was slick with moss or ice, threatening to send me sliding back down toward the man I had just left behind. Donovan was right behind me, his breathing a rhythmic, heavy grunt. He didn’t talk. No one did. We were too busy trying to keep our footing on a path that shouldn't have existed.We reached a small plateau where the ridge leveled out before the final climb. The fog was thinner up here, but the air was colder. It bit at my exposed skin. I stopped to catch my breath, my hands on my knees, watching the steam rise off my own skin.“He’s here.”Donovan’s voice was low, barely a vibration. He didn’t draw his knife. He just stood there, his eyes fixed on a cluster of pines at the far edge of the plateau.Rowan stepped out from behind the trees.He wasn't leaning this time. He wasn't smiling that thin, arr
The sound of the pack moving through the brush changed. It wasn't a single, rhythmic pulse anymore. It was staggered. There was too much space between the footsteps. We reached a small rise where the trees thinned out into a patch of grey shale and scrub brush, and the momentum finally died.I stopped and stood on the edge of the rise and looked at the ridge ahead.Kael stopped five feet behind me. The air between us was cold and dead. Behind him, the remaining wolves slowed to a halt. They didn't form a circle. They didn't look to him for the next command. They just stood where they were, sweating and bleeding into the dirt.The shift wasn't emotional. The glue that held the pack to Kael’s back had dried up and cracked. You could see it in the way they stood. Some were looking at Kael’s boots. Others were looking at me.I moved. I didn't walk toward the center. I walked to the left, toward a sheep track that cut away from the main ridge path. It was steep, rocky, and went against eve
The fog didn't just sit in the trees, it clung to our skin like wet wool. We had stopped moving, but the air felt heavier than the march. Rylan was leaning against a tree, his eyes closed. Donovan was staring at the ground, his hands twitching over the hilt of a knife he didn't have a target for. Kael stood apart from them. He was looking into the thickness of the woods, his back to me, his shoulders hard. He looked like he was still in command and had a plan. I walked toward him. My boots made a wet, sucking sound in the muck. I didn't stop until I was three feet behind him. “What aren’t you telling me?” My voice was flat. It didn't have the shake I felt in my knees. I wasn't looking for comfort or a lie to make the night easier. I wanted the truth, and I wanted it before another man walked into the trees to die. Kael didn’t turn around or shift his weight. “We need to keep moving, Lyra. The longer we stand here, the more Magnus closes the circle.” “Stop talking about Mag
No one moved.We stood in the cold mud where Miller and Rowan had left us. The trees were just black wood and wet bark, but they felt like a cage. Kael didn’t give an order to march. No one asked for one. Moving blindly wasn't a plan anymore, it was just a way to get tired before we died.Rylan slumped against a cedar. He looked like hell. His face was the color of ash, and his breathing was a wet, ragged sound in the quiet. He peeled the bloody cloth back from his side, hissed through his teeth, and shoved it back down. His fingers were slick with blood.“We stop,” Rylan said. Every word cost him. “We stop right here.”Donovan didn't like that. He paced a tight circle, his boots splashing in the muck. “We stop, we’re dead. We’re giving Rowan time to reevaluate and pick us off one by one.”“Rowan isn't the problem,” Rylan said. He looked up, his eyes bloodshot. “Think. Rowan is the noise. He’s the one who shows up to shove us and break the line. He’s the distraction. But he’s not the
“You’re not even listening.” Lilith’s voice cut through the conversation just as Donovan finished speaking, and I realized I had not caught a single word he said. I looked up at them, all three watching me now. “I am,” I said. Faolan let out a quiet laugh and leaned back slightly. “You’re not.
“Say it.”Lilith didn’t raise her voice, but the way she said it cut clean through the noise of the training yard.I didn’t look at her. “Say what?” “The thing you’ve been circling since morning,” she replied, stepping into my path. “You’re not subtle, Lyra.”Faolan leaned against the fence near
“You sent that message at first light.” Kael’s voice cut across the room before the wolf had even finished stepping inside. The runner froze where he stood, dust still clinging to his boots, chest rising too fast for someone who had only just delivered a report. “Yes, Alpha.” Kael didn’t move fr
“Close the inner gates and keep them shut. No one leaves without my word.”Kael did not need to raise his voice for the command to take hold. The wolves nearest the entrance moved immediately, not out of fear, but out of habit shaped by a leader who did not repeat himself. The heavy doors began to







