Elara’s POVAndrew circled me, his movements slow, measured. His eyes tracked every shift of my stance, every twitch of my fingers. I know what he’s doing—waiting for me to strike first.I didn’t.Instead, I watch him right back, breathing steady, legs bent, weight balanced. The air between us humed with tension. It was always like this when we sparred—like the world narrowed down to just him and me, two forces testing the limits of what we can do.Ever since the day he saved me from turning into a monster, I've noticed that I was far better than I ever was.We never stopped training. And as we trained, I soaked up everything, becoming more and more the fighter I wanted to be If Deveruid or whoever Dorian sends again tries to kidnap me, they will be in for a shock. I was the same person they met earlier.I’m stronger now. Faster. The mark on my skin has changed something inside me, even though I still don’t understand how deep that change ran. But I felt it—power coiled beneath my sk
Andrew’s POVThe tension in the air was tight and suffocating. Everybody seemed to know about the upcoming Blood Moon.Even the kids that were known for mischief had all sombered up and we're now helping in anyway they could.Outside, the pack was preparing—training, sharpening weapons, reinforcing the borders. The warriors knew what was coming. The Blood Moon was only days away, and with it, Dorian’s inevitable attack.I watched from my office window as warriors sparred in the clearing, their movements sharp, disciplined. Even the younger wolves were being taught basic defense, just in case. No one would be spared if we lost this war.No one.Knowing who Dorian was, he would try to exterminate anyone that poses a threat against him or his rule. Including kids.Elara was out there too.I caught a glimpse of her as she dodged a strike from Lora, her body moving like liquid fire. She had changed—stronger, faster. But the mark on her arm was a constant reminder that darkness had once tri
Elara’s POVSomething was wrong.The moment I stepped into Andrew’s office, my entire body tensed. My gut twisted, that familiar, unshakable feeling of dread creeping up my spine. I had learned to trust that feeling.Ever since I was able to overcome the voice that was determined to push me down the dark path, being in tune with my instincts have been second nature to me.Just then, a knock came on the door. I paused wondering who it could be. “We're you expecting anyone?”“No.” Andrew replied. “But I could ask them to leave if you aren't comfortable with anyone.”I shook my head. “No, that won't be necessary.” I don't know who could be at the other end of the door. I can't allow whatever is bothering me to stop Andrew from carrying out his duties.Just then, the door was pushed open. “Hey what's keeping you guys. Someone from another pack is here to see you.”“What does he want?” Andrew asked.“He won't say. He said he wanted to speak to you in person.”“Where's this person anyway?”
Elara’s POVThe second Andrew’s fingers broke the seal on the letter, something shifted in the air.I felt right in my soul. My wolf was at antsy. She felt it too.It wasn’t obvious—not to anyone else—but I felt it like a cold breath against my skin. His aura, usually steady and commanding, flickered. Just for a second. But it was enough.As I stared at Andrew, I tried to figure out what exactly had happened to him after he took the letter.I sucked in a breath, my pulse pounding. “Andrew,” I said sharply. Trying to stop him from going any further.He didn’t react, only unfolded the letter and scanned its contents. It was if he didn't feel whatever just happened but I knew he did. I saw him flinch. His face remained unreadable, but I caught the slightest tension in his jaw.Michael and Lora exchanged glances, both of them clearly uneasy but they didn't say a word.I stepped closer. “Andrew,” I said again, lower this time. “Are you okay?”I stared at him but he failed to hold my gaze.
