เข้าสู่ระบบThe tray slid under the door with a metallic scrape that made me flinch. I stared at it from the floor where I’d been sitting for hours, roast chicken, steamed broccoli, a dinner roll, a bottle of water. Prison food dressed up fancy. I didn’t move to touch it.
My stomach growled anyway. Traitor.I dragged myself over, knees scraping the carpet, and pulled the tray closer. The chicken was still warm. Someone had bothered to heat it. Probably Cassidy. The tho(Dante POV)Selene stood perfectly still in the center of the room, her dark green lace dress absorbing the harsh morning light. Her fingers let go of the emerald pendant at her throat, dropping her hand to her side in a slow, definitive motion."I will stay," Selene said. Her voice didn't shake, but it had a hollow, translucent quality to it. She looked at me, then at Kira. "If I cross that bridge, I am a puppet for a Council that didn't care enough to save my mother. If I stay here, I am a traitor. I would rather be a traitor on my own terms."My father didn't offer a word of comfort. He simply nodded, the brutal pragmatism of an Alpha overriding any paternal pity. "Then you go to the secure bunker under the East Wing with Sage and Juniper. No communications, no external signals. You do not exist until I say otherwise."He turned back to the leather map on the wall, h
(Reyes POV)The digital click of the disconnected line sounded like a gunshot in the cramped, humid interior of my car. I slowly lowered the phone, my thumb hovering over Kira’s name on the cracked screen.Elias failed. The words didn't fit right. The man didn't do things by halves. If the Civic Hall was still standing, it wasn't because Elias made a mistake; it was because the chess board had shifted in a direction Kira couldn't see from the top of that Spire."What are you missing, Reyes?" I muttered, throwing the car into drive.I didn't chase the packs. I chased Tyler. But Tyler wasn't a werewolf. He didn't have a pack compound to run to, no Alpha to shield him. He was a stray, a kid plucked from the gutters just like Leo, bound not by wolf blood, but by the fanatical, human doctrine of The Cleansing. And strays don't hide in abandoned buildings when the sky turns violet, they hide in plain sight, where the noise masks their par
(Dante POV)The silence in the room wasn't empty; it was heavy with the collective weight of our realization. I looked at Kira, whose eyes were still dark with the phantom resonance of her call with Reyes. I looked at Sage and Juniper, both slumped against the bookshelves, their faces pale under the layers of soot and dried blood. And finally, I looked at my father.Dominic Silvercrest was a king who had built his empire on the absolute certainty of his own strength. But right now, as he stared at the map, his golden eyes were completely vacant. He was looking at a game board he thought he controlled, completely oblivious to the hand that had rewritten the rules from the dark."He didn't fail," I said, the words cutting through the stagnant air like a bone-handled blade.My father’s head snapped up, his brow furrowed in a dangerous, stentorian frown. "What did you say, Dante?""Elias Blackwell," I said, naming the ghost out loud, forcing his presence into the room. I walked to the wal
(Kira POV)The office felt like it was shrinking. The heavy scent of Dominic’s expensive bourbon and the lingering smell of cold fireplace ash suddenly became suffocating. I stared at my phone screen as the light faded to black, the silence of the disconnected call ringing louder than Reyes’s voice ever could.Dominic stood like a statue carved from the very mountain the compound was built upon. His eyes, usually glowing with a controlled golden fire, were narrowed in a look of profound, dangerous confusion. He looked from Dante to me, his hands still gripped into white-knuckled fists at his sides."Who," Dominic began, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that made the crystal decanter on his desk hum, "is Elias? And why are you taking tactical reports from a human on a phone while my pack prepares for a massacre?"I lowered my hand, my fingers still tingling
(Kira POV)The memorial grounds, once a place of stagnant grief and ritual silence, erupted into a tumultuous hive of activity. The salute that had honored me moments ago was forgotten, replaced by the sharp, barking orders of enforcers and the frantic scuffle of families rushing toward the safety of the inner compound. The three biers, Silas, Lyra, and Cassidy, were lowered into the earth with a mechanical, unceremonious haste that made my stomach churn."Move! Clear the perimeter! Level five lockdown!" the new Head of Security roared, his voice cutting through the rising wind.Dominic didn’t look back at the graves. He turned on his heel, his heavy black trench coat snapping behind him like the wings of a predatory bird. "Dante. Kira. Sage. Juniper. My office. Now."The walk back to the main house was a blur of steel and shadows. We passed the armory, where the
(Kira POV)The silence that followed Dominic’s declaration was brittle, a thin sheet of ice over a dark, rushing river. I could feel the eyes of the pack on me, heavy, questioning, and for the first time, laced with a reluctant awe. Beside me, Dante’s hand found mine, his grip a solid anchor in the swirling tension of the memorial grounds.Dominic took a breath, his chest expanding as he prepared to deliver the final rite. "Let the record of this day be written not in blood, but in..."A sharp, discordant sound cut through his words.At the edge of the amphitheater, the heavy iron gates groaned. A messenger, dressed in the dark, verdant colors of the Nightbreeze outriders, was sprinting down the central aisle. He wasn't stopping for the guards; he wasn't slowing for the Alpha. His face was a mask of sheer, viscid terror, his breath coming in ragged, shallow
I flipped the business card between my fingers for the hundredth time, watching lamplight catch the embossed lettering. Elias Blackwell. Community Advocate. The Cleansing.Three days since that night outside the diner. Three days since I'd watched my sister get dragged away b
Pain woke me first, a dull, throbbing ache in my left shoulder that pulsed in time with my heartbeat. Then came awareness: sterile smell of antiseptic, soft beeping of monitors, the scratch of starched sheets against my skin.Hospital. No, infirmary. The pack infirmary.
I stood outside the infirmary door for longer than I should have, hand still resting on the cool metal handle. My heart hammered against my ribs in a rhythm that felt foreign, too fast, too erratic, nothing like the controlled calm I'd spent eighteen years perfecting.The mat
I couldn’t sit still.The suite felt too small, the walls pressing in like they were trying to squeeze the air out of my lungs. I paced from the window to the couch, back again, boots scuffing the same strip of carpet until the fibers started to look worn. Sage’s







