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
GAVINMum didn’t knock, she pushed through the war room doors and Aunt Lyric followed, lips pressed into a line and arms crossed over a velvet shawl. I stood at the table, tracing my finger along a scouting report, pretending I hadn’t seen the look in Mum’s eyes.“She was right,” she said. Her voice
GAVINI stood at the head of the long table, the letters spread across the grain. Sariah’s handwriting sprawled across every treacherous line. My hand curled around the topmost sheet, her inked phrases sealing my final decision. I had already seen enough. My wife had written to Benjen with full know
COWRIEThe fire had burned low by the time I crawled under the covers. He’d been reading when I came in, propped against the headboard with his shirt undone, chest rising slow beneath the flickering shadows. He closed the book when I settled beside him.My heart beat loud, but my body didn’t recoil
GAVINI dropped the sealed document on the table between us. Sariah sat upright in her chair like she'd been expecting it. She glanced at the wax, then at me, her lips tightening.She slid the envelope toward herself with two fingers and cracked the seal like it weighed nothing. She didn’t blink as







