登入Luca's POVCoach Harlan put up the pairing sheet at eight AM and I already knew before I looked.Margot Duval. Black Ridge circuit, full lap, head to head.I stared at the sheet for a second longer than I needed to. Not because I was nervous about the race. I wasn't nervous about races, that wasn't a thing that happened to me anymore, not since September, not since I had three other heartbeats running through my chest at all times telling me I was fine even when my brain hadn't caught up yet.I was nervous about Audrey's face when she saw the sheet."Oh, this is going to be great," Theo said, way too loud, reading over my shoulder. "This is going to be so great.""It's a training exercise," I said."It's a training exercise where you're racing the hot French girl who's been looking at you like you're a problem she wants to solve," Theo said. "Audrey's going to lose her mind.""Audrey is not going to lose her mind.""Audrey is one hundred percent going to lose her mind," Theo said, gri
Audrey's POVThey arrived on a Wednesday, which felt wrong. Bad news should arrive on a Monday. Mondays were built for it. Wednesdays were supposed to be harmless.I was in the garage when I heard about them. Knee deep in the Hellcat's engine bay, completely content, listening to Theo's playlist through the villa speakers, when Ji-yeon appeared in the doorway with the expression she wore when she had information she knew I wasn't going to like."Three transfers just checked in," she said."Okay," I said, not looking up."From the Lyon Academy."I looked up. Lyon Academy was the other serious racing program in Europe. Smaller than Black Ridge, more selective, better funded. The kind of place that produced drivers who won things."All three?" I said."All three. Mid-year transfer, which apparently the new council approved last week." Ji-yeon leaned against the doorframe. "They're already at the track."I went back to the engine. "And?""And they're gorgeous," Ji-yeon said. "Like, aggres
.Audrey's POVThe drama started because of a rune.Not a dramatic rune. Not a Nexus-level spatial displacement situation. A small, ordinary stabilizing rune that Adrian had etched into the doorframe of the garage back in October, one of about forty he'd quietly placed around the villa without telling anyone, and which had apparently been slowly degrading for weeks because nobody had recalibrated it.She found out because the garage light started flickering at eleven PM on a Tuesday and Adrian appeared from nowhere in his dark grey sweater with a kit she'd never seen before and crouched at the doorframe like he'd been expecting this.She leaned against the Hellcat and watched him work.That was the thing about Adrian that had taken her the longest to understand. He showed up. Not loudly, not with announcement, not in the Theo way that filled every room he entered. Just — quietly, consistently, in the specific place where something needed doing. The coffee at the right temperature. The
Audrey's POVMonday arrived with the specific energy of an institution that had been quietly losing its mind for two weeks and had finally run out of exams to distract itself with.I found out approximately four minutes into my walk to first period.A junior — someone I vaguely recognized from the track, second year, always wore the same red beanie — stopped dead when she saw me coming. Just stopped. In the middle of the corridor. Like I was a weather event."Is it true," she said, "that you opened a dimensional portal in the gym?"I stared at her. "No.""Someone told me you opened a portal and a wolf fell through it.""Nobody fell through a portal. There was no portal.""But something happened.""Something happened," I confirmed. "It wasn't a portal."She nodded slowly, in the way people nodded when they'd already decided what they believed and were just being polite about it. Then she walked away.I stood in the corridor for a second.This was going to be a day.&&&By the time I go
Theo's POVThe day after the empire ended, I woke up and immediately had a crisis.Not a real one. A scheduling crisis. Because for the first time in months — actual months — nobody had anywhere to be. No exam, no council summons, no mysterious black box on the doorstep. Just a Saturday. A completely empty, normal Saturday.I didn't know what to do with that much freedom, so I texted Sera.come over. bring nothing. we're celebrating something I can't explain over textShe showed up an hour later in one of my hoodies — which, fair, she'd basically claimed it at this point — carrying a box of pastries because apparently "bring nothing" translated to "bring croissants" in her head, which I was not going to complain about.By the time she got to the villa, Audrey was on the kitchen counter looking like she'd slept for fourteen hours, which she had, and which she kept describing with the wonder of someone discovering sleep for the first time."I didn't check the mirrors once," she announce
Audrey's POVAdrian had the thing set up by nine, which honestly was kind of insulting given the scale of what it was about to do.It looked like the inside of a broken radio. Copper, some wires, a few runes etched around the edge. That was it. That was the device that was about to end a criminal empire."That's it?" Theo said, leaning over Adrian's shoulder. "I feel like there should be more. A countdown. Lights. Something dramatic.""It's a key," Adrian said. "Keys don't do countdowns.""This one kind of should, though. Given the stakes.""Theo.""I'm just saying. Beige. Very beige for the end of an empire."I sat down across from him and almost laughed, which felt insane given the morning, but also — that was kind of the point. The fact that I had room to almost-laugh meant I was actually fine. Actually ready.Adrian looked up at me. The composed face cracked a little, just for a second."Once the chip's seated, it reads your bloodline, confirms intent, and executes. No reversal. I
Audrey's POV"Your father," Raphael said carefully, "was a very wealthy man."I stared at him. "I know that. He owned the academy.""Yes." He reached into his jacket and produced a business card, which he held out with the particular formality of someone who had been waiting a long time to make a s
Adrian's POVI ran until my lungs burned and my paws bled.It didn't matter. Nothing could outrun the image seared into my brain—Sutton under that car, kissing Theo like he was oxygen and she was drowning.The worst part? I understood it. Theo was charming, easy, the kind of wolf who made everythin
Audrey's Pov The villa felt like a pressure cooker ready to explode.After last night's awkward three-way standoff in my bedroom, I'd spent the entire day avoiding eye contact with all of them. Luca kept smirking like he knew exactly what he was doing to me. Adrian watched me with an intensity tha
Audrey's POV"Absolutely not."I stood in my father's villa, arms crossed, glaring at the Pack Council's representative—a middle-aged wolf named Director Kael who looked like he'd never smiled in his life."It's not a request, Miss Warner," he said flatly. "Until you choose a mate and complete the







