Mag-log in"Fuck, fuck, who did this," Malcolm muttered as he touched the cardboard box, his voice rough.I froze, my breath catching in my throat. Slowly I stepped back, but my eyes couldn't look away. Several guards crowded around, their faces pale as sheets.It was Steven Howard's head. Our war general. The man who had earned the highest ranking for five consecutive years in every evaluation. The man who had never lost a strategic battle, who trained every soldier with an iron hand but fair judgment. Who always stood at Malcolm's right side in every council meeting.His neck had been severed brutally, flesh and muscle exposed in a cut that was clean yet cruel. His usually neat hair was now matted with dried blood. His eyes were still wide open, staring blankly at the garage ceiling, as if he still couldn't believe this was how it ended.My hands trembled. My knees went weak. I collapsed onto the cold concrete floor, but I didn't feel it. All I could see was Steven's head, staring at me from i
Malcolm didn't answer. Both hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel, his eyes fixed on something ahead of us through the windshield.I followed his gaze, still struggling to catch my breath. The road stretched out before us, quiet and ordinary, the late afternoon sun slanting gold across the asphalt. For a heartbeat, I didn't see anything. Then the shape moved—something low and dark, darting across the road and vanishing into the brush on the other side.A deer. No, smaller than that. Whatever it was, it had come out of nowhere."Everyone okay?" Malcolm's voice was clipped, his Alpha composure slamming back into place even as I watched his pulse jump in his throat."I'm fine," Lira said shakily, one hand splayed protectively over her belly. Allison had a firm grip on her shoulder, his body angled in front of hers like a shield. "Just startled.""Okay here," I managed, rubbing my chest where the seatbelt had bitten in. I twisted around to look at Allison. "You?"Allison nodded
The doors swung open a second time, and Dr. Liana stepped out. Her scrub top was damp now across the chest and under both arms, and there was a stain on her sleeve I didn't want to look at too closely. She pulled her mask down and it left a red line across her cheeks.For a long moment she just stood there, breathing hard, like she'd been running. The alarms were still going off behind her, muffled now as someone closed an inner door.Hazel took a step toward her. "What happened? Is she—""She's alive," Dr. Liana said, holding up a hand to stop him before he could barrel through the doors. "But her heart stopped for just under a minute. We got her back, but only just." She wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. "The condition is more aggressive than I initially thought. Her rib fractures are more extensive, and now there's fluid building around her heart. She's fighting, but her little body is working far too hard.""Then do something," Hazel said, his voice cracking. "Fix i
They didn’t let us into the main infirmary right away. Hazel and I stood in the narrow corridor just outside, shoulder to shoulder, breathing the sharp scent of antiseptic and something else I couldn’t name. The walls were a pale, tired green, the kind of color that’s seen too many anxious faces.Hazel hadn’t spoken since they took Hagar through those swinging doors. He just stood there, arms crossed tight over his chest, jaw working on nothing. Every time a nurse hurried past, he flinched.After what felt like a very long time, Dr. Liana came out. Her scrub top had a fresh damp patch near the collar, and the little lines around her eyes looked deeper than they had an hour ago. She pulled off her gloves one finger at a time, and that small, deliberate motion told me more than I wanted to know.“She’s stable for now,” Dr. Liana said, before either of us could ask. “But we’ve found the source of the problem, and it’s serious.”Hazel’s whole body went still. “What kind of serious?”“Haga
The clinic pavilion was quieter than the main infirmary. That was exactly why we had chosen it.Malcolm carried the tray himself the porridge, the thinly sliced roasted gosling, the ginger ginseng soup still steaming gently under its lid. I carried the milk for the twins. Lira walked beside me, her hands tucked into her jacket pockets, her breath visible in the cool morning air.Nobody spoke much on the way over. We were all still carrying last night with us.The sentinel at the door stepped aside the moment he saw Malcolm. Inside, the room was warm, softly lit. The twins’ crib sat near the window where the morning light came in pale and gentle.Hazel was standing in front of it.He was holding a glass of water with both hands, staring down at Hagar and Sarah with an expression that was somewhere between exhaustion and fierce, quiet devotion. He hadn’t heard us come in.“Morning,” Lira said softly.He startled, spinning around. Water sloshed over the rim of his glass.“Li— Lir
She turned.“Tell Angie I said…” He paused, searching for the right words and not quite finding them. “Tell her I remember. What she did for us back then. I never forgot.”Lira held his gaze for a moment.“Tell her yourself,” she said softly. “She’ll want to hear it from you.”“I’m afraid of it,” Hazel sighed.“It’s okay, got your time before talk to Angie. Anyway, that’s for tonight, make yourself comfortable here. I’ll take my leave now.”“Um why too rush?” Hazel asked.“We got some problems, a mysterious caller.” Lira shrugged. Hazel’s eyes widened slightly. “A mysterious caller?”“Yeah.” Lira leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Someone’s been calling Malcolm. Different voices, same unknown number. We don’t know what they want yet but the timing is suspicious.” She glanced at the twins, then back at Hazel. “Which is why I need to get back.”Hazel was quiet for a moment. Then, hesitantly “Does it… does it have anything to do with why the Rogues came for us?”L
An enchanted listening horn, carved with runes that amplified sound. She pressed it gently to my stomach, angling it carefully, then gestured for me to listen.At first, there was only the soft rush of my own body—blood flow, digestion, the quiet music of life. And thenThump-thump. Thump-thump.
"Had a good teacher." His arms wrapped around me, solid and safe. "A woman who taught me that loving someone means carrying their pain too. Sharing the weight."We stood like that for a long moment, wrapped in each other, the garden quiet around us.Finally, I pulled back, wiping at my eyes. "I w
I pulled back, laughing, and unwrapped the bundle. "Come on. Let's eat and plan the most chaotic wedding this pack has ever seen."Lira beamed. "Chaotic is exactly what I was hoping for.""Well, that's pretty great, isn't it?" I laughed, gesturing for them to sit in the gazebo. Jennifer and Lira
“What is it, Mom?” Malcolm's voice was insistent.Mom waved a hand dismissively. “Forget it. What matters is we recovered the parchment. Malcolm, you need to bring your father's vision to life, before Enrique or his followers strike again.”“But didn't Enrique just disappear from the silver priso







