FAZER LOGINAnd every single person was walking.Everyone. The men from my truck, from all the trucks, and beyond them more, spilling out of side streets and doorways, hundreds, then more than I could count, every one of them moving the same way at the same slow even pace toward the blue light, and not one of t
SofiaThe thing nobody tells you about stowing away in the back of a wolf's supply truck is that wolves do not believe in shock absorbers.I'd been folded between a crate that smelled like gun oil and a stack of canvas duffels for going on four hours, knees up under my chin, one hand knotted around
AvaI came back into my own body the way you come up from under cold water. All at once, lungs grabbing, except the water was me, and I'd been drowning in myself longer than I knew.For a second there was no up. Too much arrived at once. After the white nothing of the place with Catherine, the world
"Alexander."My name, in the low voice, gone thin at the edges now. A command. Come. Hold the vessel. Put your hands on it and hold it still.The wall in my chest told my feet to move. A year of habit told them to move. I took one step up toward the seat. My body did it the way my body did everythin
AlexanderI had spent my whole life learning to read the exact moment a thing breaks, and the goddess wearing my bride was beginning to break, and I could not turn my head to look at her.That was the cruelty of the wall she'd built in me. It let me see everything and touch nothing. I stood where sh
"Ava." I said it out loud, to a concrete wall, and it came apart in my mouth. "I've got you. I'm here. I've got you, baby. I've got you."She couldn't hear the words. She never could. But she could feel a hand close around her in the dark, the way I'd once felt hers close around me from a hundred mi
DamonThe door to the holding room swung open with a heavy metallic groan that set my teeth on edge. Cold air rushed against my face, carrying the scent of concrete, old metal, and something else—fear, maybe, lingering from previous occupants. My eyes found Hilda immediately, curled up in the corner
Damon"Three hours." I slammed my fist on the desk, sending my coffee mug skittering to the edge. "Three goddamn hours and not a single response."I'd ordered my communications team to contact Wood Pack every fifteen minutes. Robin knew the protocol—pack leaders answered each other's calls, especial
Hilda A healer brought me fresh clothes while I waited in a small anteroom connected to the infirmary. I changed quickly, tossing my blood-stained garments into a heap in the corner. The soft cotton shirt and leather pants fit better than expected. Wood Pack clothing—practical, durable, nothing li
HildaI slumped against the black SUV, legs splayed out in front of me. Every inch of my body hurt. Blood—mine and others'—had dried into a sticky second skin. I tried to wipe my face with my hand, but it just smeared more blood across my cheek.Bodies littered the clearing around me. Some whole, so







