MADDOX’S POVThe night had been long. Agonizing. Sleep had refused to claim me, leaving me trapped in the suffocating weight of revelation. Seraphine Gray is not Seraphine Gray. Kade’s words had rung in my head like a cursed mantra, each repetition hammering deeper into my skull. Aurora Blackwood. The name alone was a storm. I had heard the stories. Everyone had. In fact I had witnessed the disaster that befell then Blackwoods. The Blackwoods were more than legends—they were myths made flesh. An extinct bloodline, wiped from the face of the earth, their wolves unlike anything the world had ever seen. And yet, for nineteen years, the supposed last of their kind had been under my roof. In my pack. In my bed. I had been sleeping next to a phantom, a relic of a forgotten power. And I had never known. I sat behind my desk, fingers pressed together in a tight steeple, the wood groaning beneath my grip. The office was dark, the blinds drawn shut to keep out the rising sun. A single c
RONAN’S POVThe hall reeked of desperation. The huge curtains were drawn to cover the entire room in darkness. Thick candle smoke curled toward the rafters, mixing with the sweat and fear clinging to the walls. Shadows flickered along the rough stone, stretching over the gathered Elders like grasping hands. Their voices clashed—some loud, some hushed, but all of them whispering the same name. Eliana. The girl. The key. The one they feared, yet needed.I stepped into the hall, and the room fell into silence. Eyes turned to me, wary, expectant. I was no Alpha. But I was the closest thing they had. I walked forward, slow and deliberate, until I reached the long table at the center of the room. The Elders sat rigid in their chairs, their robes pooling around them like shadows. They had aged poorly—wrinkled faces lined with worry, eyes sunken from years of exile. This was not the Moonblood Pack I had grown up in. This was a broken assembly of ghosts, clinging to the past, fearing the
ELIANA’S POVSilver light. That was the first thing I saw. It pulsed behind my eyelids, soft at first, then blinding. It filled my veins, humming beneath my skin, crawling up my spine like liquid fire. My body felt weightless, floating between words, between existence and something… more.I sucked in a sharp breath and sat up. The air around me was thick—too thick—pressing down on my chest like an invisible force. The room was dim, shadows stretching long and distorted against stone walls. The bed beneath me was unfamiliar, the scent of aged wood and herbs clinging to the air. I blinked once. Twice. The world flickered. For a moment, I was nowhere. Everywhere. The walls shimmered, rippling like water. The bed, the room—all of it felt distant, unreal. Something wasn’t right.I lifted a hand, my fingers trembling. My skin glowed. A faint, silver luminescence bled from my veins, wrapping around my arms like smoke. My breath hitched. I turned my hands over, palms up, watching as t
REED’S POV The world tilted. I barely had time to steady myself before the ground swayed beneath me, the weight of exhaustion dragging me down like lead in my bones. My knees buckled.Shit.A firm grip caught my arm before I could hit the door. Then another.“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Asher muttered, his voice sharp with concern. His grip tightened around my shoulder, anchoring me. Callum was at my other side, his hand clamped around my forearm, keeping me upright. “You good?” Callum asked, but his tone already told me he knew the answer. I wasn’t. Not even close. Cold seeped into my skin, a slow, creeping chill that coiled in my chest and wrapped around my spine. My body felt wrong, like it wasn’t mine anymore—like something had shifted deep within me when I stepped into that other realm.I clenched my jaw and forced my weight onto my feet, willing my legs to stay steady. Asher murmured something under his breath to Callum. I caught fragments—“too pale,” “he’s freezing,” “somethin
LIANA. I woke up before dawn, as always. No one else in the house stirs this early, but that was by design. If I let the sun rise before I’m on my feet, my mother would make sure I regret it. I slipped silently from my bed on the cold floor—my room was barely a space in the attic, but it was all they allowed me. With my bare hands, I scrubbed the kitchen floor, every creak and sigh of the house around me was a reminder that my family’s slumber depended on my silence. My stomach growled, hollow as always, but I bit my lip. Hunger was something I’ve grown used to. I got to eat only when they decided there was food left over, and most nights, that meant nothing at all. My body ached from work, and sometimes, I wondered if all this would be easier if I could just shift like everyone else. But I can’t. I’m wolfless—a constant source of their shame and their disappointment. I paused, just a moment, to stretch out my back, but the sound of footsteps snapped me to attention. My mother’s
LIANA. I forced my body to turn, despite the stabbing pain that shot up my legs with every slight movement. Through the haze of exhaustion, I could see them—my father and brother, watching me from a distance. Even at that moment, under the weak light cast by the rising moon, I could make out their faces. Their expressions were twisted, not with worry or even anger, but with something darker, something like satisfaction. My father cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, at his voice slicing through the silence of the woods. “You’re as good as dead out here, Liana! Do you hear me?” He spat my name like it was a curse. “I hope they rip you apart. I’d be glad to be rid of you for good. I never want anything to do with you!” His words shattered whatever little strength I had left in me. I’d grown accustomed to their cruelty, to the way they treated me like a burden, a stain on their lives. But to hear him speak those words, to see him stand there, not even trying to hide his re
