Jamie's POV
Caroline's words repeated themselves in my head like an unfinished melody. She'd spoken to them so offhandedly, so warmly even—but there'd been something in the way she'd gazed at me that had stayed under my skin. Her concern wasn't friendly warmth anymore. It was. Curious. Calculating.
Was she correct that Andrew was preoccupied? I was a danger? I tossed back my head and moaned, lying listlessly in bed as I glared at the clock. The minutes ticked by like hours. Or perhaps because I knew what they held: Andrew. My brooding, tall, maddeningly handsome wolf mate. Goddess, I'd longed for him.
Yearned for him in ways that I couldn't exactly articulate—at least not in words that didn't humiliate me or make me laugh at myself. I laughed, hiding my face in my pillow.
I've become that guy," I said to the ceiling. "Hopeless. Horny. And smitten.".
The laughter stopped when my eyes fell upon the old chest snuggled in the cabinet across the room.
A shiver ran down my spine.
I just hadn't had the time—or the courage—yet to open it after Grandma gave me. Training, survival, and almost dying. They had all taken precedence. But now that the moon was suspended high and hours still to pass before my night with Andrew, something made tonight the night.
As I rose and walked to retrieve the chest, I caught her scent.
Ann.
I smiled before I even heard the knock. My senses were intensifying. I still hadn't changed, and that loomed over me like a silent ache—but the fact that I could smell her before she appeared gave me a thread of hope.
Come on in, Ann," I invited before she could knock once more.
The door swung open, and there she was—windblown, exhausted, but still with that trace of defiance she inherited from Alpha Jackson.
"Ah, don't you look so relaxed," she sneered. "Shouldn't you be out training for the apocalypse?"
"Shouldn't you be commanding it?" I retorted with a grin. "What? Did training break you?"
"Easy for you to say," she complained, dropping down onto the edge of my bed. "Another session and my wolf might just burst out of me just to get away."
"You could fight a war by yourself, own up to it. Jackson blood and all."
She dramatically rolled her eyes, but I could pick up on pride in her smile. Ann knew she was a badass, and she had every reason to be.
Her eyes wandered to the chest. "What's that?"
I faced it again and stopped. Right. I hadn't even told her yet. Not about my parents. Not about what Grandma had said. Not about the secrets this box might be keeping.
So I did.
I explained it all to her—my voice shaking slightly when I used the words "Lunaris" and "my mother" in the same sentence. Ann's eyes grew wide, her mouth hanging open in shock, then melting into something more profound. Reverence, perhaps. Comprehension.
"Jamie…" she whispered. "That's. That's huge."
"Yeah. So I thought, tonight could be the night."
Then we open it," she whispered, leaning in. "Do you have the key?
I did.
The lock snapped open, and we drew back the lid together.
Inside were things time had lovingly preserved. A folded silk scarf, deep blue with silver threading—my mother's colours, I guessed. A ring, shaped like a crescent moon, embedded with a small opal. My father's journal, its leather worn smooth from years of use. A small bundle of dried wildflowers tied with golden twine. A music box that still played a haunting lullaby when wound.
And then—something else.
A creased scrap of parchment, old and worn at the edges. The moon seal pressed into the bottom left corner.
I took it up with hesitant fingers. The ink had gone pale but remained readable:
"When all paths are wrong, look to the Book of Nivorien. It will show you the powers still latent, and the prophecy still in the making."
Ann and I exchanged eye contact.
"The Book of Nivorien," we said in eerie unison.
"What's it say?" I whispered. "Where is it?"
I might know," said Ann doubtfully. "There's a floor below the Council Chamber. Scrolls of ancient, lost documents. I've heard my father speak of it. If that book is anywhere. It's likely to be down there.".
I blinked. "Tonight?
She nodded. "Tonight, we have to get in at dusk, before the guards change. I know the way.".
"Tonight," I repeated. My heart fell slightly. I was thinking about Andrew. Our encounter. Our moment under the moon.