Elara’s POVThe sound outside wasn’t normal.Normally if someone was moving about by this time, their movements were usually loud no matter how they tried to control their movements.It was too soft, too precise—like someone moving with intent. Someone trained in the art of sneaking around. A predator. But they didn't account for someone like me.My body reacted before my mind could catch up. I bolted out of bed, my claws extending instinctively, my breath shallow but controlled. My pulse hammered in my ears, but I forced myself to focus.I couldn't afford to be out of control in this moment. I needed to be very careful with whatever I was about to get myself into.Something was wrong. I could feel it deep in my bones, the same way I’d felt it when Andrew touched that cursed letter.I shoved my feet into my boots, grabbed the dagger under my pillow, and threw open my door. The hall was eerily quiet, but the air was thick with tension.Then I caught the scent—foreign, laced with somet
Elara’s POVAs if on cue, the shadows moved.Then the others appeared. It was shocking watching how people moved through the darkness.Dark figures spilled into the room, moving with deadly precision, with one target in mind. To get us killed if possible but the one they were obviously after was Andrew. There were too many of them, more than we had expected. It was obviously a trap. This was the bad feeling I had.It was coming to pass.We had been waiting for an attack, but not like this—not so deep inside our territory. They had bypassed the guards, and slipped through unseen.How?It was obvious there was someone working for them within our ranks, but who could it be? And why will they do such a thing?I needed answers but there was no need to be told that none was coming anytime soon. This was going to be a long night.No matter how much I wanted to get this over with, there was no telling when it was going to be over.My only hope is that we don't end up with more casualties tha
Andrew's POVThe moment Van Stone stepped forward, I knew we were in trouble. He was the kind of trouble that I liked to avoid unless I had no option.He moved with the kind of ease that only came with years of calculated violence—each step controlled, measured, like a predator that had already decided how this fight would end.And I wouldn't be surprised if he already did. But I was an alpha after all and he was a beta. No matter how strong he was I would always be a league above him.My grip tightened around my sword, but even that simple movement felt heavier than it should. The rune’s poison was still in my system, dulling my strength, slowing me down. I could hide it from the others, but against Van? He would notice. He already had.I'm sure he had a hand in it. To soften me up before the kill. Well bad news for him, because I'm not that easy to kill.His smirk deepened, eyes gleaming with something dangerously close to amusement. “You look unwell, Andrew.”My very thoughts. Any
Andrew's POVThe moment Van disappeared into the shadows, it seemed as if the chaos was over.The whole place that was like a war zone all at once became quiet. Too quiet.I felt it immediately—something was off.The assassins who had been pressing in, determined, unstoppable and precise, suddenly became docile. Their strikes lost their killing intent, movements no longer aiming to kill us but to get enough breathing space to escape.Then, without warning, they withdrew, all at once. One by one, they melted into the darkness, slipping out of the broken windows and doorway, vanishing as if they had never been there at all.I wanted to give chase and make sure everyone of the bastards were dead but I couldn't. I felt too weak to hold myself up.My blade was still raised. My body, still tense. My breaths came in ragged gasps, the poison twisting in my veins, turning my limbs heavy.Ever since I touched that letter given to me I haven't been myself. It still bugged me how my room came und
Elara's POVThe scream that tore from my throat didn’t feel like mine.It came from somewhere deeper—bone-deep, soul-deep. My back arched against the pulsing altar, and the red light crashing down from the Blood Moon carved through me like I was paper. Everything inside me felt like it was breaking apart. Shattered pieces of a girl who used to be Elara.Then I heard him."Elara!" Andrew’s voice cut through the chaos.I clung to it.The pain was still there, like I was being ripped from the inside out, but I clung to the sound of him. It grounded me. Reminded me of who I was. Of the nights we used to spend togetger as a couple. As mates. Of the way he whispered my name when no one else was listening.I blinked through the red haze and found him kneeling beside me, hands cupping my face. His eyes wide. Terrified. His thumb brushed the tears off my cheeks, and I leaned into the touch like it was the only thing keeping me alive."You’re still here," I choked out."I’m not going anywher
Andrew’s POVThe world went quiet.It shouldn’t have. There was chanting all around me, the sky roaring with thunder, cultists pacing like wolves ready to tear the altar apart. But all I could hear was the sound of her heart breaking.Elara’s eyes were locked on me—pleading, desperate, furious.And I’d faltered.Fates, I’d faltered.The girl beside her—the replacement—was glowing now. Not metaphorically. Literally. The altar pulsed under her knees, and I could feel the magic reaching for her like it had once reached for Elara.This was the moment.One path ended in her survival. The other? Salvation for the rest of the world.I didn’t move.My chest felt like it was splitting in half. The prophecy I didn't know much about seemed not to care who she was. It just needed a vessel. And now it had one.But she wasn’t Elara.“You said you loved her,” Michael’s voice tore through the tension, sharp and shaking. “So act like it.”I blinked.“She’s dying,” Dorian said again from behind me. Cal
Elara’s POVI couldn’t feel my hands.Not because of the chains—they’d long since numbed my wrists. It wasn’t even the dark magic humming through the stone under me, or the pulsing weight of that fake moon bleeding into the sky.It was the woman.Her.The one Dorian dragged in like an offering. The one who looked like me. I didn't know how he managed to do something this sick all on his own but it had my hackles rising.She stumbled, dirt in her hair, blood down one arm. Her eyes met mine—and I saw myself.I froze.My mouth went dry.No.No, no, no. I have to get to the bottom of this.“What is this?” I croaked. My voice was rough, scraped raw from screaming earlier. “Who is she?”Dorian smiled, cold and smooth. “Insurance,” he said. “A vessel the altar will accept willingly.”“She’s not me.” I pointed out trying to figure out exactly was going on.“She’s enough,” he said. “The Blood Moon doesn’t care for names. Only bloodlines. Only sacrifice.”Behind him, Harrow stood silent, arms f
