The message came through at 2:14 a.m.
Zack's phone buzzed once, a single vibration that sliced through the quiet of the pack house like a blade. He didn't even remember picking it up, only the way his heart lurched when he saw the name on the screen.
Seraiya.
Or rather… Seraiya's location.
A dropped pin. No text. No explanation. Just coordinates in the middle of nowhere, deep in the mountains where the snowstorms were already rolling in.
Zack didn't think. He didn't breathe. He just moved.
"Mom!" His voice cracked as he shoved open Kyra's door. "We have to go. Now."
Kyra was already awake, she always was when something shifted in the world, when magic stirred, when fate twisted. Her red hair was braided loosely over one shoulder, her eyes glowing faintly with that witch-born intuition she tried so hard to ignore.
"What happened?" she asked, but she already knew it was bad. "Did Seraiya find Maddie?"
Zack handed her the phone. She looked at the screen, exhaled slowly, and nodded once.
"Daemon," she called, not raising her voice, but the air itself seemed to carry her words.
A moment later, Daemon appeared in the doorway, shirt half-buttoned, black hair tousled, looking like he'd been dragged out of a dream he wasn't particularly invested in.
"What's the emergency?" he asked, though his tone suggested he'd go along with whatever it was regardless.
Kyra handed him the phone.
Daemon studied the coordinates, then shrugged lightly. "Well. That's unfortunate."
Zack nearly lunged at him. "Unfortunate? She's out there alone. Damien is out there. You know what that means."
Daemon's expression didn't change. "I do. And so does she."
"That doesn't mean she should face him alone!"
Kyra stepped between them, placing a steadying hand on Zack's chest. "We're going," she said firmly. "But Daemon isn't wrong. Whatever's happening between those siblings… it was always going to happen."
Zack shook his head, jaw tight. "I don't care about fate. I care about her."
Kyra's eyes softened, not with pity, but with understanding. She'd always known. She'd always seen the way Zack looked at Seraiya when he thought no one noticed.
Daemon stretched lazily, rolling his shoulders. "Well, if we're doing this, we should leave before the storm gets worse."
Zack was already out the door.
The drive lasted only twenty minutes before the snow became too thick, too blinding, too dangerous. The wind howled like a living thing, clawing at the truck, rattling the windows.
"We shift," Kyra said, already stepping out into the storm.
Daemon sighed dramatically. "I hate running in snow. It gets in my fur."
"You'll live," Kyra replied dryly.
Zack didn't wait for either of them. His bones cracked, reshaped, fur bursting through skin as he dropped to all fours. His brown wolf form shook once, snow spraying off his coat, and then he was sprinting into the storm.
Kyra followed, her red wolf form sleek and powerful, her paws barely making a sound despite the wind.
Daemon shifted last, a massive grey wolf, larger than both of them, eyes glowing with that eerie vampire-wolf hybrid intensity. He stretched like he had all the time in the world, then trotted after them with a casualness that made Zack want to snarl.
They ran.
Through snow that stung like needles.
Through wind that tried to shove them back.
Through a forest that felt wrong, too quiet, too still, as if holding its breath.
Zack's heart hammered with every step.
Please be okay. Please be okay. Please be okay.
He didn't know if he was praying or begging.
The Scent of Blood
They smelled it before they saw anything.
Blood.
Magic.
And something else — something ancient and furious, like the earth itself had cracked open.
Kyra slowed first, her ears flattening. Daemon lifted his head, nostrils flaring.
"Well," he mind linked in a voice that was too calm for the situation, "that's not ideal."
Zack didn't slow. He couldn't. His paws tore through the snow, his breath coming in harsh bursts as he followed the scent trail.
Then he saw them.
Two figures kneeling in the snow, Maddie and Serena. Maddie's small form was hunched over something, shaking violently. Serena stood staring at Damien almost as if waiting to see what he would so next.
And between them…
Zack's heart stopped.
Seraiya.
Her body lay limp in the snow, hair fanned out around her like a dark halo, blonde ends stark against the white. Her skin was pale, too pale, and blood stained the snow beneath her.
Zack shifted mid-run, stumbling as he returned to human form, falling to his knees beside her.
"No. No, no, no... Seraiya, come on, breathe, please..."
Maddie looked up at him, tears streaming down her face, her small hands covered in blood.
"She won't wake up," she whispered. "She won't... she won't..."
Serena's voice was calm. "im afraid it's to late, the gods have won."
The snow crunched behind them.
Zack turned.
Damien stood a few feet away.
His twin.
Her twin.
His chest was rising and falling rapidly, his hands unmoving. His eyes... usually so bright, so full of mischief and fire... were dark, were hollow.
Empty.
Broken.
Zack surged to his feet, fury exploding through him. "What did you do?!"
Kyra grabbed his arm before he could lunge. "Zack, stop."
"She's dead!" he shouted, voice cracking. "He killed her!"
Damien didn't move. Didn't speak. Didn't defend himself.
He just stared at Seraiya's body as if he couldn't comprehend what he'd done.
Daemon stepped forward, still in wolf form, but his presence alone was enough to shift the air. His eyes flicked between the twins, then to the sky.
"It's starting," he murmured.
Kyra stiffened. "No. Not yet. It's too soon."
Zack didn't care about prophecies or fate or whatever ancient nonsense Daemon was referring to. He dropped to his knees again, lifting Seraiya's head gently into his lap.
"Please," he whispered, brushing snow from her cheek. "Please don't leave me."
Her skin was cold.
Too cold.
Maddie sobbed harder, burying her face in Seraiya's shoulder.
Zack bowed his head, tears burning his eyes.
And then
The wind stopped.
The forest went silent.
Even the storm seemed to freeze mid‑air.
Daemon lifted his head sharply. Kyra's eyes widened.
Damien finally looked up.
And the sky…
The sky turned red.
Not a soft red.
Not a sunrise red.
But a violent, blood‑soaked crimson that spread across the clouds like a wound tearing open.
The ground trembled beneath them.
Serena gasped. "how... Familiar"
Kyra whispered, something no one could hear.
Daemon's voice was calm, almost bored. "Well. Looks like fate didn't feel like waiting."
Zack clutched Seraiya tighter as the red light washed over them, staining the snow, the trees, their skin.
Damien took one step forward, eyes locked on his sister's still form.
"I didn't mean to," he whispered, voice breaking for the first time. "I didn't... I didn't mean..."
The sky pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A heartbeat.
A warning.
A beginning.
Zack looked up, breath trembling, as the world shifted around them.
And then...
TO BE CONTINUED