MasukThe words seemed to burn themselves into my mind.The heir must never find her brother.For several seconds, I could do nothing except stare at the parchment. The letters blurred before my eyes as dozens of thoughts collided inside my head. The night air suddenly felt colder, and the weight of the paper in my hands seemed impossible for something so small.Lucas stepped closer immediately."Scarlett?"I barely heard him.Brother.The word echoed through me.My brother had died.That was what I had been told my entire life.That was the story everyone knew.The story my mother cried over.The story that had shaped so much of our family's pain.Yet now I stood holding a warning that suggested something entirely different.Emily looked worried."I knew it was important the moment I saw your name."Slowly, I lifted my eyes from the parchment."Where exactly did you find this?""In the oldest section of the archives," she answered. "Most of the records were damaged. This one was hidden ins
The moment the memory brushed against my mind, the world around me seemed to blur.Voices still echoed through the pack yard. Wolves continued moving around us. Orders were being shouted, weapons gathered, scouts prepared for another search. Yet all of it faded into the background as something older surfaced from a place I had not touched in years.I knew that symbol.Not from the ruins.Not from the river crossing.Not from the strange markings that had appeared across the territory.I knew it from my childhood.My breath caught as the realization settled over me.Lucas immediately noticed the change in my expression."Scarlett?"His voice sounded distant.I turned toward him slowly."I've seen it before."The movement around us slowed.Rachel stopped walking.Emily's eyes widened.Ethan frowned."What are you talking about?" Lucas asked.I swallowed hard."The symbol."A strange pressure built behind my ribs."I know where I've seen it."Nobody spoke.Every face around me carried th
The pack house had transformed in a matter of minutes.What had once been a quiet evening filled with conversation and the comfort of familiar faces was now alive with movement. Wolves hurried through the halls carrying weapons, scouts rushed in and out of the main entrance, and tension spread through every corner of the building. The peaceful rhythm we had spent weeks building felt suddenly fragile, as though one wrong move could shatter it completely.I stood beside Lucas near the entrance hall while Ethan spoke with several patrol leaders. Rain hammered against the roof overhead, and every gust of wind seemed determined to force its way through the walls. Somewhere behind us, Adrian remained surrounded by healers, but his eyes never left the doorway.The fear in his expression unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.Whoever this woman was, she clearly meant something.And not something good."Where exactly did they find her?" Lucas asked.Ethan folded a map closed before answerin
The room seemed to shrink around me.For a long moment, I could do nothing except stare at the necklace resting against the stranger's chest. The silver pendant caught the lantern light, its worn surface reflecting a faint glow as it rose and fell with his breathing. Time had left scratches across the metal, but it had not erased the shape carved into it.A wolf.The same wolf my mother had carved years ago.The same necklace my brother had worn every single day.The same necklace he had been wearing the night he disappeared.My feet carried me forward before I realized I was moving.Behind me, Lucas said my name softly, but his voice sounded distant, swallowed by the pounding of blood in my ears.The healers stepped aside as I approached the bed. The stranger looked older than me, his dark hair damp from rain and tangled from whatever journey had brought him here. A faint scar crossed one side of his jaw, disappearing beneath stubble. His face was unfamiliar, yet something about him
Silence spread through the room so completely that even the rain against the windows seemed distant.No one moved.No one spoke.The words I had just uttered hung heavily in the air, refusing to disappear."He isn't dead."Lucas's arm remained firmly around my shoulders, steadying me while my breathing struggled to return to normal. Across from us, Emily stared in confusion while Ethan's expression hardened almost immediately.Rachel was the first to break the silence."What do you mean he isn't dead?"Her voice came carefully, as though she feared the answer.I swallowed hard.The vision still clung to me.The green eyes.The face.The voice.Every detail felt painfully real."It was him," I whispered. "I know it was."Lucas frowned."Scarlett."I looked at him."It was my brother."The room became quiet again.Years ago, my brother's death had shattered what remained of my family. His disappearance had been one of the reasons everything unraveled afterward. No body had ever been fou
The forest had never felt this silent before.Not the peaceful kind of silence that settled over the trees after snowfall or the quiet calm that followed a hunt. This silence pressed inward, heavy and watchful, carrying a strange feeling beneath it that sat against my skin and refused to leave.Morning had arrived hours ago, yet gray clouds covered most of the sky, trapping the light behind them. The pack house had already stirred awake, voices moving through hallways and footsteps crossing old wooden floors, but something inside me remained restless.Sleep had barely touched me.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw fragments.Not complete memories.Not dreams.Just pieces.Green eyes.A distant voice.Hands reaching toward me through darkness.And that feeling again.Waiting.I stood near the training grounds, watching younger wolves move through drills while cold wind shifted strands of hair across my face. Lucas stood farther ahead with Ethan and two scouts, discussing border reports







