1. NEPHELINE

1

NEPHELINE

I sink deeper into Mateo’s lap, the weight of the last twenty-four hours pressing on me like an iron cage. His arms tighten around my waist, grounding me, but even the strength of my Alpha doesn’t stop me from suffocating in my own thoughts. Even my nest in the living room which has become our unofficial meeting place feels like a prison. The familiar blankets and pillows meant to comfort me instead itch against my skin. It’s all too much.

Mateo murmurs something against my hair but I can’t focus on his words. My Beta brushes his hand against my knee, sitting cross-legged at my side, watching me like he’s waiting for me to shatter.

I hate that.

Across the room, Remi and River are sprawled on one end of the couch, legs tangled as they hold each other. Their usual playful banter is nowhere to be found, replaced by a shared intensity that makes my chest ache. Maverick is stuffed in the other corner, his quiet observance and calmness an anchor I can’t quite reach. And then there’s Asani, perched in the armchair across from me, his jaw tight and his dark eyes unreadable.

He’s the reason my chest feels like it’s caving in. The reason every breath feels like I’m dragging it through barbed wire.

Locke might still be alive.

My breath catches in my throat as I try to focus, try to gather my emotions before I act like the Omega I used to be. The Nepheline from a few months ago would have started shouting and demanding answers, demanding we find my brother and bring him back. But I’m more than just that girl—I’m mated, a Luna, and supposedly the woman who will bring back the magic to the packlands.

I’ve also had just over a day to sit with the news, but no amount of time could make this easier. Locke was gone. I saw him die. Held him until his body turned cold, the arrow still stuck in his body. He was buried beside Mateo’s father, a tombstone I’ve only visited once because the memories are too hard to dwell on. I thought I’d made peace with it—or as much peace as one could make with that kind of horror.

But now? Now, I feel like I’m drowning all over again.

I drag my hand down my face, pushing back the tears that threaten to make an appearance. Not yet. Not here. Not until I get answers.

“Asani.” My voice cuts through the room, sharper than I intend. All eyes turn to me. Good. Maybe they’ll feel a fraction of what I’m carrying. Ever since the Sapphire’s Luna mentioned that the magic radiating through the packlands is more than just Mateo’s, I’ve started to feel it. Just small things… almost like my words have an Alpha’s edge to them. It’s unnerving. “Now that we’re all here, can you explain that report?” I try to weather the mixture of hope and pain in my voice, knowing that this is a sore subject for everyone in this room. That night of tragedy unconsciously started the path of bringing us back together.

Asani lets out a heavy sigh, his lids sliding shut as he leans back in the chair. He looks tired, a few more strands of silver in his hair than when I met him. He’s lost people too, even more so finding out that his counterpart is one of the reasons super wolves are running around. I can’t imagine the guilt that comes with that but I also need to know if my brother is truly alive.

And if he is, my first priority as Luna is going to be finding him.

I don’t care how selfish that sounds.

When Asani doesn’t say anything, I shift forward in Mateo’s lap, a dark chuckle coming from him as he keeps me anchored to that spot. “Princess, you know very well if you attack Asani right now, it’s not going to have the ending you want.” His words are low, almost a purr in my ear, my entire body stiffening at his words.

Suddenly all my mates are sitting forward, heat in their eyes, Remi licking his lips in anticipation. I have a love-hate relationship with these bonds. My anger is a turn-on for them, the desire to chase igniting the moment my emotions shift. It’s impractical at best. “Fuck. I wasn’t going to anyway. I just want to know what Asani found. He’s been out with you guys for the past day and I feel like I’m falling apart. I watched my brother die. I held him in my arms, Asani. He protected me with his last breath. Before you, he was my everything. ” Tears cascade down my cheeks, my emotions spilling out into the room.

“Precious, I don’t know. I told you what I could find from that report but Enzo’s head has always been a mess. It’s difficult to actually—”

“You said Locke was alive. Is he? Alpha, please don’t give me hope if there isn’t any. I just… I just need to know.”

He flinches and a small part of me—the part that isn’t furious—feels guilty. But the rest? The rest is ready to claw my way through him if it gets me answers.

“Nepheline—” Remi starts, his voice softer. He reaches for me but I just glare at his outstretched hand. I’m being ridiculous but I need answers. My heart needs answers.

“No. Don’t you dare try to calm me right now.”

The room goes silent, the only sound is the crackle of the fire and my uneven breathing. I close my eyes, trying to pull the pieces of myself back together. The memories are a storm in my head, crashing and colliding until I can’t tell one from the other. Locke’s blood staining my hands. The arrow piercing his side. The forest drenched in the coppery stench of death.

