Evelyn
The night after the punishment, sleep didn’t come.
I lay awake in Rafe’s quarters — because where else could I be? — staring up at the carved wooden beams overhead, replaying every lash, every scream, every ragged breath.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the silver biting into flesh, saw the way the guards’ arms had moved, so practiced, so merciless. I heard the way the crowd had gone silent, torn between fear and grim satisfaction.
I’d wanted to feel protected. And I had — sort of. But there was a sickness inside me, coiled tight, a voice that kept whispering that this wasn’t safety. That this was a warning.
That I was the reason for their pain.
By dawn, the tension in my chest had grown unbearable. I finally gave up pretending to rest, swung my legs over the edge of the bed, and stood.
The bite of cold air helped ground me. The window was cracked open
RafeThe war table mocked me.Maps spread across the wood, their ink smudged from the sweat of my palms. Patrol routes. Guard rotations. Crude sketches of the Vale compound. I had gone over them so many times I could see them with my eyes closed. None of it mattered—because all the plans in the world couldn’t tell me if Evelyn was still alive.I pressed both hands against the table until the wood groaned beneath my weight. My head pounded from days of exhaustion I couldn't shake. The stubble on my jaw itched from days unshaven, but I hadn’t spared a second to care. Sleep was a stranger. When I closed my eyes, I saw her. Food sat untouched on trays, cold and rotting in the corners of the room. My wolf snarled inside me, restless, pacing, demanding action, while the human half of me clung to reason.She was in their hands. And I was here. Helpless.“You’re killing yourself.”Cassian’s voice broke the silence. I hadn’t heard him enter.I didn’t look up at first, but when I did, I caught
EvelynThe guards wrenched me forward, their hands like iron shackles on my arms. I stumbled as they dragged me down the final stretch of the corridor, boots scraping over rough stone, shoulders aching with every jerk. My breath came short, the air damp and sharp, until suddenly the heavy doors burst open.Torchlight blinded me.The courtyard spread wide before me, ringed with hunters. Torches hissed and snapped in the cool night air, casting restless shadows that clung to every stone wall. The ground smelled of smoke, sweat, and oiled steel. Bows and spears gleamed, catching the light in sharp, cruel flashes.A sea of familiar faces stared back at me—faces I had known all my life. Some I had laughed with at shared meals. Some had corrected my stance when I missed the mark in training. Some had comforted me after losses on hunts. People who had once felt like family.Now, every look was laced with disgust.The guards threw me forward. My knees hit stone with a crack, skin tearing, gri
EvelynThe world blurred as they dragged me down the narrow hall. My arms were bound, their grip bruising, but none of it hurt as much as the look on my father’s face when he turned away. Cold. Final. Like I wasn’t his daughter anymore—just another enemy.The cell they threw me into was nothing more than stone and shadows. The door slammed shut, iron biting into wood as the lock clanged into place. The sound echoed like a verdict. I stumbled to the floor, catching myself with trembling hands before the tears could follow.It smelled of damp earth and rust in here. The air was cold, seeping through the cracks, making me shiver. The walls wept with moisture, leaving dark streaks along the stone. Somewhere in the corner, water dripped in a steady rhythm, slow and merciless, like the ticking of a clock. I pressed my back to the wall and drew in a sharp breath, but it only filled my lungs with bitterness. This wasn’t home. Not anymore.I thought I’d prepared myself for his hatred. I though
RafeIt’s been two days.Two days since she ran away from me.My office smelled faintly of stale food and cold coffee, reminders of how long I’d been shut inside these walls. The center table was cluttered with plates that had been brought in and left untouched, their contents now congealed and useless. Cassian, Mira, even the kitchen staff—they all kept trying. But my appetite had disappeared the moment Evelyn did.Maps sprawled across my desk, ink bleeding into frantic lines and circles where I’d marked every possible route, every border, every outpost just in case. My warriors had scoured the territory, tearing through the forests and ridges, searching every mile of open ground. But deep down, I already knew.By now, she’d be in her father’s hands.The pieces fit too easily. No other trace, no trail—just silence.The thought alone was enough to split me apart. My wolf raged to break through, to rip past the borders and tear Dorian’s compound stone by stone until she was safe again.
EvelynThe world seemed to slow as Cole guided me down the narrow stone path toward the Hunter compound. The crunch of gravel beneath my boots was achingly familiar, every step dragging me back into a childhood I thought I’d left behind. My throat tightened. The walls, the worn wooden gates, the looming towers—it hadn’t changed at all.Whispers rippled through the air like snakes.“She’s here?”“Where could she have gone?”“She looks different.”“Do you think the wolves had her?”Their stares pierced me as though I were some ghost returned from the dead. My palms dampened, every instinct screaming to run, but Cole’s firm hand at my back kept me moving forward.This place had raised me. These walls had been both my prison and my sanctuary. Now, walking them again, I couldn’t decide if I was coming home or walking straight into a cage. My chest tightened, a war raging inside me—part of me wanted to shrink back into the girl I had once been here, but another part, the part that had fough
EvelynThe forest had gone too quiet.Each crunch of my boots on the leaf-littered earth seemed to echo louder than it should have. The stillness pressed in around me, prickling at my skin until the fine hairs on my neck stood on end. I wasn’t alone.I froze, holding my breath.A twig snapped behind me.I whipped around, clutching the strap of my satchel like it might shield me. The shadows between the trees stretched long and thin, and my imagination filled them with all the monsters my father used to warn me about. Rogues. My pulse hammered so loud I could barely hear.“Show yourself,” I called, though my voice shook.A shape stepped forward from the dark, tall and broad-shouldered, a bow slung over his back. Relief and dread slammed into me at the same time. I knew that face.“Cole,” I breathed.“Evelyn?”I swallowed hard. Cole had trained under my father for years, one of his most loyal men. We’d grown up in the same village, playing in the fields before his life turned into endle