Elowen's POVWarmth.I woke to it—not just from the soft morning light spilling through the windows or the thick blankets tucked around me, but from the steady presence beside me.Alaric.He was still here, sitting on the edge of the bed, one hand entwined with mine. He hadn’t let go all night.His thumb stroked the back of my hand absentmindedly, his eyes focused out the window. I studied the sharp line of his jaw, the small crease in his brow, the faint stubble that had grown overnight.He looked tired. But he also looked peaceful.I shifted slightly, and his gaze snapped to mine instantly.“El,” he said softly, his voice still hoarse with sleep, but there was a smile in his eyes.“Morning,” I whispered.He leaned forward, brushing his lips gently across my forehead. “How do you feel?”“Like I got trampled by a herd of wolves,” I said with a dry laugh. “But… better.”Alaric chuckled quietly, relief flashing across his face. “You scared me half to death, you know that?”“You and the
Elowen's POV Ranon didn’t move immediately after making his declaration.His arm was still gently looped around my waist, his chest rising and falling with quiet intensity, like he was holding back every raging emotion inside him. I could feel the heat of his skin, the subtle tremble in his fingers. He had just said all of that—to everyone—and still stood tall, unwavering.But as the whispers grew fainter and the students slowly began to disperse, the only sound I could hear was the thunder of my own heartbeat.“Come with me,” Ranon said softly, his lips brushing the edge of my ear.I nodded, barely able to find my voice.He led me away from the garden path, around the back of the Academy grounds, through the small gates that led to the older training fields. The moon cast a pale silver glow over the grass, and the quiet hum of crickets filled the night air.We stopped near the edge of the field, where the trees started. The shadows danced across his face, but even in the dim light,
Elowen’s POVThe whispers hadn’t stopped since the kiss.I could still feel Ranon’s lips against mine, still see the stunned expressions on the faces around us as he kissed me in the courtyard—bold, public, possessive. I wasn’t just the girl recovering from a brutal battle anymore.I was the girl claimed by the Alphas.And now, I was also the girl everyone whispered about.Whispers always grow louder when power is involved.I had just begun adjusting to this new rhythm of life at the Academy. Every hallway I walked down came with stares, tension—envy. The triplets barely left my side anymore. Ranon was the most obvious, his touches lingering longer than before, his eyes burning with unspoken promises. Alaric became sharper, his words edged with something protective and territorial. Theron… watched. Quietly. Intently. As though he knew something none of the others did.And then… he arrived.The great hall was unusually packed for a midday assembly. The hum of conversation buzzed with c
Elowen’s POVRanon didn’t let go of me for a long time.We stood beneath the moonlight, the soft hush of night surrounding us, his arms around my waist like he could shield me from whatever threat Caelum represented.But no embrace, no wall of muscle and fury, could quiet the fire building beneath my skin. Not this time.“I don’t trust him,” Ranon said, voice low and dangerous, his chin resting against the crown of my head. “Not with that power. Not with those eyes. And especially not with you.”“I don’t either,” I whispered. “But he knows something. Something about me. About my bloodline.”He pulled back just enough to look at me. “Elowen, don’t chase answers from someone who sees you as a weapon.”“He doesn’t see me as a weapon,” I murmured. “He sees me as a queen who doesn’t know she’s already wearing a crown.”Ranon’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing like the words had cut deeper than they should’ve. “You’re ours, Elowen. Not his. Don’t let him twist what we’ve built.”“I’m not le
Elowen’s POVThe evening air was heavy with the scent of pine and smoke. The training grounds were mostly deserted, cloaked in twilight shadows. The Academy behind me buzzed faintly with life—distant voices, laughter, doors creaking open and closed—but out here, it was still.I didn’t mean to come here. Not really. But my feet had carried me toward the old sparring arena. The place where Ranon had first kissed me. Where so much had begun to shift.Where I was beginning to shift.I stood in the middle of the stone circle, the moonlight silvering my skin, when I heard the footsteps.Slow. Confident.I turned before he could speak.“Didn’t expect you to be the kind who lurks in shadows,” I said.Caelum stepped into the light, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. “And yet here we are.”He wore black again, always black. A dark shirt unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves rolled up to his forearms. A sword hilt peeked over his shoulder—ornate, ancient, wickedly curved.He looked like sin incarn
Elowen’s POVThe next morning training courtyard buzzed with energy, but beneath it all, I felt a tension inside me like a bowstring pulled too tight.Theron’s words from last night still clung to me: I believe you.And yet, I woke up this morning feeling heavier. Like I was wearing a second skin made of doubt, stitched from every look, every whispered word behind my back, every way I had to hold myself together when I really just wanted to fall apart.I joined the others late.Alaric was already sparring with two older students in one of the inner rings, and Ranon stood by the weapons rack, hands gripping the hilt of a training sword too tightly. He hadn’t looked at me since Caelum’s arrival.Because he doesn’t trust me… or because he knows he’s starting to doubt himself?Caelum stood at the edge of the field, watching everything like it was a chessboard, his golden eyes a constant, quiet burn on the back of my neck.The Academy had given him instructor privileges. Of course they had
