LOGINIrene's POV
Something was wrong with Lexie.
Not jus
Karson's POVThe war room smelled like blood and smoke.Maps covered every surface. Battle reports stacked in messy piles. Half-empty coffee cups scattered across tables. Nobody had slept properly in days."They're regrouping near the eastern ridge," Ken reported, pointing at the map. "Approximately sixty wolves. Mixed forces from Shadow Pack and Iron Claw."
Karson's POVThe days blurred together.Wake up. Check on the children. Attend war councils. Lead patrols. Kill enemies. Return to camp. Check on the children again. Stare at the ceiling until exhaustion dragged me under.Repeat.I stopped sle
Karson's POVThe grave was too small.That's what I kept thinking as they lowered her into the ground. It was too small to contain everything she had been. Too ordinary for someone so extraordinary.Just a hole in the earth. Just dirt and stone and silence.
Karson's POVThe healer's tent was too quiet.I'd laid Irene on the table myself. Refused to let anyone else touch her. My hands were still covered in her blood—dried now, cracking in the creases of my palms.The head healer worked quickly. Checking her wounds. Listening to her chest. Pressing fingers to her throat, her wrist, all the places where life was supposed to announce itsel
Karson POVThe explosion lit up the sky like a second sun.I felt it before I saw it. A pulse of wrongness that rippled through the air, through the ground, through my bones. Every wolf on the battlefield felt it—friend and enemy alike. The blood-bound wolves started screaming, clutching their heads, collapsing where they stood.The ritual had failed.
Irene's POVSomething was wrong with Lexie.Not just the madness in her eyes or the hatred twisting her features. Something physical. Chemical. Her movements were too fast, too strong, too everything.Blood magic alone didn't explain it.She threw me off befor







