LOGIN"Where is it?" Zane asked."That's the problem." Sera's mouth pressed into a thin line. "She didn't tell me the location directly. She said the message could be intercepted, she'd been careful her whole life about that. So she gave me a reference instead. Something only I would understand." A pause. "She said the answer was in the place where she first learned to trust the wrong person."The silence stretched."That's not a location," I said carefully. "That's a memory.""I know. I've been working through it since I got that message eight months ago." Sera looked at her hands. "My mother grew up in Ashvale. Small pack, old families, the kind of place where everyone knows your business and nobody says it out loud. She trained as a detective there, the pack had a small investigative unit, more formal than most packs that size. She used to tell me about her supervisor. The man who mentored her, taught her the craft." A beat. "She said he was the best investigator she'd ever known and the
I didn't sleep.I tried. I lay in my room with the lights off and the storm finally quiet outside and I stared at the ceiling and listened to the mansion settle around me... the creak of old wood, the distant murmur of guards doing rounds, the occasional low exchange of voices somewhere below. All the sounds of a house that was pretending everything was normal while something underneath it had fundamentally shifted.At four in the morning I gave up, wrapped myself in the oversized sweater I'd stolen from the back of Zane's closet two weeks ago and never returned, and went downstairs.The kitchen was empty. I made tea I didn't particularly want and stood at the window above the sink, watching the pale pre-dawn light begin to separate the sky from the tree line. The grounds were still wet from the storm. The grass looked dark and flattened. Two guards moved along the south perimeter, their breath clouding in the cold air.We were being watched from the inside and the outside both, and t
Amelia POVI have never run so fast in my life.Not at track practice in sophomore year when Coach Daniels was timing us and I wanted to prove something. Not the night of the Ironveil summit when the south wing caught fire and everyone evacuated onto the lawn. Not even the first night I arrived at Silverfang and something in the tree line moved and every instinct I had said run.This was different. This was the kind of running where your body knows before your brain does that something irreversible is about to happen, and the only variable left is whether you get there in time.Zane was ahead of me, faster, alpha speed carrying him around the corner of the east corridor in a blur. I pushed harder. My lungs burned. The bond stretched between us like a cord pulled to its limit, and through it I felt the same thing I felt in my own chest, a cold, electric dread that tasted like being too late.We hit the medical wing doors together.They swung open on a hallway that was too quiet. The ov
Darius was in his study.I knew it before we reached the door because the alpha aura leaking from beneath it was different from anything I had felt from him before. Not commanding. Not composed. Raw. The kind of power that slips its leash when the person holding it stops pretending everything is fine.Zane didn't knock. He turned the handle and pushed it open, and I walked in beside him with our fingers still linked.The study was large and dark, lit only by the desk lamp and the lightning strobing through the tall windows. Darius stood at the far end with his back to us, one hand braced against the windowframe, staring out at the storm. He looked like a man who had been standing exactly like that for a very long time."Close the door," he said.Zane did. The latch clicked and the three of us were sealed inside with whatever Darius had been carrying alone since the moment he heard the name Lydia Cole."She was my fated mate."He said it to the window. Plain and quiet, the way you say
Amelia POVNo one spoke on the drive back to the mansion.Sera sat between me and Zane in the back seat, wrapped in a guard's jacket that swallowed her whole. She kept her eyes on the rain-streaked window, watching the dark tree line blur past. Her hands were folded in her lap, wrists still raw, and she hadn't said another word since the arena stairwell.Darius rode up front. He hadn't looked at her once.That frightened me more than anything else tonight.The mansion appeared through the storm, its lights blazing against the dark sky like something trying too hard to look safe. Darius was out of the car before it fully stopped, issuing quiet commands to the head guard who met us at the steps. Medical wing. Private entrance. No staff beyond the essential.I helped Sera inside while Zane stayed close to his father, one step behind, like he was waiting for Darius to either explain himself or fall apart. Through the bond I could feel the tension radiating off him, coiled, controlled, fur
Amelia POVShe flinched when the flashlight hit her face.I moved before Zane could. I dropped to my knees in front of the cage and kept my voice as low and even as I could manage. "Hey. We're not going to hurt you."The girl raised her head slowly, like even that small motion cost her something. One eye was swollen half-shut, the bruise around it spread purple and yellow across her cheekbone. Her lips were cracked. The silver-threaded rope binding her wrists had left raw lines in her skin, the kind that didn't happen in hours. That happened in days.My stomach turned over."Get it open," I said to Zane without looking at him.He was already at the padlock, claws working the mechanism. Metal groaned. The cage door swung outward with a shriek of rust, and the girl shrank back against the far wall, knees pulled to her chest, eyes darting between all three of us."You're safe," I told her. "I promise. My name's Amelia. We came from the mansion." I hesitated, then added, "Darius is here.
Maddox’s grin was wide. “Well, well. The gold digger and the rogue prince. Cozy.”Everyone in the hallway froze and phones lifted like periscopes. Katie stood beside him, her eyes gleaming with venom.“Step aside, Maddox,” Zane said, voice flat.“Make me.” Maddox mirrored his earlier words, steppin
Coach was already there, kneeling. “Ryker, talk to me.” She pushed up on one elbow, blood spilling from her lip. “I’m good.”She lied. The bond carried the copper taste of blood straight to my tongue and I bent beside her. “Let me see.”She turned her face away. “Back off, Asher.”Coach dragged me
Amelia POVThe bond mark on my wrist itched like a fresh tattoo, except tattoos didn’t pulse. I scratched until the skin peeled raw, but the silver crescent only glowed brighter, mocking me with every heartbeat. Then a perfect half moon formed into my flesh by the Moon Goddess herself, as if she ha
The arena stood dark and empty when we arrived, championship banners hanging limp in the storm. Zane picked the service door lock in seconds. We slipped inside, flashlights cutting through shadows that smelled of cold ice and old sweat.The rink itself was silent, the surface freshly Zambonied, gle







