NYRA

“You’ve been out too much. Hanging around unsavory types. Letting people believe rebellion still breathes in your veins.”

I didn't even sit. I just stood by the counter, my arms were crossed and my jaw tightened.

“You don’t speak to your Alpha like that,” he said, stabbing the edge of his toast in my direction. “You’re still in this house because of Maeve’s mercy. Don't mistake that for freedom.”

Maeve flinched at her name. Her hands trembled as she poured tea. Jaxon sat beside her, quiet, his knuckles pale around a glass.

“I’m not out looking for trouble,” I said. “People come to me. That’s different.”

He laughed, it was cold and humourless. “The way rats come to rot. You're building diseases beneath this roof.”

“If that’s how you see it, why haven’t you thrown me out yet?”

His chair scraped back. He stepped toward me, it was slow and looming, like a wolf ready to strike. But he didn’t. Just leaned close enough for his breath to touch my cheek.

“Because keeping you where I can watch you is safer for all of us.”

I didn’t blink. I wouldn’t give him that. Maeve’s cup rattled against the saucer.

Jaxon said nothing. I turned and walked out before the eggs even hit the pan.

*

The cliffs above Coldridge were jagged, steep, and dangerous if you weren’t paying attention. That’s why I liked them. I could think there, or not think at all.

Roe was already there when I arrived, perched on a ledge with her boots hanging over the drop.

“You look like shit,” she said, tossing me a granola bar.

“Thanks. You always know how to lift a girl’s spirit.”

I sat beside her, peeling the wrapper, not hungry but needing something to do with my hands.

“You know, most people go to therapy. You climb murder cliffs.”

“I don’t need therapy. I need a world that makes sense.”

We sat in silence for a minute, the wind pressing against our backs, sharp and full of the coming snow.

“I met someone yesterday,” I said quietly.

Roe didn’t speak, just waited for me to continue.

“He came into the studio. Northern. Scarred. Said he wanted a piercing only blood-wolves would request.”

She raised a brow. “And?” I knew she was too curious but didn't want to show it. I chuckled.

“And when I touched him… something happened. My wolf, she woke up. She didn’t just stir. She howled.”

Roe whistled. “Mate?”

“Don’t say that word.”

“Why not?”

“Because it makes it real.”

“Maybe it is.”

I looked away, down the drop, where frost licked the edge of the rocks.

“I can’t be someone’s Luna,” I said. “I won’t belong to anyone.”

“I think you’re scared you already do,” Roe murmured and the worst part was she might be right.

The market was full when I returned to town. People shuffled from stall to stall, trying to pretend Coldridge wasn’t slowly starving under its own traditions. Meat was scarce. Produce wilted from frost before it could be sold. But the gossip thrived like wildfire.

My gaze scanned around until I saw him. Kade. He stood too far at the end of the market square, beside Orran and the Elders, his hands clasped behind his back. Still tall and…. intimidating. His coat was a very different one this time. It was much darker and heavier. It was stitched in leather but the same cold energy clung to him.

Orran was doing his best to look pleased, speaking loudly enough for the crowd to hear as he boasted about Coldridge hospitality. Kade nodded once or twice, expression distant. Polite and controlled. But one could easily notice he wasn't totally present. Or maybe only I could recognise it.

His eyes scanned the crowd slowly, like he didn’t really care to see us, but then they landed on me.

My breath caught and my heart skipped a beat but only for a second.

He didn’t flinch or blink. He just… looked.

And then turned away like I hadn’t just felt my wolf stir again beneath my skin.

Beside him stood Liesl, painted and posed like a winter doll. She clung to his arm with a possessiveness that made my stomach roll. She giggled at something he didn’t say, brushing his arm as if she owned it. He didn’t pull away, but he didn’t lean into it either.

I am not jealous. No I'm not.

*

By the time evening fell, the Moonwatch Ceremony had already begun.

It was held in the lower field outside the Coldridge hall. Fires lit, banners strung, and the full moon rising above the pine peaks. It was supposed to be about pack unity, about giving thanks to the moon for survival. But mostly, it was a reminder that I didn’t belong here. I just pretend to smile so hard while the elders watched me like I might erupt into flame and cause trouble.

A sad smile crept at the corner of my lips.

Maeve stood near the edge, shoulders hunched beneath her shawl. Jaxon remained by her side, scanning the crowd.

I didn’t want to be here, but refusing would’ve meant another council summons and another threat to me.

So I wore my black. I wore my rings but then I saw Kade again. He stood across the fire circle, his arms folded, eyes on the flames.

And then… his gaze lifted. Met mine again

It wasn’t a stare. It was something deeper. Like he saw through the smoke, shivers went straight into the pulse beneath it.

And then his eyes flicked lower, lingering on the ring in my lip, my stomach twitched.

His eyes flickered with some emotions that could even be visible to me in the evening.

He didn't smile or smirk, just held the look for a heartbeat longer than he should’ve, then slowly turned away.

My skin burned where his eyes had been. Like he’d branded me without touching me at all. And I hated how badly I wanted to look again.