جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 110

~ Iris POV ~If peace had a smell, it would have been this morning.Fresh bread. Polished oak. Rain from last night still clinging to the stone courtyard.Everything felt… normal.Too normal.Alice sat across from me at breakfast.And she smiled.Not the sharp, sarcastic curl of her lips. Not the fake, venom-laced grin.A soft one.“I’m tired of fighting,” she said, buttering her toast. “It’s exhausting.”Duncan looked relieved. Actually relieved.Ky froze beside the window.I didn’t trust it.But I nodded anyway. “Me too.”Alice looked at me then. Really looked at me. Her gaze held something unreadable.“Maybe we can start over.”Start over.Like we weren’t standing on the ashes of something we once were.Duncan cleared his throat. “That would make this week easier.”This week.The mating ceremony.Alice’s eyes flickered for half a second.Then she smiled again.“Of course, Dad.”Dad.The word sounded deliberate.Carefully placed.After breakfast, she even walked beside me through th

~ Iris POV ~I found Ky near the western training grounds just before sunset.The sky was streaked in gold and fading blue, warriors clearing out after drills, the air thick with dust and sweat and the distant scent of pine. It should’ve felt ordinary.Instead, everything felt sharp.Like glass under skin.Ky stood with her back to me, arms folded as she watched two younger wolves spar. She didn’t turn when I approached.“I heard,” she said quietly.Of course she had.Nothing stayed quiet in this estate.I stopped beside her. “I can’t believe she did that.”Ky finally looked at me. Her expression wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t even angry.It was calculating.“You can’t?” she asked gently.The question hit harder than accusation.“She looked me in the eye this morning,” I said, voice tightening. “She said she was tired of fighting. She smiled.”

~ Iris POV ~The moment the door slammed behind us, the adrenaline started to fade.And the pain rushed in.Not just the sting on my cheek.Not just the ache in my shoulder where I hit the wall.But the words.I hate you.No.I said that.My chest tightened.Duncan’s arm was firm around my waist as he guided me down the corridor. His steps were controlled, but I could feel the tension in him. The barely restrained anger.At her.At me.At the situation.“Iris,” he said, voice low but sharp, “what were you thinking?”I pulled away from him the moment we entered his room.“What was I thinking?” I turned on him. “What was she thinking?”His jaw flexed. “You went into her room alone.”“Yes.”“You provoked her.”“I did not…”“You shouted.”I froze.Because he wasn’t wrong.I had shouted.“I went to talk,” I said, breath uneven. “She kept twisting everything. Acting like I ruined her life.”His eyes softened slightly when he saw my face.There was a faint red mark along my cheekbone.He st

~ Iris POV ~Morning of the Mating CeremonyI didn’t sleep.Not really.I lay in that enormous room, in that bed that still didn’t feel like mine. staring at the ceiling while dawn slowly bled into the sky.Today.The word pulsed in my head.Today I become Luna.Today I marry Duncan.Today I stand in front of the entire pack.And today… I stand in front of Alice.My stomach twisted.The curtains fluttered slightly as the early morning breeze slipped through the open balcony doors. The air was cool, quiet , deceptively peaceful.Like the world didn’t understand what day it was.I sat up slowly, pressing my feet to the floor.For a moment, I just breathed.This is what you chose.No.This is what chose you.I walked toward the mirror, studying my reflection in the pale light.The faint bruise on my chee

~Duncan POVThe first shot rang out like a jagged crack of thunder. My heart lurched, my wolf flared, and my body moved before my mind even processed what was happening. Iris. My mate. My anchor. She was in the line of fire.I lunged. Every instinct screamed to protect her, to shield her from the storm that had finally reached us. The bullet hit me square in the chest. Pain exploded, white-hot and searing, but I didn’t even have time to react beyond the sheer, primal need to hold her safe. My robes darkened almost instantly with my blood, but I barely noticed. My world had shrunk to her, trembling, eyes wide, hands clamping onto my forearms as if she could anchor herself through sheer force of will.“Iris!” I roared, teeth gritted, voice raw with pain and rage. The clearing erupted into chaos. Pack members shouted, scrambled, wolves howled,none of it mattered. My mate. Only her mattered.God! This was supposed to be perfect, not another