MasukZane's Point Of ViewThere was everything. Roast fowl swimming in a thick, golden honey glaze, warm berry tarts that didn't have a single dark edge on the crust, cold goat's milk in a sweating pitcher, fresh-squeezed citrus juice that smelled like the southern orchards, and three different baskets of sliced winter melons, apples, and sweet figs. The whole tray gave off a warm, sugary smell that made my stomach growl embarrassingly loud, betraying just how empty three days of sleep had left me. "Eat," Ronan said, his voice flat and unyielding as he lifted the heavy tray and plopped it right across my lap, nearly pinning my knees to the mattress. "Are you insane?" I laughed, a short, sharp bark that made my chest hum with that new golden current. "There's enough food here to feed the entire third squad after a border run. Look at this juice. It's still cold. You actually had them carry ice up from the lower cellars for this?" "I told the cook if the bread was stale or the meat was dr
Zane's Point Of View"I'll be waiting for you," her voice whispered. It didn't sound like it was in my head anymore. It was just an echo fading out in the dark, dissolving like smoke caught in a draft. Then everything snapped. The heavy, dead weight in my eyelids was gone. I blinked, the dim torchlight of the infirmary room hitting my face like a slap. The ceiling was made of those same rough, grey stones I'd been staring at for months, and for a moment I almost expected to still be trapped in that strange, floating place between sleep and death. "Zane?" A shadow moved fast from the side of the bed. It didn't just move - it lunged. Before I could even clear the dry spit from my throat, a massive weight slammed straight into my chest. Two arms wrapped around my neck so tight my jaw clicked. "Zane! Gods, you're awake! You're actually breathing!" Ronan's voice cracked, rough and unraveling at the edges, and he shook like a leaf in a windstorm. His face pressed hard into the crook o
Zane's Point Of ViewMy knees didn't want to straighten. The back of my neck was still sweating from that memory… from watching her skull split on the rocks and hearing my father curse the rain. The image wouldn't let go of me, even here. "Get up," she said. Her voice didn't have that soft, nursery rhythm anymore. It was flat. Like a stone hitting a frozen pond. "We don't have time for you to sit there and cry about the past, Zane. Your core is a total mess. It looks like a cracked glass bottle held together with old string. If you go back into your body like this, the next minor Sigen grunt you meet will turn you into grease." I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, leaving a smear of dirt and spit on my knuckles. "Brutal. Thanks, Mom. Really loving the family reunion so far." "You want nice, go back to the Alpha Prince and let him feed you burnt tarts," she shot back, her green eyes narrowing as she stepped right into my space. She didn't look like a ghost anymore. She looked l
Zane's Point Of ViewThe dark lasted forever. When Livia finally opened her eyes, she wasn't dead, but she wished she was. Everything hurt. Her skull felt like it had been split open with a wood-ax, and the damp smell of mud and rotting leaves pressed right into her face, thick enough to choke on. She couldn't move. Her wolf was dead silent inside her, wrapped in ice, and the silence terrified her more than the pain did. "Hey. Stay still." A hand touched her shoulder. Not a Sigen hand. It was too warm, too heavy, rough with calluses that spoke of years of labor rather than years of court. She flinched, trying to pull a knife that wasn't there, her breath cutting off in a sharp gasp. "I don't bite," the voice said, calm and grounded, a man's voice dropping down from somewhere above her in the dim light. "You took a massive hit to the head. Honestly, I'm surprised you're even breathing. Drink this." A wooden cup pressed against her split lip. The water tasted like limestone and mo
Zane's Point Of ViewMy nose was buried in the collar of her linen dress. I breathed in hard, my ribs aching from the pressure. She felt solid. Heavy. Real. Her fingers dug right into the leather of my vest, twisting the laces, gripping me like I'd slide off a cliff if she let go. I could feel her heartbeat hammering against my chest, too fast, like she was still afraid I might vanish if she loosened her grip even a little. "I only saw you when you were a baby, Zane," she whispered against my ear. She pulled back just an inch, her palms slapping flat against my cheeks. Her thumbs swiped at the tears stinging my eyes. "The day I gave birth to you. That was the last time I held your feet. You had this tiny tuft of black hair right at the crown, and your ears... they kept twitching every time the nurse moved the water basin." "Why did you leave me?" The words jumped out before I could block them. I sounded like a stupid kid. Like the seven-year-old who used to sit on the borderlands b
Zane's Point Of ViewThe voices didn't start all at once. They came in these weird, thin pieces, like someone was trying to whisper through a thick wool blanket from three rooms away. I could hear the scraping sound of stone against stone, and then a heavy mumble that rose and fell, but I couldn't tell where the hell the sound was coming from. It wasn't coming from the left. It wasn't coming from the right. It was just... everywhere, bouncing around inside my skull like a marble in an empty tin can. But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that I couldn't open my eyes. I wanted to… gods, I wanted to so bad my throat felt tight, but my eyelids felt like someone had poured molten lead over them and let it freeze into solid rock. I tried to twitch my toes just to see if they were still attached to my legs, but my whole body felt like a log that had been sitting at the bottom of a river for fifty years. Heavy. Waterlogged. Stuck.I tried again anyway, straining until a d
Zane's Point Of View“Shut up!!!!”Her scream didn’t stop. It fractured, splintered into something ugly and unhinged.“You don’t know anything!” Celia shrieked, her voice cracking as she stalked closer again. “You don’t know anything about him... about desire, about love, about what it means to be
Zane's Point Of View"I’m not going to go easy on you, mate," he hissed, his voice a dark promise, his hips already rolling upward, fucking into me with long, deep strokes.And fuck... I never wanted him to stop.Ronan’s grip on my hips was bruising, his fingers digging into my skin as he slammed i
Zane's Point Of ViewThe air between us was thick with heat, the kind that made my skin prickle and my breath come in short, ragged gasps. Ronan’s body was pressed against mine, his weight delicious, his touch electric... everywhere at once, like he was trying to memorize me with his hands, his mou
Ronan's Point Of ViewI turned my back on Miles without another word, leaving him standing there in the moonlight, his breath uneven, his pride bruised. The forest swallowed me whole as I strode away, the shadows wrapping around me like a second skin. My wolf paced restlessly beneath my ribs, snarl







