로그인I know I’m going to get a lecture for this. Alec won’t be happy that I left the villa, but he’ll get over it. And Chesed… well, I’m not sure which he’ll be angrier about. Me leaving the villa or driving his car. Either way, he can shove it. I’m not some helpless damsel.
I have Light, and well, if what she did to Silvano is even a fraction of her power, I’m going to say me, and the baby is in good hands.
‘I will do my best to keep you and the pup safe. However, I cannot u
New chapters are posted Monday-Saturday. Well, let's kick off this these final chapters with a double day! Tuesday and Wednesday will be Epilogues!
Crista climbed into my lap, and I forgot how to breathe. Not because of desire, though that was there. It was always there with her, simmering beneath my skin, threaded through my blood, tempting Chesed toward the surface with every breath she took. But this was different. This was not heat or hunger alone. This was my mate placing herself in my arms after a weekend full of grief, memory, children, ghosts, and love so sharp it had cut us both open. The frame rested beside me on the bed, moonlight catching the tiny charms she’d attached beneath the photo. A crescent moon. A sun. Gwen and Christina. Light and Darkness. My daughters’ birthmarks. My mate’s thoughtfulness had always been dangerous, but this gutted me in silence. All four of my children stared back from the photo. Katrina steady and fierce, André dramatic even in stillness, Gwen and Christina asleep against me as if I had been built for softness. I had not been. Not by my parents. Not by fate. Not by the Darkness sleep
The villa became too quiet after everyone left. Not silent. Silence was impossible with two-month-old twins in the house who seemed to believe sleep was a personal insult and digestion was a battle strategy. But quiet settled differently once Katrina and Tie returned to Nebrodi and André swept Darren and Lando back toward Madonie in a cloud of dramatic goodbyes, blown kisses, and threats to return if Papa dared miss him too much. Alec had stood on the front steps while they left, Gwen tucked against his chest, Christina asleep in my arms. He did not wave like a normal person. Of course he didn’t. He stood there in black, broad and still, looking every inch the terrifying Alpha of Incubi while holding an infant with a milk-drunk face pressed to his shoulder. André had shouted something ridiculous from the car about Papa needing to use the mug every morning, or he’d file emotional damages, and Alec had threatened to ban him from the villa. The mug was already in his office. I had s
I announced myself before anyone had the privilege of witnessing me. That wasn’t vanity. That was public service. “Brace yourselves, darlings,” I called from the front steps, my tone bright enough to scare birds from nearby trees. “Father’s Day has officially improved because Papa’s favorite son has arrived.” Darren sighed beside me with the fond exhaustion of a man who had accepted his fate and resigned himself to it. Lando, however, looked up at me like I had personally hung the sun, which only proved the child had excellent taste. “You are Nonno Alec’s only son,” Lando said, his tone confused but supportive. I patted his shoulder. “Details, piccolo principe. Never let facts ruin a good entrance,” I said solemnly. My entrance deserved drama. It was June. Pride Month. My outfit was not merely clothing. It was a declaration of war against beige. I wore fitted white trousers, glossy black boots, a sheer black shirt beneath a cropped blazer embroidered with tiny rainbow-threa
The D’Amore Alpha villa should not have looked softer. I knew every curve of that house. Every polished stone step. Every arched window. Every long hallway where pack members learned to lower their eyes before my papa even entered the room. I grew up inside those walls, between danger and luxury, between André’s dramatic bullshit and Papa’s silence. The villa had always been beautiful, yes, but never gentle. Today, it looked like babies had attacked it and won. Tie parked near the front drive, his hand still resting over mine from the ride out of Nebrodi. The morning sun warmed the villa’s pale exterior, catching on the balconies and the terracotta roof, turning the place gold around the edges. It should have felt like coming home to the Alpha of Incubi’s seat of power. Instead, I could see a tiny pink blanket hanging over the back of a chair through the front window. I blinked. Tie followed my gaze, and his mouth twitched with amusement. “Your papa has been conquered,” T
Nebrodi didn’t feel like a ghost today. I wasn’t sure when that had changed. It wasn’t the first time I’d been back since the war ended. We’d come for meetings, memorials, ceremonies, and dinners with Katrina and Tie. We’d been here on Mother’s Day too, when Alec insisted we visit Mamma’s grave and Crista pretended she hadn’t needed him to say it first. But today, after the cemetery, after Persephone finally broke apart beside Papa’s headstone, after Alec placed flowers there like he had any right and somehow made it feel like he did, Nebrodi felt different. Or maybe I did. I wandered away from the main house while the others settled inside. Crista needed to feed Gwen and Christina, and Alec had gone with her because, apparently, the most feared Alpha in Sicily had appointed himself personal guardian of burp cloths, bottles, and his exhausted mate’s sanity. Persephone had disappeared somewhere to pretend she wasn’t crying anymore. She was terrible at pretending. I knew because
I woke before the sun, already frustrated with the world. My room in the D’Amore Alpha villa was larger than any back in Nebrodi, filled with polished furniture and a balcony I seldom used. Looking out over Incubi reminded me I was living someone else’s life, someone luckier and less broken. Despite telling Delilah and Crista I wouldn’t go today, I’d picked out my clothes like a coward: black cargo pants and a dark gray shirt. My shoes were still by the bed, and my hair was a tangled mess, as if I’d fought a war in my dreams. Maybe I always did. ‘You’re going,’ my wolf, Sara, said softly, not mocking me for once in the short month I’d had her. ‘I didn’t say I wasn’t,’ I snapped back in my head. ‘You told everyone you weren’t,’ she reminded me, gentle as a knife slid under ribs. I sat up and glared at the wardrobe like it had personally offended me. Today was Saturday. Tomorrow was Father’s Day. Papa’s first Father’s Day in the ground instead of at the table. Instead of gr
Chesed really needs to learn to stay out of it when it comes to Crista. He just seems to get us in more trouble. ‘It isn’t just me, though. You did threaten her sister with letting me discipline her. I mean, I’m fully on board with that, but still. Don’t put this a
Seriously, what in the name of the Goddess is wrong with me? I told him as we were getting into the elevator to not get any ideas. I fully intended to keep my distance from him. Yet in that small enclosed space, all I
As we entered the lower level, the path was clear to the only person in a cell, Santi. I rarely have to put a pack member down here, but he crossed a line last night. Even if Crista hadn’t turned out to be my mate, he still crossed a line. And he’d still have ended
The patrol office looked new, well newer than the town hall. It was undoubtedly built in a different era, even if some of the architecture tried to stay with the same old-world charm of other buildings we passed in town. “How long ago was the patrol office built?”







