Elias' POV"She is poison, Elias. She needs to be eliminated."That was my mother, Luna Ingrid. She had so much hate for Amara. "Mom," I called. "No…enough. She hurt you. She killed your mate. No one toys with my son's emotions," my mother continued. I listened to my mother, and realized I had done worse to Amara. "Mom…" I called again. "No, your fiancée's funeral is tonight. Both the packs are coming. They need answers and I want one too," she said. "Will you just let me talk?" I asked, looking at her. She sighed, and breathed out. "Fine. What is it?" She asked. "I think there must have been something wrong. Amara is my mate," I confessed. She looked at me like I had grown horns. "Have you gone mad? Didn't you reject her in fron
Amara’s POVElias’ lips were hot, the crash of them blazing through every nerve ending in my body. For a split second I forgot where I was. I forgot who I was, the shame, the agony, the betrayal.And then reality hit me like a thunderclap.I pushed him away with what little strength I had left.His emerald eyes grew dark, his breath coming hard. He staggered back, as if he were not only responding to my push but battling something else altogether.“What the hell, Elias?” His mother asked. “You didn’t just kiss this dumb piece of…”“Get out of here, mom,” he said.“Elias…” she argued.“Now!” He yelled.She stared angrily at me and then at her son, panting, and exited the room. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, sick twisting in me. How dare he?“Never touch me again,” I hissed, poison dripping from my every word.Elias tightened his jaw, and I glanced at his
Elias’ POVBlood was everywhere.On my hands. My clothes. Seeping into the floor. I could still taste it — coppery and thick, coating my throat as if I had ingested something foul.The body at my feet no longer looked like a person. The assassin had been ripped to pieces by me. I had severed his limbs from his body. But I didn’t recall having done it.One moment, I had entered and found Amara pinned against the wall, a blade against her throat.The next…this.My chest heaved. My heartbeat was irregular and thumping in my ears.Inside of me something was still desperately clawing its way to the surface, restless. I wasn't satisfied.When I stepped forward, Amara stepped backward.Her shoulders squared as if to prepare for a renewed assault. She should have run.Instead, she remained there, hands balled into fists, her eyes flickering with something brittle.
Amara's POVI jolted awake with my heart pounding like a jackrabbit. Something felt off. I had this gut feeling that something was off. It came as a kind of nagging voice in the back of my head saying things I didn't seem to understand.I took a few slow, deep breaths and tried to tell myself it was just a bad dream, but I still felt it. It was as if my instincts were roaring at me to awaken, to take notice.Just as I stood from the couch, a voice called my name Not loud, but in my voice, inside my mind. I was pulled forward, as if by an invisible string, as if something was drawing me toward it. I walked behind it, my feet in spite of themselves.Before I knew it, I was in front of the bathroom door. My heart hammered in my chest like a blacksmith pounding metal. I raised my hand to knock but before I had the chance the door opened by itself.Inside, I discovered Elias sweating, shaking, fighting something invisible. His breath
Elias' POVAnd there was fire all inside of me.I didn’t recognize myself.My vision was black, lungs panting, muscles locked in a feral grimace. I could hear the rumble of my own heartbeat, could feel the crackle of something old awakening inside me. The intensity of it threatened to engulf me.Marcus was before me, his stance alternating between fear and calculation while his gaze peeked over to Amara. I bared my teeth. “If you ever touch her I'll make sure you stop breathing.”I could hardly recognize my own voice. It was deeper and different and when I growled, my body vibrated. Marcus flinched but recovered quickly, his mask of arrogance falling into place again.“You’re being played, Elias,” he said, and raised his hands in surrender. “She’s not who you think she is.”“Really? I have heard that a lot,” I said, breathing harshly as I took a step closer towards him. Marcus exh
Elias' POVI caught Amara's body as another bone snapped, her scream tearing through the night. Her back arched unnaturally, fur rippling across her skin as her first change took hold."Breathe with me," I begged, holding her against my chest. "Look at me, Amara. Focus on my voice."Her eyes flashed between normal and wolf gold, tears running down her face. The moon's power had woken something in her that couldn't be stopped."Make it stop," she gasped, grabbing at me. "Please, Elias."I'd seen many first shifts, but never one so violent. The sound of her bones cracking made me sick. This was my fault. All of it. I should have protected her from the beginning."I've got you," I whispered, wincing as her claws dug into my arms. "Let it happen. Fighting makes it worse."Another spasm rocked through her, and I held her tight, taking her pain into my own body through our bond. It hit me like lightning—memories flashing behind my eyes.Amara, younger, laughing as she ran through a field.M
