LOGINMy gaze sweeps across the courtyard, taking in the faces, the laughter, and the sense of peace that still feels surreal.And then my eyes find her.Xena.I can’t bring myself to call her Lola, just as she can’t bring herself to call me Sadie. To everyone else, we are Lola and Sadie but to each other
“Sadie?” Alec murmurs gently beside me, voice low and coaxing. “You ready?”I turn, and he’s there, exactly where he’s always been. Tall, steady, eyes soft in a way I once thought I’d never be on the receiving end of. He’s holding our son in his arms, swaddled in a light silver blanket that shimmers
He already knows. He always does.“Ready?” I say quietly, though everyone hears me.“Definitely… Been waiting to make you officially mine for months,” he says, earning a chuckle from everyone.Slowly, he puts Aspen down, who is smiling from ear to ear.We told her the truth, that Alec is her dad, an
The night is quiet. Not the tense quiet that comes before war, not the brittle silence of grief but a living stillness, deep and steady, like the world has finally exhaled.It has been a month since the battle. A month since blood stained this land. A month since Kaden fell. A month since I learned
Kaden sees it too late. He lunges, but we are faster.I raise my hand and time stops and light pours from me in radiant waves. Lola steps forward, shadows trailing her like smoke. Light and shadow coil around us, not fighting, but circling, choosing. The air thickens, charged, every particle vibrat
The guilt is suffocating. It crawls up my throat like it wants to rip me apart from the inside.This isn’t how it was meant to be. This isn’t how it was meant to end. Kaden wasn’t supposed to win.I wipe away the tears. No! I refuse to let her die.I feel something crack open in my chest at my deter
Again, he doesn’t reply, but I see a small shift in his eyes. He’s an Alpha. A leader. Of course, he wouldn’t be okay hiding while others sacrificed their lives.“It doesn’t sit well with me… I just want to protect you.”Something softens in my heart and I feel something warm uncurling within me. I
“We haven’t confirmed she’s Nyx’s sister,” I reminded him. “That’s just a theory.”“Yeah,” Jason said. “But it feels right. I can’t explain it. I can’t stop thinking of her that way.”He wasn’t wrong. The moment the idea got rooted in my mind, it made sense. There were no coincidences. Everything po
“I’m not trying to win you back because of Calvin,” she said, her voice steadier now. “I’m here because I miss you, Sadie. I miss my best friend.”And then, just like that, she turned and walked away—rushing out of the library before I could even respond.She hadn’t waited for forgiveness.Just like
His words stopped anything I was going to say. I gaped at him, unable to say a single word as everything inside me felt like it just froze.I stared in wonder as he shot up from his chair and started pacing the room. He seemed so agitated that I could almost feel my heart stopping for a second and w