LIANA. A harsh tug on my arm jolted me from the depths of unconsciousness. My eyes fluttered open, but it took a moment to process the cold stares, the sneering faces surrounding me. Rough hands gripped me, pulling me upright. Disoriented, I blinked against the blinding light of day, my head throbbing from where I’d hit it against the forest floor. It was still dark and the rain had already stopped but my clothes still dripped of water. “Look at this pathetic excuse for a wolf,” one of them sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. I tried to gather my bearings, but the world spun around me, a blur of scornful faces and mocking laughter. My clothes were soaked from the rain and clung to me, dirt streaked across my skin. I could feel their eyes crawling over me, dissecting me as if I were some lesser creature, something beneath them. “She’s wolf less,” another voice muttered with disgust, the words slicing through me like a knife. It wasn’t enough that my own family and pack hate
LIANA. The world around me was a blur of pain and terror, my body trembling as I lay helpless on the cold, blood-streaker ground. I could still feel the rough, callous hands that had pinned me down, the jeers and cruel laughter echoing in my mind like a sick melody I couldn’t shake. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take before I broke entirely. Then, suddenly, that awful laughter stopped. Replaced by silence. Then… a low, feral growl. It rumbled through the clearing, filled with a menacing power that sent a chill down my spine. The wolves who’d been tormenting me stilled, their expressions turning from delight to unease. I could see them glance around, searching for the source, their confidence wavering. “Who’s there?” one of them snarled, his voice a shaky attempt at bravado. I heard another growl, this one even more menacing, as if it were taunting them. Then came a sound—a snarl so deep it felt like the forest itself was growing back. My heart raced as the wolves surroundi
REED’S POV The world tilted. I barely had time to steady myself before the ground swayed beneath me, the weight of exhaustion dragging me down like lead in my bones. My knees buckled.Shit.A firm grip caught my arm before I could hit the door. Then another.“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Asher muttered, his voice sharp with concern. His grip tightened around my shoulder, anchoring me. Callum was at my other side, his hand clamped around my forearm, keeping me upright. “You good?” Callum asked, but his tone already told me he knew the answer. I wasn’t. Not even close. Cold seeped into my skin, a slow, creeping chill that coiled in my chest and wrapped around my spine. My body felt wrong, like it wasn’t mine anymore—like something had shifted deep within me when I stepped into that other realm.I clenched my jaw and forced my weight onto my feet, willing my legs to stay steady. Asher murmured something under his breath to Callum. I caught fragments—“too pale,” “he’s freezing,” “somethin
ELIANA’S POVSilver light. That was the first thing I saw. It pulsed behind my eyelids, soft at first, then blinding. It filled my veins, humming beneath my skin, crawling up my spine like liquid fire. My body felt weightless, floating between words, between existence and something… more.I sucked in a sharp breath and sat up. The air around me was thick—too thick—pressing down on my chest like an invisible force. The room was dim, shadows stretching long and distorted against stone walls. The bed beneath me was unfamiliar, the scent of aged wood and herbs clinging to the air. I blinked once. Twice. The world flickered. For a moment, I was nowhere. Everywhere. The walls shimmered, rippling like water. The bed, the room—all of it felt distant, unreal. Something wasn’t right.I lifted a hand, my fingers trembling. My skin glowed. A faint, silver luminescence bled from my veins, wrapping around my arms like smoke. My breath hitched. I turned my hands over, palms up, watching as t
RONAN’S POVThe hall reeked of desperation. The huge curtains were drawn to cover the entire room in darkness. Thick candle smoke curled toward the rafters, mixing with the sweat and fear clinging to the walls. Shadows flickered along the rough stone, stretching over the gathered Elders like grasping hands. Their voices clashed—some loud, some hushed, but all of them whispering the same name. Eliana. The girl. The key. The one they feared, yet needed.I stepped into the hall, and the room fell into silence. Eyes turned to me, wary, expectant. I was no Alpha. But I was the closest thing they had. I walked forward, slow and deliberate, until I reached the long table at the center of the room. The Elders sat rigid in their chairs, their robes pooling around them like shadows. They had aged poorly—wrinkled faces lined with worry, eyes sunken from years of exile. This was not the Moonblood Pack I had grown up in. This was a broken assembly of ghosts, clinging to the past, fearing the
