Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

Jax had survived ambushes, rogue attacks, and one memorable bar fight. Nothing had prepared him for this sickbed performance.As soon as they stepped into Meredith's chambers, a staged, delicate little cough drifted from the bed — the kind of cough someone practiced in the mirror.Meredith lay nestled in silk sheets and an excessive number of pillows, arranged like she was posing for her own death portrait. Her hair was perfectly brushed. Lips glossed. Zero sign of injury anywhere.Fin and Jax wore identical expressions: polite concern layered over pure internal suffering."Are you alright, Princess?" Jax asked smoothly, respectful enough to pass for genuine — if you didn't know him."Oh, Gamma Thorne," Meredith sighed, voice trembling with the fragility of a dying swan, three seconds too dramatic. "I'm... trying to be."Fin stepped forward with the grace of a king and the soul of a man deeply regretting his life choices.He leaned in. He kissed her forehead. He survived it. Barely.J

Nova blinked, disoriented, her vision swimming before it slowly anchored into the world again. The ceiling above her sharpened, lantern light flickering across stone.Her wrists burned.Raw. Torn. Angry red and blistered.Gods... her whole body ached. Her ribs throbbed when she breathed. Her head felt stuffed with cotton and pain.Voices drifted from the hallway—Jax's voice, low and furious, pacing like a caged storm. She startled at the sound, her heart squeezing painfully.She looked down at herself. Still in her training suit. She pushed herself upright, wincing at the pull in her side. The memories snapped back in pieces—the cell, the cold stone, the guard's voice accusing her of stealing from and assaulting Meredith.Her stomach twisted. When she stood, her legs shook and spots danced across her vision.The door opened.Jax strode into the infirmary, and the anger on his face startled her. It was sharp, barely-contained, haloed in gold from the wolf boiling beneath his skin. For

Reeling, Hunter caught his balance just long enough to slam her into the ground.A pained grunt escaped her before she could stop it. But she didn't skip a beat, sweeping her leg out to take his feet from under him.He hit the dirt beside her with a choked, "Fuck."Before he knew what was happening, she was up and his arms twisted behind him.It was clean, it was tight, and it was a textbook submission hold. The point should have gone to her and everyone knew it.But Draven didn't blow the whistle.Hunter, stunned but not stupid, powered through the hold. He swept his leg around in a desperate attempt to trip her, but she stepped over the limb, unimpressed.She seized his arms again, catching the exact same pressure points as before, but this time she hauled him backward with a brutal jerk.He went down with a groan, stunned and breathless.Draven blew the whistle."Alright," Hunter growled. "You want full force? You got it."From the sideline, Draven called out, "Nova two, Hunter zer

Winter had arrived with teeth.Nova sat in the stands, arms crossed against the cold, watching her classmates get wrecked by the warriors they were supposed to learn from. Most were volunteers, young wolves eager to impress. She wasn't one of them. Not after going against Hunter Ryker the night before. Her ribs were sore and her wrists were still blistered from the silver.Across the snow ring, the warriors stood in formation. The largest female among them was Helga Emberhide, a sparring champion. Beside her stood Colonel Brutus Sterling, tall with grey-streaked hair and a lightning-bolt scar across one eye."Anyone else brave enough to step in?" Colonel Sterling called.Nova hoped to gods someone would step forward. Anyone. Then she felt it. A pair of eyes.Professor Draven was looking at her. She liked him. Trusted him, even. Up until last night.No. No, no, no—"Nova," he said simply, nodding once. "Go ahead."Her stomach sank. Her classmates whipped around to stare.Colonel Ster

It was only her second shift. The first had been in pain. This one felt... like returning.Like her body had been waiting to remember it.Every leap through the snow felt like she had been born for it.She didn't want to stop.But her legs were beginning to ache.And when the trees thinned, she saw it. A hot spring with steam rising in soft spirals. It was tucked between the rocks like a hidden gift.She slowed, breath heaving, and padded toward a tree.She shifted mid-step, skin replacing fur in a shimmer of silver, and collapsed to her knees, panting.The cold slammed into her at once.Thank the gods for enchanted training suits. At least she wasn't naked on top of everything else. Training suits included built-in boots, made with the same material so she also wasn't barefoot in the snow. Another win.Then she heard something.Voices.Nova went still.For a second she assumed they were rogues, but the cadence was wrong. The way they spoke — clipped, sharp, organized — marked them as