FAZER LOGINLeahI knew the next words out of my mouth would decide more than just this breakfast.In my first life I would have spilled everything—every slap, every bruise, every time his hands closed around my throat until black stars burst behind my eyes. Agnes would have listened. She would have believed me. And then she would have been forced to punish the grandson she had raised like her own heart. Samuel would lose face, lose standing, lose the slow climb toward the Alpha title he craved more than air. I would have tasted victory for one sharp, bitter moment. But Agnes’s eyes would have dimmed. She would never look at me the same way again. The woman who forced her to choose between blood and justice.This time I understood the arithmetic of power better. Silence would brand me weak. The servants were already murmuring behind cupped hands; by tonight the whole pack would know someone had been hurt in the heir’s bedroom and no one had answered for it
LeahI woke to a headache that felt like someone had taken a hammer to my skull while I slept. The room was too bright, the air too thick with the sour remnants of last night. My body ached in places I hadn’t known could ache—ribs, jaw, the tender skin along my cheekbone. I lay still for a long moment, staring at the ceiling, waiting for the memories to blur. They didn’t.The door opened without a knock. One of the younger maids stepped inside and froze. Her eyes darted from the overturned chair to the shattered lamp, the torn sheets, the smear of blood on the headboard that I hadn’t noticed until now. Her mouth opened, closed. No sound came out.I didn’t explain. There was nothing worth saying. I pushed myself upright, ignoring the sharp protest in my side, and walked past her into the bathroom. The door clicked shut behind me.The mirror showed a stranger. My left cheek was puffed and purple, the skin stretched shiny over the swelling. One eye was nearly closed; the other stared bac
LeahI didn’t see Samuel until it was too late.I had just stepped into the shadowed corridor behind the main hall—still dusty from the road, still carrying the faint scent of waterfall mist and Kaelen’s coat—when the wheelchair rolled silently out from an alcove. The hallway was narrow, lined with tall windows that spilled late-afternoon gold across the marble. No servants. No witnesses. Just the soft squeak of wheels and the sudden drop in temperature as Samuel blocked my path.He looked up at me with that same gentle, cultured smile he always wore in public—pale gold hair catching the light, ice-blue eyes soft with concern. The thin silk shirt he’d worn yesterday was gone; in its place was a crisp white button-down, sleeves rolled to the elbow, collar open at the throat. He looked every inch the tragic, beautiful heir—fragile, refined, untouchable.I should have known better.“Leah,” he said quietly, voice smooth as river stone. “You ignored me in front of everyone just now.”I sto
LeahI woke to the smell of cold ash and pine.The campfire had burned down to a ring of gray embers sometime before dawn. The blanket Kaelen had draped over me—his own coat, still carrying the faint trace of smoke and him—was warm against my skin, but the space beside me was empty.I sat up slowly. My muscles ached from the climb, the dive, the fear. The falls still thundered in the distance, a steady roar that felt louder in the quiet morning. Kaelen was gone.No note. No footprint. Just the imprint of his body in the grass and the lingering heat of his coat.I exhaled through my nose. Not surprised. Not even disappointed, really. He was Kaelen—coming and going like smoke, like a storm that touched down just long enough to remind you it existed before vanishing again. I’d learned that lesson the hard way already.Still, a small, traitorous part of me scanned the tree line, half-expecting to see him leaning against a trunk with that infuriating smirk. Nothing. Just wind moving throug
LeahWe emerged from the tunnel gasping, water streaming off our skin as we hauled ourselves onto the flat crown of Diamond Cliff. The roar of the falls fell away behind us, replaced by the sudden hush of high altitude—wind sighing through grass, the distant cry of a hawk, the soft rattle of loose stones underfoot. The plateau stretched wide and empty under a sky turning the color of bruised plums. No guards. No patrols. Just wind and wildflowers and the faint metallic scent of altitude.I didn’t waste time catching my breath. I started searching immediately—methodical, relentless—turning over every rock, parting every clump of silver grass, running my fingers through the thin soil. Kaelen moved silently beside me, mirroring my pattern, though I could feel his eyes on me more often than on the ground.After nearly an hour of crawling through dirt and sharp pebbles, my fingers brushed something different—cool, slightly ridged, buried just beneath the surface. I dug carefully. A pale, f
LeahI lunged for him.My fingers hooked into the waistband of his soaked briefs—desperate, frantic—hauling with every ounce of strength I had left. Water streamed off his body as I dragged him onto the rock ledge. He was heavy, limp, dead weight. My arms burned. My lungs screamed. I flipped him onto his back, straddled his hips, and pressed both palms to the center of his chest.One. Two. Three.I tilted his head back, pinched his nose, sealed my mouth over his, and breathed—hard, forceful, willing life into him. Once. Twice. My hair dripped cold water onto his face. My heart hammered so loud I could barely hear the falls.Then I felt it.A faint puff of air against my lips.Warm. Steady.Alive.I froze.His chest rose under my palms—slow, deliberate.And then—gods damn him—the corner of his mouth twitched.That infuriating, crooked smirk.My eyes snapped to his face.His lashes fluttered once. Twice. Then those dark eyes opened—slow, lazy, glittering with mischief.He was breathing







