MasukAldric was buried at sunrise, beneath the old oak where he had first declared his intention to lead the pack. The entire settlement gathered to honor him—wolves standing in silent rows, their heads bowed, their grief a palpable weight that pressed against Kael's chest like a physical thing. Selene spoke the traditional words, her voice steady despite the tears streaming down her face. The elders offered their respects. The pack howled their f
The ancient wolf returned three days after the war council, appearing at the settlement's gate like a ghost from a forgotten age. Kael was inspecting the new defensive works when he saw the lone figure approaching—stooped, weathered, moving with the slow deliberation of someone who had outlived everyone he had ever known. The guards had stopped him, their hands on their weapons, their eyes wary.Kael recognized him immediately. The same gnarled face. The same eyes that held the weight of centuries. The same markings of a pack that had been lost to history."Let him through," Kael said.The guards ste
The journey to the mountains had to wait. Rina's report had confirmed that the Silver One's alliance was real, but Kael knew that wolves and vampires standing together would mean nothing if the packs themselves were divided. Seraphine had been building her army for centuries, corrupting wolves, turning them against their own kind, spreading her influence across the continent. The Northern Pack could not stand alone.Kael sent messengers to every pack within a month's travel, calling their alphas to a war council. He chose the meeting place carefully—neutral ground, a clearing in the forest where generations of wolves had gathered to settle disputes and forge alliances. It was far enough from his own territory that no one could accuse him of trying to dominate the proceedings, but close enough that he could retreat if thin
The days after Selene's funeral blurred together, each one indistinguishable from the last. Kael woke each morning in his parents' cabin—his cabin now—and stared at the ceiling until the light forced him to rise. He ate because the pack expected him to eat. He trained because the pack expected him to train. He led because there was no one else to take his place.But inside, he felt hollow.The pack watched him with a mixture of hope and uncertainty, wondering if the young alpha could carry the weight his parents had carried before him. He had proven himself in the challenge against Gunnar, had fought bravely against the rogues, had stood before them at Selene's funeral and spoken words that had made some
The healers had done everything they could, but Selene's body was failing faster than their magic could repair. The visions had drained her of strength, of color, of the spark that had made her the pack's most revered priestess. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her storm-gray eyes had lost their sharpness, replaced by a distant, unfocused gaze that made Kael's chest ache every time he looked at her.She had refused to stay in the healers' tent, insisting on returning to her own cabin, where the walls held memories of Aldric and the fire kept her warm. Kael had carried her there himself, settling her into the bed she had shared with his father, propping her up with pillows so she could see the window and the forest beyond.
The attack on the settlement was not an isolated incident. In the weeks that followed, reports came in from across the pack's territory—rogue wolves attacking hunting parties, raiding supply caches, terrorizing isolated families. They moved with a coordination that suggested direction, purpose, someone pulling their strings from the shadows.Seraphine.Her name hung in the air whenever the elders gathered to discuss the attacks, a specter that no one could see but everyone could feel. She had been building her army for centuries, collecting wolves and vampires who were willing to serve her in exchange for power, and now she was turning that army toward the Northern Pack.
Selene's descriptions of the hybrid grew more detailed with each passing day, as if the moon was feeding her information in fragments, piece by piece, like breadcrumbs leading Kael toward a destination he couldn't yet see. Lena was not just a woman with golden eyes and dark hair. She was a librarian, living in a small apartment in a city called Lychwood, surrounded by books she used to escape a life that had given her nothing. She had no family, no friends, no one who would notice if she disappeared.She was twenty-two years old when the moon first showed her to Selene, though the visions jumped forward and backward in time, showing her as a child, as an adolescent, as the woman she would become. She had been passed between foster homes throughout her childhood, never staying anywhere long enough to form attachments, never bein







