LOGINJustinThe new pack smells different. The war didn’t reach the May Pack territory. The air is clean. It doesn’t smell like blood or regret.That alone makes me uneasy.I arrive just after sunset. I had left before the Solstice Ball. Fern begged me to stay, but she knew I needed to leave. We both did. The Frostveil territory fades behind me, replaced by the rugged stone lands of the pack that requested me. Their territory is built into the mountains instead of spread across valleys; it is defensive by nature.Smart. They are a pack that expects trouble.The gates open before I even announce myself. They were watching.Good.The Alpha waits inside the courtyard, exactly as I remember him: broad shoulders and a weathered face. He is a man who has seen enough war to know what it costs."You're late," he says."I said I would come,” I reply. “Not when.”He nods once. That is enough for now."No escort?" He asks. "I prefer to see things before people prepare them."That almost e
FernThe Solstice Ball was supposed to happen before the war. It was planned before the blood, before the betrayal, and before I knew what it meant to choose between mercy and survival.For a long time, no one spoke of it again. It felt wrong to celebrate when so many graves were still fresh, and when the scent of smoke still lingered in the valley.But peace cannot exist without ritual, and tonight isn't about celebration. It’s about acknowledging what happened and promising to never let it happen again.While I know that it is crazy to hope for. A girl can dream, right?The great hall of Blackmoor has never looked like this. Silver lanterns hang from the high beams, their light soft and lunar instead of bright and triumphant. White banners from every allied pack line the stone walls, each marked with their crest.Music plays quietly, not the loud victorious kind, but something older. Something steady. Something meant for rebuilding.I pause just outside the entrance. My hands ar
JustinThe hardest part about surviving war isn't the wounds.It's what comes after. When the fighting stops. When the orders stop. When the noise finally fades, and you're left alone with what you did.I sit on the edge of the lower training field long after the others have gone. Snow has melted into dirty slush where wolves ran drills earlier. My hands rest on my knees, but I don't remember sitting down.I don't remember much these days.Sleep comes in fragments. When it comes at all. Every time I close my eyes, I see the same things. The maps that I helped to draw, the ambush routes I suggested, and the supply lines I exposed. People died because I thought I was doing the right thing. They died because I thought strength meant choosing the winning side.I flex my fingers. They don't feel like mine anymore."You're avoiding everyone."A voice cuts through my thoughts like a blade. I don't need to look up to know it's Fern.I don't answer, because she's right. I have been av
FernVictory feels nothing like I imagined it would. There is no cheering, no celebrations, and no sense of triumph. There is only quiet.It is a heavy and exhausted quiet that settles over the valley like fresh snow. Smoke still rises from shattered siege lines. Healers move between the wounded. Wolves who survived sit beside wolves who did not.The war ends quietly, but the pain does not.I stand where Grace fell. The snow has already begun covering the blood. The battlefield looks almost peaceful now, as if the land itself is trying to forget what happened here.I cannot. I will not. Behind me, the remaining pack leaders gather. They aren’t summoned. Instead, they are drawn to what happens next. This part doesn’t involve fighting. It only involves judgment.Gaven stands beside me as the Frostveil Alpha arrives under escort. He doesn’t kneel or show respect. He simply studies me the way a general studies terrain."You requested parley," he says."I required accountability,
GavenThe moment Grace falls… The war ends. There isn’t an official treaty or a meeting with Alphas. It ends in the way that every warrior understands. The moment the one holding the war together dies, so does the cause. For several seconds after Fern pulls her blade free, no one moves. Grace collapses into the snow, her dark armor stark against the white ground, her blood spreading slowly beneath her like ink across parchment.Fern drops to her knees beside her. She doesn’t look victorious or relieved. No, Fern is grieving the loss of her sister.I move toward her immediately, every instinct screaming to shield her even though the danger has not fully passed. Wesley moves with me, our warriors tightening formation around her without being told.Because even now… Even after everything… She is what they protect.Across the battlefield, something far more important happens. Frostveil hesitates. Their lines shift. They aren’t ready to attack. Their movements are uncertain.
GraceShe shouldn't be standing like that. That is the first thing I notice. It isn’t her stance or the weapon at her side. It isn’t the wolves watching from the sidelines, waiting to attack. It is her stillness.Fern stands like she belongs here. Not like the prey that she was raised as. Not like someone who was lucky to survive. No, she looks like someone who chose to rise from her station. It is wrong.I strike first because if I don't, I might have to admit that something fundamental has shifted, and I refuse to do that. My blade cuts through the cold air, aimed clean for her shoulder. It should have been a disabling strike.She moves. She isn’t fast or desperate, but trained.Steel meets steel with a sharp crack that vibrates up my arm. She doesn't overpower me. She redirects me. My strike slides past her instead of through her.Annoyance sparks inside my mind. I pivot immediately, driving a second strike low toward her ribs.Again. She doesn't retreat. She absorbs the
GavenI’m already waiting when the door opens.I’ve positioned myself in the corridor outside Maelis’s exam room under the pretense of routine oversight, but we both know that’s a lie. I’ve been here since Fern went in. Long enough that two guards have rotated past me and pretended not to notice.
FernThe moment Alpha Gaven leaves the room, the air changes. It’s subtle at first. A shift in posture. A loosening of shoulders. Conversations resume at full volume instead of the careful hush they’d fallen into while he was present. I feel it before I see it, the way attention slides toward me l
FernI forget how to breathe, but why would I need air when Alpha Gaven is touching me? I swear the feeling of his skin on mine is enough to sustain me for several lifetimes. His fingers are warm against my skin, gentle but unyielding as he tilts my chin upward. The contact is so light it shouldn
GavenI shouldn’t be here.That thought is a thin, useless thing, like paper held up against a storm, because my body already chose what to do before my mind could argue. I’m in the corner of her room, pressed into shadow that shouldn’t be capable of hiding a man my size, breathing so quietly I can







