LOGINHe spoke first, his tone low but firm enough to carry. “We can wait,” he said. “Children will come when they’re meant to. The Pack already has its heart.” The room stilled for a breath. Mara looked over her shoulder, her hands still sunk in flour, her eyes soft and startled. “You mean me?” she asked
LILAThe house woke before dawn. Old wood shifted, the hearth whispered, and the air felt different—alive again. I stood at the foot of the stairs when I heard them coming. Two sets of steps, uneven from the road, but in rhythm all the same. When the door opened, cold air rushed through the hall. Ga
“I thought I had to be perfect,” she said. “Every step, every word. Like one mistake would make them lose faith in me.”“Then let them,” I said. “Let them see we bleed too. Let them see what real looks like.”Her eyes lifted toward the sky, catching the first streaks of gold between the branches. “T
GAVINHer breath came out in bursts, sharp enough to cut. She pressed her palm to her mouth, like the words might spill if she didn’t hold them in. I moved before I thought, closing the space, catching her hands in mine. Her fingers were cold and damp, her pulse racing under my thumb.“I can’t be wh
GAVINThe scent hit me before I saw the gate—hers, faint and fading, scattered by wind. I caught it the second I stepped into the hall, and everything in me snapped to attention. The council chamber still echoed in my head, the droning voices, the talk of territory lines and alliance disputes. I had
MARAI knelt beside a pool fed by a narrow stream. Moonlight rippled across its surface, silver on black. My reflection flickered there, the same face that wore the Luna’s mask every day, only softer now—bare, unsure, alive. I cupped my hands in the water and let it run down my wrists. The cold snap
GAVINThe bone chamber breathed with fire. I sat with my father’s cloak folded over my knees, one hand around the iron medallion he wore when the arrow took him, the other pressed against the dirt floor, tracing the ridge where the last Alpha's blood had soaked into stone.The fire pit in front of m
LILATyler's hand twitched once against his thigh, then settled. His face stayed calm. My stomach turned.Lyric’s voice grew louder, harsher at the edges, like she was daring herself to go on. “I needed them to believe I was dead, because if they believed it, I could leave without consequence. Just
JACKSONThe sound reached us before the light did, slow steps dragging across stone, like she wanted us to hear her coming. She wanted our dread to rise with every footfall that echoed through the walls. I shifted beside Tyler, my shoulder brushing his, the stale scent of damp moss clinging to the c
LILALyric dragged me away. She stopped in front of a narrow linen closet, shoved the shelves aside, and opened a hidden door behind them. I followed her down a spiral stairwell into a room filled with old candles and broken charms. She grabbed a cracked wooden box off the shelf and dropped it onto







