Ronan’s lands didn’t call me—they pulled.It wasn’t logic. It wasn’t curiosity. It was something deeper, something I couldn’t name, only feel. Like the mark itself was tugging invisible strings, leading me back to the one place I swore I wouldn’t return to without backup.And still, I went alone.The sky was bruised with the last light of evening as I moved beyond the northern edge of the estate, following the trail I’d memorized. The trees here leaned close, old bark clawed by wind and time. Everything felt sharper. Quieter. Like the forest was holding its breath.I shouldn’t have been there. Not with the Council watching. Not with someone trying to kill me days ago. But I couldn’t stay away. Not after the prophecy. Not after the poison. Not with everything inside me buzzing with questions and no one willing to give answers.When I reached the stone archway half-sunk in vines, I paused. My boots crunched on gravel. My fingers brushed the edges of the seal. It had been dormant last ti
We stood surrounded by open cells, and yet I had never felt more imprisoned by the truth.The weight of what Ronan had shown me pressed into my skin like frostbite. Names carved in stone. Lives erased. All tied to me, to a legacy I hadn’t asked for but couldn’t ignore. I should have left, but my feet wouldn’t move. The silence wasn’t quiet. It pulsed, vibrating in my bones.I turned slowly, finding Ronan still near the far wall. He watched me, but didn’t speak. There were no more words needed here. Not tonight.I climbed the stone steps alone. The torches behind me hissed as I passed, as if the air itself was exhaling the stories finally set free. At the top, I stepped back into the forest, where dusk had surrendered to night.But I wasn’t alone.Caspian stood near the path, arms crossed, his face lit faintly by moonlight. He didn’t flinch when I appeared. He was waiting."I thought you'd come back this way," he said.I raised an eyebrow. "You tracking me now?""No. But when you vanis
Sometimes, it only takes one voice to set a forest on fire.The wind hadn't even shifted from our last steps when the howl rose across the treetops. Not a call to gather—a warning. A challenge. A spark tossed onto dry kindling. I didn’t have to guess who lit it.Caspian and I broke into a run.By the time we reached the clearing, the crowd had already formed. Wolves in partial shift, shoulders tense, voices overlapping in chaotic layers. Ronan stood at the edge of the council platform, arms crossed. Kieran and Cian flanked the steps, unmoving. And in the center, framed by the high moon, was Elder Garron.He raised his voice over the noise. "She is not our salvation. She is our curse. The Shadow Prophet spoke, and the signs are clear. Death follows her like a loyal dog."My stomach clenched. Caspian’s growl was low and guttural beside me. I felt the heat off him, the quiet rage bristling beneath his calm.Garron turned, pointing at me as I stepped into view. "She brings unrest, divisio
Next time," I said, "I won’t just defend myself. Next time, I will fight back."Kieran's jaw twitched. He didn’t speak, but he stepped closer, his boots cutting through the quiet. For a moment, no one said anything. Not Ronan, not Cian, not Caspian. The air around us held its breath.Then he did it.His hand wrapped around the back of my neck—not rough, not soft. His grip was deliberate. Steady. His eyes locked on mine, asking for nothing, giving no warning.And then he kissed me.In front of everyone.My body went rigid. The clearing spun. Every murmur from the dispersing crowd halted in an instant, silenced by the weight of what he just did. His lips were warm, but it was the heat beneath the surface that set my skin alight. And yet, my fingers remained clenched at my sides.When he pulled back, he didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away. His thumb traced the edge of my jaw. He said only one thing."Mine."Behind him, Caspian let out a short, bitter laugh. "Oh, we’re doing this now?"Cian s
By morning, I’d have to decide. But morning wasn’t here yet.The council meeting loomed, and the pack still buzzed with rumors. Whispers curled around corners as I walked the halls—snatches of my name, Kieran’s kiss, and what it meant. I ignored them. Or tried to. My thoughts were too loud to pretend to be calm. Every time I stopped moving, the weight of what happened clung to me like a second skin.Ronan found me before sunrise.He didn’t knock. Just appeared in the doorway of the quarters they’d assigned me, arms folded, his expression unreadable."Put on something you can move in," he said. "And hurry."No questions. No explanation. I didn’t ask either. Maybe because I was tired of being out of the loop. Or maybe because a part of me trusted Ronan in ways I hadn’t had time to understand. He wasn’t like the others. He didn’t posture or demand. He moved like he already knew the answers.We didn’t speak as he led me out of the main structure. Past the barracks. Into the dense stretch
I barely made it out of the ritual chamber when the world went to hell.The sky above the trees had gone from grey to orange, not with sunrise but with smoke. I froze, half a step from the surface, Ronan right behind me."Do you smell that?" I asked, already knowing the answer.He didn’t speak, just shoved past me and took off."Ronan!" I shouted after him, but he was already gone.I followed, legs pumping, lungs burning.The forest blurred. Branches scraped my arms. Ash drifted from the sky like snow that had lost its way.When we broke through the trees, the world shifted.The packhouse was on fire.Flames clawed at the walls, smoke curling in fat ribbons into the sky. Screams filled the clearing—wolves shouting, howling, dragging one another away from the flames. Chaos ruled.I froze for a split second, just long enough to register that this was real. That this wasn’t a nightmare. Then I ran."Help me! Someone!" a young wolf cried, dragging an unconscious elder away from a collapsi
