Reyes finally turned his head to her, that smirk lingering. “And here I was, thinking you’d cry over me when you saw the bandages.”She raised a brow. “I doubt I would have cried even if you were brought back with much worse injuries. Or dead..”"Look at that! Did you hear her speak, Reyes?!" Zina scoffed, “She’s a traitor. A spy. And you’re letting her stand here and—”“Zina,” Reyes cut in sharply, his voice firm, “leave.”“What?”“I need to speak with Ivone.”Zina's mouth opened, her eyes widening in disbelief. “But I—”“Now.” He didn’t yell. He didn’t snarl. But the authority in his voice made even the guards at the door stiffen.Zina hesitated, shooting one last poisonous glare at Ivone, then turned on her heel and stormed out, the door slamming behind her. Silence fell. Reyes turned back to Ivone, his expression unreadable now. Only the faintest glint of something—relief? regret? longing?—touched his eyes."Zina claims you’re a spy—sent by Triston," He said, his voice measured, b
The castle gates thundered open as Reyes rode through, bloodied but unbowed. A dark stain had spread across his side where Triston's blade had met flesh. Despite the pain searing through his abdomen, his posture on the horse was rigid, unshaken, his jaw locked tight with fury.Dathan rode close beside him, shouting for the physicians as they dismounted. Servants scrambled through the courtyard, making way for the wounded Alpha. Reyes brushed off the helping hands that reached for him, striding forward with fire in his steps as he made his way to his chambers where the medics quickly set to work peeling off his armor and treating the knife wound at his side.He winced but said nothing, eyes burning—not from the pain, but from something far more dangerous.“Where is Ivone? Bring her to me,” he growled to the nearest guard. “Now.”The guard froze, hesitated and Reyes turned his head, slowly, his voice cutting sharper. “Did you not hear me?”The guard swallowed visibly and took a step for
Ivone sat in the corner of the cold dungeon, her back pressed to the damp stone wall, knees tucked to her chest. The torches lining the corridor outside flickered wearily, casting long, flickering shadows through the bars of her cell. The silence was thick, broken only by the occasional drip of water from the ceiling or the distant shuffle of guards. But her mind wasn’t in the dungeon. It was in the library, lost in scrolls and ink and secrets far too heavy for parchment to bear. Annora Thorold, a princess of Elyria. The name lingered in her thoughts like smoke, but what had shaken her most was not the name itself, but the fact that it was written into Nyxorian history. Both kingdoms had always been fractured, tangled in blood and politics, their borders drawn more in war than peace. So why had an Elyrian royal been recorded in Nyxoria’s scrolls? And why had someone deliberately hidden the details of her death? She remembered the scroll’s edge, darkened by smudged ink. It had been
Triston stood rooted to the scorched ground, every muscle in his body taut with fury, yet perfectly controlled. His golden eyes, hard as tempered steel, never once left Reyes, locked onto him with the unblinking focus of a predator. The silence between them cracked with tension, the kind that tasted like blood before the first blow was even struck. His hatred wasn’t loud, it lived deep in his bones, forged from vengeance, and the cold truth of what had been taken from him. The wind swept through the battlefield, lifting strands of his hair, and for the briefest moment, he looked like the ghost of a war that had never ended. He turned slightly, the movement slow and deliberate, his voice was low, but it cut through the space between them with the precision of a blade honed over years of loss. "I came to end this.” He paused, letting the words hang between them like the prelude to judgment. Then, his eyes narrowed even further, his rage sharpening into pure resolve. “And I will.” T
Reyes’s teeth found his injured shoulder, the very spot where the poisoned arrow had once sunk deep. Triston let out a howl of pain as the bite tore into old wounds, his front leg buckling slightly. Blood bloomed fast and thick over his fur. The Nyxorian Alpha didn’t relent. He tore again, shaking his head like a predator trying to rip a limb from bone. Triston’s body slammed into the earth, a snarl of fury ripped from his throat. Reyes loomed, dominance momentarily flashing in his coal-black eyes. But he had underestimated the fire in his opponent. He stepped in for the final strike— And Triston surged. With a primal roar, the Elyrian Alpha twisted, hind legs digging into the dirt, and launched upward. His jaws closed around Reyes’s throat—not deep enough to kill, but enough to lift and slam him sideways. Reyes hit the ground hard. Triston followed, claws raking over his ribs, driving him back with a series of savage, precise bites. He was no longer fighting just to win. He was fig
The scorched remains of the second Nyxorian village still whispered with heat, blackened skeletal beams jutting from ashen rubble like charred bones. Smoke curled upward into the sky, thick with the stench of fire, iron, blood, and vengeance. Triston sat atop his black warhorse at the front lines, his figure carved in steel and wrath, He didn’t move, save for the slight rise and fall of his chest, each breath a restraint, each exhale a promise. His eyes, narrowed and locked on the horizon, burned with purpose. The sunlight slanted across his bare forearms, his sleeves rolled up, revealing the faded bandages that still hugged his right shoulder. The wound left by the poisoned arrow had not yet fully healed and though the pain still haunted the joint where the poisoned arrow had once lodged, he held the reins without flinching, his fingers curled firmly around it, steady despite the occasional tremor he no longer acknowledged, his grip unwavering, showing no sign of weakness. His right