Michael’s POVI’d seen hell before.I’d seen blood-soaked battlefields, the ruins of old packs cursed by forgotten gods, and the aftermath of hunts gone sideways. But nothing—nothing—prepared me for the madness that unfolded once Elara vanished into the altar.One second she was there, blood burning on the stones. The next, the ground split and swallowed her like she’d never existed. Andrew dove after her, but the crack sealed fast—too fast.We stood frozen. Just for a beat.Then the sky changed.A deep rumble rolled across the clouds—slow and hungry. The black above us began to shift, bruising over with a sickly red hue. The true Blood Moon was still weeks off, but what rose above the mountain now? That was no moon. That was an imitation. Something summoned.Kieran raised his hands, shouting incantations in a language I’d only ever know can be found in hidden scrolls and dark books.The cultists around him echoed the words. Voices rising, and twisting like one. If it wasn't for sac
Andrew’s POVI didn’t look at Elara. Not when I heard Kieran say it. Not when that thing that looked like her stepped into the firelight with dead eyes and a mocking smile.Because if I looked at her right then, I might’ve lost the control I’d been holding onto since we stepped into this cursed clearing. And right now, she needed me steady. Not broken.The Gatekeeper. That’s what he called it.But that wasn't Elara—not really. It was a lie dressed in her skin. Some unholy mimic summoned to rattle us before the real bloodbath began.Greg cursed softly behind me, low and venomous.“We need to move,” he muttered. “Now. They’re baiting us.”Kieran was already turning, robes sweeping the earth as he walked back toward the rise of the altar behind him. “Follow,” he called. “Or run. The outcome doesn’t change.”He was right. If we decided to back down, it won't change anything. His men will give chase and he could use some other means to capture Elara.I didn't want to be away from her.I st
Elara’s POVAfter what happened in tombs, Andrew and I managed to escape that place and made it back to our friends.“Are you ok?” The words hadn’t even fully left Andrew’s mouth when a message hit me. Not through the air, not by any messenger, but inside my head, cold and direct.“Join us willingly, and we’ll spare the rest of your pack.”Kieran.I stood frozen in the middle of the shattered cemetery, my boots soaked from the broken ground that still bled magic. Smoke curled in lazy spirals from the scorched edges of the broken seal behind us. The earth trembled, subtle but steady, like it was breathing beneath our feet.I didn’t move. I didn’t speak.Andrew’s hand brushed mine. “What is it?”I met his eyes, hating what I was about to say. “It was Kieran. He’s offering a deal.”Michael spun around from where he was guarding the broken archway behind us. “What kind of deal?”Greg, who hadn’t spoken since we’d forced the cultists back into the tunnels, just narrowed his eyes. I didn’
Andrew's POVElara stood over the cracked floor, her hands still faintly glowing from the power she’d just unleashed as she tried to protect us. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She looked like something ancient and untouchable—not terrifying, not to me, but looked different. Changed.The seal beneath the cemetery groaned again, a deep pulse rattling up through my boots and into my spine.“We need to move,” I said, my voice low. “That crack wasn’t the end of it.”Elara didn’t answer. Her breath came in short bursts, her eyes fixed on the broken seal. By now, the spirits had disappeared.I touched her shoulder. “Hey.”She blinked. Looked at me. And for a second, I thought she might fall apart.“It spoke to me,” she whispered. “The seal. Or something beneath it. I felt it looking back at me.”I wanted to lie, tell her it was her imagination. But the air was charged, too still. The kind of still that comes before a storm tears the sky in half.Then, from the tree line, came the low soun
Elara’s POVI stared at the burning door like it was about to swallow me whole. My name—Elara—etched in glowing runes I didn’t recognize but somehow understood. The heat pouring off it wasn’t real heat. It was something else. Energy. Memory. Grief.Andrew’s hand was tight around mine, grounding me. His voice broke through the thrum in my head. “Elara… talk to me. What the hell is happening?”I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.Because I didn’t know.Something inside me did, but I didn’t.The spirits hovered behind us, still chanting. Their words no longer sounded threatening. They were mournful, like an old lullaby twisted by time. One of them stepped forward again—the female with hollow eyes.“You’ve returned,” she said softly. “The Gatekeeper walks again.”I blinked, throat dry. “But—”“You carry her blood,” she said. “That’s enough.”Andrew moved in front of me. “We didn’t come to unlock anything. We came to destroy that stone.”The spirit tilted her head, floating closer. “A
Andrew’s POVThe cemetery was too quiet. Even the birds had stopped singing.I stood at the edge of the wrought iron gate, my hand resting on the cold metal. The paint had long chipped away, leaving behind rust and claw marks. How did this happen? I wondered tracing the mark.Behind me, Elara’s breath hitched, and I turned just enough to catch the flicker of fear in her eyes.“I’m ready,” she whispered.I wasn’t sure she was. I wasn’t sure I was. But I nodded anyway, stepped aside, and let her pass through first.Michael grunted something under his breath, the kind of grumble meant to be heard. Greg followed, silent and sharp-eyed. Lora pulled her coat tighter, flipping through the notes she’d scribbled down from the old texts.This place had been hallowed ground once. Before the cult got their claws in. Before the spirits began to whisper from beneath the soil.We weren’t just walking into a cemetery—we were stepping into the belly of a trap.“Elara and I go first,” I said, stoppin