تسجيل الدخولAyla's POVI didn't go.I'd stood at the window with my fingers on the latch, Tala's warning still echoing in my chest, and as I looked at Zander's patient, knowing expression, something in me just couldn't go through with it. It didn't feel right.I couldn't trust my judgement in that moment, so I closed the window, locked it, and went back to bed."You chose yourself," Tala said quietly.It didn't make the ceiling any easier to stare at. It didn't stop the bond from aching, the images from cycling, or the tight, cracked feeling in my chest from loosening even slightly. But I stayed. I kept myself inside the four walls I knew, and I waited for morning.Morning came too fast, too bright, and relentlessly normal compared to how I felt inside.I got dressed slowly, like I was carrying something fragile and one wrong movement would drop it. Jeans, hoodie, boots — the same things I always wore. I wore the armor of being easy to overlook. It occurred to me somewhere between lacing my boots
Ayla's POVI locked the door and checked it twice, standing there with my hand still on the handle, forehead pressed against the wood. My chest felt tight, cracked, and wrong in a way that breathing couldn't fix."You were pushing them away," Tala said.Tears ran down my face. I had to."Ayla—" Tala's voice broke, echoing something already fracturing inside me.I had to. Because of what I'd seen, what I'd felt, and what those words did when they landed—"We're here to service the Alphas"—I had nowhere to put that. No way to hold it and stay standing at the same time.I checked the door one more time before bed.Sleep didn't come.I lay in the dark, and my mind wouldn't stop cycling through the moment—images relentless and specific. Lisa on the bed. Tracy against the wall. Carmen was watching me with that patient, satisfied look, like she'd been waiting for exactly this. The careful arrangement of it all. The deliberateness behind it. People didn't set a scene like that spontaneously. T
Ryker's POVI felt it before I understood it.A pulse of raw, cracking emotion that hit me mid-shower and stopped me cold. Not pain exactly, but very close.Duke surged instantly. "Something is wrong—"It took me one second to know what it meant."Ayla." Her name slipped from my lips before I'd thought it. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist, water still dripping from my hair.No time to think, no time to get dressed—the bond was screaming, and Duke was clawing at the walls of my mind, and I was moving on pure instinct before I'd formed a single rational thought.Soren burst through his bedroom door at the same moment, wearing the same urgency on his face.We looked at each other for half a second before the scent hit us both—berries. Warm and sweet and unmistakably hers."She's here," Duke said. "Find her."The dread was already building in my stomach as I moved.Soren's gaze cut toward Kael's room. He lifted his nose, jaw tightening. "She went to Kael's room," he said,
Ayla’s POVI pushed the door open, and immediately three heads snapped in my direction, as if they had been expecting me.My whole body froze, my hand still gripping the door handle.The scene before me was not for the faint-hearted—chains and whips and erotic toys scattered everywhere. Candles burned in the corners, casting a strange glow; the bed lamps were covered in sadistic red fabric.My gaze landed on Lisa, shamelessly sprawled nude across Kael’s bed, legs wide. Condom wrappers in every flavor and color were scattered on the bed and floor.Her head was tilted back, golden hair spilling over her shoulder, blue eyes finding mine as her hand moved between her legs. She looked completely unashamed, like she belonged here—like she’d always belonged here and had been doing this for a while.Tracy stood against the wall, arms crossed, dressed in the bare minimum—fancy black see-through lingerie. Her calculating green gaze watched me with a small, deliberate smile that said she knew ex
Ayla's POVI felt them before I heard them. The bond shifted—all three threads pulling taut, then releasing. The frantic pulse that had me gripping the infirmary table smoothed into something urgent but no longer screaming."They're back," Tala said, tail wagging.I was off the table before she finished. Luna Ria didn't try to stop me this time. I ran down the hallway as fast as I could without crashing into anything.The front door opened just as I rounded the last corner to the entrance hall.Kael entered first. His gaze found me immediately. He looked tired.I slowed as I approached, dread filling my insides.There was a cut above Kael's jaw and dried blood on his hands that I chose not to look at too closely, but he was upright, and he was here.Still, the feeling didn't leave. My knees buckled as I stepped closer. Kael caught me, pulling me upright."Steady now," he said, supporting me.Soren stepped inside next, and the feeling grew."Where's Ryker?" I whispered, anxiety rising.
Kael's POVTime did something strange.One moment it was racing—the chaos of the fight, the rogues, the grey wolf's impossible size, and those too-aware eyes—and then Ryker's paws lost purchase on the crumbling rock, the edge gave way, and time just stopped.I watched it happen. Couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do the thing I did in every situation—assess, respond, and lead.I just stood there in wolf form, frozen at the boundary, watching the cliff collapse and my brother disappear into the white below."Goddess," I muttered. "There's no way he survives that—"The grey wolf threw its head back and howled. The sound tore through the air and turned my stomach because I recognized it—a victory call. Deliberate. Triumphant. The sound of something that had come here with a specific purpose and accomplished it.As if on cue, the rogues retreated. Every single one, simultaneously, pulled back into the tree line and vanished the way they'd come. They left behind only churned snow, blo
Ayla’s POVThe closer I get to the packhouse, the louder the world becomes again—voices carry through the trees, followed by laughter and music. It sounds so bright against the darkness and quiet outside that it leaves a coldness under my skin.Every sound inside the packhouse hits my ears wrong; it
Ayla’s POVAlpha Jack and Luna Ria don’t stand in my way when I get up and head toward the door a second time. They know it’s time for me to leave.With one last silent nod, I exit the packhouse and slip into the cold.It’s dark now, the wind howling through the trees in the distance.I head toward
Ayla’s POVLuna Ria disappears into the packhouse the moment she sees me moving. I guess someone must have called her; otherwise, she would have waited for me.She and Alpha Jack took me in after the fall of my pack.I push the depressing thoughts aside and focus on my breathing. The closer I get to
Ayla’s POVSnow falls in a slow, quiet drift all around me—not in the kind of way that makes it look magical.It just looks endless, a dull color of white and cold. It settles over everything—the trees, the ground, rooftops—as if trying to cover things up. As if, if it piles high enough, no one will







