LOGINSeveral days had passed since Joshua’s vampires delivered their warning, and the Blood Moon pack had transformed overnight into a fortress of vigilance.The sprawling estate on the edge of human territory, once a symbol of Ethan’s quiet integration with the outside world, was abandoned. He’d ordered it sealed, windows boarded, gates chained, the long drive patrolled by rotating teams of enforcers who never shifted out of wolf form. No one entered or left without triple-checked clearance. The pack house, deep in the heart of their ancestral lands, became home again: stone walls thick with wards, every corridor lit by iron sconces that burned day and night, the air heavy with the scent of pine resin and gun oil.Aurora attended the pack school now, her days filled with lessons from elders who taught her not just reading and arithmetic but the basics of shielding her mind and recognizing the first whisper of dark magic. No more human classrooms, no more playgrounds where strangers could
As Aurora grew, eight, nine, then ten, Ethan approached her emerging gift with the same reverence he had once used to teach her how to braid her own hair. He never treated her intuition like a weapon to be sharpened for war. Instead, he treated it like a delicate instrument, testing it gently and always with her consent.At first, the tests were harmless. He’d ask her which route they should take home, then quietly choose the opposite just to see. Without fail, they’d encounter a sudden road closure, a fallen tree, or a delay that proved her instinct right. Later, he’d have a trusted pack member tell a harmless white lie about the night’s dinner menu. Aurora would immediately wrinkle her nose in distaste."He's saying pasta, Daddy, but the air feels... metallic. It's wrong."Ethan would nod, confirming the truth, and press a kiss to her forehead. "Good catch, Moonbean. That’s a very useful thing to know."Slowly, the stakes shifted. He began bringing her into the study for pack ma
The days after Natasha’s banishment felt like the first true sunrise after a long, suffocating night. With the iridescent scent of the Siren's Pull scrubbed from the halls and the woman herself stripped of her borrowed authority, the pack house finally began to breathe again.Ethan moved them temporarily back to the heart of the pack territory, away from the offices and the corporate shadow of Voss Dynamics. He woke before dawn each morning now, but the urgency had shifted. He was no longer buried under mountain-high council reports or jagged patrol schedules. Instead, he found himself in the kitchen, reclaiming the simple, sacred roles he had nearly let slip away.He made breakfast with a focused, quiet devotion. He learned the rhythm of her morning again: scrambled eggs with extra cheese and absolutely no "green bits," and toast cut into meticulous triangles because Aurora had once declared that squares were "too boring for a Wednesday." He even drove twenty minutes to the human m
Ethan stayed another hour with Aurora, unwilling to let go of the small, warm weight of her presence. Every minute felt like a quiet apology, every shared breath a promise he was afraid to put into words.Eventually, he had to leave. Natasha would be waiting at the house, waiting with her practiced smile and that bright, eager voice she used when she wanted something. The thought of it made his skin crawl. Part of him wanted to take Aurora somewhere far away and pretend none of it existed. But he couldn’t.There was an intruder in his home, in his pack, in his child’s life, and it was his responsibility to remove her. So he rose, pressed a kiss to Aurora’s hair, and turned back toward the Blackwood estate. This time, not to surrender to fate, but to end it.Natasha was pacing the foyer waiting for him when he walked in, arms folded lightly across her chest, lips curved into that familiar, honey-sweet smile that now made Ethan’s skin itch.“Where have you been?” she asked softly. “I kn
Ethan was mid-sentence.“…and with the revised margins, Blackwood Holdings would absorb the risk without...”Then he felt it, not physically. Something deeper, pulled hard against his chest, like a hand closing around his heart and squeezing once.He stopped speaking. The boardroom went silent, a dozen executives watching as Ethan Blackwood faltered for the first time in memory. Ethan blinked, once, then again, his breath shallow. There was no pain in his body. The pain wasn’t his.Aurora.The name surfaced with a jolt so sharp it made him grip the edge of the table. For weeks, no, longer than that, something had muted that name inside him, dulled to the point of irrelevance. He had seen her every day. Passed her in hallways and even heard her voice. Yet...It was as if he had been looking through her. The realization landed slow and sickening: he hadn’t noticed when her laughter faded. Hadn’t questioned when she stopped telling him stories about irrelevant stuffs. Hadn’t felt the quie
NATASHA Ever since I first laid eyes on Ethan Blackwood, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. I’ve always loathed the idea of a fated mate. The thought of being biologically shackled to one person for the rest of my life sounded like a prison sentence. My plan had been simple: reject whoever the universe threw at me, run my father’s company, and enjoy a good fuck every once in a while. No strings, no "forever" nonsense, and definitely none of that suffocating emotional drama.My father knew it. The pack knew it too. They’d tried for years to pair me with influential wolves, heirs, betas, rising alphas to secure alliances. Every attempt ended the same way: disappointment on their side, boredom on mine. I didn’t bow. I didn’t pretend to care. I’m a beautiful woman, I have the sharp mind and the curves to prove it, and I don't bow to anyone. But my wolf, Lily, is a different breed of wild. She doesn't want romance; she wants power. She has always been hungry for every male that crossed our pat
Three Months Passed.Three long, deceptively peaceful months.Silas made no move. No attacks. No sightings. No whispers in the shadows.Some packs began to breathe again, to relax, to believe the danger had passed.But Ethan never did for a moment. His instincts were too sharp, his paranoia too jus
Damian received the news of Ethan’s misfortune, the abduction of his human Luna from his own guarded territory, through one of his many gossip channels embedded across the Packs. A slow, excited whistle escaped his lips. The chaos he craved had finally arrived, and better yet, it had been delivere
While the alphas gathered in the grand hall to discuss strategies against Silas, the Lunas held their own parallel council in one of the sunlit reception chambers. Ruby had expected nerves, expected to feel like an outsider among women who had been born into this world, raised for it, shaped by cen
MEANWHILEWhitney arrived at the infirmary with Liam, chattering excitedly, oblivious to the fact that her impromptu guard, Charles, was silently fighting a battle of his own.The air shifted the moment they stepped into the quiet medical area. Charles, who had been maintaining a professional dis







