ログインMara’s POVThe morning light at the fortress was a gentler thing than I remembered from home. It did not sting; it caressed. It filled the corridors with pale gold and made even the cracks in the stone seem deliberate, elegant.I hated it.This place had been built for wolves who had never truly suffered — too clean, too still. Even the servants smiled with something close to joy, as if they didn’t remember what hunger felt like. The peace here was unnatural, and it made my skin crawl.Lila was still asleep when I rose. I dressed in the simple linen gown Rose had sent for us — soft fabric, plain but fine enough that I wanted to shred it just for existing. When I caught my reflection in the mirror, I practiced the look I would wear for the day: humble, grateful, touched by sorrow but holding on to fragile hope.It was a good mask.The knock came precisely as expected.One of the fortress maids entered with breakfast, her arms balancing a tray of fruit, warm bread, and steaming tea. “Th
Lucas’s POVOnly when I was sure the sisters were out of earshot did I finally turn to Jake and Clara. Both waited without speaking, the former because silence was part of his nature, the latter because her fury was still finding words sharp enough to carry it.“She hugged them,” Clara said at last, voice taut. “Right there in front of everyone. I could smell it—their fear, yes, but there was something else. Something that didn’t belong.”Jake folded his arms. “Confidence.”She shot him a look. “You saw it too.”He nodded. “They’ve practiced. The tremors, the tears. I’ve seen rogues lie for bread before—but never that cleanly.”I exhaled slowly, rubbing the bridge of my nose. The hall still smelled of dust and rain from their arrival, and beneath it, the faint sweetness of honey that Rose had insisted the kitchens prepare. My mate’s mercy would one day save us all—or damn us if I wasn’t careful.“She believes them,” I said quietly.Jake’s jaw ticked. “She wants to. That’s different.”
Mara’s POVThe cart jolted over another stone, and Lila’s hand tightened around mine. Her skin was cold, even under the blanket we’d wrapped ourselves in for the act. The wind smelled of pine and hearth smoke — the scent of home. My stomach twisted at the thought. Home. The word itself had turned poisonous.When the walls of Lucas’s fortress rose ahead, tall and clean against the morning light, I almost smiled. Almost. Every brick, every flag was proof that the story had worked.That she’d taken the bait.Rose.Our dear, cursed sister.“She’s waiting,” Lila murmured, voice soft but unsteady. “She’ll be standing there.”I didn’t need to look at her to know she was trembling, not from fear — but excitement. “Good,” I whispered back. “Let her believe every word of our letter.”The guards at the gate stepped aside as our cart slowed. The tall one—Jake, the Gamma—rode beside us. His face was carved from suspicion, jaw locked tight, eyes sweeping every movement we made. He’d barely said a w
Mara’s POV The cottage looked like grief. That much, at least, was true.The thatch slumped in two places where the winter had weighed too hard and too long. The hearth smoked because we had narrowed the flue with a stone months ago to make the air sting the eyes. We had learned where to pile ash so it would look as though the fire had been starved, not managed. We had learned that one bowl left with a crust of porridge told a cleaner lie than three scrubbed and stacked. We wore dresses we had torn at the hem with careful hands and left the threads so they would catch on the stool and worry themselves worse.When the wind shifted, we winced at the smell like honest women who had gotten used to clean water and must now drink from the ditch.As evening softened the edges of the room, Lila stood in the middle of the floor and let her hair fall loose. She bent her head as if in prayer and looked up at me through it, a pale curtain.“Do I look empty?” she asked.“You look tired,” I said.
Lucas’s POVBy the time I reached the war room, the letter had warmed in my palm as if it were a living thing. I laid it flat on the table, weighed the corners with two small stones, and read it again with a soldier’s eye—marks, cadence, the places where truth and performance often braid until they are difficult to separate.The script was from Mara on behalf of herself and her sister who Rose had told me maltreated her. Did they really repented?Jake entered without knocking. He’d earned the right by bleeding in my shadow long enough to know where I stood even in the dark. He took one look at the letter and one look at my face, and his shoulders came up like a wolf seeing weather turn.“What is it?” he asked.“Her sisters,” I said. “They sent this.”He read quietly, jaw working once, twice, then stilling. “It’s good,” he said. “A little too good.”“My thought,” I said.“Does she want to see them?”“She wants a chance to try,” I said. Saying it aloud settled something in me. I had l
Rose’s POVIt was another morning. I woke up to peace that I was already getting used to. It was late in the morning and Lucas had already left the bed to attend to his Alpha duty.With my pregnancy, I got to sleep as much as I wanted. Just then a knock sounded on the door.“Come in,” I called.A young messenger slipped inside, cheeks wind-reddened, hair stuck damp against his brow. He bowed so quickly he nearly toppled forward, then straightened and offered me a small parcel wrapped in oilcloth, tied with twine so tightly the knot had cut a groove into the bundle.“It came with the northern courier, Your Highness,” he said. “it bore the crest of…” His eyes flicked to the seal as if he wasn’t sure he should say it out loud. “Of your old pack.”For a heartbeat, the room tilted. There are names you think you have buried, and then a scrap of wax carries them back like a tide.“Thank you,” I managed to say while collecting it. He bowed and left. I sat very still with the parcel in my lap







