Novels by Elizabeth Crown

CHAPTER 52CAROLINEI stay awake for him. I know it’s stupid, but I don’t care.Sage disappeared to her room an hour ago. I told her I wasn’t waiting for him, and she laughed right in my face.Now I’m curled deeper into the couch with a blanket over my legs, pretending I’m reading through patient files while my eyes keep drifting toward the door every few minutes.I’m exhausted.The baby has been draining me all day. My back hurts. My breasts ache. My stomach feels strange and tight, and every emotion inside me feels bigger now. SSalvatore has ruined me completely, not only sexually. I miss him so much, which is insane because he sleeps beside me every night. I miss his warmth when he leaves before dawn. I miss his voice in the middle of the night. I miss his hands. His mouth. The way he watches me when he thinks I’m not paying attention. The way he touches my stomach is like the baby already belongs to him.I hear the front door unlock, and relief slams into me so hard it’s embarras

CAROLINEMy life becomes routine.I wake up every morning alone because Salvatore always leaves before sunrise. Sometimes I find the faint imprint of him still lingering on the sheets beside me. Sometimes his scent still clings to the pillow. Sometimes I wake up reaching for him before remembering he’s already gone.Every single time, disappointment settles heavily in my chest.Then I go to work.The hospital no longer feels foreign now. The wolves still stare sometimes, but not as much as before. Some of them even greet me in the hallways now.The virus ward is getting worse. Patients are arriving faster now. Symptoms are mutating. Wolves heal incorrectly after infection. Nothing about it makes sense, which means I spend most of my time buried in work, surgeries and research.Then, after work, Sage and I lock ourselves in the archive rooms downstairs, surrounded by old medical records and forbidden supernatural texts she definitely is not supposed to have access to.Science and magic

CHAPTER 50SALVATOREI wake before sunrise, and Caroline is still asleep beside me.For a moment, I simply stare at her.The city outside remains dark and quiet, muted behind thick glass and steel, but inside this room, everything feels unbearably soft. Her hair is spread across my pillow wildly. One of her hands is curled beneath her cheek while the other rests over her stomach protectively, even in sleep. Even now, she’s protecting our baby.I look at her longer than I should.My fingers brush lightly against her cheek, and she shifts slightly toward my touch without waking.Mine.I lean down before I can stop myself and press my mouth softly against her forehead. Carefully, I slide my hand beneath her shirt until my palm settles against the warm skin of her stomach. Heat spreads instantly through my body. The connection hums low beneath my skin now, stronger than ever.The baby reacts immediately.I exhale slowly and rasp breathlessly. “You’re already causing me problems.”“You sca

CHAPTER 49CAROLINEI wake up feeling fear that does not belong to me. It crashes into me so hard my eyes snap open instantly.For one horrible second, I think someone is inside the apartment again. My heart slams painfully against my ribs as I sit upright too fast, nausea twisting through me immediately after.The room is dark except for the dim lamp near the kitchen.Sage is asleep beside me on the couch, curled under the blanket with one arm hanging off the edge. We are alone. The television is still running quietly. We are fine. There are guards outside the door, but I am still afraid.Then I realise the fear is not mine, but Salvatore’s. I press my hand against my chest hard enough to hurt. “Oh my God,” I whisper, my stomach knotting.It feels wrong as if something sharp is lodged beneath my ribs. Unease crawls through me so intensely that my skin prickles. I throw the blanket off carefully, trying not to wake Sage, but the second my feet touch the floor, I hear movement outside

CHAPTER 48SALVATOREThe council chamber feels heavier tonight. The massive room sits at the heart of pack territory beneath layers of concrete, steel, magic, and old bloodlines. Tension bleeds across the obsidian table like a living thing.I stand near the windows overlooking Manhattan while the council argues behind me.“The rogues are getting bolder,” Viktor snaps. “An attack inside city lines should never have happened.”“They’re dead now,” Roman replies flatly.“That does not matter.”“It mattered to the rogues.”Viktor glares at him.The room keeps spiralling, and I clench my jaw hard.Enzo sits slouched in his chair, smoking despite Cassandra glaring at him every few minutes. Dominic flips through security reports while Slade remains by my right, watching everyone carefully.Nobody trusts anyone fully anymore.I stare down at the city lights below.The rogues are no longer testing boundaries. They are hunting, and somehow they keep finding her.My jaw tightens instantly at the

CHAPTER 47CAROLINEAfter so much confusion, I pull Sage towards the archives unit. It sits buried beneath the hospital. There are no windows or sunlight, just rows of old medical records, metal shelves, flickering lights and so much dust.“This is creepy,” I mutter, scanning another shelf.Beside me, Sage snorts softly. “You’re saying that like you don’t work around dying people every day.”“That’s different.” I push away cobwebs“How?”“Those dying people are alive first.”She laughs quietly under her breath, which surprises me because she barely laughs.I slide another box free and carry it toward the table we’ve occupied for the last hour.Digital records keep disappearing. Patient histories were wiped and bloodwork altered. Someone is tampering with the outbreak data, and I need to know why. Sage sits cross-legged on top of the table, completely unbothered by the chaos around us. Old files surround her in messy piles while she flips through them carefully.“You organise like a cr