Novels by A_D

Tyler's hand was still locked around my arm."My mate isn't going anywhere."The pain under his fingers had changed from sharp to hot. I looked at his hand, then at his face. "You rejected me in front of the entire pack. You don't get to use the word my when I try to leave. Take your hand off me."His jaw tightened. "The bond isn't severed.""I know. I was at the office where your paperwork made that very clear." I kept my voice steady even though my stomach was still tight. "I accepted a job with Black Ridge. I am leaving because I chose to leave. Not because Eric chose for me. Not because you chose for me. Me."For the first time, Tyler hesitated.Eric spoke from behind him. "Black Ridge recognizes her stated choice. If she says she is leaving, we will not treat her as a forced transfer, a possession, or anything else you can claim between packs."Tyler looked over his shoulder. "Stay out of this.""She already answered for herself," Eric said. "I'm making Black Ridge's position cle

By morning, Eric's offer was still open on my phone, and I had run out of reasons to avoid answering it. His audit team was leaving Crown territory that afternoon. If I wanted the Black Ridge job, I had to decide before they went.I sat at the kitchen table with Malik's account notice beside the phone and read the offer again. I cared about four parts: salary, housing, medical benefits, and the cross-pack transfer condition. I read every one of them twice.The salary and housing terms gave me a practical way to make Malik's costs less frightening. The medical-benefit language mattered too, but I did not pretend it fixed his account problem. It did not say that. The transfer condition was the part I studied longest because my mate status was still pending. Nothing in the offer erased the Crown hold. Yesterday's clerk had made that clear.So Black Ridge was not a magic exit. Good. I had started to distrust anything that looked too much like one.The harder part was Eric Anderson. Yester

"Can Tyler force me to live with him?"The clerk at Crown Bond Administration looked from me to the mate-status notice on my phone. She did not laugh, look shocked, or tell me I was asking the wrong question. That already made her one of my favorite Crown employees. "No," she said.My hand loosened around the edge of the counter. "Can he force sex because the bond isn't fully severed?""No. An incomplete severance does not create that right."That answer helped more than I wanted it to. I had spent the walk from St. Mercy imagining every possible meaning of temporary mate-status hold, and my brain had apparently chosen the worst ones as a hobby.I unlocked my phone again. "Then what exactly is being held?"The clerk turned her screen slightly so I could see the same status I had received outside the hospital. Verbal rejection recorded. Acceptance not recorded. Fractured bond pending completion. Crown-heir review active."Formal severance," she said. "Because Prince Tyler is the direct

By morning, the mate bond still hurt every time I breathed too deeply. I stood beside Malik's bed at St. Mercy and pressed two fingers against the sore place in my chest. Apparently, humiliation came with overnight delivery."Good morning to you too," I told my brother.Malik did not answer. He had not answered me in eleven years. I pulled the chair closer and sat beside him. The nurse had already changed his water cup and adjusted the blanket over his legs. His breathing sounded the same as yesterday. The monitor beside him showed the same steady numbers I had learned to check without thinking.That was the thing about Malik's room. I knew what normal looked like here. Normal was not good. Normal was just familiar.I reached for his hand. "You missed a very educational night. I learned that the Moon Goddess has terrible taste in men. I also learned Crown Pack can fit an impressive number of cruel people into one ballroom. Very efficient use of space."My voice sounded almost normal.

"I reject you as my mate, Janiah Cross."Pain hit my chest so hard my knees bent. I planted both feet and forced myself to stay standing. People laughed. I looked at Alpha Prince Tyler Moore and tried to breathe.Less than a minute earlier, he had walked into the Moon Assembly and my wolf had recognized him at once.Mate.Tyler stopped. His eyes locked on mine. His body went still. Tyler had been away from Crown territory for years. That was why we had never recognized each other before tonight. I still knew who he was. Everyone in Crown Pack did. He was the Alpha King's son and the man expected to inherit the Crown.I was a low-status pack member who spent most public events trying not to give people another reason to laugh at me. I had never expected Tyler Moore to notice me. I definitely had not expected my wolf to call him mate. For a few seconds, I had been happy.I had come to the Moon Assembly with one goal. Get through the event without giving anyone another reason to compare