LOGINValerie’s POVI was sitting by my window, watching the sunrise paint the sky in pretty colors. But my heart felt heavy. I kept thinking about Neal, so far away at the border. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my side. It was the same feeling from this morning, but worse. Much worse.Then I heard the noise. Horses. Many horses, coming fast. Neal was back, Noah had saved him. I ran to the courtyard, my heart pounding. What I saw made my blood run cold. They were carrying Neal on a stretcher. His face was white as snow. His clothes were soaked in blood. What the hell had gone wrong, when it wasn't like he went for a war.Noah was already there, his face hard and angry. "Take him to the healing room! Now!" he shouted at the guards.I followed them, my legs feeling like water. One of the healers, old Martha, started working right away. She cut away Neal's shirt and I gasped. The wounds were deep and ugly, with a strange dark color around them. It looked like his skin was being burnt ali
Valerie's POVThe sun was just starting to rise when pain woke me. Not a small pain, a big, sharp pain that made me gasp and sit straight up in bed. It felt like someone was stabbing my side with a hot knife.Next to me, Noah stirred. "What's wrong?" he mumbled, still half asleep. "Why are you moving around?"I couldn't answer. The pain was too strong. I pressed my hand against my side, trying to make it stop.Noah sat up properly now. "Valerie? What is it?" He sounded more awake, more concerned. "Are you sick? Do you need the healer?"I shook my head, tears starting to form in my eyes. This wasn't my pain. I knew exactly whose pain this was. Neal's."Then what?" Noah asked, his voice getting sharper. "You have to tell me what's wrong. Use your notepad. Show me."My hands shook as I reached for the notepad on the nightstand. The pencil felt heavy in my trembling fingers.Not me. It's Neal. He's hurt.Noah read the words and his face hardened. "Neal? How would you know? He's at the bor
Neal’s POVThe trees were too still. There was no sound. No birds. No wind. It was a bad quiet. A waiting quiet. I held up my hand in a fist. The men behind me stopped walking. We were ten. All good fighters. My fighters.“Marcus,” I said. My voice was soft. “Do you feel it?”My knight Marcus looked at the trees. His eyes were worried. “Yes, Alpha. The forest is dead. Something is wrong.”I looked back the way we came. My mind was not in these woods. My mind was in the castle library. I saw Valerie’s face. I felt her head on my chest. That was where I should be. Not here. My brother Noah sent me away because he was angry. This patrol was his way of pushing me away from her.“This is stupid,” I said to Marcus. “We walk to the river. We look. Then we go home. Fast.”“Yes, Alpha,” Marcus said.We started walking again. The quiet felt heavy. It pushed on my ears. Then, a smell came to me on the air. A strange smell. A smell that did not belong here. The smell of the Moonshade Pack.My hea
Noah's POVThe last paper was signed. I placed my pen down on the desk. The only light in my office came from a single, a candle. Its flame danced, throwing long, moving shadows on the walls. I had been working for hours. The sun had set long ago, and the castle was filled in the deep quiet of night.I stood up, my chair scraping against the stone floor. The sound was too loud in the silence. My body was tired, but my mind would not rest.All I could see was her. Valerie. Smashing that cup from Sarah this afternoon.She had not hesitated. Her eyes were sure, her action final. She knew something. Something she would not, or could not, tell me.The demon in my head had been chewing on it all day.She defied you, the voice hissed, a constant whisper beneath my own thoughts. She broke a gift given to her Alpha. She should be punished. Make her tell you why. Force the truth from her silent lips.I walked around my desk. The voice was like an angry bee in my ear. Always there. Always pushin
Valerie’s POVI watched Neal walk away from the library, his shoulders stiff. My heart felt like a stone in my chest. The warm, safe feeling from his arms was already fading, replaced by the cold air of the castle. And the cold stare of his brother.Noah did not look at me with anger. He looked at me like I was a puzzle he had solved. A quiet, satisfied smile played on his lips.“Come, wife,” he said, his voice flat. “The library is no place for you today.”I wanted to scream. I wanted to run after Neal. But my feet would not move. I was trapped. Again.I followed him out of the room, my head down. He did not take me back to my room. Instead, he led me to his office. It was a big room, full of dark wood and maps. It smelled like him, strong and a little dangerous.He pointed to a large, comfortable chair in the corner. “Sit there. You can read books about the pack. I have work to do. I want you where I can see you.”He did not want me alonel. I understood his game. I sat down, pulling
Neal’s POVI swung my fist into the thick tree trunk again. The bark scraped my knuckles raw. Pain shot up my arm. Good. I welcomed it. This pain was simple. It was clean. It was better than the other pain, the one that sat like a cold rock in my chest.The memory of yesterday played in my head like a bad dream. Nadia, standing so close to Noah. His hand on her arm. The look in her eyes… a look I could not read. And those flowers. The blue and yellow petals I had picked for her, now crushed on the floor. My gift, destroyed. My heart, broken.I was her mate. I was her husband. But I felt a million miles away from her right now.I hit the tree again. The leaves above me shook. I was also an Alpha of this pack. But right now, I feel like a lost boy.Suddenly, a sharp feeling cut through my anger. It was not my feeling. It came through the bond, the invisible string that tied my soul to Nadia’s.It was fear. A spike of pure, cold fear.I stopped, my breath catching. My first thought was a







