Selena's POVThe morning came gray and still. Fog clung to the trees like a ghost refusing to leave. I woke on the old couch in the corner of the cabin, my back aching and my mind already spinning. Magnus had left without another word, and I hadn’t slept well since. I didn’t trust him. But I needed him. That was the difference between being desperate and being foolish.I pulled on my coat and stepped outside, the cold air biting my face. The forest was quiet. Too quiet. My breath came in short puffs, and I listened for any sign of life. Nothing. No birds. No wind. It felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting.Inside, I started a small fire and boiled water in an old kettle I found buried in a cupboard. The cabin had been abandoned for years, but it still held traces of a life long gone—dusty books, broken furniture, a cracked photograph of a family I didn’t know. This place had stories, like me. Forgotten stories.As I sipped the hot water, the bitterness reminded me of the
Selena's POVA week passed.The days were quiet now, but it wasn’t peace—it was silence before the storm. Anastasia had been exiled. Not killed, not locked up, just sent away. Banished, like I had been. It should’ve been enough.But it wasn’t.I walked through the village again, my hood pulled low, eyes alert. Whispers followed me wherever I went. Some still didn’t trust me. Others looked at me like I was some sort of tragic hero. The girl who took the fall for her maid. Who forgave her father. Who came back stronger. I let them think what they wanted. Let them believe what they needed.I was back. That’s all that mattered.I avoided Ivy for the first few days. Not out of fear, but because I didn’t want to rush. Revenge isn’t loud and messy. It’s slow. Quiet. Like poison in water.But on the seventh day, we crossed paths.She was outside the healer’s tent, gathering herbs in a woven basket. Her hands trembled as she moved. She looked tired. Pale. Haunted.Good.I slowed my steps just
Ivy’s POVThe air outside was thick with frost, but the chill that clung to my skin wasn’t from the cold. It came from the truth still settling into my bones—someone wanted me gone. And they were willing to go far enough to poison one of the most powerful women in the pack to make it happen. Or maybe Selena had gone that far herself. The line between victim and villain was so blurred now, I didn’t know what to believe.I sat cross-legged on the window seat of Kiernan’s quarters, my wrist still wrapped tightly. The healer finally came and left, murmuring instructions to rest, to stay calm. As if calm was even possible anymore.Kiernan hadn’t said much since we left the Alpha’s study. He stood near the door, arms crossed over his chest, his gray eyes focused on the hallway as if expecting trouble to walk right in.The silence stretched between us, heavy but not uncomfortable. It was strange, how his presence made me feel more secure than anyone else ever had in this place.“You’re still
Ronan’s POVThe training grounds were nearly empty. Just a few warriors still practicing as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows across the dirt. My knuckles were bruised, my shirt clung to my back with sweat, and my muscles burned with exhaustion. Still, it wasn’t enough to clear my head. I landed one more punch into the training dummy, watching the way it swayed from the force."That thing didn’t insult you, brother."I didn’t have to turn to know it was Elias. His voice always carried that edge of sarcasm that grated on my nerves."I needed to hit something."He walked closer, tossing me a water bottle. I caught it without a word."You’ve been out here for hours. Trying to forget about her?"I didn’t respond.Elias exhaled and leaned against the fence, his blue eyes watching me carefully. "She’s still under Kiernan’s watch. The Alpha hasn’t made a public decision yet.""He will," I said. "He’s just waiting to see which way the wind blows."Elias was quiet for a mo
Ronan’s POVThe training grounds were nearly empty when I arrived. Just the dull thud of fists meeting sandbags and the occasional shout from warriors sparring in the distance. The cold wind bit at my skin, but I welcomed the sting. It kept me grounded. Focused.I needed to be focused.My brothers didn’t know I’d come here alone. Elias was probably off somewhere brooding like always. Kiernan… well, he had his own reasons for hiding things. But me? I had no excuse.I tightened the wraps around my knuckles and threw a punch at the practice dummy. Again. And again. Harder each time until the sound of flesh meeting leather drowned out the thoughts in my head.Ivy.Her name had burrowed deep under my skin since the moment our bond had awakened—and I’d rejected it.Foolish.The moment I looked into those eyes of hers, soft hazel that turned silver when she was angry or afraid, something inside me cracked. But I did what I was trained to do. I crushed it. Shut her out. Denied what the moon g
Ivy’s POVThe morning came slowly, dragging a pale gray light through the thick clouds outside the window. I hadn’t slept. My body was tired, but my mind had stayed wide awake, thoughts turning over again and again. Everything felt too loud inside my head—Ronan’s words, Kiernan’s silence, Selena’s lies.I sat curled on the edge of the bed, knees pulled to my chest, a blanket wrapped tightly around me. The air was cold, and the fire in the hearth had died sometime during the night. Still, I didn’t move to relight it. I just watched the flames that weren’t there.I didn’t know what time it was when the door opened softly. Kiernan stepped in without saying a word. He looked like he had been up all night too. His shirt was wrinkled, and his hair was messier than usual.He walked over and placed something on the small table. A bowl of soup. Warm bread. A cup of tea."You should eat," he said, voice quiet.I nodded, though I didn’t move.Kiernan walked to the window, arms crossed as he star
IVY'S POVThe morning light crept through the thin curtains like a quiet whisper. I sat up slowly, my muscles sore from another night of restless sleep. Kiernan hadn’t said much since the meeting with the Alpha. He stayed close though—always nearby, always watching. It was strange having someone care, even a little. I wasn’t used to it.The events of the last few days swirled in my mind like a storm. Selena poisoned. A forged letter. A trap meant for me. The pack still watched me like I was dangerous, like I might snap any second. But now they whispered behind their hands instead of shouting in my face. That was progress, I guessed.I sat by the window with a piece of bread in my hands, chewing slowly. I wasn’t hungry. Food tasted like ash when you didn’t know who wanted you dead.Kiernan sat in the corner, arms crossed, eyes trained on the door. He hadn’t slept either. I could see the tired lines under his eyes."You don’t have to babysit me all day," I said quietly.He didn’t move.
