LOGINOnce she was introduced, Natasha stepped seamlessly into the role of the long-awaited Luna, mark or no mark. She moved through the pack house with practiced confidence, issuing gentle corrections, offering suggestions that sounded like care, and accepting deference as though it were already owed. To most, she was warmth and grace embodied, poised, attentive, undeniably fitting. Respect came easily. Affection followed soon after.In public, Natasha was impeccable. Her smiles were effortless, her voice soft and soothing. She treated Aurora with an almost performative kindness, complimenting her posture, praising her manners, brushing invisible dust from her sleeves as if the gesture itself were proof of affection. She spoke often of the girl’s “remarkable maturity,” always within earshot of others. Anyone watching would have seen a patient future Luna extending olive branches to a withdrawn child.Aurora answered politely. She nodded when addressed. She neither resisted nor leaned in. S
After that day, Aurora learned how to disappear without leaving. She stopped wandering into Ethan’s meetings. Stopped perching beside him during briefings, and stopped offering those quiet, unsettling observations that once made grown men pause and rethink. When Ethan was present, she spoke only when spoken to, and even then, carefully, as if every word cost something.He told himself it was for the best. Silence was safer than the look in her eyes, the one that felt too old, too wounded for a child her age.One afternoon, after an especially long council meeting, Jason and Liam asked for a private word.“With all due respect, Alpha,” Jason began, his voice lowered as he chose his words with tactical precision, “but I’ve noticed the CEO of Voss Dynamics has been getting… very close to you lately.”Ethan didn’t flinch. He merely shrugged, his eyes remaining fixed on the document in his hands, though the ink had long since blurred into a meaningless grey.“It's about time,” Liam cut i
Ethan didn’t slow down after leaving Aurora with Liam. He drove with a cold, jagged purpose, Shadow paced restlessly beneath his skin, the bond tugged at him again, insistent, electric, and agonizingly familiar, pulling him toward a destination his heart refused to name, but his instincts knew by heart.'You dropped the kid and ran,' Shadow rumbled, the voice in his head not unkind, but brutally honest. 'You know exactly where you’re going.'“I’m going to make this stop,” Ethan muttered, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. “Whatever this connection is, I'm ending it.”Shadow laughed, a low, knowing sound that vibrated in Ethan's chest. 'Liar.'He pulled up beneath the monolithic glass-and-steel tower of Voss Dynamics. Natasha Voss didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who ever left her work behind, so he found her still at the office. Security barely slowed him; in this city, his name opened doors with the same crushing force as his Alpha command.Natasha was a
Five Years LaterAurora Blackwood was a force of nature wrapped in curls and confidence. At five years old, she ruled both the pack and the human estate with absolute authority, an authority her father surrendered to gladly. She was too small to command the kind of attention she did, but there was something in her presence that bent rooms toward her. A sharp intelligence behind bright, observant eyes. A restless energy that never truly slept. Ethan had tried, at first, to be firm. To be an Alpha, not just a father but he failed spectacularly. Aurora had him wrapped around her little fingers so tightly the entire pack knew it. If she wanted a book, the library opened. If she wanted to sit in on meetings meant for seasoned warriors and corporate executives, she sat, on Ethan’s lap, no less, listening with frightening focus. If she wanted answers, the elders explained. And if she wanted a story before bed, the Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack canceled meetings without blinking. Ethan Black
The ICU doors slid open with a soft hiss. The room was dim, machines humming softly, their steady beeps was the only proof of life. Too quiet, too fragile. Ethan’s breath hitched the moment he saw her.Aurora lay impossibly small beneath a web of tubes and wires, her tiny chest rising unevenly. Her skin looked too pale, lips faintly tinged blue. Every alarmed instinct in him roared awake. His knees nearly gave out.Martha stopped just inside the doorway. “She’s been fighting,” she said gently. “But she’s tired.”Ethan stepped closer, slowly, as if any sudden movement might break her. His hands trembled at his sides.“So small,” he whispered.She stirred at the sound of his voice. Her lashes fluttered, dark eyes cracking open just a fraction. A weak sound slipped past her lips, not quite a cry, and not quite a breath.The monitors wavered. Ethan’s heart slammed painfully against his ribs.“Oh Goddess,” he breathed. “Aurora… I’m here.”He reached out, hesitating for a heartbeat before c
Ethan remained on the Infirmary floor for what felt like an eternity, sobbing as he cradled his newborn daughter. No one approached him. No one could. What should have been a joyous reunion had turned into something unbearably mournful.It wasn’t until noon the next day that Martha finally found the courage to approach him, and even then, only to sedate him. By that time, Aurora had cried herself hoarse and had to be gently but firmly pried from his arms so she could be fed and bathed.Ethan never stirred. Not even when they took her. The sedative dragged him under slowly, mercy wrapped in darkness.Ethan dreamed of her. Not as she had been in the infirmary still, pale, and slipping away, but as she always was in his memories. Laughing, sharp-tongued, eyes bright with mischief as she stole his shirts and curled against his side like she belonged there.When he woke, the world felt wrong. Too quiet, too empty. He doesn't remember ever getting back into his room, the bed beside him felt
The infirmary doors burst open as Liam barreled through them, shouting for everyone to clear the way. He didn’t slow until Susan snapped at him to stop, to lower her carefully. Ruby barely registered any of it.The lights were too bright. The room smelled sharp and sterile and wrong. Too many hands
Ethan didn’t even slow down as he strode through the hallway, scenting the familiar mixture of packmates, anxious, excited, relieved, and overwhelmingly curious. Half the pack was clustered outside the infirmary wing, spilling into the corridor, craning necks and rising onto their toes as soon as t
The fight between the two Alphas and Silas dragged on far longer than it should have. Despite the combined force of Ethan’s lethal precision and Damian’s ruthless efficiency, the hybrid moved like a creature engineered to survive anything. Every strike landed, but nothing seemed to truly hurt him.
Miles away, on the ridge overlooking the chaotic mine entrance, Damian had concluded his preparations.A group of grim-faced figures materialized from behind the thick shade of trees and shrubs. Joshua and his men had arrived. Joshua, a high-ranking vampire, looked impossibly bored, followed by tw







