SERAPHINA’S POV

By the end of the day, I was walking on air, filled with the kind of lightness that came after surviving something sharp enough to cut through bone.

The “WE KNOW SERA” video had detonated across every network faster than we could track.

Marcus’ interview kept circulating, but now every repost was buried beneath comments defending me, mocking him, or outright calling him manipulative.

And somehow, the narrative surrounding the silver wolf had begun twisting again.

People who had spent the morning calling me a monster were now posting old legends about silver wolves protecting territories, comparing me to mythical guardians and ancient heroes, as if the world had suddenly decided silver fur was now cinematic, not terrifying.

For the first time in days, when I walked through the packhouse corridors, I did not feel the weight of whispers pressing into my back.

Instead, people smiled, waved, and congratulated me.

And every time it happened, my chest tightened all over again.

By evening, I had made a decision.

“I want to do something for the kids,” I told Maya while she sorted through three different communication feeds at once.

Maya snorted. “For the children who accidentally won your public relations war?”

“Yep.”

“That sentence is still insane.”

A laugh escaped me despite myself.

It felt strange. Like my body had forgotten laughter still existed.

“I’m serious,” I said softly. “I just...want them to know how much this meant to me.”

Maya’s expression gentled.

“You know,” she murmured, “you’re never beating the allegations of being painfully soft-hearted.”

“Tragic, really.”

“Devastating.”

By dinner time, the entire west dining hall had been transformed.

Long tables filled with food the kitchen staff and pack members had practically fought one another to contribute.

String lights had been hung along the beams overhead. Board and card games had been brought out.

One corner of the room became a dessert table so aggressively overloaded with sweets that Kieran muttered something about “weaponized sugar.”

The children poured in cautiously at first, lingering near the doorway in little clusters.

Then, all at once, the room erupted into noise and motion.

Laughter.

Running feet.

Chairs scraping.

Ava walked in beside Daniel with all the false indifference of someone trying very hard not to look pleased about being celebrated.

The moment she saw the decorations, however, her eyes widened.

She caught me noticing and immediately scowled. “You’re making this too much of a big deal.”

“That’s cause it’s the biggest deal ever.”

I crossed the room before she could escape and pulled her into a hug.

She made a strangled sound of protest.

“Sera,” she hissed, mortified. “People can see us.”

“Yes,” I said into her hair. “That’s generally how hugs work.”

A few nearby children giggled.

Ava groaned dramatically while hugging me back anyway.

Daniel shook his head beside us. “You’re both embarrassing.”

“Jealous?” I asked.

He scoffed. “Why would I be?”

I smiled and pulled him into the hug too before he could dodge.

That earned an actual laugh from Ava.

The sound nearly wrecked me because it had been so long since anything in Nightfang had sounded this uncomplicated.

Dinner became chaos quickly after that.

The good kind.

Children darted between tables carrying too many cupcakes. Toby somehow convinced Ethan to participate in a highly suspicious card game that he was absolutely cheating at.

Corin got cornered by three younger ones demanding stories about sea monsters after someone revealed he was from Seabreeze.

Maya spent the whole evening with a little girl in her lap, reading her stories from a large book.

At one point, I caught Kieran leaning against the doorway, simply watching the room.

Watching me.

His expression hit me harder than I expected. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Not Alpha Blackthorne.

Not the commander preparing for war.

Just Kieran, a man looking at the family we had somehow built in the middle of a catastrophe.

I crossed the room toward him while the children remained distracted by dessert.

“You’re staring,” I murmured.

“Because you’re beautiful.”

“That was smooth.”

“I’m an Alpha. We’re known for our devastating charm.”

I snorted softly.

His hand slid around my waist, grounding and warm.

“You’re happier tonight,” he said quietly. “I love it.”

The words settled somewhere tender inside me.

“I don’t think I’ve felt this before,” I admitted.

His gaze searched mine carefully. “What?”

I looked around the room again.

At Ava carefully divided cookies between the younger kids as if it were a presidential assignment.

At Daniel teaching two younger boys how to play darts.

At children who had stood in front of the world and defended me with nothing except honesty.

My throat tightened as I whispered. “This much love.”

Kieran’s expression softened so abruptly it almost hurt to look at.

“Sera—”

“I know you love me,” I interrupted softly. “And Daniel. And the people closest to me. But this...” My gaze drifted back toward the room, toward the children laughing too loudly and stealing desserts when they thought nobody was looking. “It’s overwhelming. I’ve never felt so...seen before. Never had so many people defend me like that.”

After spending so much of my life feeling tolerated at best and unwanted at worst, after everything Marcus had stirred up, after hearing the words monster and unstable and calamity thrown around as if they belonged to me, it still felt surreal.

Like if I blinked too hard, it would disappear.

Kieran gently brushed his thumb beneath my eye.

“You deserve all the love in the world,” he murmured.

That almost undid me more than the video had.

So instead of answering, I leaned forward and kissed him softly.

For one brief moment, the noise in the room blurred into warmth and laughter and the steady beat of his heart beneath my hand.

Someone wolf-whistled, and we broke apart to find Ethan grinning obnoxiously from across the room while several children dissolved into delighted laughter.

“Oh my gods,” Ava groaned. “I’m losing my appetite.”

“That’s probably because you inhaled four slices of cake,” Daniel informed her.

“And it’s all about to come up on your shoes if you don’t mind your business.”

Daniel made a face. “You’re disgusting.”

Ava stuck her tongue out. “The word you’re looking for is amazing.”

I laughed then, helplessly this time, the sound escaping easier than it had in days as I rested my head against Kieran’s chest.

Around us, Nightfang pulsed with life again.

Children arguing over desserts.

Pack members talking over one another.

Someone in the kitchen yelling because Toby had apparently stolen whipped cream right out of the bowl.

The sounds wrapped around me slowly, sinking into all the hollow places anxiety and exhaustion had carved out over the past weeks.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Nightfang did not sound like a territory bracing for war.

It sounded like home.

And for a few precious hours, the war waited outside.