But this… this could be more important.
I'll go," I said, snatching the parchment. "I'll tell Andrew later.".
*****
Andrew's POV
I had been waiting for this evening all day.
As the Council grew increasingly restless, the growing rumours of a second alliance—a second alliance with Rufus and a re-emerging pack on the edge—there hadn't been time to draw breath. The elders called me in this morning. I thought it would be about the storm… or Jamie. But no. They had greater concerns now.
They talked about unusual troop movements. Unusual border scout reports. And all fingers were pointing to the sort of war Furstone hadn't known since before I was born.
They needed me to strategise. Order. Prepare our warriors. And I would—I had to. But each order they barked took me further and further away from the one thing I wanted more than anything: peace with my mate.
Jamie.
The Council never spoke of him by name. Not yet. But Maelin's eyes stayed on me, too. Oona continued to give these calculated nods, talking in a warm voice but with something too calculated. And Caroline…
Caroline had been… off.
She'd had questions while we practised today—more than normal. Not just the how but the why. Not just am I fine, but how much am I telling Jamie? I'd written it off as worry. She was my friend. Had been for years. But there was something in the way she'd delivered the words that made me wonder if she was hiding things from me I'd not yet caught on to.
Nevertheless, I'd shaken it off.
I needed it tonight. Needed Jamie.
I'd showered, dressed, and climbed up to the treehouse— our space, the final haven inviolate to prophecy and politics. The wolfsbane that guarded it, shielding it. Barring everyone but us.
The moon shone gentle rays through the branches where I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
The wind blew stronger, and I glanced up. No Jamie.
I looked at the time again.
He should have arrived by now.
Worry seeped in, gradual but biting. I hated that I hadn't yet bitten him. That we lacked the bond link. If I had, I'd sense him—I'd know if anything was wrong. But now I was in the dark, heart churning.
No sooner had I risen to depart, intending to go and look him up—perhaps he was in, perhaps he'd fallen asleep or become engrossed in something—than I smelled something.
Known.
And unwelcome.
"Lilith," I snarled, spinning around.
She stepped out of the row of trees, her face too calm to be innocent.
"Well," she said silkily, "aren't you the image of broody disappointment?"
"What do you want?"
I could ask you the same thing. You've been here quite a bit lately. Romantic little hideaway, isn't it?
I kept silent. I did not need to.
She tipped her head, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight. "Don't worry. I'm not here to declare undying love—been there, done that."
"Why are you here, then?" I asked more harshly.
To check in, she replied with a shrug. "There's been talk. About the Council. About the war. About you. Thought I'd drop by and check on the future Alpha's progress.".
"I'm fine."
"And your little human?" she said, with velvet covering the venom. "Is he all right too?"
That touched a nerve.
"I'm warning you, Lilith—" Oh, come on," she sneered. "I'm curious. You're distracted these days. Vulnerable, even. That storm the other day? Mysterious, wasn't it? Some say it was natural. Others. Well, some are saying it was induced.".
My jaw tightened. She smiled even more broadly. "Unusual, don't you think? The timing, the scale. It put me to thinking that perhaps your little lover-boy is not as he seems.
" I moved ahead. "Do not speak his name." She didn't retreat.
She moved a step closer, close enough for me to catch the wild jasmine in her perfume—a scent that I once found attractive, a very long time ago.
Her eyes sparkled. Relax, Drew," she whispered, brushing imaginary dust from my arm. "You've always been so tense. Maybe what you need is someone who's learned to keep secrets… and ride out storms.".
I didn't budge. Didn't even flinch. She leaned forward, her voice barely short of a promise. "I'd hate to see you lose him," she whispered, "just before the trial."
My jaw clenched, and she just stood there, waiting for a reaction.
When she didn't get one, she smiled as though she'd won something regardless, then turned and disappeared into the trees with a slay in her stride.
I simply stood there in the silence, fists clenched, heart racing, and one thing screaming in my head:
Where the hell is Jamie?