ログインThe door closes behind Sophia with a soft click that seems to echo in the sudden silence. I stare at the ancient text still open on my desk, the illustrated wolves beneath the crescent moon staring back as if in judgment.
Conri paces restlessly in my mind, his agitation bleeding into my own thoughts. ‘Find her,’ he urges. ‘Fix this.’But for once, I don’t have a strategy, a calculated next move. The realisation that I claimed my true mate, my moon-blessI wake to familiar concrete against my cheek, my body a broken instrument refusing even simple commands. The doctors have been at me for hours: poking, prodding, and injecting chemicals that make my blood feel like acid and my bones like splintered glass. My tongue is sandpaper. My throat is raw from screaming. But the silence in my head terrifies me most. Nyx lies unconscious within me, her presence reduced to a barely detectable flutter where once she burned bright and fierce. They have poisoned her. Poisoned us. Whatever they have been pumping into my veins is killing something essential.‘Nyx?’ I call internally, reaching for that fading spark. Nothing comes back but the faintest whisper of acknowledgement, like the last breath of someone dying. My wolf is still there, but barely. Whatever they have done has wounded her in ways I do not understand.I drag myself upright, the chains between my wrists clinking against the concrete floor. The wolfsbane-infused metal has lef
I drive my paws into the earth, muscles burning with every powerful stride. The forest blurs around me. Trees become obstacles to navigate at breakneck speed. My lungs work like bellows, dragging in pine, earth, water, and the faintest trace of my mate on the wind. She is there, somewhere ahead, in pain. The knowledge drives me faster than I have ever run, pushing my body beyond what even an Alpha wolf should endure. Behind me, my pack struggles to match my pace. Their determination is strong, but their bodies lack my rage-fuelled strength.‘Slower,’ Zane cautions in our shared mind. ‘The trackers can’t keep up.’I ignore him, surging forward with another burst of speed. The smaller wolf inside me can worry about pack and strategy. I care only for one thing: finding my mate.‘Conri,’ Vance’s voice filters through the mind-link. ‘We’re maintaining course along the eastern approach. No sign of Council patrols yet.’‘Southern team crossing the old logging road,’ James r
I stand motionless in the clearing where Sophia’s scent vanished, my fingertips pressed to the rough bark of a pine tree. Twenty-four hours since she disappeared. Twenty-four hours of absence clawing at my insides like a physical wound. The forest around me teems with activity: wolves from my pack setting up a mobile command centre, trackers consulting maps, and communications equipment being assembled. But all I can focus on is the fading trace of honeysuckle and sunshine that lingers here, the last place my mate stood before they took her.‘Need mate,’ Conri growls in my mind, his presence a constant pressure against my consciousness. ‘Find her. Now.’“We’ve analysed the tyre tracks,” Vance says, approaching with James at his side. He still moves with a slight limp, the wolfsbane not entirely flushed from his system. “Three identical sets of Council vehicles, just as we suspected.”James unfolds a map and spreads it against the trunk of a fallen tree. “All three convoy
I was jerked from fitful sleep by the metallic scrape of my cell door opening. Elder Stone stood framed in the doorway, two guards flanking her like obedient dogs. The burgundy of her suit looked almost black in the dim light, like dried blood. My head still pounded from the wolfsbane, and my limbs felt heavy as waterlogged wood. In the back of my mind, Nyx whimpered, her presence faint as a dying ember. “Good morning, my dear,” Elder Stone says, her voice carrying that same false warmth that makes my skin crawl. “Today’s the day we rid you of that pesky bond.” My stomach drops, ice flooding my veins. I scramble backward until my spine hits the concrete wall, chains rattling between my raw wrists. “No,” I manage, my voice cracking from disuse and thirst. “You can’t do this.” ‘Fight,’ Nyx whispers weakly in my mind. ‘Must fight.’ Elder Stone smiles, the expression never reaching her cold amber eyes. “I assure you, we can. And we will.
My claws dig into the wood of my desk, leaving deep gouges in the polished surface. The sun is rising outside my window, mockingly bright after a night of darkness and failure. Twenty hours since Sophia disappeared. Twenty hours of searching every inch of our territory, following cold trails and false leads. Twenty hours of Conri howling in my mind, his rage and grief mirroring my own until I can barely tell where my thoughts end and his begin. My mate is gone, and for the first time in fifty years as Alpha, I feel utterly powerless.“Fuck!” I slam my fist down, splintering the corner of my desk. The pain barely registers through the haze of fury and fear clouding my mind.‘Need mate. Find mate,’ Conri growls, pacing restlessly in my head. His presence feels like sandpaper against my consciousness, raw and abrasive with mounting panic.I glance at the maps spread across what remains of my desk. They are marked with the movements of every search party we sent out through
I lunged forward without thinking. The chains pulled taut as I tried to reach her. The guards stepped in immediately, hands moving to their weapons, but Elder Stone waved them back with casual indifference.“Zane will come for me,” I growl, straining against the chains until blood runs fresh down my wrists. “You have no idea what he’s capable of. What he’ll do when he finds out you’ve taken me.”Elder Stone actually laughed, a musical sound utterly at odds with the cruelty in her eyes. “Zane will think you are dead soon enough, Luna Sophia.” The title dripped with mockery, each syllable carefully weighted to wound. “He’ll rage, he’ll grieve, and then he’ll move on. As all alphas do.”‘She’s wrong,’ Nyx whispers, though doubt colors her mental voice. ‘Conri wouldn‘t forget us. Couldn’t.’“Why?” I demand, sinking back against the wall as my legs finally give out. “Why go through all this trouble? Just because I escaped the first time?”“Because you’re a ninety-eigh
Dad's hand settles on my shoulder, heavy and warm. "Sophia, listen to your mother. We've discussed this for years. We've prepared.""Prepared for what? Suicide?" My voice rises with panic. "I won't do it. I won't run while you sacrifice yourselves.""You will," Mum says, her voice leaving no room f
The doctor's knock feels like a death sentence. Three sharp raps against our front door that echo through our modest townhouse like the crack of a judge's gavel. I sit frozen at the kitchen table, my fingers clutching the edge so hard my knuckles turn white. Mum meets my eyes across the room, her f
I can’t remember the last time I laughed this much. Certainly not since my test results came back. Definitely not since being claimed by Zane. Yet here we are, sharing stories over a meal that would make pack chefs weep with envy, and I’ve laughed three times in the past hour. Real la
I move silently through my territory's perimeter, Conri's powerful legs carrying us effortlessly over the rough terrain. The night air brings a symphony of information to my nose, each scent a story, each disturbance in the forest floor a potential threat or opportunity. Three of my border patrol w







