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
Young, educated, eager to please. Damon never suspected that his daughter's new caretaker answered to his mate instead of him.Now Hilda did my dirty work without question. Three years of perfect service, perfect loyalty. She understood that her continued safety depended on my goodwill. One word fro
Catherine stared at him blankly. "What are you talking about?""Your research. Your botanical expertise. You spent years teaching our healers that natural compounds were more effective than synthetic alternatives for genetic conditions.""I... no, that's not..." Catherine looked genuinely confused.
DamonThe shove caught me across the chest, not hard enough to do real damage but sufficient to send a clear message. I steadied myself, noting how Robin's stance had shifted into something more predatory than I'd seen from him in years. The diplomatic mask had slipped entirely.My chest ached where
"Maybe." Catherine didn't sound convinced. "Something was wrong about her, though. She seemed so insistent, so aggressive. I don't tolerate that kind of behavior."This was my opportunity. Catherine was disoriented, vulnerable, struggling to piece together her relationships and surroundings. Her wea







