LOGINAustin grabbed a liquor bottle off the table, his joints popping with a subtle, lethal crack. The second those men lunged, he dashed forward. His movement was so fast that he almost turned himself into a flash.
As the bottle hit the heads of those men, heavy thuds echoed throughout the room. They shouted in agony and fell to the ground one by one.
Tabitha sat perfectly still, watching the scene play out. Austin was a top assassin, and a barroom brawl was too simple for him to ha
Tabitha watched Austin drive away. The second his lingering scent, the one she found utterly repulsive, vanished from the air, her smile dropped from her face. Her gaze turned ice-cold, enough to make anyone shudder. There was a dark glint in the depths of her pupils."Austin... You really think you can get away from what you've done before?" she hissed through gritted teeth.She turned around, her silhouette slowly dissolving into the heavy snow.As she pushed open the front door, a wave of warmth hit her instantly. Along with it came the scent of cedar. It was so dominant, fiery, and fiercely aggressive. For an instant, she knew it was Derek. But somehow, it had turned sharp and pungent, and he was radiating pure jealousy.Derek's large hand shot out, yanking her into his arms and slamming her against his chest, which felt like solid iron. His breath was hot against her skin. He growled, "I was only away for one day, and you come home covered in another
Austin grabbed a liquor bottle off the table, his joints popping with a subtle, lethal crack. The second those men lunged, he dashed forward. His movement was so fast that he almost turned himself into a flash.As the bottle hit the heads of those men, heavy thuds echoed throughout the room. They shouted in agony and fell to the ground one by one.Tabitha sat perfectly still, watching the scene play out. Austin was a top assassin, and a barroom brawl was too simple for him to handle.As for Tabitha, she had staged this chaos for a reason: to give him the chance to play the hero. That way, her "falling" for him would make perfect sense.It didn't take long. Austin left the group in a heap on the floor. He grabbed Tabitha by the wrist, his voice a low growl."Move! Now!"They bolted out the back door.As a killer who lived in the shadows, his instinct was always to vanish as soon as possible.The midnight wind whipped through the
Tabitha sat in the dim bar waiting for Austin. A slim cigarette was dangling from her fingers. Smoke swirled around her.She was quiet and radiated a lethal scent of cold rose and dangerous musk, which made every man in the room on edge.They tried to drift closer, catching her scent, but Tabitha's soft yet razor-sharp scent kept them at bay.Except for one drunk man.Perhaps he had too much to drink that his senses turned dull for the moment and failed to receive the warnings she was giving off.He leaned in, stinking of sweat, reaching for her.Tabitha's brow twitched. Without looking at him, she ground her lit cigarette directly into the back of the man's hand."You're wasted," she asked with a sweet smile. For a split second, her pupils flashed into vertical slits in the low light. "Let me help you clear your head."A scream tore through the music. The drunk yanked his hand back, roaring, "You bitch! You burned me!"
With Derek personally handling Lucian's safety, the weight finally lifted from Tabitha's chest. She knew Derek's influence in Seattle; if he wanted to hide someone, even the Lycan's tracking abilities could not sniff them out.Lucian's wounds remained critical. The through-and-through trauma from silver-tipped rounds was a grueling war of attrition, even for a werewolf with elite regenerative powers.Tabitha didn't allow herself a moment of rest.For an entire week, she hadn't checked on Daphne, but the Amber Eyes Pack had followed her medical orders to the letter: Daphne was to be submerged for hours every day in a scalding, specialized medicinal bath.The treatment was brutal. The caustic ointment caused Daphne's legs to break out in dense clusters of translucent blisters. These were then systematically punctured, and a raw, skin-regenerating paste Tabitha had formulated was applied over the weeping sores. It was a vicious cycle of agony—new wound
"So, from the very start, your goal was to get close to me. You wanted to use me to find Derek's weakness and kill him. That 'sworn enemy' you always talked about... It was him, wasn't it?" Tabitha's voice was clear in the quiet room."Yes," Lucian replied flatly. "Do you regret meeting me? Do you regret letting your pups stay with a calculating assassin?"To his surprise, Tabitha let out a long, heavy sigh. Her tense shoulders finally slumped—not out of defeat, but with the visible ease of someone having a weight lifted off their chest."No. Actually, I've been feeling uneasy for a long time. I couldn't understand why you were so good to me for no reason. In our world, unconditional kindness usually comes with a hidden price tag," Tabitha admitted with a wry smile. "I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, thinking you wanted something from me. But you were so gentle with the kids, and you protected me with everything you had. I couldn't square that wit
At the Rios family's place, Bentley let out a feral roar, sweeping every document and antique ornament off his desk in one violent motion. "How the hell does Lucian just vanish? Are you all idiots? Is your sense of smell broken?!""Please, Alpha, calm down," a man stuttered, head bowed low. "He took multiple silver-tipped rounds. Even if he managed to crawl away, there's no way he would survive those wounds. He's as good as dead. You don't need to worry.""Dead? Then where's the body?!" Bentley grabbed the man by his collar, his eyes bloodshot. "Cyrus is a goddamn bloodhound, and he's already sniffing around me. If he finds Lucian first, I'm finished!"For the time being, he and Derek were only suspects. Lucian was the link—the only witness who could testify that Bentley had plotted the hit on the Lycan. Bentley had sent his men to scour every gutter and shadow in Seattle, but they saw no sign of him at all. This loss of control was a cold knot of dread in







