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EVE

T he rasp of his tongue dragged over my skin, a vile brand searing into my senses. The metallic tang of blood mixed with the sour heat of his breath, leaving my stomach a twisted knot. Every muscle in my body screamed to pull away, but I held still, locking my defiance behind a mask of indifference. If I moved, if I flinched, he would win, and the thought of his smug satisfaction was worse than the disgust rising in my throat. Bile hovered on the edge of my tongue. I swallowed it down, letting the cold fury of my wolf temper the revulsion clawing through me.

The crowd shuffled, impatient and oblivious to the claws digging into my skin.

“She arrives—the future mother of my son’s pups.” Alpha Grayson stepped forward on the slab, his words thick and measured. He inspected me with a weight that pressed down, as if he could bend me to his will by force alone.

Grayson was a presence that filled every shadow. The sharpness of his scent—pine and metal, cut with a bitter edge, like dried blood—reached me before he did.

When I was younger, I’d clung to the hope that if I obeyed, if I proved myself useful enough, I might finally be granted a place in the Heraclid pack. Grayson himself had dangled the promise in front of me, letting moments of praise slip through his teeth whenever my visions aligned with his ambitions. Those fleeting nods of approval had been like scraps to a starving pup. But the moment I wavered, if I so much as questioned his orders, his regard would sharpen, and all pretense of warmth would vanish.

In those cold silences, he made sure I understood: without my gift, I was nothing to him.

“Come with me, Eve.”

He rarely spoke loudly, but he sure commanded silence. Each syllable scraped against the skin, filled with smooth venom and undisputed power. Beneath his polished exterior, his jaw was tense, a glimpse of the animal lurking beneath the surface, waiting for the smallest reason to tear apart whatever stood in his way.

Grayson’s hand extended, elegant jewels adorning his smooth fingers, though it was lined with scars. An invitation in the same way the snare invites a rabbit. Decorative, disguised, and impossible to refuse.

He motioned with a flick of his fingers that Damian should release me.

“Manners, son. It is time for a vision. Control your wolf and pass me your betrothed.”

It wasn’t an alpha command. It was hardly more than a wrist-slap meant to send two messages: Damian had to immediately retract those claws in front of the pack, and I was his son’s progeny-maker, nothing more.

Damian’s claws shifted back and I took Grayson’s hand, keeping my expression as serene as I could manage. Grayson’s fingers wrapped around mine, deceptively gentle at first, then tightening with a slow, deliberate pressure until the delicate bones in my hand felt on the verge of snapping.

Grayson pulled me up beside him on the platform, positioning me as he wanted, a pawn he was pleased to move according to his whims.

I caught sight of Kenza, her arms crossed, mouth set in a hard line. She gave me the smallest nod, and I felt a flicker of strength in her boldness—a reminder that I wasn’t entirely alone.

Silence fell over the crowd, thick as fog. Alpha Grayson stood at the edge of the slab, his eyes as cold as winter steel. He nodded, a subtle, almost dismissive gesture.

I took a breath, looking over the faces before me. They all looked back, waiting, their expressions careful, fearful, dismissive.

One day , I promised myself. One day, I’ll get out. I’ll find my mother, and this hell will be nothing but a horrible, horrible memory.

I tried to calm myself by observing our surroundings. The thick ivy choking the tree trunks, the blackthorns climbing like watchful snakes. This place was beautiful in its own way, but it was a beauty that concealed poison—a sanctuary that was a trap.

“Now,” Grayson intoned, too quiet for the shifter crowd to hear. “You will speak the words I have been waiting for. Today you will have the vision that will finish the Orion pack once and for all.”

The Orion pack—these days that was his solitary focus. Rarely did he simply allow me to feel the wind and speak the visions that arose unguided. The Orion pack was his obsession. They were constantly whispered about in Grayson’s orders to me. For the rest of the pack, they were villain shifters, the scum of the Shadow Moon packs. Children were warned about them, and parents loved to threaten that if the pups didn’t behave, they’d be sent off to the Orion pack. They were the royalty of generations past, and according to Grayson, they were oppressors who deserved to be crushed.

Everyone else may have seen the Orion pack as the enemy, but my enemies were far closer. Close like the force pressing against my hand as Alpha Grayson tightened his grip even further. Pain shot up my arm. I kept my expression calm, passive, as though he weren’t cracking my hand one bone at a time.

My wolf whimpered in the depths of my mind. I would only ever be able to heal at human pace. I didn’t have the ability to accelerate it like my pack mates. I’d be nursing this hand for days instead of minutes.

“I’ve tried for years,” I whispered to Alpha Grayson. “The visions I receive are piecemeal at best. I can’t simply?—”

“I’m not interested in what you can’t do.” He smiled widely, charming, looking at the crowd and never at me. “This is what I need you to do. To protect the Heraclids. To assure your own future. You are a gift to this pack, and the Shadow Moon Goddess knows how you have served her through your sacred duty. The Orions have been dealt serious blows, but now?— ”

He turned to look at me and, despite my wishing to do anything else but look him in the eye, his power commanded my response.

