ANDRE'S POV The morning air was cold, damp with the kind of stillness that comes before a storm not the kind that lashes with wind and rain, but the kind that ends with blood on the ground.I stood at the top of the stone steps that led to my pack house, arms folded across my chest, unmoving. The dawn light was pale, barely breaking through the thick cloud cover above, casting long shadows across the gravel path where our guests were arriving.Alpha Kendrick's beta and his mate strode toward us, their footsteps purposeful, grim. Behind them, a line of their pack warriors marched in tight formation, bristling with quiet fury. The air between us was stretched taut like a wire.Xander and Kiera stood on either side of me my second and third, silent and watchful. Their presence was solid, grounding. A few paces behind me, Genevieve lingered, calm and still as stone. She said nothing, but I could feel her. Her gaze was on my back steady, intense, unreadable.She had learned how to survive
André’s POVI woke before dawn. Sleep hadn’t claimed me for long again. It hovered just out of reach every time I shut my eyes, like a ghost I couldn’t grasp. My thoughts were restless, looping and snarling like wolves in a cage, and all of them came back to her. Genevieve.Specifically, what she said yesterday. I told myself it didn’t matter. That her words were insignificant. She was just a girl bound to me by a contract a means to an end. Nothing more. But that was a lie. And worse, I knew it.Her voice, quiet but firm, kept playing in my head on a maddening loop. Every syllable curled around my mind like smoke thick, clinging, impossible to breathe through. I needed air. Space. Distance.I left the pack house without a word, the heavy door creaking shut behind me. The early morning chill bit at my skin as I walked, but I welcomed the discomfort. Let it distract me.The compound was just beginning to stir. A few wolves were already out some in human form, others shifting mid-stride
GENEVIEVE'S POV By the time I made it back to the house, my head was spinning. My thoughts tangled into knots I couldn’t undo, tight and suffocating.I wasn’t supposed to care.I wasn’t supposed to feel anything for him.But the words those women had hurled at me still echoed inside my chest like a warning bell, low and shrill and impossible to ignore. Not because they were wrong. No, because a part of me feared they might be right. And I didn’t want them to be. By the heavens, I didn’t want them to be. Maybe André was a jerk. A bully. A man who used people like chess pieces. But a monster? No. He wasn’t that. I’d seen monsters. André didn’t wear that title easily, not when I’d witnessed the rare flickers of something almost human in him.The house was quiet when I stepped inside. Dimly lit, the air felt thick, like it was holding its breath. I could hear faint voices upstairs staff murmuring behind closed doors, maybe. But none of it mattered.Not when I reached our bedroom. The mom
GENEVIEVE’S POVI pulled the duvet up to my chest and just sat there for a moment, staring at nothing. My body was still buzzing, but my mind… it was all over the place. I kept replaying what just happened. The way I gave in so easily. The way I moaned his name like it was the only word I knew. The way I begged him to go harder, faster. I begged. That’s not like me. At all. But I did it.And the worst part? I didn’t even regret it.Maybe it’s because I’ve accepted that this is my life for the next six months. Maybe I’ve decided that if I have to be here, I might as well enjoy the one thing he offers that makes me forget how messed up this arrangement is. Or maybe… maybe it’s because of the way he looked earlier commanding the room while talking about the maid who betrayed the pack. Cold. Powerful. He should’ve terrified me. But instead, I couldn’t look away.I had to walk away from him then, just to catch my breath. To tell myself to snap out of it. But when he followed me inside… I d
Andre's POV When I entered the room, the air was thick with tension. She stood by the window, silhouetted by the dying amber of the afternoon sun, her arms folded as if she could shield herself from the world maybe from me. Her posture was rigid, but something in her stillness called to me like a challenge.I strode toward her, each step deliberate, and without a word, I grabbed her by the front of her shirt, twisting the fabric in my fist. Her body jerked in surprise as I yanked her around to face me.Her eyes widened, a soft gasp tumbling from her lips. “André, what is going on?”She clutched her chest as though trying to calm her racing heart, but I didn’t answer. I didn’t need to. Words were useless now.I reached for her dress. One swift pull was all it took, the fabric tore, buttons popped, and the pieces fluttered to the floor like dead leaves. She gasped again, louder this time, her arms instinctively covering herself.“André, stop! What is happening? You’re scaring me!” Her
Andre's POV The sun was already about to set, its light dulled by the thick clouds gathering above. A chill rode the evening wind, brushing over my face as I walked beside Xander toward the beheading ground. Gravel crunched under our boots, and every step echoed in the heavy silence that had settled over the pack.I could feel the tension thick in the air watchful eyes, held breaths, and hearts racing beneath fur and flesh. Word had spread fast. Public executions didn’t happen often in my reign, but when they did… they left a mark.The ground was stained from years past. Blood clung to the stone like it refused to be forgotten, a grim reminder of what happened to those who turned their backs on us. Today, it would remember a new name.The maid, her name no longer mattered was dragged forward by two guards. She didn’t fight, didn’t scream. Just let herself be pulled forward like a woman already dead inside. Her head was lowered, a burlap sack covering her face. I didn’t care to see th