NI RAV

Moon made ev

across my bed like she owned it, Hadleigh beside her, both of them still flushed

, the sound long and shamele

aughed. "T

ful disaster around her face. "Kade kept me

at Layla proceeded to demonstrate. In detail. On my bed. She straddled Hadleigh's waist with theatrica

eathless and entirely shameless. "Front. Back. T

th delight. I turned

some of us are tryin

psed back against the pillows, dramatic and thoroughly satisfied. "Leilani. It's the Fe

ke my

grin she wore when she already knew the answer and wanted

ng hap

ike I'd confes

he Fevered Moon. The goddess herself i

" I lied, searching for some

Hadleigh demanded. "

into the mirror

crueler than anything I want

ouched everyone. E

ned grown wolves feral and had the unmated scratching at walls. Rowan was perfect, h

ouldn't stir

and warm but hollow. Nothing sparked. Nothing stirred. And since the Fevered Moon began last night, w

mile curling at the edges, "Leil

omewhere they had

he brus

***

for the evening, papers spread across his desk like he had be

my mout

with you ton

estern District alphas was fixed on its second night. It was a gathering that united every major pack leader of the district and their cou

said sternly,

frustration climbed. "Half the alphas in this district don't know I exist. How am I su

warning. Qu

anger. Protection. Trust me. But you never explain it. You never tell me anything real." I stopped directly in front of his de

ked up

in his eyes s

r. Not a

e

n close enough to see it until now. My father was not a man who feared things easily. He had led th

was afr

you here because I was ashamed of you?" His jaw tightened. "I kept you here because the moment th

followed was th

came out smaller than I intended. H

his eyes - the particular anguish of a man deciding how mu

." He said. And turne

t the

s mine. I would go to that meeti

***

tas was cleaver, daring and amongst those who ha

n't bother knocking before entering. However, I was rep

ped back sharply,

ing beneath him, his shirt half of

've knocke

I wrinkled my nose. "You s

hand through his hair and fixed me with the expression of a

do you

the alphas mee

le

" He

es

ila

"That means you should o

yet. Also, if your father finds o

"He won't. I'll make su

The kind of stare of a man who knew

finally, "is a

***

e sound of laughter, clinking glasses and voices of wolves filled the ai

e." Jeremy

ated. My father sat amongst them, his posture rigid, his expression doing that part

to keep i

and tapped his gla

"We gather tonight with grave concern. Entire packs have vanished. Villages reduced to ash. No

oom s

the old calendar. Th

the crowd like a stone

bastian Kol." Jeremy s

d at hi

ike I'd just aske

cher from teaching me some selected books. He kept them locked in his private library. The only histo

desses centuries ago. They say he wakes every century and leaves nothing but ruin

tales to frighten pups. No one has seen Sebastian Kol because he doesn't exist. We

nodded, while o

se slowly fr

uiet for men who have earned it over a lifetime. "We will not feed

urmured it

opened. Without a

ody and landed in the most primitive part of a wolf, the part that had nothing to do with reason and everything to do with survival. The part that kn

rowd

all simply stepped back, creating a path through the center without

h

pped t

son to rush. The dark cloak he wore trailed behind him like smoke. The quiet in the hall was absolute in a way that had nothing to do w

back his hood, revealing his fa

ct blue, swept through the h

raising it. He looked around at the frozen crowd with something that might have been amusement

idn't know much about this man who had just walked in with a primal a

o had called him a fairy tale about a minut

acclaimed ancient cursed, he is no threat to us, brothers." He said, trying to convince us all, but my eyes r

here." The alpha s

didn't

d appeared in another, the way lightning doesn't travel so much as arrive. O

ad clean off, as easi

e. The man's head was in one of his hand, and with slight movement, he tossed

utward in a sl

ing except stand there while every instinct I had sc

tian

e cool disinterest, like a man survey

ey foun

stop

e birth, and which had never once reacted to anything sudd

ted hi

rely anything.

resti

lade. And in a hall full of terrified