로그인Violet’s POVThe forest went dead silent and not the peaceful kind of quiet it was the kind that happens right before a bomb detonates.Zaiden’s smile was gone and Zyran’s face was carved from ice and murder.Both of them stood behind me, close enough that their combined heat and frost and fire aura made the air around us ripple.I couldn’t move.Inara had just sold my soul for free entertainment, Abigail looked like she was calculating how many bodies she could drop before someone stopped her, and Blue had wisely curled into a scaly ball and pretended to be a rock.Zyran spoke first, voice so low it vibrated in my bones.“Repeat that.”Inara squeaked and tried to hide behind me.I shoved her back out. “You opened your mouth, you deal with the wolves.”Zaiden tilted his head, golden eyes glowing. “So…He did a good job even without fucking you.”The words hung in the air and then the ground cracked and not metaphorically.Actual fissures spider-webbed out from under Zyran’s boots, fro
Violet’s POVThe moment my feet hit the ground, my brain stopped working.The Lycan Kingdom...at least the outskirts the portal spat us into wasn’t what i expected, i was expecting gloom, stone, shadows, and maybe a few dead bodies hanging in the trees because that’s what my brain filed under “Lycan Kingdom.” Ruthless beasts. Brutal law. Blood moon sacrifices. Not… whatever the hell this was.A wild forest stretched out endlessly before us, sunlight filtering through canopies of silver-leafed trees that shimmered like they’d been dusted with stardust. Giant flowers, actual building-sized blossoms curved toward us like curious animals. Strange luminous deer pranced in the distance, spiraling horns glowing faint blue. The air was warm and sweet, carrying some kind of spicy scent.It was beautiful in the way beautiful things should never be trusted.My jaw fell. “Uhhhhh… Did someone portal us into a Disney movie?”Inara’s gasp echoed mine. “Are we in the fairy kingdom?!”Abigail snorted
Violet’s POVThere were twenty students lined up with me, all looking like we were about to walk into our funerals and honestly… they weren’t wrong. We were going to the Lycan Kingdom, a place so notoriously ruthless that even demons respected the borders. Lycans weren’t just wolves, they were the apex of apex predators. Stronger bones, faster healing, ancient instincts, brutal laws, violent power. Wolves bowed to them. Most species feared them.And I was traveling there…with their princes and they are both obsessed and definitely idiots.Fate hated me personally.Zyran and Zaiden were the worst kind of royal disasters, terrifyingly powerful, violently possessive, allergic to sharing, and they despised each other so deeply that they couldn’t be in the same room for five minutes without a fistfight, a growl-off, or some kind of chest-thumping ego contest that involved claws, fangs, and property damage. They’d been a bit civil for a while but now it was like the universe lit a fuse ins
Violet’s POVBlue was sprawled across my bed like she paid rent, wings stretched, tail twitching, and now roughly the size of an overfed lion. Her scales shimmered iridescently every time she breathed, her little nostrils puffing tiny curls of smoke.Riven fed her “growth regulation pills,” whatever the hell that meant, so she wouldn’t evolve into a full damn sky-dragon inside the dorm and burn the place down.Not that I would’ve minded. Some people deserved a light crisping.I stared at my half-packed backpack like it was personally responsible for ruining my life.“Blue,” I muttered, crouching beside her massive head, “be honest with me. Do you have a secret portal? A hidden nest? A wormhole? A magical tunnel? A pocket dimension? ANYWHERE we can escape to before those two lunatics drag me to wolf country?”Blue cracked one deep blue eye open, chirped once in a tone that translated clearly to nope, and promptly went back to sleep.Traitor.Inara was halfway through braiding her hair
Violet’s POVThe shower was basically lava, and I still couldn’t scrub the last twenty-four hours off my skin.Dax’s tongue. Riven’s tears. The way I’d screamed so hard the windows almost shattered and the way Riven had felt every second of it and then tried to erase a forest because of it.My thighs were sore, my heart was bruised, and my brain was a hamster wheel on fire.Four mates.Four.I didn’t even like dating one guy at a time, and now the universe decided to give me a whole starter pack of emotionally unstable monsters?I pressed my forehead to the tile and let the water scald me, I should be figuring out why my power keeps trying to consume me.I should be hunting the truth about my past, not collecting gorgeous disasters who look at me like I’m oxygen and they’ve been drowning for centuries.But no.Instead I’m standing here wondering why the bond let me feel Riven’s soul crack open while the twins apparently slept through the whole orgy-adjacent apocalypse.There’s somethi
Violet’s POVI was laughing at something stupid Dax had said, something about vampires not needing to chew bacon because immortality apparently came with perfect teeth when it hit me.Not a tug on the bond or a whisper, it felt more like a blade.A white-hot, jagged blade straight through the center of my chest.My knees buckled. The fork slipped from my fingers and clattered to the floor. The world tilted, sound vanished, and all I could feel was agony that wasn’t mine and my whole body lit up in recognition. Riven.“Riven!” His name ripped out of me like a scream and a prayer at the same time.I hit the marble hard, palms scraping, and vision swimming. My spine bowed off the ground as another wave of pain slammed into me... his pain... and it was raw, violent, possessive, and so fucking deep it felt like my ribs were cracking open.“Violet!” Dax was there in a heartbeat, on his knees, arms hauling me against his chest. “What’s happening? Talk to me!”I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t t