LOGINElara POVThe forest feels too still after the attack.Not quiet.Still.Like everything around us is listening for the next tear in the world.I sit on a fallen log just off the road because my legs won’t quite trust me yet. One of the guards insists it’s only for a moment, only until everyone regroups, only until we know whether the Veil-touched creatures are truly gone.I let him say it.I let them all pretend this can still be managed with ordinary words.Regroup.Breathe.Hold position.As if any of that matters after I felt the world split open.As if any of that matters after I nearly let the Veil answer my child.My hands won’t stop trembling.So I keep them pressed over my stomach, as if I can steady both of us that way.“It’s okay,” I whisper, though I don’t know whether I’m speaking to the baby or myself.The warmth beneath my palms is faint now. Not frightened. Not searching.Just tired.My wolf lies wrapped tightly around our pup, guarding, listening, refusing to let anyt
Kael POVI feel it before the scream.Before the scouts react.Before the forest even changes.The bond snaps tight.Violently.My breath catches mid-stride as the horse beneath me jerks its head, sensing the shift in me before I even speak.“Elara.”It isn’t a question.It’s instinct.Pain spikes through my chest—not physical, not mine—but close enough that my vision blurs for a split second.My wolf surges forward, claws scraping against bone, desperate to break free.Pup.Something is wrong.Badly wrong.“Stop!” I bark.The command rips through the column instantly. Hooves grind into dirt, armor clinks as wolves freeze in place. Ronin turns sharply ahead, eyes already searching for the source of whatever I felt.“What is it?” he demands.I don’t answer.I can’t.Because the bond—It’s not just stretched now.It’s tearing.The sensation hits like a blade dragged across something vital.Raw.Unstable.Dangerous.My hands tighten on the reins hard enough to make the leather groan.“El
Elara POVThe moment I step outside the fortress walls… I know I’ve crossed something I can’t go back from.The air feels different out here.Not safer.Not freer.Just… real.The kind of real that reminds you the world doesn’t bend for your fear.My horse shifts beneath me, restless, sensing my tension—or maybe something else. The guards Ronin assigned ride ahead and behind me, six wolves in total. Not a full unit.But enough to move fast.That was the point.Get to Kael.Close the distance.Fix the bond.Fix whatever started to break when he left.I tighten my grip on the reins, glancing back once at the fortress shrinking behind us.This is the first time I’ve ever chosen to leave.Not been sent.Not been traded.Not been pushed aside.Chosen.My wolf hums low with approval.Mate waits.“Yes,” I whisper.The warmth beneath my hand pulses faintly in agreement.Our pup.Steady.Waiting.We ride hard for hours.The forest thickens quickly beyond the outer ridge, trees growing taller a
Elara POVThe decision doesn’t come all at once.It builds.Slow.Steady.Unavoidable.Like the warmth beneath my heart.I haven’t left the window since Kael rode out.The mist has long swallowed the last trace of the army, the courtyard now quiet except for the steady movement of guards and the distant sounds of preparation that still echo through the fortress.They think the danger has passed.That the threat is out there now.With him.They’re wrong.My hand rests against my stomach, fingers splayed gently over the place where the warmth lives.Where our pup lives.It pulses softly beneath my touch.Not frantic anymore.Not searching the way it did when Kael first disappeared beyond the walls.But not fully settled either.Waiting.Always waiting.For him.I swallow slowly.“I felt you reaching for him,” I whisper.The warmth answers.A soft flicker.Yes.My wolf shifts, her presence calm but firm.Not meant to be apart.“I know.”The words come easier now.Because I do know.I fel
Witch POVMoonhallow wakes before the sun.It always has.Even when it was still sacred—when wolves knelt in prayer instead of whispering fear—this place stirred with something older than dawn. The Veil breathes here. Not fully open. Not fully closed.Waiting.Just like I have.I stand at the center of the ruined temple, bare feet against cold stone etched with symbols no wolf alive truly understands anymore. The carvings spiral outward beneath me, ancient lines worn smooth by centuries of use—and neglect.They forgot what this place was meant for.That was their first mistake.My fingers drift over the markings at my feet, tracing grooves that once held power meant to guard the boundary between worlds.Guard.Such a limited purpose.The Veil was never meant to be caged.It was meant to be used.The wind shifts through the broken pillars around me, carrying the scent of damp earth and something else—Something familiar.Wolves.Far off.Still days away.I smile slowly.“They’re coming
Kael POVThe road to Moonhallow feels wrong.Not dangerous.Not yet.But wrong in the way the forest goes quiet before something hunts.We’ve been riding since first light. The mist hasn’t lifted fully, clinging low between the trees and curling around the legs of the horses like something alive. Branches stretch overhead, blocking what little sun tries to break through.Two hundred wolves move with me.Silent.Disciplined.Ready.Ronin leads the vanguard just ahead, Lucian riding at my side, scouts slipping in and out of the treeline like ghosts.Everything is exactly as it should be.And yet—My hand tightens slightly on the reins.Something pulls at my chest.Faint at first.Then sharper.I inhale slowly.“Elara,” I murmur.Lucian glances at me. “What?”I don’t answer right away.Because the sensation builds.The bond stretches.Not snapping.Not breaking.But straining.Like a cord pulled too tight between two points that should not be this far apart.My wolf lifts his head immedi
RoninThe night air is wrong.I’ve patrolled these forests since Kael was barely old enough to shift. I know every path, every deer trail, every Wildwood gust. But tonight the trees whisper with something colder.Something watching.I tighten my grip on the double-edged knife sheathed against my th
KaelThe scream shatters the hallway.Sharp. Raw. Terrified.Her voice.My body reacts before thought catches up.One moment I’m in the corridor just outside the war room, speaking with Lucian about border rotations.The next—I’m running.No—not running.Shifting.Fur ripples down my spine, claws
ElaraKael doesn’t let go of me, even when Myri tries to fuss with poultices and herbs.Even when Ronin pokes his head into the healer’s wing, sees my tear-stained face pressed against Kael’s throat, and immediately backs out without a word.Even when the torches burn low and the room empties.He h
KaelProphecy.I’ve hated that word my entire life.“Prophecy” is what wolves say when they want to pretend destiny excuses cruelty. When they want to pretend suffering is noble. When they want to pretend that pain was chosen for them, rather than inflicted.But tonight—Tonight the word feels like







