LOGINDuncan led the strike team through the narrow stone pipe of the drainage, his hand gripping his iron blade so tightly his knuckles turned white. Up ahead, the faint sound of rhythmic, deep chanting began to echo through the iron grates."We are directly beneath the altar room," Oscar whispered, his blue eyes scanning the shadows above. He wiped a streak of dark grease from his cheek. "The air is thick with shadow magic. My skin is crawling.""Zach, Heidi, stay behind Remus," Duncan ordered softly. He looked up at the rusted iron grate built into the ceiling. "This is it."With a sudden burst of desperation, Remus and Oscar slammed their shoulders into the heavy iron grate. The rusted bolts snapped with a sharp crack, and the metal panel slammed onto the obsidian floor above. One by one, the suicide squad hauled themselves up into the dark heart of the castle.The main altar room was terrifyingly massive. The walls were made of smooth, polished volcanic glass that reflected the toxic
Katherine the Wraith stood twenty feet away, her tattered white dress swaying in a wind that no one else could feel. Her ink-black eyes stared directly at Zach and Heidi, her smoky talons twitching with an unnatural hunger.Duncan did not move. He kept his iron hunting knife raised, his human muscles tight, standing as a physical wall between the demon and his children. His chest throbbed with a dull, agonizing ache, a constant reminder that his royal wolf core was completely shattered.Before Katherine could lunge, a sudden rustle of dead leaves broke the freezing silence from the eastern edge of the clearing.A figure stumbled out from behind a massive, twisted black tree.He looked like a ghost. He wore torn, filthy leather armor that hung loosely off his gaunt frame. His hair was long, matted with dirt and dried mud, and a thick, unkempt beard covered his hollow cheeks. His left leg dragged slightly as he walked, leaning heavily on a notched wooden spear. He smelled of cheap moon
Duncan Alonso sat in a heavy wooden chair, his face hollow and deathly pale. His royal black coat was torn, and his hands were wrapped in clean white bandages. The internal trauma from the broken ritual had left his physical wolf core feeling like a frozen wasteland. Every breath felt like inhaling shattered glass, but his silver-grey eyes burned with a cold, terrifying desperation."You shouldn't be standing, Alpha," Remus said softly, stepping into the room. The Beta’s chest was heavily wrapped under his shirt where Malphas’s shadow whip had struck him. "Your core hasn't stabilized. If you encounter a high-ranking enemy and try to force a shift, your internal lines will collapse permanently.""If I stay in this room while Malphas drains her, I am already dead," Duncan said, his voice a low, gravelly rasp that lacked its usual royal vibration. He stood up slowly, his knees trembling slightly before his iron willpower forced his posture straight. "Who do we have left?"Oscar Wayne s
Amora woke up with her cheek pressed against a floor of solid, polished black volcanic glass. The room was massive, shaped like the inside of a hollow tower. High above, there were no windows, only jagged tears in the stone roof that revealed a sky of permanent, twisting gray clouds. This was the dark heart of the northern peaks, the absolute center of the Dark Moon territory.Amora tried to push herself up, but a sharp, burning pain flared across her wrists and ankles.She looked down and choked back a sob. She was chained to a massive black stone altar. The cuffs around her limbs were made of forged ironwood, wrapped in thick, glowing purple vines of shadow magic. Every time she tried to pull against them, the vines dug deeper into her skin, eating away at the tiny spark of spiritual energy she had left."Do not waste your breath, little Luna," a deep, rumbling voice echoed off the black glass walls.Alpha Malphas stepped out from the shadows near the base of the altar. In his own
The lightning from the unnatural storm flashed outside the long windows, casting jagged white lines across Katherine’s translucent, gray skin. Her entirely black eyes, hollow pools of swirling ink, fixed onto Duncan, who was still gasping for air on the polished hardwood floor."Katherine..." Duncan choked out, his voice cracking. He tried to push himself up, but his half-shifted arm trembled violently under his weight. His royal core was still short-circuiting from the snapped ritual.Katherine didn't answer with words. She let out a multi-toned, scraping laugh that didn't sound human. The black tendrils drifting from her fingertips lengthened, snaking across the floor like hungry vines."She isn't here for you yet, Duncan," a weak, trembling voice called out from the back of the room.From behind a row of overturned velvet chairs, two older figures emerged. Henry Alonso, the former Supreme Alpha, was pale, his hands gripping a broken table leg to steady his shaking knees. Beside him
The absolute darkness that swallowed the moon was not just a cloud. It felt like a physical weight dropping from the sky, crushing the air out of the place.Duncan and Amora stood on opposite sides of the ancient stone altar, their right hands still extended. The golden-green light of the fated mate bond had been swirling between their palms just a second ago, warm and full of life. Now, that light was flickering violently, fighting against the sudden, freezing chill that swept through the granite pillars.Oscar Wayne did not lower his hands. His voice rose, trying to drown out the sudden, unnatural whistling of the wind. "By the blood of the first wolves, we bind these cores! Do not break the circle!""Oscar, stop!" Susan cried out from the edge of the altar, her hands shaking as she held the dropped chalice. "Look at the stones!"Amora looked down. The deep runes carved into the granite floor, runes that had been glowing with liquid silver, were rapidly turning a dull, rusty gray. T
Amora stood by the heavily reinforced window, watching the city traffic crawl like a line of metal ants far below. The silver-calm mist from the ceiling vents had left a faint, bitter taste at the back of her throat. Her hand rested on her stomach, where the baby’s heartbeat kept up its steady, qui
Amora sat on the edge of the velvet mattress, her freshly washed hair damp against her shoulders. She had scrubbed her skin until it was red, desperate to wash away the scent of the Alonso mansion, the sterile smell of the clinic, and the lingering grease of Katherine’s heavy perfume. The high-tec
The journey back to the city did not feel like a ride for peace. It felt like a transport to a high security prison.Amora sat in the back of the armored black SUV, her face pressed against the cold glass of the window. The glass was heavily tinted and reinforced with steel mesh, rendering the outs
Inside his vehicle, Duncan’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly the leather split beneath his fingers. His silver eyes reflected the glow of the dashboard. The agonizing emptiness in his chest, the sudden, terrifying silence where Amora’s life force should have been was driving his inner wo







