LYRAThe sarcophagus began to hum.Not a sound, not really—but a pressure in the air, in her blood, in the bond itself.It wasn’t just ancient magic.It was a heartbeat.Hers.Lyra staggered back, but the connection held tight. She could feel the tendrils of something vast and unspeakable wrapping around her soul, dragging her into a memory that didn’t belong to her—and yet somehow always had.The wolf in her went still. Reverent.A pulse answered her from the sarcophagus. Low. Timeless.The stone lid cracked down the center with a shriek of breaking runes.Ronan stepped in front of her, teeth bared, claws out. “Don’t.”But Lyra touched his shoulder and pushed forward.“I have to know,” she whispered.⸻RONANHe should’ve stopped her.Every instinct screamed to drag her back, seal the passage, bury the thing still breathing inside that tomb.But the bond…It wanted this.And worse—she wanted it.Ronan watched as she placed her hand against the cracked lid.And the stone dissolved.Dus
LYRAThe world narrowed to breath and fire.The Hollow Fangs surrounded them, their torches casting snarling shadows against the crumbling stone. Silver glinted in every direction. Ronan stood at her front, chest rising like a shield, teeth bared, claws extended.But the bond—the bond burned.Not just between them, but through her, down to the dark place inside where the goddess now stirred.The One Who Hungers had not followed them out of the tomb. She hadn’t needed to.She was already inside Lyra.And as the enemy moved in, as the silver caught moonlight and eyes blazed with intent to kill—The goddess whispered:“Let me show you how wolves were born.”⸻RONANHe counted six in front, four to the rear.Ten against two.And she wasn’t at full strength.He wasn’t either—not with the silver still thick in his blood, his body aching, the wound from the last fight barely closed. But that didn’t matter.He would die for her.He would die for her.He crouched low, growl vibrating through h
LYRAHer hands wouldn’t stop shaking.She sat at the edge of the ruined temple, her back against a warm slab of stone that had once held a goddess. Now, it held nothing but ash.Her skin still hummed. Her breath still tasted of iron and smoke.The bond was silent.Not broken—but quiet. As if it, too, was trying to make sense of what had happened.Across from her, Ronan crouched near a small fire, his shirt torn, chest marked with bruises and claw lines. His eyes hadn’t left her since they fled the battlefield.She hadn’t said a word since she dropped the roots.Not one.“Lyra,” he said softly.She didn’t look up.“Say something.”She blinked. “I burned them alive.”Ronan exhaled. “You defended us.”“They were already running.”He didn’t argue.Because she was right.⸻RONANHe watched her.Watched the way her fingers curled into fists, like she was trying to hold herself together from the inside out. Her power was no longer raging through the bond, but it was still there. A spark unde
LYRAThe old Alpha’s stare pierced her skin like cold steel.She didn’t flinch, didn’t blink, but it took everything in her not to let the rising hum beneath her skin explode into flame.He knew.She felt it immediately—in the twitch of his fingers, the stiff set of his spine, the way his eyes flared silver not from rage but from recognition.“You’ve seen her before,” Lyra said softly.The man’s jaw clenched. “I’ve heard of what you carry. That doesn’t mean I welcome it.”Ronan stepped forward, his presence bristling. “She’s not the goddess, not fully. She’s trying to understand—control it.”The old wolf’s voice cut sharp as a blade. “You can’t control a storm, boy. You survive it. If you’re lucky.”Lyra stepped forward. “I don’t want luck.”The earth shivered beneath her feet. The air shifted.“I want answers.”⸻RONANHe watched the power flicker under Lyra’s skin like lightning caged in bone.His uncle—Graven—was not a man easily cowed. He’d walked with kings and torn throats from
