LOGINChapter 72CORAFor a long moment, nothing happened.The carriage stayed still, the air heavy, and my heart thudded so loudly I was sure Cade could hear it even in his state. I held my breath, waiting for shouting, for hands to tear the door open, for the worst thing I could imagine to finally happen.Then I leaned forward and looked out.The fortress stood in the distance.It wasn’t close enough to touch, but it was there, solid and real, its dark outline cutting through the trees. Relief rushed through me so fast my knees almost gave out.Liam’s voice carried from outside. “You can leave now.”I pushed the door open and climbed down before anyone could stop me. The ground felt unsteady under my feet, but I straightened and faced the rogues.“Thank you,” I said, forcing the words out clearly, “you helped us when we needed it.”The rogue leader tilted his head. “That help wasn’t free.”Liam stepped forward at once. “You were given an honor,” he said, his tone cold, “assisting Alphas i
CORAI wiped Cade’s forehead with the wet linen and pressed it gently to his skin again, he was burning up, the heat seeping into my palms no matter how often I rinsed the cloth. His breathing stayed shallow but steady, and every rise of his chest eased something tight inside me.I smiled despite myself, thinking back to how he’d woken up on the road, or how we thought we’d woken him. I still didn’t know if it was the holding of hands or the things we said about him, or if his body had simply decided to fight its way back, but part of me wanted to believe the words mattered. I wanted to believe he heard us.Ronan sat across from me, close enough that our knees nearly touched, but he might as well have been somewhere else. He didn’t look at Cade, didn’t look at me, his attention fixed on the open side of the carriage, his shoulders tense like he was waiting for something to go wrong.The wheels creaked as we moved, the path uneven, the night thick around us.“Liam,” I called, leaning f
CORACade still wasn’t breathing.I sat on the floor of the second carriage with his head in my lap, my hands pressed uselessly against his chest, waiting for movement that didn’t come. The carriage rattled as the horses pushed hard down the forest path, every jolt making his body shift slightly, every second stretching too long.Liam rode close, one hand gripping the side of the carriage, the other steadying Cade’s shoulder whenever the wheels hit uneven ground. Ronan rode ahead, silent, his posture stiff, eyes fixed forward like none of this concerned him.“He’ll breathe,” Liam said, his voice low but firm, “when the curse forces a shift like that, their hearts stop for a short time.”I shook my head. “This is longer.”Liam didn’t answer immediately.I looked up at him and saw it then, the tightness around his eyes, the way his jaw stayed locked even as he spoke, he was afraid too, he just wouldn’t say it.Ronan shifted in his seat, reins snapping lightly. “We’re wasting time,” he s
CORAI came back to myself with pain first, sharp and everywhere at once, my head rang and my shoulder burned when I tried to move, the smell of splintered wood and blood filled my nose, and when I opened my eyes, all I saw was wreckage.The carriage lay on its side a few feet away, one wheel torn clean off, the roof crushed inward, the horses were gone, the road torn up like something heavy had dragged itself across it.“Cora,” Liam’s voice cut through the noise in my head.He was already beside me, kneeling, his hands careful as he checked my arms and legs. “Can you move.”“I think so,” I said, even though my vision swam when I tried to sit up.He helped me slowly, his jaw tight, his eyes scanning the trees every few seconds. My ankle screamed when I put weight on it, and I grabbed his arm to steady myself.“I’m fine,” I said quickly, even though it was a lie.A scream ripped through the air before he could argue.I turned toward the sound just as a massive wolf burst from the trees
CORAThe bond pulled me down the west corridor, then deeper into the older part of the castle where fewer people passed through, it tightened the closer I got, steady and insistent, until it stopped me in front of a door guarded by a man I didn’t recognize.“You can’t go in there,” he said, stepping in front of me.“I need to,” I replied, keeping my voice even.He shook his head. “Private quarters.”Before I could argue, another guard appeared at the far end of the hall and called his name, urgently. The man hesitated, glanced back at me once, then turned and jogged away.I didn’t wait.I slipped inside and closed the door quietly behind me.The room looked like a guest chamber at first, neat, unused, a bed made too perfectly, a desk without dust, nothing personal, and then the bond tugged again, not forward but sideways.I followed it to the wall.One bookshelf sat slightly apart from the rest, the edge scraped, the floor beneath it marked from repeated movement. I pushed, and it shi
LIAMI woke up in the dark, not the kind that comes with sleep, but the kind that presses in and makes you aware of your own breathing, my arms were stretched above me, iron biting into my wrists, my feet locked down, my shoulders already aching from the position.The shackles burned.Not heat exactly, more like something eating into my skin slowly, steady, deliberate, and the scent hit me a second later, dry, sharp, powdery, the same thing they sprayed on me before everything went black, the same thing that made my wolf curl in on itself instead of tearing free.Interesting.Footsteps approached, calm, unhurried, and light flared to life in front of me, not bright enough to blind, just enough to show two figures standing a few steps away.Marissa Thorn smiled first.She looked comfortable, clean, dressed like she belonged here, not a hair out of place, her eyes sharp and pleased, like this was exactly where she wanted to be.Beside her stood a man I didn’t recognize at first, older t







