ANMELDENA Bad Trade POV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)Everything just went black.One second I was weaving the magic, feeling the purple fire singing in my veins, and the next, someone threw a switch.I was face down in the dirt, gasping like a fish thrown onto the deck of a boat. I couldn't get any air into my lungs. The black veins of the curse had crawled completely up my throat, wrapping around my windpipe like a vise grip of solid ice. It felt like I had swallowed a block of dry ice.Above me, the purple magic I had painted in the air was sparking dangerously, hissing and threatening to explode.We're out of time, Astra cried in my head. Her voice didn't sound majestic anymore. She sounded terrified, like she was drowning under a frozen lake. It’s in the heart. Vesh, it’s in the heart!I tried to push myself up, but my arms were completely dead. I was paralyzed. This was it. I had survived torture, I had survived rejection, I had survived freezing in the snow five years ago, just t
Face In The Dirt POV: Alpha Kaelen BlackwoodI didn't wait to see if they followed. I threw myself right off the edge of the cliff.I didn't care about military strategy. I didn't care about flanking maneuvers. I just wanted to rip things apart until the world stopped threatening my mate. I let the wolf take over in mid-air. The shift was violent and instantaneous. Clothes shredded into confetti, my bones snapped and elongated, tearing through muscle and skin to reform into a massive, nine-foot-tall Lycan.I hit the mud at the bottom of the gorge hard enough to leave a crater.I let out a deafening, chest-rattling roar and slammed straight into the frontline of the dead.The Vanguard crashed into the valley right behind me. It wasn't a battle. It was a total, unadulterated bloodbath.These things didn't fight like regular soldiers. They didn't feel pain. They didn't care if you cut off an arm; they’d just beat you with the stump. You had to physically tear them to pieces to ma
Dead On Our FeetPOV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)We left the Keep just as dawn broke. Though, calling it dawn felt like a joke. The sun didn't really rise; the sky just turned the color of a bruised kidney, bleeding a sickly, heavy purple light over the snow.There were no war horns. Nobody stood on a rock to give a grand, heroic speech about glory or honor. We were past all that bullshit. You don't give speeches to dead men walking. You just point them at the enemy and hope they do enough damage before they drop.Five thousand wolves marched out of the courtyard. The only sound was the heavy, rhythmic crunch of combat boots packing down the frozen dirt, and the harsh, ragged breathing of terrified soldiers trying to keep their shit together.I was running on absolute fumes.I’d spent the last hour of the night strapping myself into my tactical armor, pulling the heavy boiled leather and steel plates as tight as they would go over that oversized wool sweater. I had to hide it. I
Fumes and SpitePOV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)Waking up felt exactly like clawing my way out of a shallow grave.My mouth tasted like battery acid and old pennies, a parting gift from the massive dose of moon-poppy Kaelen had jammed into my shoulder. I blinked against the harsh, awful light bleeding through the heavy curtains. My head was pounding a frantic rhythm against my skull, but the paralyzing, bone-deep freeze from the day before had receded into a dull, thumping ache.I looked down at my chest. The black veins were still there, jagged and ugly against my pale skin, creeping dangerously close to my collarbone. But they weren't burning anymore.Whatever absolute breakdown we’d had on this bed last night—the frantic kissing, the sheer, crushing heat of his Alpha aura soaking into my skin—had jump-started my nervous system just enough to buy me some time.I pushed the heavy furs off my legs, gritting my teeth as my joints popped in protest. I was running on absolute fumes
The Edge of SanityPOV: Alpha Kaelen Blackwood"I think I know what to do," Elara whispered, her cold thumbs gently stroking my jawline.Her breath ghosted across my lips, frantic and shallow. The black, necrotic veins of the True King’s curse pulsed visibly beneath the thin linen of her gown, but her violet eyes were completely clear, burning with a desperate, terrifying resolve."Tell me," I breathed, my heart hammering violently against my ribs. I kept my weight supported on my forearms, terrified of crushing her beneath me. "Tell me how to save you.""Astra said the curse is severing my soul from my body," Elara rasped, her hands sliding from my jaw to grip the collar of my shirt. "The only magic older than the King's necrosis... is the ultimate tether of flesh and soul. The ancient law of the Goddess."I froze. Every muscle in my massive frame locked completely solid."The claiming bite," Elara said, the words slipping into the quiet room like a spark in a powder keg. "You
The Only Cure POV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)The world returned in fragments of muffled sound and agonizing weight.My eyelids felt like they had been stitched shut with iron wire. I forced them open, my vision swimming in a hazy, dim light. I was staring up at a massive canopy of dark, carved mahogany. Beneath me was a mattress so deep and soft it felt like I was sinking into a cloud, covered in layers of heavy, impossibly warm wolf furs.I inhaled, and my lungs instantly burned. But beneath the pain, I caught the deep, unmistakable scent of cedar, woodsmoke, and fresh snowKaelen’s room. I was in the Alpha’s suite.I was entirely alone. The heavy stone walls of the chamber were silent, illuminated only by the dying embers in the massive hearth across the room.I tried to sit up.My body refused to obey. It wasn't just weakness; it was a total, terrifying paralysis. My muscles felt like they had been turned to lead. I gritted my teeth, straining every ounce of willpower I p
The Blood in the Sand POV: Alpha Kaelen BlackwoodThe sand was burning hot against the soles of my bare boots, but I couldn't feel the heat. I couldn't feel the agonizing sting of the silver lash marks across my back.All I could feel was the suffocating, heavy dread of the suppression irons cl
The White Silk POV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)The wedding dress was a masterpiece of Capital tailoring, woven from the finest arachnid silk and embroidered with thousands of tiny, crushed diamonds. It cascaded to the marble floor like a waterfall of pure, blinding light. It was the most expensi
The Silent Monster POV: Alpha Kaelen BlackwoodThe sand of the Sunken Arena smelled of centuries of spilled blood, rusted iron, and the acrid urine of terrified beasts.I knelt in the center of the pit, the freezing rain of the North replaced by the stifling, oppressive heat of the Capital’s su
The Gilded Cage POV: General Vesh (Elara Vance)The Capital city of Aethelgard did not smell like the North.There was no crisp scent of pine, no ozone of an approaching blizzard, and no metallic tang of fresh blood on the snow. The Capital smelled of blooming jasmine, crushed rose petals, and







