LOGINCatherine POVThe war room door bursts open hard enough to rattle the walls.Two warriors drag Danny inside and throw him onto the floor.The room feels strangely quiet despite how many people are here. Elders sit around the long table. Guards stand along the walls. Clinton occupies the Alpha's seat at the head of the room, broad shoulders stiff, jaw locked tight.Three days.Only three days since the ceremony.Three days since the pack placed the Alpha title on Clinton's shoulders.Three days since people who once wanted him dead knelt before him and pledged loyalty.Apparently that was too much for Danny to accept.Yesterday he gathered a handful of warriors and tried to take the position for himself.The attempt lasted less than an hour before they were caught.Now he's here.His hands are bound.His face is pale.For the first time since I've known him, he looks small.Elder Matt rises slowly."You know why you're here."Danny lowers his eyes.Tears slide down his face and fall on
Clinton POVThe entire square feels frozen for a second after Catherine speaks.Black flames dance around her hands while bodies burn across the battlefield.The Dark Lord's soldiers are gone.The men who came here threatening to slaughter the entire pack are nothing more than broken bodies scattered across the ground now.Some are still burning.Others are nothing but ash.The pack members stare at Catherine the same way people stare at storms."You better listen to her if you want to live."My voice cuts through the silence.Hundreds of eyes swing toward me."Run back to your houses. Lock your doors and don't come out until it's over."Nobody argues.Nobody questions it.The fear written across their faces tells me they know exactly how dangerous this situation still is.The Dark Lord is still standing.And somehow, that's worse than the entire army he brought with him.The crowd breaks immediately.Parents grab children.Elders lean on each other.People stumble over bodies while r
Catherine's POV My stomach turns the second we pass the first body.A woman.She can't be older than thirty.She's lying face down in the dirt with one arm stretched forward as though she was trying to crawl toward someone before she died. Blood soaks through her dress. A few feet away from her, a little boy stares at nothing with wide empty eyes, his tiny hand still clutching a broken wooden toymI force my eyes away before I throw up.“Move.”The guard behind me shoves me hard between my shoulders.I stumble forward and barely catch myself before falling.Nobody even looks ashamed anymore.Not the guards dragging me through corpses.Not Valeria walking ahead pretending she's still in control of this nightmare.Not the pack members crying quietly from corners while trying to hide from whatever is destroying this place.The whole pack smells wrong now.Smoke.Blood.Burned flesh.Fear.Especially fear.I can practically taste it in the air.The deeper we move into the pack, the quiet
Catherine's POV I can still feel the power sitting deep inside me.It hasn't disappeared after what happened on the battlefield. It's there beneath my skin, alive and restless, moving quietly through my chest every time I breathe too hard. Sometimes it feels warm. Other times it feels dangerous. And every now and then that voice returns again, soft and tempting somewhere inside my head.Let go completely.Burn this place down.Turn everything into dust.The scary part is that I know I probably can.I close my eyes and lean my head back against the cold stone wall of the shrine. The ropes around my wrists bite deeper into my skin when I move, tied so tightly behind me that my shoulders ache from the strain.Funny.These people spent years feeding off my existence and still decided to tie me up as if I'm the monster here.Tears slide quietly down my cheeks again and I try to wipe them away before remembering my hands are tied behind me. A bitter laugh leaves my mouth at the realizatio
Clinton's POV I finally break the second I step into my room.The door shuts behind me and all the strength keeping me upright disappears with it. I sit heavily on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, hands covering my face while the silence closes around me slowly.My father is dead.Richard is dead.And Catherine walked away from me with tears in her eyes telling me whatever existed between us was gone forever.Funny how one night can destroy an entire life.I lean forward, gripping my hair tightly while Black curls deeper into himself inside my head.Neither of us speaks.There’s nothing left to say anymore.I spent years fighting for a place in this pack only to lose everything in a single night, and somehow the part ruining me the most isn't the Alpha title or the inheritance or even my father lying dead in his study.It’s the image of Catherine leaving without turning back.The thought alone makes my throat tighten again.My phone suddenly starts ringing against the mattres
The Night I Lost EverythingClinton's POV My fist starts trembling the second the study door closes.My father's blood is still spreading slowly across the carpet between us, dark and thick, and every time my eyes drift toward him, my chest tightens all over again because there's no second chance to say the things I should have said years ago.Valeria notices my shaking hand immediately.A slow smile touches her mouth as she walks toward me without fear.“I can see it all over your face. You want to tear my heart out the same way they tore your father's apart.”The words hit me so hard my vision blurs for a second.“You speak about him as if he meant nothing to you.”My voice cracks.“He was your husband.”She folds her arms calmly. “Not anymore.”“What does that even mean?”“It means he stopped being useful to me the moment he stopped pretending to hate you.”The room goes silent.I feel the words settle slowly inside my chest, and then something inside me snaps so violently Black s
Catherine’s POVIt’s New Year.Everyone else looks bright and hopeful.Me?I’m two weeks deep in silent suffering, replaying the almost-happened scene at the Grand Palace Hotel with Clinton.Twice a day.Minimum.Honestly, if God hadn’t given me legs to sprint like a panicked cartoon character out
Clinton’s POVPeople say Christmas is joy. Family. Love. Peace. They’ve clearly never sat at our dining table. I have. I call it pretending.Pretending we love each other, like everything is fine…when I’m not even sure I belong.Right now, I’m sitting at the long dining table in our mansion, chest
Catherine’s POV His thumb presses just a little harder.My breath stutters. The room shrinks until it’s just him and me, and the sound of my heart slamming against my ribs. It’s loud. Like it wants to jump out of my chest and embarrass me.“Catherine,” he murmurs, my name heavy on his tongue. “Thi
Catherine’s POVI stop in front of the door.My fingers squeeze Clinton’s hand like I’m trying to borrow his courage through skin contact. The music inside rattles the walls. Laughter explodes, like nothing bad ever happened.Like I wasn’t just emotionally assassinated.“I can’t do it,” I whisper.







