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
Her shriek echoes through the dungeon, but it doesn’t faze Sadie and neither does it faze me.“Alec!” Lola cries. “How can you allow this? How can you let her treat me like this?”“Why should I care?” I say flatly. “You brought this on yourself when you lied.”She stops struggling. Her eyes widen, f
I walk out of the dungeon with blood drying on my hands and a hurricane twisting in my chest.The interrogation gave me nothing. Nothing but more questions. Nothing but more rage. Nothing but more pressure sitting squarely on my ribs like a stone trying to crack them open.I wipe my hands on my pant
By the time I leave the dungeon, my pulse is still thrumming with leftover power, my fingers trembling from the effort it took not to rip every answer out of Lola by force, but seeing her, I know that wouldn’t have done shit.The look in her eyes still bothers me. I can feel something is wrong deep
The room goes still the second I step inside. The air changes, thickening with unease.“A–Alpha,” one of them stammers.I stare at them, letting the silence stretch. “Since you all seem to have nothing better to do than gossip about your Luna…” I pause, voice dropping low, dangerous. “You can run ar