LYRAThe Temple of the Moon loomed ahead like a silver blade plunged into the forest. Cold light shimmered along its spires, and the runes etched in stone pulsed as if breathing.Lyra’s feet dragged, not from fatigue but dread. Every step toward the ancient sanctuary felt like walking into a past she didn’t remember but could feel in her bones.Ronan walked beside her, silent but tense, his hand resting close to his blade. He didn’t trust the Priests. She wasn’t sure she did either.“They’ll feel her the moment we step past the threshold,” Lyra whispered.Ronan didn’t look at her. “Then we give them no reason to strike.”She almost laughed. “You think reason will stop them?”He looked at her then—eyes dark, resolute. “I will.”⸻RONANHe felt the moment they crossed into sacred ground.The hum in the air shifted—less like magic and more like judgment. The Temple didn’t just see you. It measured you.Every sin. Every lie. Every crack in the soul.Lyra’s shoulders stiffened. Her scent f
LYRAThe chamber felt colder the next morning.Not in temperature—but in intent.Stone pillars loomed high above them, carved with the history of the moon-bonded tribes. The Tribunal Hall was quiet, save for the rustling of ceremonial robes and the low murmur of old magic gathering like a stormcloud.Lyra sat in the center on a raised platform made of lunar obsidian. Alone.Surrounded by enemies in wolf’s clothing.A seat had been offered to Ronan. He’d refused. Chosen to stand beside her instead—on her right, his hand never far from his blade.She hadn’t asked him to. She hadn’t needed to.But his presence kept her from unraveling.Just.Across the hall, twelve figures took their seats in a crescent: the heads of the remaining High Packs. Alpha-blooded, some wolf-born, others not. One Priestess. Two generals. And at the far end—“Thane,” she whispered.Ronan tensed beside her.His cousin had arrived cloaked in the silver-stitched robes of the Moon Council, polished and perfect, his d
LYRAThey dressed her in white.White for surrender. White for sacrifice.The ceremonial robe clung to her damp skin as she stood before the Moonsilver Altar—naked underneath save for the runes painted in salt and blood. Each brushstroke from the Priestess had seared her flesh, marking her not as a warrior, not as a mate, but as a vessel.The moon was high. Full. Unforgiving.Lyra didn’t look at the faces gathered on the steps. The Tribunal. The Priests. The wolves. She didn’t look at Ronan.She couldn’t.Because if she saw his face—if she felt the bond between them tremble—she might break before the trial even began.Instead, she stepped barefoot into the pool of moonsilver.It looked like liquid light.It felt like death.⸻RONANHe could smell her pain the moment her feet touched the pool.Moonsilver was never meant to touch living skin. Not like this.And yet here she was—walking into it as if it couldn’t destroy her.Ronan stood at the edge of the circle, fists clenched, rage bub
LYRAShe felt it the moment they stepped out of the Temple.The shift in the air.The hunger.The fear.They weren’t cheering her survival. They were calculating it. Measuring how dangerous she had become.Lyra was no longer a liability.She was a threat.“They’ll come for you,” Ronan had warned.He was wrong.They already had.⸻The courtyard was heavy with silence as they emerged—her still robed in white, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist. Guards flanked them on all sides, but none of them were hers.That was the first sign.The second?The missing faces.No Thane. No Priestess. No allies.Only eyes, watching from the balconies.Waiting.The scent of metal hit her too late.“Ronan—”He pushed her down.The blade missed her heart by an inch.⸻RONANHis vision tunneled.A glint of steel. A flicker of movement on the roof.Then instinct took over.He moved fast—faster than the guards, faster than the assassin had planned.He tackled Lyra to the ground, his back taking the brunt
