LOGINIt shouldn’t have to be difficult, Ashton,” I uttered, my voice quivering as I stared at him. “It was a mistake, Novah,” he sighed, closing the door on my face. “I love you,” I whispered, my heart cracking as I stared at the door. He was never going to see me as anything other than his pathetic step sister. I could never be more. Novah’s life wasn’t as perfect as the world thought. Trapped in a house that felt too cold to be called a home. With a father who barely looked at her, without hatred in his eyes. But the world didn’t know that, all they saw was the perfect daughter, and a great student. All Novah has ever wanted was love, someone who sees her to be just as more than just a nerd. Worlds collide when she realises that the boy she had been crushing on for two years would be her step-brother. Will Novah kill the feelings that she had harboured for years? Or will she act on them and deepen the rift between her and her father? In the toss of family and love, where do morals stand?
View MoreNovah’s POV The afternoon offered a fragile escape. The herb garden, tucked against the south wall, was a pocket of stubborn life. Weak winter sun struggled through high clouds, warming the dark earth fractionally. Meredith was already there, her hands buried in the soil, tending rosemary and thyme that defied the frost. The air was clean, sharp with the scent of damp earth and sage, a stark, blessed contrast to the Keep’s thick atmosphere. I knelt beside her, mimicking her movements, pulling weeds with clumsy, city-soft fingers. The physical act helped. Grounding. *Anchor.* Earth. Cold, clean air. The scent of green defiance. *Layer calm.* The pack pulse was muffled here, softened by stone and distance, though the underlying anxiety still thrummed, a constant, low drone."He pushes harder," I said quietly, wrestling with a tenacious root.Meredith sighed, a soft exhalation like wind through bare branches. "Fear feeds his boldness. Danger’s shadow makes him taller. He scents blood, c
Novah's POVDawn wasn’t gentle. It seeped through the arrow slit like grey sludge, leaching colour from the stones, failing to touch the chill deep in the Keep’s bones. I lay still, eyes closed, breathing shallow. Not listening, exactly. *Feeling*. The pack pulse.Low tide again. Not the frantic surge of crisis, nor the suffocating undertow of grief. This was slower, denser. A thick, viscous thrumming beneath the skin of the world. *Anxiety. North.* It coated everything, sticky and cold. *Weariness.* Bone-deep, the kind that settled after too many hollow-eyed returns from the hunt. *Watchfulness.* Sharp, brittle shards – Thorne’s faction, coiled and waiting. And beneath it all, the bedrock: *Grief.* For Finn’s mother. For Finn. Settled now, not a wound but a constant ache, like damp wool against the skin. *Grief. Finn.*I pushed myself up. The stone floor bit into my bare soles, a familiar, grounding shock. *Anchor.* Cold. Solid. Unyielding. Yesterday’s raw edges – Doric’s fury, Maren
Novah’s POV The word hung in the suddenly silent hall, sharp as a shard of ice. *Distraction.* Heat flooded my face, a mix of scalding anger and cold humiliation. The wolf surged, a silent snarl building in my chest. *Guardian!* I clenched my fists under the table, nails biting crescents into my palms. *Anchor.* Stone. Breath. The scrape of Torin’s spoon. *Layer calm. Layer calm.* Not for Thorne. For the pack. For the frightened eyes watching. *Show them the banks hold.*Torin’s voice cut through the brittle air, low and hard as the mountain itself. "Every soul under this roof *is* the core, Thorne. From the greybeards to the weanlings. Protect one, protect all. That’s the strength of the bond." He held Thorne’s gaze. "Or have the years worn that truth thin?"Thorne’s smile was a thin, bloodless line. "I forget nothing, Beta. Least of all the cost of misplaced… sentiment." He pushed his barely-touched bowl away. "We’ll see how enduring that bond feels when the enemy’s breath mists th
Novah's POVThe cold wasn't just in the stones anymore. It had seeped into the marrow of the Keep, into the spaces between breaths. Dawn was a reluctant smear of grey beyond my slit window, offering no warmth, only the slow reveal of another day heavy with unspoken things. I lay still, eyes closed, listening. Not just to the distant drip of melting frost, but to the *hum*. The pack pulse.It was a low tide today. Not the crashing waves of yesterday’s confrontation at the forge, nor the suffocating undertow of Maren’s grief. This was deeper, slower. A thick, viscous thrumming beneath the skin of the world. *Anxiety. North.* It coated everything, sticky and cold. *Weariness.* Bone-deep, from hunters returning hollow-eyed under a moon that offered no prey. *Watchfulness.* Sharp, brittle, like shards of ice – Thorne’s faction, coiled and waiting. And beneath it all, the bedrock layer: *Grief.* For Finn’s mother. For Finn. Settled now, not sharp, but pervasive, like damp in old wool. *Grie
Novah’s POV The word hung in the air, sharp as a knife. *Distraction.* Heat flooded my face, a mix of anger and humiliation. The wolf surged again, a protective snarl building in my chest. *Guardian!* I clenched my fists under the table, nails digging into my palms. *Anchor.* Stone. Breath. The sc
Novah's POVDawn bled grey and reluctant through the narrow slit of my window. Not the fiery promise of sunrise, just a slow leaching of the dark, like water soaking into parched earth. I lay still, eyes closed, breathing shallow. The stone beneath my thin mattress was cold, a familiar anchor again
Novah’s POV It was fragile. The grief surged, threatening to swamp her meager focus. She gritted her teeth, breathing harder, forcing her attention back to the stone, the wool of her trousers, the sound of her own exhale. *Anchor. Layer calm.* Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the overwhelming *weight*
Novah’s POV Torin touched her shoulder, a brief, heavy pressure. Time to go. Novah rose silently, her legs stiff. She followed him out, the door closing softly behind them. Leaning against the cold corridor wall, she took deep, shuddering breaths, rebuilding her layered calm brick by psychic brick












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