로그인Jordan's POV"It's nearly over Jordan," Sera answered. "I need you to be ready for what nearly over looks like."I looked at her standing in the middle of my room at 2am with her coat still on and her face carrying something I hadn't seen on it before. "What happened?"She told me everything.Mira coming through the window. The conversation. The vial already gone. The council. First light tomorrow. Mira turning herself in with Sera as witness.I sat on the edge of my bed and listened to all of it and kept my face completely right and my hands still and my wolf very quiet in my chest and when she finished I said nothing for a long moment."Jordan," Sera answered quietly."I heard you," I replied."Are you alright?" she questioned."I don't know yet," I replied honestly.She looked at me carefully. "What are you feeling?""I'm trying to figure that out," I replied. "Give me a second."She gave me a second.I sat there and thought about eight years and a six year old Joanna and a pack he
Sera's POVMira came in through the window the way she used to do everything. Quietly. Without announcement. Like the rules of entry didn't apply to her because she had written most of them herself.I had been waiting for her.I had been waiting for this specific conversation for eight years and I had rehearsed it more times than I could count and now that she was here sitting across from me in the dim light of the east wing sitting room I found that none of the rehearsed versions were going to be useful because Mira looked exactly the same as she always had and that was the thing about her that had always been the most dangerous.She looked like someone you could trust."You look well," she murmured."You look exactly the same," I replied."Is that a compliment?" she pressed."It's an observation," I replied.She looked at me for a long moment. "You've been busy Sera," she murmured. "Joanna in the packhouse. The forest meetings. The rings." She tilted her head slightly. "The boy.""H
Killian's POVThe minute the war room door shut, I got right to the point. “Where is she?”Lorenzo’s jaw tightened. “East wing. She slipped in through the old service entrance three days ago. Same one Joanna used the night Emily crossed the boundary.”Three days. I couldn’t believe it. “She’s been here all this time and nobody saw her?”“She had help,” he said, low.That made my head pound. “Who?”He didn’t flinch. “The pack healer. Before he died, he told me everything. Your mother contacted him six weeks ago. Said she was coming back. Spelled out what she needed.” He hesitated. “He was loyal to her long before you took over, Killian. Before I made him healer.”I fixed him with a stare. “You picked him?”“Yes.”“So you made a loyalist to my mother pack healer,” I repeated, cold as ice.Lorenzo nodded, gaze a little too heavy on the floor. “I thought I could control him. I miscalculated.”I just stared. I’d spent eight years watching Lorenzo get so much right...and sometimes get it ba
Jordans POV"Come here " I said.Killian looked at me. "Jordan—""Come here Killian " I said quietly.He looked at me for a moment like he was making sure I meant it. Then he walked over to me. I reached up. Took his face in both hands and kissed him. For one second he went completely still. Then he kissed back with everything he had. It was nothing like I expected. Also exactly like I expected.He pulled back a bit. "Jordan—""Don't " I said."I need to ask you something " he whispered against my mouth."Ask then " I said."Are you sure?" he asked quietly. "Not about the bond, not about the mate thing. About this. Right now. Are you sure?""I've been sure for two years Killian " I said. "You were the one who wasn't."Something changed in his face. "I'm sure now " he whispered."Then stop talking " I said.He kissed me again. This time he didn't stop. His hands found my waist. Pulled me closer. My wolf felt warm in my chest like something had finally clicked into place."Tell me what
Jordan's POV"Six months," I said the moment I closed the door.Killian turned around. "Jordan—""You knew for six months after the ascension," I pressed. "Then said nothing for a year and a half after that. While I was in this packhouse trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Why I couldn't shift. Why my wolf was locked away. Why everything felt wrong all the time." I held his gaze. "You knew what it was and you said nothing?""Yes," he replied."Why?" I pressed."Because I was afraid," he replied."Of what?" I pressed."Of what it meant," he replied. "If I acknowledged the bond I had to acknowledge everything that came with it. What it meant for my position. What it meant for my mother's plans. What it meant for how I felt about you." He held my gaze. "Which I was not ready to feel.""So you just didn't?" I replied. "You decided you weren't ready and you let me walk around this packhouse for a year and a half thinking I was broken?""Yes," he replied quietly."Did you ever thin
Killian's POVI sat in my office for a long time after Joanna left and didn't move and didn't call anyone and didn't look at the registry or the photograph or any of the evidence on my desk because I already knew what all of it meant and knowing wasn't the problem anymore.The problem was what I was supposed to do with it.My mother.My mother who had taught me what it meant to be Alpha before my father ever did. My mother who had looked me in the eye at the ascension ceremony and told me she was proud of me and meant it and I had believed her completely because I was twenty two years old and I had no reason not to.My mother who had looked at a child and decided he was a threat and acted on that decision and then lived with it for eight years without ever once looking like a woman who needed to answer for anything.I picked up my phone and called Mara.She picked up on the second ring. "Alpha?""I need to ask you something," I said. "And I need you to be completely honest with me.""
Jordan's POV"Ninety three seconds, " my wolf said to me. "That is double the time it took last time."I was still on one knee in the dirt. Both my hands were human again. My chest was heaving. I had held through the eyes for the first time in eight years. My wolf was trying hard not to make a big
Killian's POV"She told you everything," I said.Mara looked at me from across her small room with her chin up and her hands clasped in front of her and said "yes Alpha" without flinching and without apologizing and I looked at her and felt the fury go somewhere I wasn't expecting.I came here with
Jordan's POV"You're looking at an empty shelf," Reef observed from behind me.I hadn't even heard him come in. I was standing in the archive with my hand still on the space where the ledger used to be and my face doing everything I was telling it not to do and Reef was standing in the doorway with
Killian's POVEleven minutes.I had been standing outside Jordan's door for eleven minutes with four photographs in my jacket pocket and my wolf making that sound in my chest and my hand raised to knock and not knocking and honestly I was starting to genuinely concern myself.What was I even going







