LOGIN(Rene)Cole's been talking for ten minutes and I couldn't repeat one word of it."Alpha.""Border rotation. I heard you.""That was three items ago."I look up from the reports I haven't read.He's standing on the other side of my desk with the patient expression he saves for the days I'm being a problem."Say the rest again."He doesn't.He just studies me, and I let him, because snapping at him would confirm whatever he's already concluded."Late night," he says finally. Not a question."Careful.""Wasn't going anywhere with it."He sets the last report on the stack."Your father’s asking to see you. Maliyah's asked twice about the decorations for the hall when Brynn is crowned, and she wants input in the menu for the feast after. And the kitchen wants to know if the boy eats fish.""Why would I know what the boy eats?""You had breakfast with him twice this week."I did.The kid just shows up and looks at me like I’m his hero and refuses to be insulted by the number of times I’ve t
(Angelique)He doesn't ease into it.One thrust and he's fully seated inside me, and the stretch of him knocks the air clean out of my lungs, more sensation than pain, though there's some of that too.I’ve been empty for five years and it’s been weeks of him stopping before this exact second, every single time.He isn't stopping tonight.Finally.My wolf purrs, rising up from wherever she goes when she’s not arguing with me.Our mate.The words shake me to my core.What happens when he takes it all the way?The first time, when we were seventeen, the bond snapped into place, will this make it harder for him to reject me?If he sends me away Zack will be safe.The thought of never seeing him again is agony. But our son will live without this sword hanging over his head every day.It’s for the best if he banishes me.My thoughts scatter when he starts to move his hips. Pleasure eroding my ability to reason."Look at me," he says, voice wrecked in a way I've never heard out of him."Eyes
(Rene)Cole doesn’t ask who her is when I snarl, “Fetch her,” in passing.Mount your mate. Don't be a fool about the rest.The wolf’s been saying some version of that since I walked out of my father's study.Over and over, until it stopped sounding like advice and started sounding like an order I'd already decided to obey.She's in my doorway in under two minutes, like some animal part of her felt this coming before Cole even knocked on her door.The bond does that to her. I've quit pretending it doesn't do the same to me."Alpha.""Shut the door."She does, and stands where she always stands when I summon her here, hands loose at her sides, chin up, waiting to find out how harsh I’m going to be tonight."Two weeks before I crown Brynn as my Luna," I tell her."I heard. Maliyah made sure the whole house knows, and then Brynn came to tell me herself."I almost think I detect a note of bitterness in her voice.She has no right to it, but I feel the same way.“Then you also know what hap
(Rene)My father's sitting up in bed looking irritatingly well for a man who supposedly nearly died a few hours ago."Stress," the doctor said. "His heart's strong. Older wolves get like this under pressure."I don't buy it.I haven't bought it since I walked in and found him drinking tea instead of dying, but I don't have the energy tonight to work out which lie I'm looking at."You scared the house," I tell him."Good. Maybe it'll remind everyone I'm still alive and still owed some respect in it."That's as much of his sulking as I can handle.I leave him to his tea and go looking for the rest of the trap, because I already know there's more of it waiting.I find it in the study.Maliyah's chosen my father's chair to sit in, which tells me everything about how this conversation is going to go before she opens her mouth."Sit," she says."I prefer to stand. Last I checked this was still my house.""Suit yourself then."She folds her hands."Your father gave us all quite a fright toni
(Angelique)I'm still on his bed when he comes back.Hours, it feels like.Long enough that the ache between my legs went from sharp to a dull, furious throb.Long enough I gave up waiting and curled on my side facing the door like a dog that hasn't learned better.He stops in the doorway and looks at me still sitting exactly where he left me.Still naked.Something moves through his face too fast for me to name it."My father’s fine," he says."Stress. Indigestion. Nothing the doctor couldn't fix with a pill and a stern lecture.""Good," I say, and mean it, because whatever else Victor is, watching Rene's face when Cole said your father was its own kind of ugly.There’s no need for him to know what his father really is.He doesn't move from the door.I can feel him deciding something, the air gone thick with it, the bond pulling tight between us."Get up."I do.Slowly, because my body's still wrecked from earlier.Every nerve still raw and waiting, and the look on his face when he w
(Maliyah)"You want me to do what?"Victor's voice is too loud for the hour.I shut the door behind me before answering him."Clutch your chest. Go gray in the face. Fall, if you can manage it without breaking a hip."He bares his teeth at me for the hip jab."I am not feigning a heart attack to suit your scheduling.""You're going to feign it to suit mine, because right now your son is locked in a room with that damn woman, and every minute that door stays shut is a minute closer to him doing something neither of us can undo. Or have you decided you’d be happy with a reconciliation?"That gets him.His jaw works the way it always does when he's deciding whether to fight me or fold.He folds.He nearly always folds, eventually, which is partly why I stopped poisoning him.The one thing he would never give me was the position of Luna.It’s the most important thing truth be told, but I still have some use for him."Cole may run to the doctor rather than interrupt Rene’s liason. Waiting
(Angelique)I'm half into my clothes before Cole finishes the sentence.Shirt inside out. I don't fix it."How long?""Minutes."He’s avoiding looking at me.Guilt or fear of what Rene’s reaction would be. It doesn’t matter."He was right on my heels. I turned for one second."Rene's already off th
(Angelique)The door opens without a knock, and I know before I turn around that something's different tonight.He's been cold for days.Controlled.Touching me like it's a favor he's choosing not to do.Not tonight.Tonight he crosses the room like he's come to collect a debt."Take it off," he sa
(Rene)The Murphys are already on their feet when I close the distance to her."Get out," I say without turning my head. "Now."The bell rings, leaving us alone in the room.She is shaking.Mine. Protect. Claim. Take her. Mark her.I push my wolf down, warning him to be quiet. Angelique is shaking
(Angelique) Five years ago, I ran away from my mate.I was pregnant, terrified, and convinced leaving was the only way to protect my child.Now I'm twenty-six years old, living in a rundown trailer in a human town that doesn't know werewolves exist. I work double shifts at a diner, hide my scent w