MADDOX’S POVThe night had been long. Agonizing. Sleep had refused to claim me, leaving me trapped in the suffocating weight of revelation. Seraphine Gray is not Seraphine Gray. Kade’s words had rung in my head like a cursed mantra, each repetition hammering deeper into my skull. Aurora Blackwood. The name alone was a storm. I had heard the stories. Everyone had. In fact I had witnessed the disaster that befell then Blackwoods. The Blackwoods were more than legends—they were myths made flesh. An extinct bloodline, wiped from the face of the earth, their wolves unlike anything the world had ever seen. And yet, for nineteen years, the supposed last of their kind had been under my roof. In my pack. In my bed. I had been sleeping next to a phantom, a relic of a forgotten power. And I had never known. I sat behind my desk, fingers pressed together in a tight steeple, the wood groaning beneath my grip. The office was dark, the blinds drawn shut to keep out the rising sun. A single c
KADE’S POVLila stood before me, fidgeting under my stare. She was trying to lie to me. Again.I leaned back in my chair, fingers steepled beneath my chin, watching her carefully. The office was quiet except for the rhythmic ticking of the clock on the far wall. Sunlight streamed through the tall windows, painting sharp streaks of gold across the dark wood floors. And yet, despite the warmth of the morning light, Lila shivered. She wasn’t cold. She was afraid, a habit that our child picked from her. “Tell me again,” I said smoothly, tilting my head. “How far have you gotten with the mission of getting me the Silver Blade?” She shifted on her feet, pressing her hands together like a nervous child caught stealing. “I—I haven’t gotten it yet,” she stammered. “The security at the vault was increased after my last attempt. It’s been difficult.” A lie. An obvious lie. She was trembling. The lie lived in the flicker of her lashes, in the slight hitch of her breath. I knew her too we
REED’S POVShe wasn’t waking up. Eliana lay motionless on the bed, her chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, but she was gone. Somewhere I couldn’t reach her. My hands clenched into fists at my sides.Seraphine’s words wouldn’t leave my head.“If her gate is opened, they will come for her.”Maddox. Kade. Others I didn’t even know about, like the shadowed one from last night. Enemies who had been waiting for her powers to awaken, waiting for the chance to hunt her down. If we brought her back, if we unsealed whatever power had been locked away inside her—she wouldn’t be safe. And what if I couldn’t protect her? The thought sent ice through my veins. I wasn’t afraid of a fight, but this wasn’t a battle I could win with claws and fangs alone. This was something bigger. Something I barely understood.And if I failed? If she came back and I couldn’t keep her safe? I forced a breath through my nose, staring down at her pale face. She looked fragile like this. Vulnerable. It f
RONAN’S POV The sun was high, a gloomy eye staring down at me through the now defrosted-coated window. I leaned against the ledge, my fingers tightening around the glass of untouched whisky in my hand. Outside, the trees swayed under the morning breath, whispering secrets that only the wind could understand. But I wasn’t listening. My mind was elsewhere. On someone so precious. Her. Eliana Blackwood, or better still Eliana Moonblood.She was a Moonblood after all even though she has not been introduced to the entire pack.I exhaled slowly, the weight of her name pressing against my ribs like a fist. Today was her nineteenth birthday. A significant day. A dangerous day. It’s going to be a full moon tonight and the full moon on her birthday screamed danger. I ran a hand through my hair, tension coiled in my muscles, making it impossible to stay still. I should have taken her last night in the woods. I should have been faster, stronger—should have gotten to her before he did. Reed
SERAPHINE’S POVI barely felt my feet touch the ground as I ran up the stairs, my heart slamming against my ribs. The world around me blurred, sounds dulled by the sheer terror screaming through my veins.Not again. Please, not again. I burst through the door to Reed’s room, and the sight that greeted me made my breath catch in my throat. Liana lay still on the bed, her body unnaturally motionless, her face too pale. Her lips were parted slightly, her breath barely visible, like a wisp of smoke on a cold morning. But it was her eyes that sent a bolt of fear straight to my soul. They were closed, but not in sleep.Not in peace.Her body was cold. Ice-cold.I staggered forward, my hands trembling as I reached out, brushing her hair from her face. “Liana?” My voice cracked, and the sound of it was foreign to me—desperate, lost. “Baby, wake up.” No response. I shook her shoulder gently. “Eliana. It’s your birthday, sweetheart. Come on, open your eyes.” Nothing. A strangled sob tor
REED’S POVI woke up to the soft glow of dawn filtering through the curtains, the warmth of the sheets still wrapped around me. The air was cool, crisp, the kind that makes you want to stay in bed for just a little longer. And then, there she was. Eliana. She was still curled into my side, her body relaxed, her breathing deep and even. The golden rays of morning painted across her bare skin, highlighting the delicate slope of her shoulders, the soft curve of her lips. I had never seen anything more beautiful in my life. God, I was in deep.I watched her, unable to look away, my chest tightening at the mere sight of her. Last night had been… different. She had surprised me, moving with a confidence that hadn’t been there before, touching me in ways that made my head spin. It wasn’t just about pleasure—it was about her, about us. The way she looked at me, like I was the only thing that mattered, like she had chosen me as much as I had chosen her.And I had. I had chosen her. I trace