Celeste's POV The candles around me burst into blue flames, making me stumble backward. My heart raced as the magic mirror on my wall cracked from edge to edge. "No," I whispered, running to the mirror. "It's happening already." The mirror showed me what I feared most—Amara and Elias, their hands joined in blood, the old runes glowing on her skin. They had found each other again, despite everything I had done to keep them apart. I slammed my fist against the wall. All my careful plans, ruined in a single moment. I should have known Marcus couldn't be trusted. Now the Shadow Council would hunt me down too. My cat, Luna, meowed uncomfortably from the corner of my small hideout. I'd been living in this abandoned house since faking my death three months ago. Not even Marcus knew I was living. I liked it that way. "It's okay, Luna," I said, rubbing her black fur. "We still have one more trick up our sleeve." I pulled a wooden box from beneath my bed. Inside was a tube of blood
Celeste's POV"Not when the alternative is death," I shot back. "The Shadow Council would have killed me if I hadn't helped them." Viktor stepped closer. "And now we'll kill you anyway. After you help us contain this abomination." He pointed at Amara, whose runes were glowing brighter. I felt Lilith's grip loosen slightly. It was my only chance. With a quick movement, I twisted away from her knife and threw a blast of magic that sent her flying backward. The hunters rushed forward, but I raised a wall around myself, Amara, and Elias. "Listen to me," I said quickly. "I did terrible things to you both. But I can help you now." "Why should we trust you?" Amara asked, the runes on her skin pulsing with her anger. "Because I know what the prophecy really means," I said. "And it's not what they told you." Elias's eyes narrowed. "What does it mean then?" I took a deep breath. "It means Amara isn't just powerful—she's the key to destroying the Shadow Council forever. That's why they f
POV: Amara KingsI screamed as my father's body went limp in my arms. The world around me blurred with tears."Dad! Dad, please!" I shook him, but his eyes stared blankly at the night sky. "Come back!"Viktor's blade had done its work. My father—the man who had hidden me away for eighteen years, who I'd both hated and loved—was gone."Amara," Elias said softly, putting a hand on my shoulder. "He's gone."I shrugged him off, anger bubbling inside me. "Don't touch me."The Mother stood on the shore now, looking exactly like me except for those terrible black eyes. She held the black stone in her hand, smiling as if my father's death meant nothing."He was weak," she said. "Just a vessel, like your false mother.""Shut up!" I yelled, the blue markings on my skin flaring brighter. "He was my father!""One of your fathers," she corrected. "The human one."Luther approached slowly, his face a mix of fear and wonder. "The prophecy is f
POV: Luna Seraphina WintersPain shot through my chest like a lightning bolt. I dropped the bowl I was holding, and it broke on the stone floor of my secret room. I knew instantly what it meant."Charles," I gasped, grabbing at my heart. "No!"Our mate bond, a link that had lasted for over twenty years, snapped like a thread cut by invisible scissors. The void that followed was so painful I couldn't breathe.He was gone. My mate was dead.I had no time to cry. If Charles was dead, it meant he had found Amara. It meant the Mother had returned. And it meant I had to act now.I stumbled to my feet, still fighting through the pain of the broken tie. With shaky hands, I pulled the loose stone from the wall and took out the small wooden box I'd hidden there eighteen years ago.Inside was a bottle of dark liquid – blood mixed with something else, something that shimmered even in the dim light. Beside it sat a black knife with strange symbols cut i
POV: Alpha Charles WintersI crashed through the trees, my heart beating in my chest. The smell of blood and magic filled the air. She was close. After eighteen years of keeping her secret, of trying to protect her from this very moment, I was too late."Amara!" I yelled, following the blue glow that lit up the night sky like a beacon.My daughter was floating above Silver Lake, ringed by that strange blue fire. The sight made my throat tighten. She looked so much like her mother—not Seraphina, who raised her, but her real mother. The one who came from this very lake eighteen years ago.A werewolf flew through the air, smashing into a tree beside me. It was Dorian Graves, the Alpha who had been hunting my daughter. He snarled, blood dripping from his mouth, and flung himself back toward the lake.I shifted instantly, bones popping as my wolf form took over. I was older now, gray marking my once-black fur, but I was still an Alpha. Still her father.
