LILAI found the stone by accident.The afternoon sun hung low in the sky, a soft amber bleeding through the trees as I wandered into the overgrown garden beyond the Pack house. They said I used to come here often, that I’d sit on the old marble bench under the hawthorn tree and journal, or braid Gavin’s hair as he plucked leaves into “potions” only he understood. I couldn’t remember any of that, but something about the place pulled at me, like muscle memory coaxing me back into shape.The earth was damp from an earlier rain. Pine needles stuck to my boots. I crouched near the gnarled roots of the hawthorn, chasing nothing in particular. A way to keep my hands busy while my mind circled.That’s when I saw it: a small, smooth stone, tucked just beneath the roots. That was not a natural placement, it was not forgotten by the wind or dropped by a bird. It was hidden deliberately. My fingers closed around it, brushing away dirt and dead moss.Tied to it with twine was a cowrie shell. My b
LILAI couldn’t move without feeling him there.Everywhere I turned, Gavin’s presence lingered, pressed against my side, tucked into the crook of my arm, clutching at my shirt like I might vanish again if he let go. His little hand wrapped around mine as if it had always belonged there and maybe it had, I didn’t know anymore.He followed me from the bed to the bathroom, from the bathroom to the hallway, from the hallway back again. Like a shadow cast in sunlight, he was constant, quiet and impossibly close. Sometimes he hummed to himself. Sometimes he asked questions I didn’t know how to answer. “Do you remember our pancake Sundays?” “Do you still like when I wear wolf ears?” “Do you know what my bedtime song was?”I’d shake my head, give him a small, helpless smile. He’d nod as if that made sense but behind his eyes, I could see the tremble he was trying not to show.He’d stopped asking if I’d get better.That morning, I sat by the window while a soft rain tapped the glass. Gavin cur
LILAThe room they placed me in smelled like lavender.Warm light spilled across the stone walls from a low-burning fireplace, and the bed beneath me was too soft, like clouds spun from wool. Every breath I took hurt. Something was broken inside me—cracked ribs, they said—but the ache in my skull was worse. A dull, pressing throb that made thought slippery and recall impossible.I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know who I was supposed to be but everyone else seemed to know me.A healer flitted in and out. She smiled too wide and too often, like I might break if she frowned. She called me “Luna.” The word echoed strangely in my mind, as if it belonged to someone else entirely.A boy visited me, he was small, bright-eyed, with a head full of dark curls and the kind of smile that could break a thousand hearts. He didn’t say much, just crawled into the bed beside me when the healer wasn’t looking and held my hand with both of his. When I asked him his name, his eyes watered.“Gavin,” h
LILAReid had paid the price for our fractured Pack and for Tyler’s blind spots.One thing struck me hard; Dominic and George were not among them. I searched again and they weren’t there.They were not standing in the shadows, not mourning the man who died for their brother’s heir.A cold certainty settled in my chest; they weren’t hiding from grief, they were hiding from guilt.The Packhouse was unusually quiet when we returned. There were no barking laughter from the training grounds and no echo of running feet through the halls. The usual scent of baking bread and simmering herbs had faded, replaced by cold, dusty stillness, like even the walls were mourning.Gavin had cried himself to sleep on the way back. I carried him through the halls in my arms, his body heavy with exhaustion and grief. He didn’t stir as I entered our chambers and laid him down on the bed. I brushed the hair from his forehead and kissed him, just once, before drawing the blanket up to his shoulders.I stayed
LILAThe woods were unnaturally quiet. No birdsong, no wind, just the crunch of boots and broken branches as we stumbled through the dense brush, carrying Reid’s lifeless body between us. My hands were stained with his blood, warm when it spilled, now cooling against my palms like the ghost of a man who had once been fire.Tyler walked ahead, one hand holding Gavin close, the other clenched into a trembling fist. He hadn’t spoken a word since Reid collapsed.I kept looking at Reid’s face, at the slack line of his jaw, the way his lashes still clung to the sweat on his cheeks. I kept waiting for him to groan, to cough, to blink...something. Anything.Gavin was quiet too, his little fingers gripping Tyler’s collar. His eyes darted between the trees, then back to Reid. There was a question in them. One he hadn’t asked yet. One I couldn’t answer.I swallowed the rising sob. I couldn’t fall apart now.The moment we reached the clearing near the eastern border, several guards sprinted forwa
LILAThe second my hand slapped his cheek, the room froze in a heartbeat of silence so thick it felt like the walls themselves held their breath. His eyes, already flashing gold, widened with shock and fury.His body tensed like a coiled spring ready to snap. I could see every muscle twitch beneath his skin, every heartbeat pounding in his neck. For a moment, I almost thought he would strike back but then it happened.Bones cracked and shifted, his skin rippling, muscles expanding, and fur bursting through like wildfire.Tyler wasn’t the man in front of me anymore. He was something else. A massive, golden wolf filled the space, towering, snarling, eyes burning with a wild fire that chilled me to my core.Steam puffed from his nostrils in the cold air, his teeth bared and gleaming like weapons sharpened for battle.But I didn’t flinch. I stood my ground, every fiber of me shaking.I stared into those blazing eyes and spoke, my voice steady, louder than the growl rumbling from his throa