Elowen’s POVI didn’t sleep. Not really.After the bathroom, after Alaric’s kiss, I’d sat on the edge of my bed for hours, staring at the wall, his words echoing like a heartbeat in my head. You’re Elowen. Ours.A part of me had wanted to curl back into that warmth and never leave. To let Alaric hold me until the fear faded, until the world forgot.But I couldn’t hide.Not when I’d been seen.Not when my power—that part of me I never understood, never controlled—had surged out and made the whole Academy flinch.So when the sun rose and the corridors filled with the noise of footsteps and hushed whispers, I got up. Dressed. Pulled my hair back.And walked straight into the storm.The cafeteria went silent the second I entered.Utensils froze halfway to mouths. Students glanced at one another, nudging their friends, pretending they weren’t all watching me like I’d walked in wearing armor and a crown of fire.I didn’t stop.I headed toward the table near the windows where Ranon sat, his
Elowen’s POVThe silence in the Academy was a suffocating blanket, heavy with unspoken truths and the tremor of impending change. It wasn’t the peaceful hush of a sleeping forest, but the strained stillness before a lightning strike, the air thick with a tension that prickled my skin.Since Caelum’s pronouncements had shattered the carefully constructed reality I’d known, I felt like a fractured mirror, each shard reflecting a distorted version of myself. Something primal had awakened within me, a dormant power stirring from its ancient slumber. It pulsed beneath my veins, a low, insistent hum that vibrated through my bones, a wild and untamed thing that both terrified and intrigued me.The following morning was a blur of avoidance. I skirted the familiar paths where I might encounter Theron’s simmering fury, Alaric’s quiet concern, or even Ranon’s possessive gaze. Their worry would feel like a cage, their need to protect me a suffocating weight. I wasn’t ready to be handled, to be s
Ranon’s POVShe was really slipping away. The realization was a slow, agonizing unraveling, like a precious tapestry being pulled thread by thread. It wasn’t a conscious decision on her part, not a deliberate act of distancing. Elowen’s heart, when given, was a fierce, unwavering thing. There were no lukewarm affections in her soul. This was something more profound, more elemental. Like a fragile skiff caught in the relentless pull of an unseen current, drawn towards a distant, powerful shore I couldn’t even glimpse. It was as if a stronger moon had begun to govern her tides, an astral influence I was powerless to counteract.Every time she walked past me in the Academy halls, her very presence thrumming with a nascent magic that shimmered just beneath her skin, a faint, ethereal glow that seemed to emanate from her very bones, I felt it. It was a subtle shift in her aura, a deepening of the shadows that lingered in the depths of her usually vibrant eyes, a quiet intensity that separa
Ranon’s POVFrom the shadowed vantage point of the balcony overlooking the training pit, I watched her move. She was a whirlwind of raw power, a dance of untamed energy that both captivated and terrified me. Each strike, each parry, was imbued with a ferocity I hadn’t seen before, a primal strength that seemed to emanate from the very core of her being.Elowen was changing, evolving into something magnificent and terrifying. The girl I had known, the one I had fiercely protected and possessively loved, was fading, replaced by a force of nature I barely recognized. She was shedding the constraints of her past, breaking free from the mold we had unknowingly cast for her.And with every passing day, with every flicker of that burgeoning power in her eyes, I felt her slipping further and further out of my reach. The invisible thread that had bound us together for so long was fraying, threatening to snap entirely.Alaric was a constant presence at her side now, a silent guardian and patien
Elowen’s POVThe silence in the Academy was a suffocating blanket, heavy with unspoken truths and the tremor of impending change. It wasn’t the peaceful hush of a sleeping forest, but the strained stillness before a lightning strike, the air thick with a tension that prickled my skin.Since Caelum’s pronouncements had shattered the carefully constructed reality I’d known, I felt like a fractured mirror, each shard reflecting a distorted version of myself. Something primal had awakened within me, a dormant power stirring from its ancient slumber. It pulsed beneath my veins, a low, insistent hum that vibrated through my bones, a wild and untamed thing that both terrified and intrigued me.The following morning was a blur of avoidance. I skirted the familiar paths where I might encounter Theron’s simmering fury, Alaric’s quiet concern, or even Ranon’s possessive gaze. Their worry would feel like a cage, their need to protect me a suffocating weight. I wasn’t ready to be handled, to be s
