Seraphina's POV
Morning light filtered through the curtains as I stared at my phone, reading my mother's message for the tenth time.
"Don't come home, Sera. It's not safe right now. Stay where you are."
No explanation. No details. Just a cryptic warning that made my stomach knot with anxiety.
I called her immediately after reading it, but she'd been evasive, her voice tight with tension.
"There are... issues in the pack," she'd said vaguely. "Political matters. Just stay away for now."
"Mom, what's really going on?" I'd pressed.
Her sigh had crackled through the phone. "Please, just trust me."
But trust was in short supply these days. First the triplets with their forged letters, then Lord Alaric's lies about my father. Now even my mother was keeping secrets.
I tossed my phone onto the bed and moved to the window. The Silver Crescent Pack grounds stretched out below, beautiful and suffocating all at once. Every tree, every path held memories I couldn't escape.