Selena's POVThe first thing I felt was cold.It crept under my skin like icy fingers, stiffening my limbs, wrapping around my lungs. I opened my eyes slowly. My body was weak, heavy like stone. Every breath hurt. Every blink sent a throb through my head. But I was alive. That meant my plan hadn’t gone completely wrong.The ceiling above me was unfamiliar. Wooden beams, old and cracked. Not the luxurious ceiling of my father’s home or the healer’s hut in the center of the pack grounds. This was a side room, one of the less important healing chambers. Hidden, quiet, empty.I moved slightly and regretted it. My side ached, and my mouth tasted of metal and dirt. Poison, I realized. The bellroot worked faster than expected.I had used only a small dose. Just enough to scare them. Just enough to make me look like the victim. Just enough to make Ivy look guilty.Ivy.Her name flared inside my mind like fire. I hated her more than anyone. Her presence, her voice, her soft eyes that fooled ev
Ronan’s POVThere was a time when I didn't care about the politics of the pack. I didn't care about diplomacy. My instincts, my loyalty, and my fight kept me grounded. I didn't need anything else.But that was before Magnus came.Before Ivy’s life hung in the balance, and before I saw the fear in her eyes—the kind of fear you don't forget. I had seen it in the faces of enemies, but never in hers. That shattered something in me. And it scared me more than I wanted to admit.Now, I couldn't shake the thought that everything was changing. And with every passing day, it was becoming clearer: this wasn’t just a battle for survival—it was a fight for the future. A future I couldn’t ignore, not with Ivy at the center of it.So, here I was—standing in front of the Alpha, my brother Kiernan, and Elias, all of them watching me with hard eyes. The pack was depending on me, even if they didn’t say it out loud. They knew I wasn’t the one to speak diplomacy, but I was the one who would go, the one
Elias’s POVI hated the silence.It had been quiet since we got back from the Hollow. Too quiet. Ivy wasn’t talking. Selena barely looked anyone in the eye. Kiernan kept pacing like a caged wolf, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how close we came to losing everything.One more minute, one more step into that ritual circle, and Ivy could’ve been gone. Taken by Magnus. Or worse—changed by him.The image of her face when we found her—confused, pale, trembling—burned behind my eyes. I had seen her angry. Sad. Determined. But that was something else. That was broken.And I let it happen.I had stood back for too long, keeping peace while others doubted her. Pretending we still had time. Pretending things weren’t as bad as they seemed. But I couldn’t pretend anymore.Ivy was at the center of all of this. Magnus wasn’t just trying to destroy the pack—he wanted her. For something bigger. Something darker.I found Ivy in the old greenhouse behind the manor. She liked it there. Said the plant
Kiernan’s POVThe woods had always been quiet at dawn, but that morning, they felt dead. Not calm. Not peaceful. Just still—like something was holding its breath beneath the surface.Like the forest itself was waiting for the worst to come.I kept a firm grip on Ivy’s shoulder as I guided her back from the Hollow. Her skin was clammy. Her eyes were distant. Selena trailed behind us, silent and ashamed, but I barely looked at her. All my focus was on Ivy.She looked like someone who had walked through hell.Elias was already ahead, scanning the path for danger. His jaw was tight. I knew he was worried, but Elias always handled things with quiet concern. I didn’t. My worry came with fire.I wanted to kill Magnus.Not arrest. Not contain. Kill.Because whatever he’d done to Ivy—whatever he’d made her see—it had left a crack in her. One I wasn’t sure could be repaired.And the worst part?He wasn’t finished.When we finally made it back to Blackwood territory, the guards at the perimet
Ivy’s POV My legs were shaking, and every step felt like I was walking through mud. I didn’t know how I was still standing. The visions still swirled in my head, like ghosts refusing to leave.Selena walked a few feet behind me, her face pale, her eyes locked on the ground. Neither of us spoke. There was nothing left to say.She had betrayed me. That truth was sharp and bitter. But it wasn’t the only one that haunted me.Magnus’s words echoed in my mind over and over again.“Your mother served me. She chose me.”No. No, she didn’t. She couldn’t have.But I had seen the vision—clear and terrifying. My mother, standing beside Magnus, her face calm and cold. And then… something darker. A burst of power. A light inside her chest. Something he wanted. Something he said I carried now.What did he mean?I didn’t know who I was anymore.The moment I broke free of that ritual, I thought I would collapse. But something inside me pushed forward. Maybe instinct. Maybe anger. Maybe fear.Kiernan