Elowen’s POVI didn’t sleep. Not really.After the bathroom, after Alaric’s kiss, I’d sat on the edge of my bed for hours, staring at the wall, his words echoing like a heartbeat in my head. You’re Elowen. Ours.A part of me had wanted to curl back into that warmth and never leave. To let Alaric hold me until the fear faded, until the world forgot.But I couldn’t hide.Not when I’d been seen.Not when my power—that part of me I never understood, never controlled—had surged out and made the whole Academy flinch.So when the sun rose and the corridors filled with the noise of footsteps and hushed whispers, I got up. Dressed. Pulled my hair back.And walked straight into the storm.The cafeteria went silent the second I entered.Utensils froze halfway to mouths. Students glanced at one another, nudging their friends, pretending they weren’t all watching me like I’d walked in wearing armor and a crown of fire.I didn’t stop.I headed toward the table near the windows where Ranon sat, his
Elowen’s POVThe next morning training courtyard buzzed with energy, but beneath it all, I felt a tension inside me like a bowstring pulled too tight.Theron’s words from last night still clung to me: I believe you.And yet, I woke up this morning feeling heavier. Like I was wearing a second skin made of doubt, stitched from every look, every whispered word behind my back, every way I had to hold myself together when I really just wanted to fall apart.I joined the others late.Alaric was already sparring with two older students in one of the inner rings, and Ranon stood by the weapons rack, hands gripping the hilt of a training sword too tightly. He hadn’t looked at me since Caelum’s arrival.Because he doesn’t trust me… or because he knows he’s starting to doubt himself?Caelum stood at the edge of the field, watching everything like it was a chessboard, his golden eyes a constant, quiet burn on the back of my neck.The Academy had given him instructor privileges. Of course they had
Elowen’s POVThe evening air was heavy with the scent of pine and smoke. The training grounds were mostly deserted, cloaked in twilight shadows. The Academy behind me buzzed faintly with life—distant voices, laughter, doors creaking open and closed—but out here, it was still.I didn’t mean to come here. Not really. But my feet had carried me toward the old sparring arena. The place where Ranon had first kissed me. Where so much had begun to shift.Where I was beginning to shift.I stood in the middle of the stone circle, the moonlight silvering my skin, when I heard the footsteps.Slow. Confident.I turned before he could speak.“Didn’t expect you to be the kind who lurks in shadows,” I said.Caelum stepped into the light, golden eyes gleaming with amusement. “And yet here we are.”He wore black again, always black. A dark shirt unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves rolled up to his forearms. A sword hilt peeked over his shoulder—ornate, ancient, wickedly curved.He looked like sin incarn
Elowen’s POVRanon didn’t let go of me for a long time.We stood beneath the moonlight, the soft hush of night surrounding us, his arms around my waist like he could shield me from whatever threat Caelum represented.But no embrace, no wall of muscle and fury, could quiet the fire building beneath my skin. Not this time.“I don’t trust him,” Ranon said, voice low and dangerous, his chin resting against the crown of my head. “Not with that power. Not with those eyes. And especially not with you.”“I don’t either,” I whispered. “But he knows something. Something about me. About my bloodline.”He pulled back just enough to look at me. “Elowen, don’t chase answers from someone who sees you as a weapon.”“He doesn’t see me as a weapon,” I murmured. “He sees me as a queen who doesn’t know she’s already wearing a crown.”Ranon’s jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing like the words had cut deeper than they should’ve. “You’re ours, Elowen. Not his. Don’t let him twist what we’ve built.”“I’m not le
Elowen’s POVThe whispers hadn’t stopped since the kiss.I could still feel Ranon’s lips against mine, still see the stunned expressions on the faces around us as he kissed me in the courtyard—bold, public, possessive. I wasn’t just the girl recovering from a brutal battle anymore.I was the girl claimed by the Alphas.And now, I was also the girl everyone whispered about.Whispers always grow louder when power is involved.I had just begun adjusting to this new rhythm of life at the Academy. Every hallway I walked down came with stares, tension—envy. The triplets barely left my side anymore. Ranon was the most obvious, his touches lingering longer than before, his eyes burning with unspoken promises. Alaric became sharper, his words edged with something protective and territorial. Theron… watched. Quietly. Intently. As though he knew something none of the others did.And then… he arrived.The great hall was unusually packed for a midday assembly. The hum of conversation buzzed with c
Elowen's POV Ranon didn’t move immediately after making his declaration.His arm was still gently looped around my waist, his chest rising and falling with quiet intensity, like he was holding back every raging emotion inside him. I could feel the heat of his skin, the subtle tremble in his fingers. He had just said all of that—to everyone—and still stood tall, unwavering.But as the whispers grew fainter and the students slowly began to disperse, the only sound I could hear was the thunder of my own heartbeat.“Come with me,” Ranon said softly, his lips brushing the edge of my ear.I nodded, barely able to find my voice.He led me away from the garden path, around the back of the Academy grounds, through the small gates that led to the older training fields. The moon cast a pale silver glow over the grass, and the quiet hum of crickets filled the night air.We stopped near the edge of the field, where the trees started. The shadows danced across his face, but even in the dim light,