The suite reeked of ozone and smoke, as if lightning had ripped through the marble and glass. Zaria’s lungs still burned with the cold shadow-stench left behind, her heart slamming against her ribs like a caged bird. Lucien’s roar filled the room, primal and unrestrained. The sound rattled chandeliers, sent cracks spidering across one of the tall panes of glass. His aura exploded outward—heat, gold, fire, raw wolf dominance that made the very air vibrate. He stood before her like an avenging storm, chest heaving, golden eyes incandescent. His power slammed against the remnants of the shadow figure, scattering smoke into nothingness, shattering a crystal decanter on the sideboard in the process. “Show yourself!” Lucien bellowed, voice carrying the weight of centuries of Alpha command. “You dare step into my den, breathe near my mate—face me, coward!” But the figure was already fading, its form crumbling into streams of darkness that retreated toward the corners of the suite. Still,
The Conclave adjourned deep into the night, but the chamber’s fractures still bled in Zaria’s mind long after the Alphas scattered back into their limousines, entourages, and private jets. The city outside Wolfe Tower shimmered with neon, glass, and steel, but to her it felt brittle, as if the world’s veneer was one sharp knock from shattering. Lucien walked her up to the penthouse level with the kind of silence that carried a thousand unspoken words. His hand was a ghost at her lower back, steady, protective, but restrained. He had fought a political war for hours; his shoulders carried the weight of too much loyalty and too many wolves whose faith was trembling. When the elevator doors whispered open into the vast suite, she wanted to cling to him, to beg him not to leave. But Lucien only brushed his lips once against her temple—brief, reverent, aching with the discipline of a man who loved her too fiercely to cage her—and murmured, “Rest. I’ll be in the war room. Call me for anyt
The funeral smoke from the survivors’ pyres still clung to Wolfe Tower’s steel and glass when the summons came. An emergency session of the Conclave, called under the iron weight of Kael’s brutality. No time to mourn, no time to heal—the wolves’ world demanded blood and law, demanded theater. By dawn, Lucien, Zaria, and their lieutenants were already in motion. Black cars swept them through the city’s arteries toward the Conclave Chamber, that cathedral of marble and obsidian where politics played dress-up as justice. The streets outside buzzed with restless energy; even humans—ignorant of blood feuds and ancient law—seemed to feel the static charge of coming war. Inside the chamber, the air was thick with tension. Gold chandeliers burned low, casting light on glass tables that reflected the faces of gathered Alphas. The survivors’ testimony had spread like wildfire; every seat hummed with outrage, unease, or—most dangerous of all—admiration. Kael was not present, of course. He did
The night had been still, the glassy reflection of the city shimmering beneath Wolfe Tower’s floodlit terraces, when the alarms went off. A ripple of unease ran through the estate—low, mournful howls that carried across the sprawling grounds, picked up by sentries on the perimeter and echoed by wolves stationed in the marble corridors. It was not a test. The air itself seemed to tighten, charged with dread, as the pack sensed before they even heard the words: something terrible had happened. Zaria had been in the training hall, still staring at her reflection in the mirrored glass long after Lucien left, when the resonance hit her chest like a blow. She stiffened, shards on the table trembling with an energy not her own. The estate’s heartbeat had changed. She felt it thrumming in the walls, the floors, the air, a pulse of grief, fury, and terror. She rushed into the corridor, robes swaying around her ankles, bare feet silent against the carpeted halls, and nearly collided with Silas
The training hall smelled of polished mahogany and the faint tang of ozone from energy wards scattered in strategic patterns along the floor. The chandeliers above glimmered, reflecting in the obsidian mirrors that lined the walls, doubling the visual chaos of sparking sigils and shifting shadows. Zaria stepped into the space, palms brushing against the cool surface of her training daggers, and felt a thrill of anticipation she couldn’t quite name. This was different from the usual exercises with Mara or Rowan. There was a pulse tonight, a current in the air, subtle but insistent, and it seemed to respond to her own heartbeat. “Focus,” Mara’s voice cut through the hum of shards and distant city lights, crisp and unwavering. “Tonight, you test not only your skill but your perception. Everything around you matters—the slightest shift in weight, the subtlest twitch. Anticipate, don’t react.” Zaria nodded, gripping her blades tighter. Something inside her whispered, a faint tug at the e
The library smelled of old parchment and cedar, the kind of scent that carried weight and history, a quiet kind of power that seemed to demand respect. The chandeliers, gilded and massive, hung like crowns of light over the marble floors, and the moonlight, silver and precise, spilled through the towering windows, casting long, deliberate shadows across the leather-bound volumes that climbed the walls like silent sentinels. Zaria sat on a Persian rug, legs curled beneath her, back pressed against the base of an oak shelf, shards of residual energy still humming faintly in her palms. The exhaustion from the day’s training, the arguments, the simmering tension with Lucien, weighed on her like a physical presence. She hadn’t expected him to follow her. In her mind, he was still storming the halls, pacing the penthouse like a predator who had been denied a hunt. Yet here he was, and she knew it even before she looked up, the weight of his presence in the doorway pressing against her ches