Page 78 of The Cursed Wolf King

Their eyes were on me. Instead of fearing me, their acceptance greeted me. Tentatively… then taking hold.

Logan inhaled deeply, nodding in my direction. Together, they formed an energy. An energy that includedme.

My bond with Logan hummed like an overcharged wire. It pulled at me, coaxed me toward him even as shame twisted low in my stomach. They didn’t know what I was, what I’d seen, what I would do again because that was what an oracle wolf did.

I had seen their end.

Isabelle cleared her throat. “If we’re doing this, we need to be smart about it. The Heraclids aren’t sitting idle. A conclave of the most powerful packs under the Shadow Moon is not a casual powwow. They’re drawing lines in the sand.”

Logan nodded. “We’re going to it.”

Isabelle pursed her lips. “Damn right you are,” she said. “Now I have to figure out when and where the conclave is. I want to know everything before we step into that room. Locations, attendees, backdoor deals—whatever I can find. This won’t be any old conclave. There’s clearly a lot more behind it.”

Determination rippled through the pack bond, and I felt it too—a fierce resolve that wasn’t mine, but theirs. I was looking through a window at their world, the world of Orion, the pack that dominated all Shadow Moon packs before their fate twisted. The room buzzed, their excitement mounting. I sat and watched with the memory of that horrid vision scratching at my consciousness.

And then Logan looked at me.

The bond between us flared to life again, stronger, almost painful in its clarity even as we were surrounded by his inner circle.

I swallowed hard, trying to keep my face neutral, but my emotions must have been written all over me. His expression softened and intentions rolled off him through the bond—reassurance, composure, and beneath it… love?

I wasn’t ready for this. Not when I was still drowning in my own fears, my vision of Orion leaving me with no peace.

Raina shifted beside me. I let out a shaky breath and nodded, though I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to.

Isabelle spoke again, pulling the room back into focus. “I’ll update you as soon as I have more details. For now, we should assume this meeting is happening soon—and nearby.”

Rhys nodded, his earlier anger simmering down into something cooler. “We’ll need a tight team for this. No room for error.”

“Exactly.” Logan’s mouth pulled into a brief smile. “It’s time for the hunters to hunt.”

Logan was leading his pack, strategizing for their future, for their survival. Beneath all of that, I felt his belief in me. Inus.

But something was eating at me, a festering I knew wasn’t going to go away just because we had found each other. New thoughts had begun to take hold of me. A chokehold.

Crux pack, destroyed because of me.

My mother, destroyed because of me.

Orion pack, falling apart because of me.

The answer was painfully clear. This beautiful thing between Logan and I was running on a timer. A summer flower whose petals would wilt in winter. A death as stunning as life.

An inevitable goodbye.

35

LOGAN

Imoved silently through the village, my steps sure despite the slick ground beneath me. The faint glow of lanterns from the other side of the village was barely enough to light my path, but I didn’t need it. My wolf guided me, my instincts sharper than sight in moments like this.

The murmur of rain tapping against leaves and rooftops drowned out any sound from the village, punctuated by the occasional rumble of distant thunder. The air smelled damp and electric, as though the storm brewing above had seeped into the earth itself.

My team was still gathered in the office, pouring over maps and strategies and tracing the digital footprint left by the other packs. Their energy was a constant hum I could feel even from here. My own energy had shifted, my thoughts consumed by her.

Eve.

Her emotions pulsed through the bond we shared, aconstant undercurrent I couldn’t ignore. Sadness. Turmoil. Desire. She was untamed in a way that killed my resolve and burrowed straight into my gut.

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