Flynn’s smirk as he held out a hand, promising safety and salvation while hiding the knife he’d bury in my back. The sound of his skull cracking under my claws when I finally saw through his lies.

I swallow hard, my throat raw. “I made peace with his death, Asani. I held him as he…” My voice wavers, Mateo’s purr starting up to calm me. It rumbles down my spine, my words losing their fighting edge. “Don’t you dare tell me you’re not sure.”

Asani leans forward, elbows on his knees, his face drawn with something I can’t place. Regret? Guilt? Fear? “I am sure,” he says finally, his voice barely above a whisper.

I blink, my heart hammering so hard it feels like it might break through my ribs. Tears blur my vision, but I can’t let them fall. Not yet. Not until I hear the words again. “Say it,” I whisper, my voice trembling.

Asani looks at me, and for the first time, I see the cracks in his composure. “He’s alive.”

My throat constricts as I lean back against Mateo’s chest, trying to deal with the chaos in my head. He’s alive. My brother is alive. Every bone in my body wants to shift and run through the forest to find him. My nose would take me to where he is. I’ve never forgotten his scent. And yet, I have no idea where to start and the threats against our pack aren’t yet gone.

Patience has never been my strong suit but I’m trying. My fists curl and uncurl in my lap before Darius steals one of my hands and threads his fingers through mine. I glance over at him, that sweet and warm expression on his face that tells me I’m his entire world. “Bambi, we’ll figure it out. Just let Asani tell us what he knows, okay? We can’t do anything until we have all the pieces.”

“Okay,” I murmur, a smile spreading across my lips as Darius kisses me and then gestures to Asani.

The Alpha sits forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “None of this is easy to explain because it shouldn’t be possible. There’s a lot of stuff in that report. I don’t even understand half of the chemistry in them. Enzo was a different kind of doctor. A different kind of scientist. I loved experimenting, but it was always about making things better, not worse. Enzo… he wanted to push the limits. He didn’t care about consequences. That’s how the serum was created. I thought it would help, fix things. It’s done the opposite.”

“It’s not your fault,” I say, my voice breaking. “The world dealt me a bad hand. A shitty, bloody hand.” My gaze sweeps over the room, daring anyone to argue. “And if I’ve learned anything, it’s that things have to get worse before they get better.”

The room is silent, everyone too still, too careful. Like I’m a bomb waiting to go off.

River, of course, is the one to break the silence. “Maybe it has something to do with the prophecy,” he mentions, leaning back against the couch. “Maverick has mentioned it and so have the Sapphire wolves. The magic returning, what has to be removed before—”

I whip my head toward him, hating that he might be right. “Magic?” The word bursts out of me, a bitter laugh following. “So everything I’ve been through—all the death, the pain, the betrayal—is just for fate? For Mother Nature to find her magic?” I know what the Sapphire wolves have told us but if someone mentions that I suffered so that everyone else can thrive, I might just resurrect Calista somehow and kill her again. Hell, I’ll find a way to do the same to Flynn.

“Nepheline—” Mateo begins, but I cut him off with a growl so feral it echoes through the room.

I jump off his lap, unable to find comfort in his embrace at the moment. My entire body feels like it’s on fire—not the ‘I’m almost in heat’ but the ‘there’s so many repressed emotions that it’s literally heating me up from the inside’ kind of fire. “That’s bullshit ,” I snarl, my voice shaking with rage. “I didn’t claw my way out of the dark, didn’t bury my family, didn’t kill for this pack, just to be some cosmic plaything!”

The growl turns into a roar and the power in my chest surges. The air shifts, the temperature dropping as an invisible wave ripples through the room.

Everyone freezes. Even Remi and River lose their smiles, genuinely intrigued. Darius leans forward slightly as if preparing to catch me or remove me from the situation entirely if I need it. Maverick, ever the calm one, watches me with narrowed eyes, his head tilted like he’s analyzing the very essence of my soul.

Mateo is the only one who moves. Slowly, carefully, he stands and pulls me back into his lap, his hands firm but gentle as they settle on my waist. His touch is like an anchor, dragging me back from the edge. He nuzzles against my cheek, waiting for my body to respond to my Alpha. “Did you feel that, princess?” he murmurs as his breath brushes against my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine.

I blink, the heat in my chest dimming just enough for me to breathe. “Feel what?”

“The power,” he says, his fingers tracing soothing circles on my hip. “When you growled. It felt like…” He pauses, searching for the right words. “Like when I claimed you.”

“That’s not possible,” I whisper and yet, somehow I know it’s true. My bonds are strong with confusion, fear, but also something else.

Reverence.