It was only a matter of time before the Council came knocking. I just didn’t expect them to do it while Cian still had bandages across half his body.Ronan stood at the front of the hall, arms crossed, jaw set like a blade. Caspian leaned against the wall, shirt bloodstained but posture relaxed in a way that said he was anything but. Kieran paced. Back and forth. Every turn tighter than the last. His boots scraped the stone floor like they were itching to punch holes in something.And me? I stood dead center, trying not to show just how fractured I felt. The air around us crackled with waiting. No one spoke. Not yet. The silence was the sharpest weapon in the room."This is not sustainable," Elder Mora said, voice clipped, measured. "The girl cannot be bonded to four Alphas.""She's not a girl. She has a name," Kieran snapped. He stopped mid-pace, eyes narrowing. "Say it."Mora’s eyes flicked to me, mouth twitching like the very act would poison her. "Seraphina.""Now say it without s
They wanted me to bend. I chose to burn instead.The Council's footsteps had barely faded when Ronan closed the doors and locked them with a quiet finality that echoed louder than any declaration."We have a window," he said. "A small one. Whatever they do next, it won't be quiet."Kieran leaned against the table, arms crossed. "They’re going to twist the packs against us. Play the tradition card until someone folds. They’ll paint us as the ones who broke the chain.""Then we give them something else to talk about," Caspian said, brushing ash from his sleeve. "Something bigger. Something truer."I nodded, though a coil of unease wound tight in my gut. It wasn’t just about surviving anymore. It was about knowing if I should be leading at all."There’s something I need to show you," I said.Cian raised an eyebrow, his humor a thin veil. "Please don’t say it's another underground crypt. I’m still leaking from the last one.""No," I said. "But it’s just as dangerous. Maybe more."I reache
If the dart didn’t kill us, the Council might.They arrived before sunrise. Four black cars pulled into the courtyard like sharks circling for blood. No flags. No insignia. Just cold engines and colder eyes behind tinted windows.We were already waiting. Kieran stood like a stone in front of the entrance. Ronan flanked him, arms crossed, unreadable. Caspian, expressionless. Cian... well, Cian looked like he’d rather bite than speak.And me? I stood between them all, the eye of a hurricane no one could seem to outrun.The doors opened. Three wolves stepped out. Two men, one woman. Their movements were too polished, too quiet. Not hunters. Not diplomats. Trained. Observant. Silent.Spies.The woman led. Jet-black hair pulled into a severe braid. Gray eyes. Sharp chin. She wore her authority like armor. "I’m Envoy Myra Vale," she said. "These are my associates, Dren and Kal. The Council has authorized a full internal review."Kieran didn’t move. "We didn’t ask for oversight.""You don’t
They didn’t go for me this time. They went for Ronan.We were barely five minutes into a strategy briefing when the windows blew in. One second we were arguing over guard rotations and safe room locations, the next—shattered glass and a hiss of air cut the room in half.Glass sprayed the floor, slicing the already thick tension in the room. A flash of silver cut through the air—a dart, thin and sharp, meant to be silent. Meant to be lethal. It struck the wall inches from Ronan’s head, the wood hissing where the metal sank in. A breath closer and he would’ve been dead.He didn’t flinch. That was what chilled me. Not the attack itself—we’d seen worse. But the way Ronan stared at the dart like it wasn’t even meant for him. As if death trying to shake his hand was just another boring meeting to endure.His eyes shifted slowly to the wall, to the shattered glass, then to me. Calm. Calculated."They’re escalating," he said. Just like that.Kieran was already at the broken window in seconds,
Sometimes, betrayal doesn’t come with a knife. Sometimes, it looks you in the eyes and says it loves you.The aftermath of the failed assassination attempt hung over the estate like fog. Heavy. Suffocating. No one said the word traitor out loud anymore, but it was in every glance, every unspoken pause between breaths. Trust had become currency—scarce, precious, unstable.We didn’t leave the main house. Not really. We lingered in shared spaces, feigned casual meals, over-guarded hallways. Everything was tense. Overcooked. I felt it every time one Alpha walked past another and didn’t speak. Our closeness had been burned through, and all that remained was the husk of what used to feel like unity.Caspian had taken to keeping records. A running list of patrols, guard shifts, item inventories, names. He wasn’t sleeping much. I passed by his study once in the middle of the night and saw him sitting with ink-stained hands, his jaw clenched as he scribbled notes like they were the only things
