Killian lowered the brass scope from his eye and tucked it into the fold of his cloak. His gloves were stiff with cold, but he hardly noticed. Not when all the lines he’d put in place were falling into place so beautifully. He hadn’t even needed to pressure Raine at all. She’d bent with the gentlest nudge. A patrol report here. A scout route adjustment there. Small, quiet betrayals she’d convince herself were harmless until they weren’t. He didn’t even have to coax her anymore, all he had to do was just remind her, with a word or a note, that he was watching her and that her secret lived in the palm of his hand. She came running every time. A flutter of wings drew his gaze upward. A familiar grey bird cut across the treetops and dipped low before perching on the nearby branch. It tilted its head expectantly. Killian retrieved the scroll he’d written that morning. Just three words in his looping, elegant hand: "Come walk the border.” He tied it to the bird’s leg and watched it v
The confrontation with Ronan still clung to her skin like sweat, sour, and electric. His voice echoed in her ears, low and biting, twisting her stomach in knots that no amount of deep breathing could settle. You don’t get to run. She had wanted to scream. To tell him that this wasn’t about running. It wasn’t even about him, not really. It was about the truth building inside her like pressure behind her ribs. A truth that couldn’t be named, not without bringing everything down with it. She was running out of time. Her hands trembled as she dried them on a towel, standing alone at the sink in the small kitchenette just off the main wing. She’d come here to escape and stave off the nausea rising in her throat, but even the silence didn’t help anymore. It was too sharp. I'm too aware. It cut right through her. She felt the shift in the air before she heard the soft tap at the window. Her breath caught. The bird was small this time dark grey, with flecks of silver in its wings, and it
And to make matters worse, Raine, who was supposed to be by his side as the dutiful mourning mate, had been roaming the house like a disturbed victorian wraith ever since she recovered from her injuries. He wasn’t particularly a fan of her, but until he had the chance to replace with Selene, he needed her to keep face with the pack as perfect alpha heir. He found her alone in the conservatory that evening, where she thought no one came. The light had already begun to shift to that dull silver as the last of the light bled out of the sky, bleeding against the glass panels overhead. She stood at one of the long tables, carefully sorting herbs into small linen sachets. She was focused and very quiet. “Didn’t realize you were working,” he said, leaning against the frame of the doorway like he had every right to be there. Because he did. She was his mate. This house was his too, in all but name. Raine didn’t jump. She must’ve smelled him coming. But her fingers froze for just a second
Killian didn’t stop staring after her until she was completely gone. He heard her footsteps retreating, and saw the way she tried to stay upright even as the weight of everything he’d said sank like stone into her spine. That quiet desperation was always loudest when they turned away, when the illusion of choice was finally shattered behind them. He waited until the sound of her boots had faded entirely before he moved again, turning his gaze up toward the sky, the moon pale and flickering behind the skeleton branches. It had shifted. Which meant the night was thinning. And Raine was his now, in all the ways that mattered. He stood alone in the meadow for a while longer after she left, listening to the rustle of wind through the grass, the soft rasp of leaves under his boot. Everything here was quieter than it had been the last time. Killian wasn’t a cruel man, no matter what any of his enemies might have said, he was just patient, and willing to go above his moral limita
Raine got the message three days after Killian came to the park house. It’s had been days since she last saw Ronan, and she was beginning to feel as if she was the only one in the pack who was the burden of this secret on her shoulder. Mathias had been busy trying to find the killers of his son. Most members of the pack we're beginning to question his sanity. Rain was driving herself crazy trying to keep this pregnancy a secret from not only him but Ronan as well. So, that morning, it did not come as a shock when the big black bird flew into her room with the summons in its claws. She was not familiar with this communications tactics and so at first she only stared at the big black bird and wondered in fear if somehow she had been found out and was being summoned to the elders for judgements. But then she saw the familiar Insignia of the Voss pack and knew it had to have come from Killian. Hesitantly, she approached this bird and reached out very carefully to take the piece of pap
“She was just leaving,” Matthias said, his tone clipped, sharp enough to make Raine flinch. Something about the way Killian was looking at her made Matthias’s chest tighten, and he hated the way something cold and sharp clawed beneath his ribs. It was jealousy. And Matthias hated it more than he’d ever hated anything else. Raine moved to retreat immediately, head down, but Killian was not done with her yet, his voice followed her as she went, soft and almost casual. “It’s hard on everyone,” he said, his words deliberately gentle. If Matthias didn’t know any better, he’d think the alpha was actually worried for her. “Grief takes a toll on the body. You look unwell, Raine.” The woman froze again, likw a deer caught in headlights. Matthias’s hands curled tighter around the chair. Raine’s reply was quiet, her voice strained, barely above a whisper. “I’m fine.” But Killian still wasn’t done with her, he continued, his tone light, but his gaze never wavering from her, there was somethi