JAMIE
I was lying in bed, hands clenched into the rough threads of my bed sheet, eyes tracing the lines of cracks on the ceiling. Ann's words kept echoing in my head like half-spoken riddles. Lunaris. That otherworldly, spooky name with gravitas. Authority. Horror.
Was I one?
A laugh burst out of my lips before I could stifle it. No. Couldn't be.
But the way Ann spoke—just the thought of a Lunaris brought to mind secret warnings—remained within me. The pack didn't just hate what Andrew and I could become. No, it was more than that. As if they were cowed by it. By us. Was it because of the abilities of those wolves that had been spoken about or because the two leaders in the story happened to be male?
I imagined it for a second—me, walking beside Andrew, my hand in his, the Luna of Furstone. The thought made me snort gently. It was preposterous. Me? A Luna?
But then my head spun again. Andrew.
What did he do with his father? Did he tell him the truth? Did he surrender? Did he glance back?
The truth was, I did not know where Andrew's heart was. Not exactly. Not over the pull of the bond or the wolf. Did he want me? Choose me? Or was he just keeping up with nature's rhythm?
And did I love him?
The term weighed on my chest. Too heavy to bear just yet. But if he were to ask me to follow that road, to travel toward that love with him. I might agree—if he would walk beside me and hold my hand.
I must've zoned. Because the next thing I knew, the atmosphere had shifted.
The room had darkened oddly, as if night had swallowed it whole again. A dream? No. It felt different. I was standing in a gigantic, foreboding room, stone walls covered in golden light. In the distance, a woman coalesced, wrapped in white linen embroidered with gold. Her smile struck me like spring wind—familiar, warm, forgotten by time.
"Mom." My voice cracked.
She didn't say anything, just opened her arms. I ran.
When I came to her, I curled around her like a child. "I'm so tired," I whispered. "I'm so tired, mixed up. and alone."
She smoothed her hand through my hair, her silence louder than a voice. And then finally, she whispered, "Remember who you are."
When she began to fade away from me, I clung harder. "How?" I cried, desperate.
Her form disappeared, but then—a voice. A repeating voice which seemed to be coming from the stones themselves.
Andrew. He is the key.
My eyes flew open.
I sprang up in bed, my heart pounding. Sweat clung to me under my shirt. And then it stopped—a gust of wind whizzed through the room. Chilly. Knife-like. Frozen flakes of snow are suspended in mid-air like ghostly spirits. I blinked once.
Gone.
The wind. The snow. The unnaturalness.
There was nothing but silence remaining.
What the devil.
A knock jolted me awake.
My grandmother's voice called through the door. "Jamie? Wake up, dear. There's going to be a meeting this evening. At the Grand Pack Square. Everyone's expected to be there."
She didn't miss the bewildered look on my face when I opened the door.
"You alright, sweet boy?" she asked gently, touching my forehead with the back of her hand.
yeah. Bad dream," I lied.
Her eyebrows scrunched skeptically. But she didn't question me.
She never did.
***
ANDREW
I leaned against the windowsill in Caroline's room, my eyes fixed on the woods beyond but not seeing them whatsoever. My fists clenched and unclenched.
My face mirrored back through the glass, grim-looking, expressionless. A lie.
"I don't know, Car," I panted. "I don't know if I can do this."
Caroline, standing on the edge of her bed, just looked at me. "Do what? Protect him? Protect you?"
"Lie to them. Lie to myself. To my father."
I closed my eyes.
The smell of old leather and smoke in his study clung to the air. The way his eyes had stared into mine—so sharp, so unflinching—like he already knew.
"Is it true?" he had demanded. "What did the Elders say?"
I didn't answer right away. Couldn't.
It seemed like something creaked ajar within me. My wolf paced impatiently within, clamouring for truth, clamouring for a claim. But my father's words had muzzled over it—"I will not let this pack fall into disarray. Not over this. Not over you."
So I said it.
"No. It's not true."
It emerged softly, too softly for a future Alpha. But he'd nodded, content, and instructed me to announce it officially this evening at the meeting. Ease the pack's mind.
Here I was now, heart in disarray, head in upheaval.
Caroline finally addressed me, "You're not lying, Andrew. You're shielding. There's a difference."
But is there?
—
Later, the Grand Pack Square was charged with tension.
They stood in clusters. Some whispering. Some waiting. All eyes slowly turned towards the middle, where I stepped forward, Alpha-like, just like my dad had coached. Shoulders squared. Voice firm.
I scanned the room.
And then I saw him.
Jamie. Standing by his grandmother. His blue eyes were on me, so open, so raw. And so unaware of the storm that was about to hit.
I swallowed down a hard lump.
In the background of the crowd, Elder Oona was standing with Maelin, her smile fixed, too saccharine. Observing. Waiting.
They know. They know I have lied.
But they were not going to question me here.
Not yet.
Let them wait.
Let them scheme.
I had Jamie to defend.
Even if I were to be consumed by flames for it.