LOGINRyan's POV
She didn't see me.
That's what I told myself, standing in the rain at 02:00 with the phone against my ear and my face tipped up to their window. The curtain was up. An inch or so. Then it fell still.
She'd seen me. I smiled anyway.
"Is that her?" Oscar's voice crackled down the line. "Is she watching?"
"No."
"You're lying."
"Maybe." I wiped the rain from my jaw. "Does it matter?"
“Everything matters, Tay
Sloane's POVThree days. I'd counted them like coins.On the third night I sat on my bed with my wrist turned up under the lamp, staring at the dates I'd inked there and washed off and inked again. T., 3 April. T., 3 May. T., 3 June.I knew who they went to on paper. I still didn't know who was holding out a hand.I hadn't found page seven. I hadn't found Bernard. I hadn't found one thing I could carry home.Oscar had smiled at me across three dinners, and every smile felt like a hand closing slowly.Time's up,Lucien said, quiet in my head.I know.The car's at the gate.I'm not ready.I know that too.A long pause. Sloane. Ask me for what you want.I closed my eyes. More time.Then I want something back.What?You. Tonight.His voice dropped, rough and low.
Lucien's POVI felt her fall before I heard her scream.Eleven minutes later I was standing in the mud at the border with my ribs on fire and Vince's hand flat against my chest."You cross that line," he said, "and Oscar gets what he wants. A war, and a reason.""She was hanging off a balcony.""She's alive. You felt it. She's alive."I had felt it. Her terror had gone through me like a blade, and after it, the pulse of her, still gasping, was still there. Then the thin, shaking calm she'd forced on herself so she could talk to me.I'm fine. Emma caught me. I'm fine.That was five hours ago, and I was still at the tree line with my hands shaking.I'd camped there since sunset. A truck, a cold thermos, and six wolves in the dark behind me. Every few minutes her fear spiked again, small and sharp, and every time I took a step toward the wall before I'd decided to."Come home," 
Sloane's POVReport.At noon, while I was feigning reading in the sunroom, his voice slipped into my head. I didn't flinch again. I had been taught to be still and silent and let the bond do the talking.Good morning to you as well.It's afternoon. Report, munchkin.Oscar appeared at the elder court at nine. Bella is trying to sleep off her guilt. The study is empty until four, Hannah says.And the ledger?Back in his cabinet. Untouched. I didn't eat it either.I turned a page I hadn't read. He wants me to.A pause. I heard him thinking; he was grim and quiet.Then don't,he said. Not yet. I have news.Good or bad?Carl's moved.My breath caught.He's in Blackstone's hospital wing as of ten this morning. He has the best pulmonologist in the territory. Vince signed t
Ryan's POVShe didn't see me.That's what I told myself, standing in the rain at 02:00 with the phone against my ear and my face tipped up to their window. The curtain was up. An inch or so. Then it fell still.She'd seen me. I smiled anyway."Is that her?" Oscar's voice crackled down the line. "Is she watching?""No.""You're lying.""Maybe." I wiped the rain from my jaw. "Does it matter?"“Everything matters, Taylor; that's how I've lived this long,” he said.I hung up before he could say anything else and stood there for a minute longer, feeling the cold seep into my bones. Lucien's wife lay in his arms. His ribs were broken, and he held her, but they hurt.He always has his wish, and he always has his wish without asking for it.We climbed out of that window when I was fourteen years old. A council meeting, one of his father's. Lucien said he would prefer to chew glass. So w
Sloane's POV"Three days," Lucien said at the gate. "Emma doesn't leave your side.""I know.""If I feel so much as a headache—""You'll burn the house down. I remember." I pressed my palm flat against his chest, over the strapping. "I'm not going back because you sent me, Lucien. I'm going because I want to."His jaw flexed. "Partner.""Partner, not weapon."He kissed me in front of two sentinels and didn't care. Then I got in the car, and the gates of Blackstone closed behind me, and the bond stretched thin and warm and held.Moonlight looked the same. The windows watched me all the way up the drive.Oscar was waiting on the steps."Sloane." He took both my hands. "Thank God. I heard about the accident at the lake. Terrible, terrible thing. Brake failure, they tell me. Those old roads."Accident.I made my face go soft and wet. "I was so scared.""Of course you were." His thumb patted my knuckles. "Come inside. You're home."Home. I smiled until my cheeks hurt.Bella came down the s
Sloane's POVNobody spoke.Rain dripped from Ryan's hair onto the rug. He didn't wipe it away."Emma must have been watched," he said at last. "Someone saw her go to that stone. It's the only way it could have been emptied.""Who knew about the drop?" Lucien asked."You. Me. Vince. Emma." Ryan's jaw worked. "And Sloane."He said my name gently, like he was handing it back to me.I said nothing. I sat on the edge of the bed with the stitches pulling at my hairline and watched his hands. They were still. Too still for a man bringing bad news at midnight."I'll find out who did it," Ryan said. "Give me two days."Lucien nodded slowly. The strapping under his shirt made him hold himself like a man carrying something that might spill. "Thank you, Ryan.""Don't thank me yet.""I'm thanking you anyway. You didn't have to come out in this."Ryan smiled. "Where else would I be?"His eyes came to me one last time. "Get some sleep, Luna. You've earned it."The door clicked shut.I counted his fo
Sloane's POVHis chest heaved upwards and took a lot of time heaving downwards. Tonight, I wasn't Sloane,the naive girl who wrote a letter to her crush. I was Sloane, the contract wife of Lucien. His cock stood erect between his thighs,the veins pulsed quickly with each breath he took and one thoug
Sloane's pov.I gasped when Lucien swept me off the floor, placing me on the bed. He didn't lean away from me and his face was dangerously close that I was forced to gulp.His body was pressed against my naked boobs and his hand reached out to my back. I subconsciously arched away from the bed, let
Sloane's pov.They say Omegas’ don't matter. They reminded us that we are nothing. Thus, someone like me can't dream to be with someone like Lucien. What he did to me back in college also confirmed it.Omegas' like me are treated like we don't belong and I've been made to live with that truth every
Sloane's pov.A knock on Dad's study was all it took. I didn't wait for permission before I twisted the doorknob and pushed the door open.Dad was seated on the swivel chair, his hand tapping slowly on the desk. “You really want to do this?” I stopped in front of him and asked.Our eyes locked an







