Semua Bab TWICE BOUND: Bab 11 - Bab 20

Dawn crept over the Litha Pack lands slowly, like it wasn’t sure it wanted to look at what was left behind. No bodies lay scattered across the territory, but something important had died all the same. The old order. The comfortable lies. The structure everyone pretended was unshakeable. I stood on the balcony of Marcus’s old quarters, staring down at the courtyard. Wolves moved in small, confused packs. Some were leaving with tense shoulders, as if distance might soften the truth. Others stayed, but they moved like their legs weren’t fully theirs anymore. Too light without the weight of false authority. “You should sleep,” Kael said behind me. He sounded worn thin. “So should you,” I said. He came to stand next to me, warm and steady in a way that almost lulled me into pretending things were normal. But we both knew the things left unsaid between us were too big to ignore for long. “Half the pack wants you exiled,” he said quietly. “They think your blood is cursed.” “And th

The morning of the Gathering arrived with unnatural stillness, as if nature itself was holding its breath. I stood in the great hall, watching as wolves from seven different packs filed in, their eyes scanning everything, judging our strength, our unity, our right to exist as we were. Garrett Stonefang entered last, his presence deliberately meant to draw attention. He was massive, even in human form, with iron-gray hair and eyes like chips of flint. His wolves flanked him, a show of force that nobody could miss. “So,” he said, his voice carrying across the hall, “this is what’s become of the mighty Litha Pack. Led by a patricide and a dungeon rat.” Kael tensed beside me, but I placed a hand on his arm, keeping him steady. This was what Garrett wanted, to provoke us into losing control. “The Litha Pack is led by truth,” I said, my voice clear and carrying. “Which is more than your cousin could ever claim.” Garrett’s eyes fixed on me, and I could feel him trying to assert domi

Three days after Marcus’s escape, the nightmares began.Not ordinary dreams, but visions that felt too real to be mere imagination. I was standing in a place that shouldn’t exist, a temple made of bones beneath a sky that bled crimson. Wolves circled me, but they were wrong somehow, twisted into shapes that hurt to perceive. And through it all, a voice whispered in the old language, words I shouldn’t understand but did.“The silver blood returns. The broken moon rises. The choice unmade will unmake the world.”I woke gasping, my body drenched in sweat, to find both Kael and Damon in my room. They’d taken to alternating watches since Marcus’s escape, their mutual distrust temporarily set aside in favor of protecting me.“The same dream?” Kael asked, helping me sit up.“Worse,” I admitted. “More detailed. More…” I struggled for the right word. “More real.”Damon moved from his position by the window, his expression troubled. “Describe the temple again.”I did, noting how his face grew m

The corrupted wolves left more than smoke behind. They left questions that none of us could answer and a fear that settled into the pack like poison. I stood in the infirmary three days after the attack, watching healers tend to wolves who’d been touched by the corruption. Their wounds weren’t healing properly, turning black at the edges, spreading slowly like rot through flesh. One wolf, a young female named Senna, thrashed in her sleep, whimpering words in a language that predated our kind. “It’s getting worse,” the head healer, an elderly woman named Iris, said quietly. “Whatever Marcus did to those wolves, it’s infectious. Physical contact during the fight transferred something.” “How many are affected?” I asked, though I already knew the answer would be bad. “Seventeen so far,” Iris replied. “And the number grows each day. Some wolves are showing symptoms who weren’t even in the fight.” I felt my chest tighten. This was Marcus’s real attack. Not the corrupted wolves them

The alarm howls tore through the night, primitive and terrified. I ran toward the northern perimeter, shifting mid-stride, my silver wolf bursting free with a fury that surprised even me. Kael and Damon flanked me, their wolves larger and darker, but we moved as one unit, bound by something deeper than strategy.When we crested the ridge overlooking our territory, I understood why the scout had panicked.Marcus hadn’t brought an army. He’d brought a nightmare.Thousands of corrupted wolves filled the valley below, but these weren’t like the ones from before. These were fully transformed, their bodies twisted into shapes that violated natural law. Some walked on too many legs, others had extra heads that snarled independently. All of them stank of the dark magic that had created them, and all of them were moving toward our territory with singular purpose.“Goddess save us,” Elena breathed, appearing beside us with her own forces. “He’s turned entire packs into those things.”“Not turne