LOGIN124ISABELLA I stared at her in disbelief, my brain lagging trying to decipher if she was being real or joking.“I am?… My voice broke as tears stung at the corner of my eyes.“Congratulations Isabella, you are pregnant,” the seer said with certainty and I let out the breath I didn’t know I was holding.Rohan moved to my side quickly, his hand finding mine.“Rohan… a second chance… I breathed a tear slipping past my eyelids. He held my hand firmly pulling me in a hug.“I’m gonna be a father,” Rohan intoned, still shocked, I couldn’t even believe it myself.In the midst of chaos and troubles it was news I didn’t know I desperately needed. A fresh start, something to look forward to, and I buried my face in the crook of Rohan’s neck, taking in the steady beat of his heart. My chest heaved with every sob, as if years of hidden grief, quiet fears, and buried pain were finally washing out of me.Rohan’s hands smoothed over my back, pressing me tighter against him as if he was scared to le
ISABELLA“What exactly the a gateway?”I stared at him, waiting for an explanation, but he seemed more interested in studying my face than answering my question.“I'm talking to you,” I snapped. “What does it mean?”He adjusted his cufflinks, seemingly unbothered by my frustration.“You ask too many questions.”“And you give too few answers. You called me a gateway, so tell me what that means.”Derek's gaze dropped to the dark markings spreading across my cheek.“You've spent your entire life believing you were ordinary. Then you discovered you had magic, learned about Rose, and suddenly thought you understood what was happening to you.”“I'm not interested in your opinion of my intelligence.”A faint smile touched his lips.“Still have that temper.”“Derek!”He sighed. “A gateway is an opening. A passage between things that should otherwise remain separated.”I frowned.“Between what things?”“That is something you don't need to know yet.”I stared at him incredulously.“You cannot p
122ISABELLAThe moment the six witches finished the first stanza of the ancient Latin siphon, the mud beneath my boots turned into a sheet of pale, crystalline frost. The white coven light snaked up my ankles like glowing vines, and a sudden, violent numbness slammed into my lower back. It felt as if someone had driven a hollow needle directly into my spine, drawing out not just my physical energy, but the very marrow of my soul."Selene, please!" I choked out. My breath billowed in front of my face in thick, white plumes as the temperature inside the circle plummeted. "He's dying! If you drain me, you kill him too!"Selene didn't blink. The curved silver dagger in her right hand remained perfectly level with my throat. "His heart is already failing, Isabella. The Northern Eclipse coven does not risk the world to save a broken Alpha wolf. We do what must be done to keep the old parasite dead."Behind my eyes, Rose went completely feral. Let me out! she shrieked, her voice a piercing,
121ISABELLAThe three enforcers didn't wait for a second command. They lunged simultaneously, their massive, partially shifted bodies cutting through the thick white fog like incoming artillery."Isabella, get behind the truck!" Rohan roared.He didn't have his Alpha shield, but he still had the tactical mind of a commander. Instead of meeting them head-on in the open driveway, he threw himself sideways, intercepting the two largest wolves just as their claws cleared the porch steps. He used his sheer mass to slam them both into the gnarled trunk of the nearest apple tree. The wood cracked under the impact, a shower of dead leaves and rotten fruit raining down on them as Rohan bared his fangs, his left arm wrapping around the throat of a gray-furred enforcer while his right fist drove repeatedly into the ribs of the second.But he was fighting at a massive deficit. The moment he swung his right arm, the fresh scabs across his left shoulder tore completely open, a spray of dark red bl
120ISABELLAMy right arm felt like solid lead, the muscles twitching with a cold, kinetic energy that didn't belong to me. Below the jagged piece of glass clamped in my fist, Rohan was perfectly still. The pale moonlight caught the sharp edge of his jaw, the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and the faint, pale scars on his neck. He was entirely defenseless, sleeping deeply because he trusted me more than anyone else in the world.Drive it down, Rose’s voice commanded, a heavy, suffocating pressure slamming into the back of my skull. Show him what happens to Alphas who think they can outrun their bloodlines.I fought back with everything left in my empty core. I didn't try to pull my arm away—Rose’s grip on my motor nerves was too absolute for that—but I redirected every ounce of my willpower to my lungs, to my vocal cords, to the tiny space in my throat that she wasn't actively monitoring.My chest heaved. The effort felt like swallowing hot coals, the dry lining of my throat teari
119ISABELLA"Isabella."Rohan’s voice was the only thing that kept me from screaming out loud. It was a low, rough rasp, thick with the exhaustion of a body that had just used every ounce of its wolf stamina to survive a magical blast.I violently slammed the door to the dark vault of my own mind, trying to lock Rose’s echoing laughter behind it. My fingers trembled against my collarbone, my thumb desperately smoothing the fabric of my heavy flannel shirt upward to hide the necrotic black veins I had just seen in the mirror shard."I'm here," I said, my voice shaking as I turned back to him.He was pushing himself up against the brick hearth, his face pale and tight with pain. The burns across his chest were angry and weeping, but his amber eyes were fixed entirely on me, bright with that fierce, protective instinct that didn't need an Alpha crown to exist. He reached out with a bloody, clawed hand, his fingers catching my wrist and pulling me down beside him on the ruined carpet."A