Trust is easy to offer until you realize you might be offering it to the one holding the blade.The bond had settled—but something about the quiet that followed made my skin itch. Not the kind of silence that came with peace. No. This was the kind that waited. Watched. The kind that tasted like betrayal on the back of your tongue before anyone said a word.By morning, the household moved differently. Tighter formations. More eyes on doors. More whispers. Word had spread that the bond had fully formed. No one said it aloud, but I saw it in their posture. Awe laced with fear. They didn’t know what it meant yet, and neither did I.The Alphas tried to act normal. Ronan made tea like he always did, though his grip on the cup was a fraction too tight. Caspian took his notes in the study, his pen never pausing even as his eyes flicked toward every sound. Cian sparred alone in the training yard like he could punch the anxiety out of his system. Kieran patrolled the grounds, eyes sharp, moveme
I woke with a name burning on my tongue—but when I tried to say it, it dissolved like ash.It clung to the edge of my thoughts, slippery and cruel. I sat upright, lungs heaving as if I’d surfaced from deep underwater. My sheets clung to me, damp and tangled, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure if the sweat was from the vision or the panic that came after. I tried to hold on to the name, to trace the sound of it in my mind. But it vanished, like all the rest.Only one truth remained: the bond wasn’t waiting anymore. It was here.I dressed in silence, every movement slow, deliberate. My limbs were sore, my skin hypersensitive. The floor felt too cold, the air too sharp, my thoughts too loud. Something inside me had shifted. A storm brewing under my skin. The kind you didn’t outrun—the kind you endured.When I stepped into the hall, Ronan was waiting like he had been there for hours."It’s happening, isn’t it?" he asked. He didn’t blink.I nodded, rubbing my arms. "Too fast. Too hard. It doe
There are some dreams that feel more real than waking.When I finally drifted off after a long night of circling thoughts and second-guessing, the vision didn’t creep in—it slammed into me. No subtle whispers this time. No soft warnings. Just fire.It blazed in every direction, licking the walls of a circle drawn with blood. Symbols writhed across the ground like snakes, twisting and reshaping with every second. My bare feet stood at the center, stained red, breath hitching as power coiled around my ankles. The air pressed in from all sides, heavy and ancient and thick with meaning I didn’t understand but somehow knew mattered.Across the circle stood a figure, hooded, arms raised. They chanted words I didn’t recognize, but my bones understood. Words that called for sacrifice.And in the middle of the fire, suspended and bleeding, one of the Alphas hung by chains of light.His face was obscured—blurred like someone had smeared him with smoke. But I knew. Deep down, I knew.If I didn’t
Monsters rarely wore masks. The best ones wore familiar faces.By the time I got back to my quarters, the fire in my chest had turned into something else—a slow, quiet rage that curled up next to my bones like it belonged there. The others hadn’t noticed I was gone until I reappeared in the council hall just before dawn, Caspian behind me, the journal clutched to my chest like a weapon.I didn’t sleep that night. I tried. But sleep only teased, like a cruel friend brushing past my shoulder and disappearing before I could reach. I stared at the ceiling for hours, my body exhausted, my mind wide awake.When I finally closed my eyes, the vision came.It started with darkness, thick and absolute. But this wasn’t the kind that swallowed you whole. It was alive. Breathing. It pulsed with something ancient and watching.Then came the sound. Whispered words I couldn’t make out at first, like they were being spoken underwater. I turned in the vision, searching for something, anything. The air
I thought the worst truth was not knowing. I was wrong.It was knowing, finally, and realizing the silence had been safer.The morning after Caspian's claim, after Kieran’s retreat and his near-surrender to something that looked like compromise, I needed clarity. Not from the Alphas. Not from prophecy. From my own cursed past.I slipped out before dawn, leaving a note behind so they wouldn’t tear the territory apart looking for me. The forest was quiet, heavy with dew and old magic. My boots crunched over undergrowth, and every step toward the hidden archives felt like trudging through molasses. Each breath I took felt heavier than the last, like the truth was a stone tied to my ribs. The quiet was welcome and suffocating at once.Ronan had once told me about the sealed records. The ones that didn’t make it into the Council's official archives. The ones buried beneath stone and spell and time. He hadn’t said I couldn’t go there. But he hadn’t exactly handed me a key either.I used the
It didn’t feel like freedom. Not yet.Knowing I had a choice was one thing. Knowing what to do with it was something else entirely. My whole life had been about surviving what came at me, not deciding who I wanted to be. And standing between four Alphas who would bleed for me? That wasn’t power. That was pressure. Immense. Suffocating. Some days, I couldn’t breathe under it.The wind bit as we rode back into the compound, and I felt raw. Like the scroll had peeled back something inside me and left it exposed to the world. I kept running the seer's words over in my head: the hand that breaks or the one that weaves. But what if both hands were mine? What if I wove something only to watch it tear apart anyway?Kieran dismounted first, silent as always when his thoughts turned sharp. Ronan gave me a look that lingered, the kind that didn’t press for answers but knew they were coming. Cian stretched his arms with a grunt, already asking someone for food. And Caspian—He didn’t say anything