Mag-log inHe 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
LILABy the third morning, they were already waiting for me.I arrived before the second bell, hair braided tightly down my back, sleeves rolled to my elbows. Just a satchel of bandages over one shoulder. Healers parted without question when I entered the infirmary. Some offered nods; others just st
I blinked. My breath stilled.He stepped closer. “You want to talk about betrayal?” he snarled. “You ran off and laid with another man. While my son grew up without his father. And now you bring up a letter you can’t even prove existed? You’re insane.”“I’m not the one who betrayed a mate bond,” I s
LILAI found the body just after nightfall, half-hidden beneath the collapsed stone near the southern ridge. One of the guards had called out when they spotted movement. By the time I reached the edge of the courtyard, the wolf was already dead, he was one of the Red Hand soldiers, dressed in black
LILAWhen I woke up, the first thing I felt was cold.It was not the sharp bite of winter wind or the chill of stone floors but a cold that came from the inside. A hollowness that wrapped around my ribs like frostbite, slow and aching. I was back in my room. My body throbbed in time with my heartbea







