KAI Panic clawed at my chest the moment I stepped into Alina’s room and saw it empty. She wasn’t here. The bed was neatly made, her things were still scattered around the room, but she was gone. My mind raced as I stood frozen in the doorway, my heart hammering in my chest. She couldn’t have just vanished. Could she? I did not want to the consider the other option of it. That she was not here, and she had left a week ago which meant that she had succumbed to whatever fate that waited her out of the pack already.“Alina?” I called out, even though I knew it was useless. The room was empty, silent.Without wasting another second, I tore through the palace, checking every room, every hallway, every nook and cranny. Nothing. She wasn’t anywhere. My steps quickened, my breathing growing ragged as I searched everywhere for her, my mind whirling with all the possibilities of where she could be. I knew she had a bond with my sisters now. I was hoping that I was going to find her here, but I
ALINA I was still in shock. Even when I was in her arms, I felt like this was not real. That it was too good to be true. My mother could not be standing here in front of me right now. She died, several ages ago. “I… I don’t understand,” I choked out, my voice muffled against her shoulder. “How are you here? How are you alive?”She pulled back slightly, just enough to look at me, her hands gently cupping my face. “I’ve been alive since that day,” she said softly, her voice filled with emotion. “After the accident, I lost my memory. I didn’t know who I was or where I belonged. I’ve been searching for answers, but it took so long…”I blinked, the confusion swirling in my mind. “Why didn’t you come to find me? Why didn’t you come sooner?”She sighed, her expression pained. “I was sick for a long time, Alina. After the accident, I wasn’t just dealing with memory loss. I was physically weak, too. It took years for me to recover, to regain enough strength to start searching for you. But by
KAI The day of my coronation had finally come. The day I had been waiting for my entire life. But as I stood there, dressed in ceremonial robes, ready to ascend to the throne, all I could think about was Alina.I had sent out so many troops, the best of the best, to search for her. I had made them scour every pack, from the biggest and most powerful to the small, hidden ones that lingered in the shadows of the woods. Every day I waited for news, every day I hoped they would return with her. But none of them had. None had come back with even a trace of her. It was like she had disappeared off the face of the earth.My heart ached at the thought of her, out there somewhere, alone and possibly in danger. But I couldn’t do anything about it. Not today. Today, I had to focus on my duty. I had to become the alpha of the Seven Isles. It was the only way to secure the future of the pack, the only way to ensure that I had the power and resources to find her.As I stood at the front of the gra
KAIThe slums were worse than I remembered.I hadn’t been here in years, but the sight of it now turned my stomach. The air was thick with the stench of waste and decay, and the ground was a mix of mud, filth, and human waste. The slum dwellers huddled together in ragged clothes, their faces gaunt and pale, some of them wheezing and coughing as they drank thin, watery soup from cracked bowls. Flies buzzed around them, and the few children I saw looked skeletal, their eyes hollow.This was the part of the Seven Isles my father had never cared about. He had poured all his resources into the capital, lavishing attention and wealth on the nobles and the elite, while the poor were left to rot in these wretched streets. He had claimed that maintaining the wealth of the capital was all that mattered, that the poor were a burden best ignored.It was why all of the werewolves had such high regard for us. They knew that we had resources and could do whatever we wanted to do, but none of them kn
KAI The air around us felt thick and heavy as we made our way deeper into the forest. Every step I took felt more uncertain than the last, the weight of what I was about to face pressing down on me like a suffocating blanket. Yara, walking ahead of me moved with her eyes closed as if she were seeing something that I couldn’t.I glanced at her, confused by her closed eyes. "Can you really see like that?" I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop myself.She smiled faintly, not breaking her stride. “I’m not seeing in the way you think, Kai. I’m feeling the magic in the air. It guides me.”I stared at her for a moment, trying to wrap my mind around that. I had always been skeptical of magic, but now I was walking beside a witch, relying on her to help me find Alina. The thought was unsettling, to say the least, but I shoved my discomfort to the back of my mind. I didn’t have the luxury of doubt. Not now. I knew how frowned upon it was, but it was worth it.We walked for wha
KAI The night was eerily quiet as Yara and I made our way back into the clearing where the skinwalkers had hidden their nest. We waited until the sun was down and it was almost midnight. We could hear them as they passed by us, and I even checked out some of them as they moved through the night. They were faster and more agile, so it made sense that they were able to catch and eat anyone that came in their way. As we reached the place where they resided, Yara and I paused. I could feel the tension in the air. Yara’s expression was grim, her eyes closed once again as she silently chanted under her breath, feeling the magic that hung in the air like a thick fog. As we stepped into the clearing, we walked as fast as we could to the place where we had seen Alina earlier. Once we reached it, I was glad to see her at the same spot. She was sitting on a stone bench, her posture unnaturally rigid, her eyes wide and vacant, and that unsettling smile still stretched across her face. My hear
ALINA My heart was in my throat as I made my way to the hospital, every step feeling heavier than the last. The person that brought us here, which assumed was the witch was gone. I had to yell out for help for the guards to come and help me. That was all five days ago. I was in the hospital too because I had lost my baby, but I felt too much trauma to even feel anything about it. I just wanted Kai to be okay. Because I was supposed to be the one in the hospital room, sick and dying from the skin walker’s venom. The weight of guilt sat on my chest like a boulder, crushing me with every breath I took. I couldn’t get the image of Kai collapsing out of my head, the way his body had crumpled when he took the venom meant for me. It should have been me. I had already failed in so many ways, but this felt like the ultimate failure. And the worst part? I hadn’t even realized just how much I still cared for him until I saw him fall. I pushed the doors open to the hospital, my hands trembling,
ALINA A week had passed, but the mourning never really ended. The pack was in a state of confusion and grief, but none of it felt real to me. Nothing had felt real since Kai’s death. I was in a painful stage of derealisation. I was walking through the motions, pretending like I was still functioning, but inside, everything was hollow. Jaime, however, had wasted no time. He had pushed for the coronation to happen as quickly as possible, and here we were—just days after Kai’s death, and Jaime was already the new alpha. He had forced everyone to move on from the traumatic event, which was not as easy as it seemed. I have never met someone that cruel, and I knew a fair share of people that were cruel. I couldn’t even believe it. None of this made sense. How could the pack move on so easily? How could they sit here, in celebration, while Kai’s body was in a crypt beneath the palace? The thought made my stomach turn. I had asked Lily earlier if there was going to be a funeral for Kai. If