LYRAThe battlefield stretched like a wound beneath the sky.The Tribunal’s mountain stronghold loomed ahead—cold and jagged, cloaked in blood-soaked mist. This place wasn’t just defended by magic. It was magic—older than most could remember, carved from bone and shadow.Lyra stood at the edge of the cliff overlooking the approach, wind tangling her hair, steel glinting on her back. Her wolves waited in tense, deadly silence. Some shifted, some clothed, all ready to kill.Ronin stood to her left, the bond humming like a live wire between them.She lifted her sword and pointed forward.“Burn it.”⸻RONANThe charge was chaos.Wolves poured down the slope like a living storm, claws digging deep into frostbitten earth. Arrows flew from both sides. Spells split the sky. The Tribunal had called in every dark favor they had left—wraiths, corrupted shifters, old blood magic that made Ronan’s skin crawl.He didn’t look for Lyra—he felt her. Every strike she landed, every burst of pain when so
LYRAThe camp buzzed like a living thing.Steel sharpened, armor fitted, old grudges aired in low voices under flickering torchlight. Everyone preparing, expecting, waiting.Tomorrow, they’d march. Bleed. Burn.Tonight—was hers.The tent was silent when she stepped inside, but Ronan was already there, leaning over the map table, shirt discarded, muscles tense beneath old scars and fresh strain. The flickering lantern cast him in shadow and gold, and for a moment, she just watched.“You’re brooding,” she said softly.He didn’t look up. “I’m planning.”“You’re worrying.” She moved closer. “And I know the difference.”He turned then—slowly. Eyes burning.“So are you.”⸻RONANShe was radiant in warlight. Wild. Exhausted. Alive.He didn’t reach for her immediately.But the air between them shimmered with need—not just lust, but that gnawing ache only soul-deep things could stir. The kind that whispered: This could be the last.“I don’t want to sleep tonight,” she said, voice lower now, th
LYRAThe scent of iron hit her first.Not the distant tang of training blades or battlefield scars.Fresh blood.Wrong blood.And then—Veira’s voice, sharp and panicked, split the quiet dawn.“LYRA, DOWN!”She dropped instinctively, and the arrow sliced past her cheek, embedding in the post behind her with a thunk that sounded far too final.Poisoned.The black fletching and acrid stench said it all.Someone had just tried to kill her in her own damn war camp.And they almost succeeded.⸻RONANHe was already running.The bond flared hot and wild, not in pain—but in fear.He pushed past startled guards, scenting the air for that slick rot of Tribunal poison, his wolf barely caged beneath his skin.He found her crouched behind the pillar of the war tent, blood on her cheek, sword drawn.Alive.But barely.Her eyes met his, wide and burning.“He was inside the perimeter.”Ronan’s breath caught.Not an outsider.An insider.⸻LYRAShe gave chase before Ronan could stop her.The scent tra
LYRAThey arrived without warning.No drums.No banners.No declaration of war.Just a single, polished black carriage pulled by twin white stags, gliding through the mist like a vision from a cursed fairytale.No guards.No riders.Only a scroll tied in crimson ribbon, placed carefully on the carriage seat, as though it had been meant for her hands all along.The wolves flanked it at a distance, hackles raised.Fane growled low. “It’s a trap.”Veira’s blade gleamed in the morning light. “Or a distraction.”Lyra just stared at it.Because she already knew: it was both.⸻RONANHe watched her approach the carriage, every step measured, every breath silent.The camp held its breath with her.He didn’t stop her—couldn’t.Because this wasn’t just a message from the Tribunal.This was the game they were playing now.Psychological. Elegant. Bloody beneath the silk.He shifted slightly behind her, scenting for poison, for magic, for wrongness.The air was clean.Too clean.That’s when he saw
LYRAThe camp felt quieter after Caelin’s exile.But not safer.Trust had cracked, not shattered—but it left a spiderweb fracture across everything.Miren walked with a limp now. Fane slept with his blade under his pillow. Even Veira, who barely trusted shadows, had taken to standing outside Lyra’s tent at night like a statue carved from suspicion.And Lyra?She tried to rebuild what had been broken.But she couldn’t rebuild blind.That’s why she slipped into Caelin’s tent alone.And found the letters.⸻RONANHe smelled her fury before she stepped out of the canvas.It wasn’t the usual flare of flame that curled in her skin when she was angry. It was cold.Controlled.The kind of rage that could plan assassinations with the same grace she once used to braid her hair.“What did you find?” he asked, falling into step beside her.She didn’t answer. Just handed him one of the notes.Old parchment. Tribunal wax seal.But not addressed to Caelin.Addressed to her.Orders.Threats.A price