Looking around the room, there’s respect and love in each of their gazes, their heads slightly bowed as if silently telling me that I’m the true center of this pack. Mateo keeps his hands firmly on my waist, anchoring me to reality as I finally let my Omega take over and curl into his chest. “I don’t know what that was, Mateo. It just… I was so fucking angry. I’m not some pawn in someone’s master plan. Fate or otherwise.”

“For the record, sweetheart,” River offers, “just because someone has laid out an extravagant life plan, that doesn’t mean you have to follow it.” Remi playfully smacks his chest, dragging the Alpha into a kiss. My body heats in an entirely different way this time before Asani clears his throat, ruining the moment.

Remi turns and grins at the rest of us before resituating beside River. “Just making sure he didn’t keep digging himself into a hole but he’s right, Nepheline. You choose where this goes. Not Fate. Not Mother Nature. Not even the Sapphire wolves. You choose your next steps and we’ll be right there with you.”

It sounds nice in theory but I think following my lead would be an even worse fate. After all, the moment my entire family died, my first thought was to avenge them as one of the only Omega shifters left. And then, I thought it would be a fantastic idea to take a drug that altered my genetic chemistry. Maybe I’m not the best to lead at all.

My thoughts are interrupted by a sharp, cold feeling slicing through my chest like a blade. It feels like despair, so thick and raw that I choke on it. My brows furrow as I search for the source, my body stiffening in response. Darius notices immediately as he reaches over to squeeze my thigh. “What’s wrong, Bambi?”

I don’t answer. I can’t. My gaze shifts to Maverick and my stomach churns. His face has gone pale, almost ghostly, his lips parted as his chest heaves. His eyes roll back, leaving nothing but white.

“No,” I whisper, my voice trembling.

Everyone else notices at the same time. Mateo’s arms drop from around me as I scramble off his lap, but Maverick’s already sitting up, his body rigid.

And then the words start.

“A dark forest,” he says, his voice hollow, like it doesn’t belong to him. “A blood-red moon. A faceless figure standing at the edge of it all.”

The air in the room feels heavy, thick with something ancient and unfamiliar. My heart hammers against my ribs as I move closer to Maverick, but he doesn’t see me. He doesn’t see any of us.

“The magic of the packlands,” he continues, his voice rising. “It depends on the birth of something new. Something that has never yet existed.”

Blood trickles from his nose, a thin red line against his pale skin. My stomach lurches and before I can reach him, his body slumps forward.

“Maverick!” I scream, rushing to him as he collapses against the couch.

I’m there in an instant, cradling him to my chest, his body too limp, too still. Panic surges through me as I gently pat his cheek as if my touch will steal him away from whatever is hurting him. “Stay with me,” I whisper, my hands trembling as I hold him closer. “Don’t you dare leave me, Maverick.” It hasn’t been long since I met my mates but they mean everything to me. Every single man in this room is part of my future and I refuse to move on without every single one of them.

Something stirs inside me, something wild and untamed, those strange tendrils of energy surging through me. It feels like magic but I can’t be sure as it rushes through me, pouring out in a wave that makes the air crackle. It’s warm and electric, like a current running from my body into his and before I know it, his eyes flutter open.

He blinks up at me, his expression dazed. “What… what happened?”

I let out a shaky breath, relief crashing over me. His head is cradled against my chest, my arm beneath his neck as I caress his cheek with my free hand. The stream from his nose has lessened but the sight of the blood seeping into the collar of his shirt is terrifying. “You scared the hell out of me, that’s what happened,” My voice cracks as I lean down for a kiss, relieved when he returns the gesture.

It's not quite long enough but it lets me know he’s okay as he slowly sits up, his gaze shifting to the others. For the second time in as many minutes, my mates’ eyes are on me, their confusion palpable.

“What did you do, Nepheline?” River’s voice cuts through the silence, softer than usual.

I swallow nervously, looking down at my hands, then at Maverick, and then back at River. “I don’t know. I just… it felt like magic. Pure energy. I just told myself Maverick wasn’t allowed to die.”

Maverick drags me into his lap, his movements slow and unsteady. Still, I bury my face into his chest, drinking in his scent. “Whatever it was, brought me back. I think you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.” His fingers find their way into my hair, soothing any anxiety creeping in. This time when he kisses me, he massages the Alpha bite on my lower lip, my scent exploding through the living room.

River and Remi are still on my shit list for where they put their bites because I can’t even kiss my men without falling apart. Maverick deepens the kiss before pulling back, smiling down at me. “You are going to be the most powerful Luna they’ve ever seen, kitten.”

“So long as all six of you are right there, I’m good with that.”

Something’s changing. I can feel it in the air, in the way my pack looks at me like I’m something new and unexplainable.

Something that hasn't existed for a very long time.