Selena’s POV I stood at the edge of the woods, staring into the shadows where the Hollow waited. My hands trembled, not from the cold, but from what I was about to do. Again.How had it come to this?I used to know who I was. I used to believe in revenge—sweet, righteous, and mine. Ivy had everything I lost, everything I was denied. For so long, I hated her for it. But now... now I wasn’t sure.I had watched her closely these past days. At first, it was just to make sure the plan worked—to make sure Magnus’s lies were planted deep inside her mind. But something changed. The more I watched her fall apart, the more I saw myself in her. Not the same life. Not the same pain. But the same chains. Different shapes, same prison.She was breaking, and I could see it in the way she walked. Her shoulders hunched just slightly, her eyes always tired, searching for something she couldn’t name. I should’ve felt satisfaction. I should’ve enjoyed watching her crumble. But I didn’t.Instead, I felt
Ivy's pov.I had never been a stranger to nightmares. They had been with me for as long as I could remember—those fragmented, fleeting moments of terror that always left me breathless upon waking. But recently, it was different. The nightmares felt more like memories, memories that weren’t my own. They were so vivid, so real, that I began to question whether I was the one dreaming them, or if the past was simply trying to claw its way back to the surface.I had already come to accept that something was off. I couldn’t ignore the strange, flickering images in my mind, the unsettling feelings that seemed to follow me like shadows, lingering on the edge of my vision. At first, it was just a brief flash—my mother, standing beside Magnus, the dark elder who had helped Selena escape her exile. His cold, calculating eyes locked on mine, as if he were waiting for something. But it wasn’t just a fleeting thought. It happened again and again—too many times for it to be a coincidence. The face o
Magnus’s POVThe night air was thick with the scent of decay and magic. I stood at the edge of the burnt clearing, my robes dragging over charred grass and blackened soil. The smoke from the northern ridge still rose in lazy curls, a warning to the Blackwood pack. A promise of what was to come.Fools. They thought they could stop what had already begun.Selena had done her part. Played her role like the desperate girl she was—hungry for vengeance, easy to manipulate. But her use was wearing thin. She had started asking too many questions, hesitating in ways she never had before.Weakness.I had no room for it.With a flick of my hand, I summoned the shadows. They slithered forward like loyal dogs, coiling at my feet. They whispered to me, voices layered and cold, telling me what I already knew.Ivy Gray still lived.Not only lived—but fought.She should have broken by now. The poison. The lies. The isolation. Any lesser omega would have crumbled. But she was no lesser anything.She wa
Ronan’s POVThe cold wind rushed through the trees as I stood at the edge of the forest. The moon hung high above, fat and pale, but the night was too still. Too quiet. I didn’t trust quiet nights anymore. Not in this place. Not with everything falling apart inside the Blackwood estate.I rolled my shoulders and listened.No howling. No rustling. Just silence.I turned and walked back toward the estate, boots crunching over dead leaves. My wolf stirred under my skin, tense and restless. He felt it too—something was wrong.I’d been keeping my distance from the others lately. Kiernan was busy shadowing Ivy, and Elias was always disappearing at odd hours, chasing shadows. And me? I watched. I listened. And I waited.Selena had been too quiet lately.That wasn’t like her.She always made noise—whether it was with her voice, her glare, or her games. But now she was playing the long game. The kind that didn’t make noise until it was too late.And Ivy—she was changing.I noticed it when I pa
Selena's POVDarkness suited me.Not because I liked the shadows or the silence, but because the world forgot to look too closely when it was afraid. And they were afraid. The Blackwood estate, the council, even the Alpha himself—they whispered, they watched, but none of them truly saw me. Not yet.I sat in the forgotten chapel deep beneath the estate. Moss clung to the old stone, and the altar was cracked down the middle. Candles lit the room in a soft, golden glow, their flames too steady for a place so cursed.Magnus stood across from me, his hands folded behind his back. He never sat. Never rested. His eyes glowed faintly red, like dying embers. The power inside him made the air buzz."She remembers," I said quietly. My voice echoed off the chapel walls.Magnus didn’t flinch. “Fragments. Nothing clear. Your spell worked. For now.”I ran a hand through my tangled hair. “It’s not enough. She saw something. I felt it. When she touched the charm.”“She is beginning to wake,” Magnus s