LOGINAlejandroI was halfway through reviewing a software architecture proposal when my phone exploded with notifications. One after another. Messages...Emails...Missed calls.Even the encrypted executive group chat that usually remained silent except during emergencies had erupted into chaos. I frowned. "...What happened?" Zenith looked up from the couch, where Caelan slept peacefully against her chest. "Everything okay?""I have no idea."I unlocked my phone. The first message came from Olivia, ArdentWolf's Chief Operations Officer.OLIVIA: Boss... before you get angry... please read the article first.A bad beginning. The second message came from Marcus, Head of Global Security.MARCUS: Please don't fire the Public Relations department until we've explained ourselves.I closed my eyes. "They're definitely in trouble." Zenith tried very hard not to laugh. "You haven't even read it yet.""I know my employees." I tapped the link. The article opened instantly. For several seconds...I simpl
AlejandroLately, the Haven awakens long before sunrise. Not because of an emergency. Because thirty people had collectively decided that sleeping was somehow less important than checking whether Caelan was still asleep.Zenith looked up from where she sat on the oversized sofa in the villa's family room, gently rocking our son in her arms. "You'd think he was made of glass." I glanced toward the doorway. Jax had appeared for the third time in less than an hour.The moment he realized Zenith had noticed him, he cleared his throat. "I was... passing.""You don't pass the nursery three times in forty minutes," Lucien observed from his place near the fireplace. "I lost my way." Lucien looked around the open-plan living room. "...In the same hallway?"Jax frowned. "The Haven has become bigger.""It hasn't.""It feels bigger."Koa burst into laughter. "The poor man just wants to see the baby." Jax looked thoroughly offended. "I have seen the baby.""You've inspected him like a guard check
AlejandroThe first sound I heard was not an alarm.Not a warning from the wards.Not Inferno’s voice echoing through my mind. It was a tiny, indignant squeak from the bassinet beside our bed. I opened one eye. Darkness still clung to the room, the digital clock on the nightstand reading 4:17 a.m.Zenith didn’t move. Caelan squeaked again, apparently offended that the world had not responded quickly enough. I carefully slipped out of bed, trying not to wake Zenith. The attempt lasted approximately three seconds.“You’re doing the thing,” she murmured without opening her eyes.“What thing?”“The ‘I’m being very quiet’ thing.”“I am being quiet.”“You bumped the dresser.”“I barely touched it.”She smiled sleepily and pulled the blanket higher around her shoulders. "Take your son.”I lifted Caelan from the bassinet. He immediately settled against my chest, blinking up at me with the solemn expression newborns somehow manage despite having existed for only a few days.“There,” I whispere
AlejandroBy sunrise, the conference room had transformed into something that looked less like the headquarters of a supernatural alliance and more like the operations center of a high-end research team.Three laptops were open across the walnut table. A large digital display covered one wall, showing satellite imagery of the Sierra Nevada. Another screen displayed historical maps Eamon had painstakingly digitized over the years. Coffee cups outnumbered notebooks.Koa insisted that was how all important discoveries were made. Lucien insisted that was how keyboards died. Kael was already taking apart one of the Haven's drones. "You just bought those.""They'll fly better.""They already fly.""They'll fly better." Lucien sighed. "I have learned not to ask."The stone tablet from Plot Thirteen rested in the center of the table. Months ago, Zenith had asked Kael and Caius to retrieve it from the overgrown land beside the villa. She hadn't known why. She had simply... felt that it belonge
AlejandroThe first official council meeting since Caelan's birth felt... different. Not because the threat had disappeared. Because it hadn't. The Hollow Arc was still out there, moving through forgotten places, searching for something it had lost. But for the first time since this war began, we weren't reacting to disaster. We were planning for tomorrow and that alone felt like progress.The conference room on the villa's ground floor slowly filled as everyone arrived. Not a throne room or a war chamber. Just a modern conference room with a long walnut table, comfortable leather chairs, two large digital displays mounted on the walls, and windows overlooking the pine-covered mountains beyond the Haven's wards.Coffee appeared before people did. Koa carried two mugs. Lucien looked at them suspiciously. "Did you make those?""I did."Lucien reached for bottled water instead. "I value my continued existence.""I've improved.""So has modern medicine."Esme snorted into her coffee.Zeni
AlejandroThe Haven had developed a strange habit. Every time we started believing life might remain peaceful for another day...The outside world remembered we existed.My phone vibrated just as I finished helping Kael and Caius replace the final security panel along the northern perimeter. The caller ID made me pause. Nathan Brooks. Head of Security of my New York subsidiary. I hadn't spoken to him in nearly three weeks.I answered. "Nathan." There was a brief silence before he replied. "...Boss." I smiled faintly. "You only call me 'boss' when something's wrong.""I was hoping you'd forgotten that.""I haven't." He sighed. "We've got a situation."Twenty minutes later, I sat in the Haven's conference room with my laptop open. Nathan appeared on the large screen. He looked exhausted. Behind him, the familiar skyline of Manhattan stretched beyond the office windows. It felt like another lifetime."You look terrible," I said."I've been saying the same thing about you since the baby wa
Zenith's POVThe morning light spills through the tall windows in soft slants, brushing across the wooden floor with a golden warmth that feels nothing short of sacred. I blink against the glow and stretch beneath the thick, fluffy covers. For a moment, I forget where I am.Then I hear it, the wind
Alejandro’s POVI know what fire smells like. It is in the air when Zenith is close. Thick, sweet, and maddening. The scent of blooming desire, unfiltered and raw, clings to her like wild jasmine and warm honey, and the longer she stays wrapped around me like that, the more I feel like I am slowly
Zenith's POVI swear I am not obsessed. I am just… committed, a little bit more thorough and highly efficient. Just like any good student.Okay, fine, maybe I am just a tad bit too desperate. But after that kiss... that all consuming kiss, I knew I had crossed the line from mildly curious to fully
Alejandro's POVI close the door quietly behind me. Her scent still lingers in the air, soft vanilla, a hint of jasmine, and something else…something wilder now that the seal is broken. The sweet magic of the healer's bloodline. The pull between us has only intensified, like a taut string pulled ne







