LOGINSAGE The moment dinner ended, I reached for the plates without thinking, well it's a habit I was used to.My fingers barely brushed the edge of the dish when a hand closed around my wrist.“No.” I looked up to see Knight standing beside me, towering, his expression unreadable. “I just want to take these plates off,” I said softly, already trying to pull back.His hold tightened just enough to make the message clear. “You don’t do that here.”He released me and turned away at the sound of his phone vibrating. The glow from the screen reflected briefly in his eyes before his face hardened.“I need to take this,” he said. “Don’t move.”Then he was gone, his steps heavy against the floor.I exhaled slowly, only realizing then that I had been holding my breath.Tracy leaned against the table, arms crossed, watching me with an expression I couldn’t read. Then her lips curved into a small smile.“This is the first time I have seen my brother eat properly,” she said.I froze, fingers still
KNIGHT POV(Fenris… Fenris…)My beast kept chanting it in my head like some overly excited pup, and honestly, it was becoming painfully annoying.(She named me. She named me. She named me!) He repeated, practically dancing in my skull.I pressed my fingers against my forehead. “Can you stop singing?”(Never. She called me Fenris, it's a beautiful name.)This was the first time I had ever allowed anyone to give my beast a name. I thought it would annoy me or make me feel weak. Instead, I felt… strangely whole. Balanced just like her voice was still echoing inside my chest.The memory of her face when she whispered the name kept replaying itself and my beast replayed it a hundred times louder.(Do you think she will say it again? Maybe whisper it? Maybe scream it?)“Shut up,” I muttered.My door swung open and Brian poked his head in, wearing the exact expression I wanted to punch.“Alpha…” he started, grinning ear to ear. “The future Luna calls for you to come eat.”A ridiculous warmth
SAGE POV“Knight!” I shouted, running after him. My feet slapped against the hallway floor, but he didn’t slow down. He just kept walking, I can't help but wonder how he would just give that order for them to be killed, I can't just sit and watch. I needed to do something but he isn't even giving me the chance.“Stop walking! You can’t kill them!” My voice cracked as I chased after him. “They have lives!”“Knight!” I screamed again, breath burning in my chest. “If you want me to be your Luna, then you should listen to me too!”That stopped him, and just like that, his entire body froze. I skidded to a halt behind him, almost crashing into his back.He turned slowly, and the look in his eyes told me I had stepped into dangerous territory. “No one,” he said quietly, “dares tell me what to do.”“You said you care about me,” I replied, forcing my voice to be rigid even though my pulse was trembling. “Then the least you can do is listen to me. I am the one they bullied.”Before I could b
SAGE POVIt was another morning spent doing what I loved, not because I had to, but because it gave me peace. The kitchen was quiet except for the soft bubbling of broth and the gentle hiss of oil in the pan. I stirred carefully, breathing in the delight that only cooking could bring.If I could get Knight to enjoy real food flavors, something human, it might remind him that he didn’t have to live on raw meat and cold instincts alone.Behind me, whispers broke through the rhythm of my thoughts.“That must be her,” a voice said, with mockery. “The rogue girl everyone’s talking about.”“The Alpha’s new favorite,” another added with a laugh that made me take a long breath.I had learned long ago that people’s words only had power if you gave them an audience. “She’s here again,” one said, her tone dripping with scorn. “Trying to act important because the Alpha eats her food now.”“Important?” the other echoed. “She actually believes she’s different. Poor thing doesn’t realize he’s bee
KNIGHT POVI was buried under a stack of reports when a soft knock came at the door. I didn’t even glance up until a familiar scent drifted in, warm and delicate, cutting through the stale air of my office. Instinct pulled me to my feet before my mind caught up. In seconds, I was at the door, swinging it open.There Sage stood, this was the first time she had come to my office. A tray of food trembled slightly in her hands, steam curling around her wrists. Her eyes flickered from the tray to me, hesitant, as though unsure if she had overstepped.“Why are you here?” The question left my mouth without thought.“Oh… I didn’t mean to disturb you,” she murmured. “You haven’t eaten all morning. I thought you might need this.”I stared at her, more startled than I wanted to admit. Food? In my office.? No one had ever done that. I rarely touched cooked meals at all… yeah I had eaten the previous one she cooked but I only did because I didn't want to tell her no now she is bringing me another
SAGEI wake in the middle of the night with a dry, hollow ache in my throat. The whole mansion is quiet, the kind of quiet that settles into the bones, so I pad down the hall barefoot to the kitchen, thinking only of cold water and the small relief it will bring. At the doorway to the living room, two voices stop me. One is low and taut with anger. The other is Brian, always the one who fills empty rooms with careless jokes.“I am frustrated, Brian,” Knight says. “Another rogue attack. It is getting worse and nothing we do seems to work.”I remember the last time he spoke like that, insisting the bodies were the rogues’ doing and not his. His words pull me toward the doorway and I freeze there, unseen.“I so badly want to kill those inside, my insider and the allies working with them,” he continues. “But I am worried about Sage.”At the mention of my name, it made stunned.“She might see me again at that moment. She will hate me,” he says.But the next minute Brian laughs too loudly.







