LOGIN~NYRA~ The moment we leave the others behind, Ryan falls into step beside me. His wolf, Cassius, takes the lead, moving through the trees with the confidence of someone who knows exactly where he's going. I keep pace, though my attention keeps drifting towards the direction we came from. Ethan. And the fucking mark on his hand. I pick up my pace, and Cassius slows when he notices Nina turning towards the spot. He follows my gaze, and neither of us needs to say anything before we change direction. The fucker immediately fights to take the lead again. We soon reach the place where the house was. Except there's nothing. Nina's paws dig into the earth as I come to a sudden halt. Cassius stops behind me, his head turning as he surveys the clearing. The house. Or whatever the fuck that thing had been...is gone. I stare at the empty stretch of earth. The trees stand undisturbed, their branches swaying gently overhead. No broken twigs, no footprints leading to the door, no trace of
~ETHAN~ "Stay back!" I pull her to me. A wolf lands in the clearing, skidding in the dirt, and I stop hard, my wounds pulling again. It's huge. Jet black, with a pale, frosted green coating its upper fur, while its lips are peeled back from teeth as long as my fingers and its eyes lock on Nyra before turning to me. Fuck. My hands clench instinctively as I scan the clearing, searching for an exit or a weapon or anything that might give me an advantage. There isn't much to work with. Nyra steps forward. My hands reach for her. "Ny— She stops right in front of the wolf. "Aaron.” Aaron? The wolf's body ripples while bones shift under the fur with a wet, wrong sound until the shape collapses and rebuilds. Then Aaron is standing there naked with black hair plastered to his forehead and a pale green sheen to his eyes that matches the wolf's fur. My heartbeat lowers and I let out a slow breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding. He runs forwards and crushes Nyra ag
~ETHAN~ "No, Ethan. This mark has nothing to do with me." Nothing to do with me. The words land slowly, like a stone sinking through water. I look down at my arm. Somewhere in the back of my head, a quieter, more honest voice says it was never going to be that simple. The raven. That was the first thing I'd thought of when I saw the mark yesterday. The same damn bird that had appeared in the forest after Nyra collapsed. But I'd dismissed the connection because I had a much simpler explanation. Nyra. She was the explanation. Nyra was always the explanation for everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours. Months ago, I watched a woman turn into something with fur and fangs. I watched men bleed out in the dirt because of what
~NYRA~ "Then do it," Ethan challenges, his voice low and steady, his eyes never leaving mine. "I'm right here." Challenge accepted, fucker. I don't give him time to take them back. I cradle his jaw in both hands and kiss him, hard and deep, tasting sleep and smoke and the faint salt of his skin. He makes a low sound in his throat that I feel in my stomach. And this time, he doesn't fight for control. His hands settle at my waist, broad and warm, his calloused thumbs pressing into the dip of my hips, and he lets his head rest against the stone, giving me the lead. ‘Mate,’ Nina breathes, so eager it hums under my skin. I reach between us and find him already stirring, only half hard, warm and heavy against my palm. He hisses through his teeth as my fingers close around him, his hips twitching up into my grip. I stroke him once, twice, slowly, feeling him thicken against my hand, and his breath turns ragged against my mouth. I hear his heartbeat climb, a steady th
~ETHAN~I wake the way I always do, a few minutes before the world asks me to, my body keeping its own time no matter how little sleep it gets.For a second I just take in my surroundings. Stone walls. Grey, thin light leaking through the shutters. Beyond the walls, nothing. No birds, no wind, no footsteps.Strange.Then I feel her.Nyra.She is curled against my side, one arm thrown across my chest, her knee hooked over my thigh like she's daring me to try slipping away. Her face is tucked into my shoulder, and her breath ghosts warm and even against my skin.She's asleep.I almost don't believe it. There's no sharp edges. No glare. No tension locked in her jaw like she's bracing for the next fight. Her dark hair is a wreck across the pillow, and her fingers twitch against my ribs as she dreams.The sheet has slipped to her hip, and I look for the marks I left on her collarbone and breasts. There's almost nothing.Only the faintest red shadows remain.Accelerated healing.Hours ago
~NYRA~ ‘Mark him,’ she snarls in my head, her voice a heat I can’t separate from my own. ‘Now. Mark him. Make him ours.’ My gums ache and I feel the sharp, familiar slide of my fangs lengthening, my whole body is still shuddering through the aftershocks, and his neck is right there. Tanned skin, a pulse thudding hard and fast against my lips, so close that I can taste his scent, earth and smoke and mine. ‘Do it,’ Nina urges, frantic now. ‘Mate. Mate. Mate.’ Every instinct I own is screaming at me to sink my teeth in. My mouth is almost against his throat and my jaws ache with the effort of not closing it. His pulse is right there, hammering under my lips, and the mate bond is a livewire beneath my skin, begging me to finish what my body already started. No. Not like this. He doesn't know what a mark means. He doesn't know that one bite would bind his life to mine forever, that there'd be no undoing it, no version of him that gets to walk away after. I won't take that fr







