LOGINThe training yard was a mess of half-hearted movement. It wasn't the usual roar of bodies hitting the dirt; it was the sound of wolves going through the motions because they didn't know what else to do with their hands. People were talking, but the voices were low, guarded, like they were afraid that speaking too loudly might draw blood. The air didn't just feel different, it felt stagnant, thick with the smell of sweat and the kind of fear that doesn't wash off.Lyra stood by the edge of the ring, her fingers digging into her own arms. She watched Donovan. He was working with one of the kids, showing him how to plant his feet, but his patience was weird. It was too quiet. Usually, Donovan would be barking or shoving, but now he just moved like he was made of glass.Everyone was broken in a way that didn't show on the skin.Kael was off to the side, his head bent toward Rylan. He looked steady enough, but his eyes were never still. They were darting toward the gates, toward the treeli
The quiet didn't last. It never did.Kael let them have a few minutes anyway. It was just enough time for their heart rates to slow and for Lilith to finish the immediate patchwork on Faolan. He stood on the edge of the group, his focus already pulling away from the huddle and reaching toward the boundaries. Something felt wrong, but it wasn't the kind of wrong that came from a sudden threat. It was the skin-crawling sensation of a familiar place being touched by a stranger.He walked toward the nearest boundary marker without a word. He knew every knot in the wood of these trees, every dip in the terrain. When the marker came into view, a deep notch in an old oak. He stopped.It was still there, but it was strange.Kael crouched, his fingers tracing the edge of the cut. The scent was theirs, but the application was different. It had been smoothed over, the edges of the carving pressed down as if someone had spent time studying the mark before replicating it. This wasn't a breach by a
The boundary didn't announce itself with a roar or a sign. It was a subtle, sickening shift in the air pressure, the sudden, familiar scent of damp pine and old earth rising through the soles of their boots. They had spent so long running through dirt that wasn't theirs that the taste of home should have been a relief. Instead, it felt like a mourning.Kael felt the snap of the border against his skin and stopped.Home. The word felt hollow, a ghost of a concept that didn't fit the jagged reality of the blood drying on his hands. It should have meant something, but as he looked at the shadows stretching across the valley, he felt nothing but the weight of what they had dragged back with them.“Here,” he rasped.The word didn't need volume to carry. It cut through the heavy rhythm of their footsteps, and the pack didn't just stop, they surrendered to the earth. They stood like broken things, their bodies finally catching up to the fact that the hunt was paused, even if the danger wasn'
They kept moving, but the shape of the group had changed in a way none of them could correct by simply pushing forward. The path opened ahead of them, wide enough to move faster, clear enough that nothing forced them to slow, yet the pace never returned. It settled into something uneven, held together by effort rather than instinct. No one called it out. No one tried to fix it. They all felt it. Kael took the front without saying it, his focus set on the terrain ahead, but his attention refused to stay there. It kept pulling back, measuring distance, tracking rhythm, marking every small break in the way they moved together. They were still a unit. But they no longer moved like one. Rylan ranged wider than before, cutting through the trees in longer arcs, his attention split between the forest and the group. He checked the perimeter more often, but each time he returned, his gaze lingered on them a second longer than necessary, like he was confirming something he didn’t trust. L
Lyra’s hand settled against Faolan’s chest, and for a moment, nothing happened. The clearing held its breath with her. Kael did not move. He did not speak. Every instinct he had was sharpened to a single point, fixed on the contact between them, on the decision he had already made by allowing this to happen. There was no stepping in now. No pulling her back if it went wrong. Whatever came next would come through her. Lyra felt that weight. Not from him. From herself. The first time she had reached for this, it had taken her. It had broken through her without permission, without direction, tearing outward because it had more force than she could contain. She had not understood it. She had barely survived it. This time, she refused to let that happen. She drew in a breath and held it, forcing her focus inward instead of outward, searching for that same place inside her without letting it consume everything else. It was there. Waiting. Not wild, not distant. Closer than she expect
They did not make it far. The forest thickened again, roots cutting across the ground in uneven ridges, branches closing in tighter the deeper they pushed. It should have slowed them. It didn’t. They kept moving anyway, forcing their way through it because stopping still felt worse than whatever waited ahead. That lasted only a few minutes. Kael heard it before he saw it. A shift behind him. Not loud. Not sudden. Just wrong enough to pull his attention back. “Stop.” This time, the word came without restraint. Donovan didn’t argue. That was the first sign. He usually would. He would push, insist, carry past the point where anyone else would have stopped. Not now. He lowered Faolan, but the movement lacked the control he had forced earlier. His arms shook as he eased her down, and when he finally let go, he stayed crouched beside her, one hand still pressed against her like he didn’t trust the ground to hold her. “She’s fine,” he said. No one answered him. Lilith moved in i
Magnus’s hand stretched toward me, deliberately and unnervingly calm. The air around him throbbed with threat, and every nerve in my body screamed to bolt, strike, vanish. But behind me, Kael was a wall, his presence unyielding. His eyes locked onto mine, a commanding restraint I couldn’t, and woul
The second rogue wasn’t just fast; he was deliberate, a predator moving through shadows, testing us. I felt Kael’s presence behind me, solidly and unyieldingly, his silver eyes flicking over every movement, every flicker of intent in the rogue’s stance. My heartbeat thudded in my chest, the mate bo
The rogue’s laughter cut through the night like a blade, sharp and cruel. I felt it reverberate against my ribs, my wolf snarling beneath my skin, every instinct screaming danger. Kael stood beside me, tall, still, silver eyes fixed on the intruder as if measuring him with a predator’s precision. N
“Rogues?” I repeated. The word lingered in the room longer than it should have, like the echo of a warning bell no one could ignore. Across the table, Rylan stood with his arms folded, watching me with the focused stillness of a hunter studying its prey. He wasn’t hiding what he was doing. His gaz







