AgnesI hesitated for a moment before sliding into the chair across from Elijah. The solemn expression on his face made my stomach clench with anxiety. This wasn’t a romantic dinner date, was it?“Is everything alright?”Elijah didn’t answer right away. Instead, he just signaled to the waiter, who a
“That’s not true,” I protested weakly. “I grieved. I’ve done nothing but grieve.”“You’ve felt the pain, yes. But you haven’t processed it, haven’t accepted it. You’ve been holding on to hope, refusing to let go of the possibility that she might still be alive somewhere. That she might have been The
Agnes & ElijahAgnesThe casket was tiny. Too tiny.I stared blankly as it was slowly lowered into the ground. The small clearing was quiet except for the soft rustling of the wind through the leaves.Ever since Elijah had convinced me to hold a funeral, I’d been in a haze. He and James had handled
…ElijahI sighed heavily. For the third time this week, Olivia had requested to speak with me, and for the third time, I was denying her.“Tell her I’m done with her games,” I told James curtly. “Unless she has actually helpful information about Agnes’s wolf or the curse, I’m not speaking to her. A
AgnesI woke up feeling like I was burning from the inside out.Heat coursed through my veins. My sheets were so damp with sweat that they were clinging to my body. The sensation wasn’t painful, exactly, but it was intense—like a fever, but concentrated in my hands and chest.For a moment, I just la
ElijahI was absolutely exhausted as I drove home, the dashboard clock showing nearly midnight. My eyes burned from staring at paperwork all day, and my back ached from too many hours in uncomfortable chairs, listening to other Alphas argue about territory lines and trade agreements.All I wanted wa
The master bedroom was a hellscape. Flames consumed the curtains, the bed, the dresser. The heat was so intense that it singed my fur, making me flinch back instinctively. But Agnes’s scent was stronger here, mingled with Thea’s, and beneath it all, the sharp tang of fear.A sound caught my attentio
AgnesI stared at the white ceiling tiles, counting them for the dozenth time. Anything to keep my mind off what had happened, although it wasn’t working. The ceiling had exactly forty-eight tiles—I’d counted them repeatedly since waking up in this hospital bed hours ago.Forty-eight tiles, and none
As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Thea bounded down the stairs, racing me to the door.“I got it!” she cried, yanking it open before I could reach her. “Miss Evelyn!”Evelyn swept in like a hurricane, bringing with her the scent of expensive perfume and a veritable horde of what looked like gifts in
AgnesI was buried in sketches for the next season’s line when a knock at my office door pulled me from my concentration. I glanced up, surprised to see Elijah standing in the doorway. He hadn’t mentioned stopping by my office today.“This is unexpected,” I said, setting my pencil down. “I thought y
“What do you think it was like for her?” I said after a moment. “My mother, I mean. Living her whole life afraid that someone would find out what she was.”Elijah’s thumb traced circles on the back of my hand beneath the water. “Lonely, I imagine.”“She never told me,” I whispered. “My own mother, a
AgnesThe saltwater felt like heaven against my overheated skin. I’d been soaking in my in-ground pool for nearly an hour now, but the heat that had built in my body still hadn’t completely subsided.Honestly, I was surprised that I hadn’t burned down the entire bar earlier. My finger had certainly
“Yes,” he insisted. “Because Elemental Enterprises is owned by your stepmother’s family.”The world seemed to tilt beneath me. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself. “What?”“I’ve been keeping your true nature from your stepmother all this time,” he continued, the words coming out of him
AgnesI fidgeted in the passenger seat as Elijah pulled into the dive bar’s parking lot. The place looked exactly as I remembered it from my past life—grimy windows with neon beer signs, chipped paint on the exterior, and a crooked sign hanging above the door.Years ago, I’d spent many nights here t
“Elijah, wait.”I froze, expecting to feel the tug of the mate bond, that infuriating compulsion she’d used so many times to force me to listen to her, to stay when I wanted to go. But it never came. For the first time, she hadn’t used the bond to control me. Today was full of surprises, wasn’t it?
ElijahThat morning, I made yet another trip to the prison. I’d hoped to never set foot in this place again, because frankly it was cold and uncomfortable and unsettling, but here I was. I just hoped that Olivia would keep true to her word and that this conversation would be worth it—and that it wou
I hated that he was making sense. And even more than that, I hated that a part of me—a much bigger part of me than I wanted to admit—was actually considering it.“What if it’s a trap?” I asked quietly. “What if he’s involved with Elemental Enterprises somehow? He could be trying to get to Thea.”“Th