MasukElaraThe stronghold was too quiet.The walls that usually hummed with life now felt hollow, heavy with the echo of distant fighting. I could still feel it — Kael’s rage pounding faintly through the bond, like thunder rolling beneath my skin. Each pulse of it made the air shimmer, my breath shorter.He was out there. And he was furious.The firelight flickered low across the stone floor, throwing long shadows that danced like ghosts. Ronin had ordered me to stay inside, but the guards who’d been stationed at the doors were gone. Vanished into the chaos.That’s what made it worse — the quiet after their absence. The kind of quiet that only existed when something was about to happen.My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin.He’s coming, she whispered. The one who caged us. The one who called us his.The words scraped across my mind, sharp and cold. My throat tightened.“Garrick,” I breathed.The name was a curse. And like a curse, it answered.A low chuckle rolled through the room, c
KaelThe pack compound burned with noise and motion. Shouts, claws, steel—the air thick with the stench of blood and smoke. I hit the ground running, half-shifted, the world sharpening into color and scent. Every sound carried weight. Every movement was a threat.“Keep the north line sealed!” I roared, my voice distorted by the shape of my throat. “Lucian—left flank!”The Delta’s answering growl echoed through the chaos. The pack moved as one, trained and brutal, but the rogues kept coming—desperate, hungry, too many. Garrick’s scent rode the wind like poison, taunting me from somewhere near the treeline.I tore through the first wave, claws ripping across fur, the crack of impact ringing in my skull. My wolf wanted loose—wanted the full shift, the release—but I needed the edge of thought to command. Half man, half beast, I fought with both.A rogue lunged from my right; I caught him midair and slammed him into the dirt, snapping his momentum and the will to rise. “You think
ElaraThe morning broke with an eerie stillness.It wasn’t the kind of quiet that came with peace. It was the kind that clung to the air before a storm — a stillness that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise.When I stepped out of Kael’s room, the corridors were nearly empty. The few pack members I passed moved quickly, heads down, tension in every stride. A low hum of unease pulsed through the compound, thick and unspoken.Something was wrong.I could feel it — not with my senses, but through something deeper. The wolf inside me stirred restlessly, her voice brushing against the edges of my thoughts.He’s close.My breath hitched. Who?The one who took what wasn’t his. The darkness that wants you back.“Garrick,” I whispered under my breath.Her growl rumbled in the back of my mind. He hunts. And he won’t stop until he finds you.Fear tightened my chest, but there was something else beneath it — anger. After everything Kael had done to protect me, after all the pain and loss I’
KaelThe door clicked shut behind her, and the silence that followed was a curse of its own.Her scent lingered in the air — soft, wild, maddening. It coiled around me like smoke, sinking beneath my skin until I could barely breathe. Every instinct screamed to follow her, to pull her back into the safety of my arms and damn the consequences.But I didn’t move.I couldn’t.If I touched her again, I wouldn’t stop. And if I didn’t stop… she’d die.My hands clenched at my sides, the faint tremor betraying me. The wolf inside me growled, pacing, restless. She is ours, he snarled. The bond is already forming.“Don’t,” I hissed under my breath. “We’re not doing this.”The beast quieted but didn’t retreat. He never did when it came to her. The moment she’d stepped into my territory, he’d recognized what I tried to deny — that she was the one thing fate had bound to me.And the one thing I could never have.I dragged a hand through my hair and crossed to the window. Outside, the forest stretch
ElaraThe moon had long since climbed high, spilling pale light through the cracks of the shutters. Sleep refused to come. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw their faces—the rogues, the flash of claws, the glint of teeth. The moment Kael’s wolf had appeared. The sound of bones breaking.But it wasn’t fear that kept me awake. It was him.I could still feel the warmth of his hands when he’d held me in the garden, still hear the rough edge in his voice when he said he’d always come for me. It echoed through my chest, steady as my heartbeat.I slipped quietly from my room, the wooden floor cool beneath my bare feet. The hall was silent, heavy with the kind of stillness that felt sacred—or haunted. I didn’t know which. But I knew where he would be.Kael never rested after bloodshed.The faint glow beneath his office door confirmed it. I hesitated for a heartbeat, fingers hovering over the handle. Then I pushed it open.He was there, seated behind his desk, shirt discarded, a half-empty gla
KaelThe metallic taste of blood lingered on my tongue as the last rogue fell limp beneath my claws. The clearing was silent again, save for the sound of my breathing—ragged, furious, alive.Then I saw her.Elara knelt in the grass, blood trailing down from her temple, her hair tangled, her eyes wide with shock. The sight of it—of her hurt, of her bleeding because I hadn’t been here—snapped the last of my control.I shifted, bones cracking, fur receding as I took my human form. The shift barely registered; I was already moving toward her.“Elara,” I rasped, my voice raw.Her gaze lifted to meet mine, glassy and trembling. “Kael…”I dropped to my knees beside her, hands already reaching for her face. The blood wasn’t much, but seeing it—seeing that someone had dared to touch her—made something primal inside me roar.“Who did this?” I growled, scanning the treeline as though I could drag Garrick himself out by the throat.She flinched at the sound, and it gutted me. I forced my voice lo