POV: Celeste MoreauMy scream echoed through the stone walls of my refuge as I fell to my knees. The vision hit me like a punch to the gut—blue fire everywhere, a girl floating in the air, and a woman with eyes as black as night rising from Silver Lake."Mistress!" My trainee Finn rushed to my side, his young face twisted with worry. "What is it? What did you see?"I couldn't speak. My whole body shook as the images burned themselves into my mind: Amara Kings, the girl I'd helped betray, surrounded by blue fire and facing a thing with her own face."It's happening," I whispered, holding the edge of my scrying bowl. The water inside still rippled with the aftershocks of my vision. "The Harbinger has awakened.""The Harbinger?" Finn's eyes widened. "But you said that was just a story to scare little witches."I shook my head, trying to stand. My legs felt like water. "I was wrong. I was wrong about everything."The candles around us flickered
Amara Kings' POV Blue fire shot from my hands, shocking even me. I was floating above everyone, power surging through my blood like lightning. Part of me wanted to scream, but another part—a bigger part—felt alive for the first time. "Amara!" Elias yelled from below. "Fight it! Come back to us!" I could barely hear him through the noise in my ears. The blue marks had spread across my entire body now, burning like ice against my skin. I was becoming something else. Something scary. And I liked it. "She can't hear you," Dorian said, picking himself up from where I had thrown him. Blood dripped from his mouth. "The Harbinger is taking over." I turned my gaze to him—the stranger who had attacked my family, who had planned to sacrifice me to bring back his dead mate. Anger flashed through me, hot and fierce. "I hear everything," I said, my voice echoing weirdly. "I see everything now." With a flick of my wrist, I pinned Dorian again
Alpha Dorian Graves' POV Blood dripped from my claws as I pulled them from the scout's chest. The man had begged for pity, but I had none left to give. Not after losing Leila. "He talked," said Kira, my Beta, wiping her knife clean. "They're hiding in caves near the eastern shore of Silver Lake." Finally. After weeks of looking, I had found Amara Kings. The girl who could bring my mate back from death. "How many with her?" I asked, stepping over the body. "At least six. Her parents, the Artemis Alpha, a healer, and someone our scout didn't recognize." I nodded to the twelve warriors waiting quietly behind us. They were all that left of my once-mighty pack, each personally trained by me. Each with their own reason to hate the Artemis Pack. "Remember," I told them, "we need the girl alive and unharmed. Kill the others if you must, but Amara Kings is mine." We moved through the forest like shadows, the smell of rain masking our appro
Lyra Sinclair's POV I yanked my hand back from Amara's skin, the shock of energy burning my fingers. The sparkling blue marks on her arms pulsed brighter, like heartbeats beneath her skin. "What happened?" Amara asked, her wide eyes fixed on my face. I tried to calm my rushing heart. After years of looking for someone like her, the truth was both thrilling and terrifying. "Your markings," I whispered, "they're not just Starborn symbols. There's something else mixed in." We were hiding in a small cave near Silver Lake. Outside, rain pounded the ground as if trying to wash away our tracks. Elias and Charles stood guard at the door while Amara's mother slept fitfully nearby. I opened my worn leather bag and pulled out my grandmother's notebook. The pages were yellow with age, but the drawings inside fit what was happening on Amara's skin. "Look," I said, pointing to a sketch of entwined symbols. "These markings appeared on a girl two hundr
Viktor Beaumont's POV The guard's neck snapped under my hands. I dropped his body quietly to the ground, wiping blood from my mouth. Five years in exile had made me fiercer, not weaker. I moved through the shadows of the Artemis Pack area. Once, I had ruled here. Now I was sneaking back like a thief. My nephew Elias had no idea I was coming. No idea that everything—Kamla's death, Amara's abuse, the attack on the cabin—was part of a bigger plan. A plan I had tried to stop years ago. "You shouldn't be here," a voice hissed from behind me. I spun around, claws extending. Marcus Hale, my nephew's Beta, stood with his hands raised. "Going to sound the alarm, Marcus?" I asked, ready to quiet him if needed. "If I wanted to, I would have already." His eyes darted around nervously. "You need to leave. Ingrid has tripled security since Elias left to find Amara." I smiled coldly. "Ingrid is exactly who I came to see." Marcus grabbed m
Amara Kings' POVI woke up gasping for air, my body burning from the inside out. The mate bond flared like flames in my chest, pulling me toward Elias even as he slept across the room."Easy," my mother whispered, pressing a cool cloth to my face. "The bond is strengthening. Fight through it."We'd taken shelter in an old cabin after fleeing from Luther. My father was still weak from his wounds. Elias had fallen into exhausted sleep. And I was burning alive with need for my mate."It hurts," I whispered, rolling into a ball. "Why now?""The Blood Moon approaches," Mom explained. "It amplifies everything—especially mate bonds."I forced myself to sit up, sweat dripping down my face. Across the room, Elias stirred in his sleep, reacting to my discomfort."I feel him," I said, putting a hand to my chest. "Not just emotions anymore. His thoughts. His dreams."Mom nodded. "That's rare, even for true mates. Your healing abilities are affectin