LYRAShe didn’t sleep the next night.Not really.Even with Ronan beside her, arms locked tight around her waist like a promise, her body buzzed with the memory of the fire.The thing she’d become in the forest.The lives she’d ended.The power that had felt less like a weapon and more like a second soul.And beneath it all…The truth clawed against her ribs.Someone inside the camp had sent those rogues.They’d gotten past every ward, every sentry.They hadn’t just known where Miren would sleep.They knew when to strike.⸻RONANHe smelled it before she spoke.The shift in her breath.The way she moved her fingers—slow, sharp, precise—as she poured over maps and camp rosters.She was hunting something.“Talk to me,” he said.She didn’t look up. “We have a traitor.”He nodded once.“I’ll find them.”“No,” she said sharply. “We will.”Her eyes locked onto his, molten and unreadable.“Because whoever they are, they didn’t just try to kill Miren.”Her voice dropped.“They tried to destro
LYRAThey came for Miren before moonset.Knives, not votes. Shadow, not judgment.And they came through her tent.Lyra woke to the scent of blood—rich, coppery, fresh.Too fresh.The scream that tore through the camp wasn’t hers. It was Caelin’s, raw with terror and rage.Lyra surged to her feet, flame already sparking in her palms.Ronan’s side of the bed was empty.The tent flap blew open.Smoke.Blood.And no sign of Miren.⸻RONANHe caught the scent first.Iron.Death.Ambush.He didn’t shift fully—there was no time. He moved with half-formed claws, half-wolf fury, barreling through the woods after the trail of scent and panic.Miren’s blood was light, but steady. Controlled.She was still alive.For now.The scent of her captors?Rotten. Fermented. Not Tribunal wolves.Mercenaries. Rogues.Sent by someone too afraid to challenge Lyra face-to-face.Cowards.But well-trained ones.⸻LYRAShe didn’t wait.She didn’t consult.She ran.Ronan was ahead of her, vanishing between trees
LYRAShe felt it before they arrived.A sickening chill that rolled down her spine like oil.She had been summoned.Not invited.Not honored.Summoned.To answer for her existence.The Tribunal meeting was set deep beneath the ruins of the Old Moon Keep, a place that once held sacred rites and blood-oaths.Now it reeked of power dressed in lies.Ronan gripped her wrist tightly as they approached the carved stone gates.“You don’t have to go in there,” he said low.“I do,” she whispered. “I want to see their faces when they try to kill me.”⸻RONANHe hated this.The way they looked at her like prey.The smug arrogance of the wolves in crimson cloaks, lounging at the obsidian council table like they already tasted blood on their tongues.But the worst part?The silence.The sick, complicit silence.She stood before them, wrapped in war-black and moonsteel.And still, no one spoke in her defense.Until one did.“She’s a threat,” said Councilor Verin of the Hollow Fang. “But so was the l
LYRAThey struck at dawn.No fanfare. No warning. Just steel in the silence and fire behind her ribs.The High Councilor of the South Quarter—Lady Veira—had been the loudest voice calling for Lyra’s execution. Now, her manor lay in ruin, its gates cracked open like a broken jaw, smoke curling into the sky.Lyra walked through the ashes of Veira’s legacy with her head held high.No one challenged her.No one dared.The wolves who stood between her and the Councilor’s chambers dropped to their knees as she passed. Not out of loyalty. Out of fear.Good.Let them tremble.⸻RONANThe door to the inner sanctum exploded inward under his boot.Veira stood inside, poised in silver armor, her red braid looped in coils like a crown. Old bloodlines. Old magic. A legacy of treachery.“You bring fire to my house?” she hissed.“No,” Ronan growled. “She does.”Lyra stepped into the room.And the very walls groaned.Veira recoiled, not from her power—but from recognition.“You shouldn’t exist.”Lyra