LOGINErianna. Wednesday. 3rd March, two days later… The Juicy Gourd, Brooklyn. Night. My fucking phone rings incessantly on the table beside me. I know who’s calling. Arthur. But I ignore his stupid calls and focus on what Riley is currently spewing from his mouth. We’re seated at The Juicy Gourd restaurant in Brooklyn. An exclusive place reserved for the high and noble. I’m supposed to be here with Arthur. I remember last night. “Let’s have dinner, Erianna. I miss spending time with you.” He whined. I rolled my eyes over the phone, already bored. “Arthur, I’m a busy woman. And sometimes I can’t spend all my time with my boy toys now, can I?” I said, dripping sarcasm. He paused. Maybe my words stung. Maybe he needed a second to recover. “I know that. Yet, I choose to spend my own time with you.” His voice dropped, quieter. Steadier. I had no rejoinder. “I will be seeing you at The Juicy Gourd tomorrow for dinner. Call me when you get there. Or I call you.” And he ended the ca
Scar. I kiss her like she’s my life source. I kiss her like she’s everything. Because she is. My everything. The memory of Rattle and my mum’s other minions who attacked Asher and me earlier tonight, threatens to surface. But I shove it down. I bury it. I even bury the story I told back there. “We...we were overpowered… I had no idea who they were.” A lie. A lie that still burns my throat, even now as I kiss Emerald. “Emerald…” I mumble against her lips. Her tongue trails along my lower lip, slow, dragging, teasing. I smile at the action. She rocks her hips against the ridge of these pants someone brought up for me earlier. God, it’s like there’s never a shortage of spare clothing in this mansion. My fingers slip beneath her cardigan, rubbing over her bare skin. She arches into me, moaning deeply. “Why did you walk away?” I ask, my breath fanning over her now exposed left breast. Her movements slow. Just a little. “It was all too much…” she mutters quietly. “I felt like I
Scar. Rattle's voice. I know that voice. I will always know that voice. I turn slowly, one vampire’s head still locked between my jaws. A low growl rumbles out of me as I catch sight of three werewolves flanking him. How did he find me? How did Mum know I’m alive if no one returned from that mission? I toss the vampire aside like a rag doll. Blood hisses from him, my venom already eating through his system. “How did you find me?” I growl. Rattle keeps his distance, carefully. Always careful. “Were you trying to run away from home?” He teases. Fucker always teases. And I always ignore him. He shakes his head, a cruel grin spreading across his lips. “Riley sent intel. They found out you were alive after your injector turned up in the evidence room. So your furious mamma sent us here.” My gaze flicks to Asher, hoping he doesn't hear all this. His chest rises evenly, but his eyes are closed. His wound, it’s bad. Too much blood. My pants come out heavily as I shift my focus
Scar. Later. Night. Music spins from the party at the Ford premises, just a few steps behind us. It curls through the trees, bleeding into the clearing where we’re stationed for patrol. Asher ordered a few of us to stand guard tonight because of the lumbermen’s party happening at the mansion. The others are scattered across different borders of the pack’s territory. Everyone alert. The cold seeps in. Snow slowly melting beneath our boots and around us. Darkness surrounds us like a heavy blanket, thick and suffocating, while night creatures sing their endless songs. But it’s not the darkness, not the creatures. It’s what happened today. That’s what makes this night sit heavy inside my chest. The memory detonates again. Earlier today, after I rescued Primrose. After I hypnotized that man. After I walked away from Emerald. I needed space. Needed silence. Needed to face my wolf, to question him, to understand what the hell was happening to me, without anyone knowing what I truly wa
Scar. Our eyes lock for just a nanosecond, before I move. I press her close to me and leap us off the moving car, so fast. Just before the delivery truck crashes into it. Metal slams. The sound rips through the air behind us. I land on the concrete, legs steady, still standing, with Primrose cradled in my arms, protectively. When I look down at her, concern claws through me, my heart beating so fast I can hear it. Badoom. Badoom. She’s watching me. Just like I’m watching her. Her eyes, as I lean closer, familiar. Yet, unfamiliar. “Are you alright?” I ask quietly. My wolf stirs restlessly inside me. Pacing. Keening. I don’t know why. I don’t understand it. I try to settle it. But no. She nods quietly. Her fingers lift, reaching for my face, trailing soft, quiet touches along the lines of my skin. Warmth. Joy. It all spreads through me, spiraling like tiny sparks beneath my skin. I don’t recoil. I don’t pull away. Instead, I shut my eyes at the contact. And inside me, my w
Emerald. Later. “Alpha, there was a reason your father, the late Alpha, separated our borders from the vampire borders. And now you announce that you want those borders open, so there can be freedom between both worlds?” Elder Elreich, one of the werewolf elders, expresses irritably. I ignore his tone and fix him with a stern look. “Yes, Elder Elreich. You’re absolutely right. My father ruled that world. I won’t.” I say calmly, voice controlled despite the anger simmering inside me. I just arrived this meeting, after my shift at the hospital. And now these old men choose to question me rather than believe in me. “With all due respect, Alpha,” Mane, the representative the vampires sent over, cuts in quietly. Our gazes turn to him as he sits with the other two vampires who accompanied him. “It would really be an honor if both our worlds can coexist, like it happens in other towns.” He pauses, watching me carefully. “But if this would cause another war between us, like it did w
Emerald. Wednesday, 27th January. Days later... Noon. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound cuts through the hospital’s central alarm system, tearing my eyes away from the report I’d been writing moments ago. Every nerve in my body sharpens instantly. “Emergency, Doctor Ford! Cold Blue in cubi
Scar. Brooklyn. Saturday, January 30th. Next day. Night. “So you’re telling me that we still can’t solve the series of abductions that have occurred in recent days.” Chief Piefer snaps. His voice rings through the room, sharp and cracking. His face is flushed red with anger. We’re cooped up i
Emerald. Meanwhile. I reach inside my old room upstairs and halt. “Shit. I forgot my phone on my swing.” I groan out loud, already turning, already heading straight back for the door. I’m halfway down the stairs when I freeze. A voice reaches me. Arthur? No. That’s not possible. What the he
Emerald. Friday, 29th January. Next day. Morning. I park the car in front of the Denvers’ home. A white blanket of snow covers the entire ground like a second skin. It must have snowed sometime in the night. Dad’s voice from yesterday about the weather forecast, filters into my memory. “The for







