LOGINThank you for reading.
Aurora.The twins were insane.That was the only conclusion I could settle on as I walked up the front steps, keys cool and heavy in my palm.I unlocked the door and stepped into the dark entryway, the familiar creak of the hinges echoing too loudly in the quiet house. Their words refused to leave me alone, looping endlessly in my head like a song I couldn’t turn off.We like you.We’d like you to be our girlfriend.Even now, standing in the shadowed hallway with the faint smell of stale air and old carpet around me, the confession sounded absurd. Brothers—actual brothers—casually proposing to share the same girl as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world. And somehow, to them, the strangeness wasn’t the sharing. It was that I might say no.I dropped my bag onto the floor with a soft thud and rubbed my arms, trying to shake off the lingering tension from the car. Alec’s quiet certainty. Maxwell’s calm confidence. The way they had looked at me when they said they’d wait for
Aurora.The drive started in silence.Not the awkward kind. Not even the tense kind. Just a heavy, loaded quiet, the kind that settles after too much has happened and no one knows how to begin.I sat in the back seat because it felt safer. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Neither spoke for the first several minutes.Streetlights slid across the windows as Ravencroft faded behind us. The town was quieter at night, shops dark, roads nearly empty except for the occasional passing car.I kept my gaze fixed on the glass. Looking at them felt dangerous.The image of Ethan on the floor kept replaying in my mind: the bruises, the split lip, the way no one had helped him. The way no one had even seemed surprised.My jaw tightened.“You shouldn’t have done that.”The words slipped out before I could stop them.Neither brother answered right away.Alec kept his eyes on the road. Maxwell stared straight ahead through the windshield.“We know,” Maxwell said.That wasn’t the answer I expecte
Aurora.Ethan was still on his feet when I reached him.Barely.He tried to straighten the moment he saw me, like he hadn’t just been thrown around a polished marble floor in front of half the university.“I’m fine,” he said immediately.“You are not fine,” I replied.He let out a short breath that might have been a laugh if his mouth didn’t look split at the corner. “I’ve had worse.”“That’s not comforting.”“It’s honest.”That made me pause for half a second. He was trying too hard to act as if nothing had happened. Like it was just another awkward social situation and not… whatever that was.People around us were already dispersing. Talking. Laughing again. As if the center of the room hadn’t just been turned into a battlefield.That bothered me more than anything.Ethan followed my gaze and shrugged. “Don’t think about it too much.”“I think I should.”“You shouldn’t,” he said lightly. “Trust me.”I frowned. “You didn’t have to do that.”“I know.”That was all he said.Then he adde
Aurora.I should have known it wouldn’t stay normal for long.The Welcome Ceremony was held in the main hall, a wide open space that looked more like a converted ballroom than anything academic. Lights hung from the ceiling in soft gold strands, casting everything in a warm glow that made even the marble floors look less intimidating. Tables lined the edges of the room, already crowded with students laughing too loudly, pretending they were more confident than they probably felt.For a moment, I just stood at the entrance.I told myself I was only here because I had no choice. That was the official reason.The real reason was harder to name, so I didn’t try.“Aurora.”I turned before I could stop myself.Ethan was weaving through the crowd toward me, and the moment he saw me properly, his entire face lit up like he had been looking for me specifically.Which, apparently, he had.“There you are,” he said, stopping in front of me. “It's good to see you.”“Same,” I admitted.He laughed.
Aurora.The next morning should have felt like a victory.For nearly a week, Alec and Maxwell had been everywhere in my classes, outside my classes, walking beside me across campus, appearing out of thin air whenever I least expected them. It had been irritating. Exhausting. Completely unreasonable.Yesterday, I finally took action. I told them to leave me alone.So when I arrived on campus and neither of them appeared, the silence should have been a relief. Instead, it felt... off. Suspiciously disappointing.I noticed it during my first class. Not because I missed them, that would have been ridiculous, but because every time the door opened, my eyes flicked toward it. By the third glance, I was annoyed with myself. By the sixth, I was annoyed with the entire world. The student who finally walked in wasn’t Alec. He wasn’t carrying a book. And somehow that felt personally offensive.When class ended, I packed my bag and stepped into the hallway. No Maxwell. No Alec. No suspiciously w
MAXWELLAurora was impossible.I’d come to that conclusion somewhere between arriving home and watching Alec turn a page with enough force to suggest he was imagining it was her neck.We were in the library overlooking the eastern gardens. The only sounds were the crackling fireplace and the occasional rustle of paper. Normally Alec loved the quiet. Tonight he just looked annoyed—which, for him, was the equivalent of anyone else setting something on fire.“She’s impossible,” he muttered.“There it is.” I looked up from my phone, grinning.Alec didn’t bother denying it. “She fired us.”I laughed. “She did.”He closed his book with a decisive snap that echoed through the room. “Who fires their own victims?”“Our mate,” I said.“Apparently.”I leaned back in my chair, replaying the courtyard conversation. Aurora had looked genuinely offended—not because she disliked us, but because she thought we were ruining her future dating prospects. As if she’d already decided we were the problem.“S
Denver.I was heading back to my room that evening when a guard intercepted me.“Alpha… your mother would like to see you in the sitting room,” he said.I rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to wipe away the fatigue that had settled into my bones after the endless meetings, the elders’ scrutiny, a
Selena. Dinner was announced just after sunset.I had hoped the day would end quietly, that I could retreat to my room and gather myself after seeing Silas earlier, but that hope dissolved the moment a servant informed me that the family would be dining together in the private chamber.Family.The
Selena.Later that evening, I sat at the edge of my bed, fingers tracing the edge of the silk sheet, thinking about the day. The conversation.with Denver mother, Tiana cold words lingered, but none was enough to take my mind from thinking about him.About Denver. About the way his eyes lingered o
Denver.Christopher’s hand closes around her wrist before I can stop myself from noticing.It is not gentle. It is not ceremonial. It is the grip of ownership."What is happening here, Selena?" I wondered as I watched them close the distance between us.“Uncle,” Christopher says, drawing her forwar







