Chapter: 10. A PropositionSLATE'S POV“No,” I replied calmly, “I’m not.”She pouted. “Uncle Slate, come on. I need protection.”“From what?”“Um…hello, boys?” She spread both hands like this should be self-explanatory, and leaned toward me. “Look. I don’t want a mate. Not yet. I have too many things I want to do before I’m tied down with pups and responsibility. So. I go to this stupid ball, you pretend to be my date, everyone’s too intimidated to come near me. Dad’s happy that I tried, and then I can go on about my life.”I eyed her sourly.The worst part was that I completely understood how she felt. Some wolves were ecstatic to find their mate; to be moon-fated to love and be loved without doubt or uncertainty, the plan for their lives laid out before them. Married, destined to spend moonlit nights running together on four legs, having and raising pups, growing old together over centuries and always having each other’s backs no matter how careers and lifestyles evolved over the decades. For many, that kind
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 9. An Unexpected VisitorSLATE'S POVXin paced back and forth inside my head, baring his teeth on annoyed whuffs.You let him go.I leaned back in my easy chair and poured a fresh glass of pinot grigiot. “I’m not in the habit of keeping young men imprisoned in my apartment, yes.”He was our mate. The one we’ve been looking for for centuries.“We haven’t been looking for anyone, I’ve never heard of male fated mates before, and he was a drunk Alpha’s son who just needed to sleep it off and leave, no questions asked.” I lifted the glass, took a slow inhale of the crisp, light scent of white wine, refused to think of the red, soft curve of Moretti’s lips or the fact that my bed was likely saturated in his scent by now. “His scent was clouded by liquor. I doubt you smelled the truth.”That was last night. This morning, he wasn’t drunk.“He was hung over. Still smelled of liquor.”Xin snarled. I know what I smelled.“Too bad.”I want him back.“He’s not the one.”Isn’t he? Xin challenged. Even if he’s not our mate,
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 8. Don't Say GoodbyeTRISTAN'S POV“Slate,” he said without looking up at me, or stopping his lazy circular swipes. “Because you won’t unbend your pride enough to ask, and you were too drunk to remember last night.”I bristled. My fingers clenched on the doorknob, and I found my tongue. “What makes you think I wanted to know?”He stopped. His gaze flicked up to me, that wintry blue knowing and cynical.“You are young,” he said “You don’t know just what your scent betrays.”I scowled mutely. The man–Slate–folded his arms over his broad chest and leaned his hip against the counter.“Don’t be embarrassed,” he said. “Everyone needs a good bender now and then. You could have woken up in some strange woman’s bed with no memory of the night before, instead of safely in the bartender’s home.”That only made me scowl deeper, glowering at him. I didn’t need–this wasn’t some kind of–His lips twitched. “There’s that pride again.”“What do you want from me?” I demanded. “My dad will pay you for putting me up for the
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 7. Say My NameTRISTAN'S POVHe cut me off without even a blink, and said my name so…Casually.I don’t think I’ve ever heard it spoken without either fear, reverence, or disgust. Moretti. Whispered like a sacred invocation and a curse all at once; a glyph whose power couldn’t be uttered aloud. My name, when said by others, had weight.But when spoken by him, it was just syllables rolling in the dark gravel of his voice.And I couldn’t quite read what lay behind those softly lilted sounds.“Last night,” he continued in that gently accented southern drawl, “you very drunkenly insisted you wouldn’t go back home. I assume you’ve changed your mind now that your head’s cleared?”I parted my lips–then slammed them shut again and looked away.Like hell I was unloading all my shit on some strange wolf who laughed with his eyes like I was some helpless baby.At least not while sober.But my headache was finally starting to let up. There was that, though since I’d never been drunk before I couldn’t tell if it
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 6. Coyote UglyTRISTAN'S POVHe’s old, Severin observed softly, unusually subdued. Possibly as old as your father, or older. His wolf is completely walled off from me. Impenetrable.Which meant he was strong. Wolves grew into our power with age, but I didn’t know of anyone in Clearstone older or more powerful than my father.All I knew was that he carried a quiet stillness with him like a second presence. Something that lived under his skin and spoke of another self, a shadow self, dangerous and disguised under the surface of this mild-mannered wolf.Like sleeping menace–motionless for now, but could be awakened by a whisper. The kind of thing one tiptoed past with silent feet and held breaths; a secret that didn’t want to be known.He cleared his throat softly and I realized I was staring, drinking in with my eyes what I couldn’t tell with my hungover nose. Heat flushed my neck and crept up my jaw, and I looked away as I sat up slowly with a groaning creak of tired bones. I probably looked like hel
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
Chapter: 5. The Morning AfterTRISTAN'S POVMy mouth, on waking, tasted like used cotton swabs and unwashed ass.I opened my eyes–then shut them again. Sunlight blazed through–I think I saw windows, before I went nearly blind?–to stab into my eyes like knives, and kept cutting through until it hit my brain. My head was on fire.Feeling like this should be against the law.With a groan, I pressed my hands against my face, then gingerly opened my eyes again. Staring at the insides of my fingers, barely illuminated by what little light filtered between them, I felt maybe five percent less like dying. My throat burned with thirst. My skull pounded.“Well,” a gritty, lyrical voice drawled at my shoulder. Like music played in notes of crumbling stone. “Never seen a wolf hung over before. First time for everything.”Every syllable struck my brain like a gong. I flinched and squeezed my eyes shut again. He didn’t say anything, but I could scent him still at my side–male, wolf, older, though that was all I could tell when
ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2026-08-18
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