“Now you will finish them and rid the world of the scourge that brought division, suffering, and dishonor to all Shadow Moon packs.”

“You make them sound very bad indeed.” My sarcasm was hardly veiled. I’d never laid eyes on anyone from Orion, never heard so much as a name other than their alpha’s—a shifter descended from a vicious royal family. Logan .

Alpha Grayson had fed me bits and pieces over the years, a puzzle missing too many pieces to make sense. I knew one thing for sure—my entire existence as oracle centered on this Orion pack’s destruction. A pack that I had never known to do anything to anyone.

A flicker of irritation crossed his face before he forced a smile, polished and practiced. “The Orion pack is an enemy to the Heraclid legacy,” he replied, his announcement sliding through the air like a warning. “Every word you utter against them brings us closer to their end.”

Grayson straightened, his chest expanding as he filled the grove with his presence and a growl rumbled from him. The air turned thick, humming with an energy and making the ground pulse beneath my feet. I felt it in my bones, an invasive force, worming its way into my spine and locking down every muscle in my body. Around us, the two thousand-strong Heraclid pack dropped their eyes, instinctively bowing to the command within their alpha’s aura. Some even shifted, pressing their jaws to the ground, reverent and trembling, while others seemed transfixed, caught in the silent sway of his power.

I could barely breathe. Grayson’s command slipped into my mind, smooth and binding, humming low beneath his breath so only I could hear it. You will end the Orion pack now, Eve. The words seeped into me, a dark current pulling me under, an invisible grip pressing on my thoughts.

My wolf stirred faintly, a weak thrash that only highlighted how bound she truly was, her whimpers lost beneath the weight of his command. Every nerve in my body strained to resist, to hold back against the pull forcing me toward the curse he wanted. But resisting was like standing against a tidal wave. I was rooted in place, my body caught between his power and my own desperate need to break free.

The pack remained low, each member still, as if held in place by the very command meant for me. It was a display of loyalty, of fear—fear of Grayson’s wrath and fear of the pack they’d been trained to despise. My hand twitched, and I had an instinct to press it against my heart, where the words he wanted sat, dark and unwelcome.

And I hated him more than ever.

Say it, Eve , he sent through the bond. It ran through me like a shout, every syllable commanding, crushing, tightening around me.

My vision blurred, and a dull ache pulsed at my temples, the urge to speak rising like bile in my throat. The crowd watched, silent and reverent, their faces a sea of expectation and dread. But the words wouldn’t come—not yet.

The vision began.

My sight softened and blurred, and suddenly I was no longer standing in the grove. Shadows pulled back to reveal a clearing bathed in silvery moonlight, and there he was—the figure I’d seen a dozen times, maybe more. A man stood before me, tall and strong, with eyes that caught the light and held it like embers. Every detail about him was evident, but also clouded over, like I was seeing him from a world away.

In one breath, he was a man, powerful and sure, the kind who could silence a crowd with a look. As if the night itself reshaped him, he shifted into a wolf, his fur a dark brown shimmer that blended with the shadows, the color of the earth itself. His eyes still fierce, still watching me.

The sight of him stirred a wildness in my chest.

He moved with the confidence of someone who belonged to the moonlight, as if it wasn’t only illuminating him but drawing strength from him. In a flash, he shifted again, back to a man, his form rising like a phoenix from the ashes, glowing as if he’d been reborn.

The moonlight clung to him, outlining his every curve and scar, making him seem both real and impossible. He looked straight at me, as if he could see me as clearly as I saw him.

I didn’t know if he was real or a symbol, or perhaps a gift from the Shadow Moon Goddess…

A gift , I thought as I was hit with a sudden realization.

In each vision, this man—this wolf—was closer than the last. He held something I needed, something that was mine to find, to command.

He was the key, the answer, the spark that whispered to me that one day, my life would belong to me.

To me, and me alone.

Speak the final curse! The command hit and I was ripped away, the vision leaving me breathless as the air from my lungs was sucked out of me.

And I was changed.

My voice broke free, fierce and unrestrained as I screamed at Alpha Grayson, “Don’t you see? I can’t!”

His eyes flared, his grip loosening as his jaw slackened. My words rang out with a force even I hadn’t expected. It didn’t sound like my voice at all. For a single breath, shock rippling through Grayson’s carefully composed expression. I could feel his control slip, just for a heartbeat.

I rushed off the platform and found Kenza waiting for me as confusion broke out among the pack. “Run,” she said. “I’ll cover for you tonight. Be back by morning. Go!”

Muscles primed and ready, fueled by a rush of adrenaline, I didn’t look back. I bolted into the forest, my feet pounding against the soft, damp earth. Behind me, I heard shouts and commands. The darkness swallowed me, closing around me like a shield.

The trees blurred as I ran, thorns snagging my dress, the cold air whipping against my skin as my braid caught in branches. My heart thundered in my chest, every beat screaming one command.

Find him.