FAZER LOGINJasmine’s POV We sat on the couch for a long time. Zea wrapped both arms around my shoulders and pulled me sideways into her. The grip was tight enough to hurt slightly, but I let myself be held. My whole body trembled without sound. There were no tears, just the silent shaking of someone who had absorbed a shock too large for noise. I leaned into her, my head against her shoulder, breathing in the familiar scent of her cheap perfume. The pregnancy test lay on the floor beside us, the two lines still dark and undeniable. I pressed the amulet hard against my chest through my shirt. The iron dug into my skin, and the rune edges cut into my palm as I closed my fingers around it. I didn’t feel the small bleeding marks until later. Right then, all I felt was the weight. The same amulet my mother had given me when I was small, the one that had kept my wolf locked away my entire life. Zea didn’t speak. She just held me tighter, her hand rubbing slow circles on my arm. She knew when to
Jasmine’s POV I pushed through the apartment door. I sank into the edge of the bed, Zea came back not long after and I started talking before I even finished taking my coat off. “Zea, the guy from the gala found me.” Zea’s head snapped up from the couch. Her face went from alarmed to furious in under three seconds. “What the hell do you mean found you?” I shrugged the coat off my shoulders, hands still shaking. “Alley off Mercer. Three thugs jumped me, but he took them down. Then he called me by my real name. He had the wallet, Zea. My ID was still in it.” Her bold brown eyes narrowed. She stood up fast. “That bastard. I knew we should’ve laid lower—” The nausea hit me right in the middle of her sentence. My stomach flipped hard and sour. I dropped the coat on the floor and barely made it to the bathroom. I slammed the door open and fell to my knees in front of the toilet. Everything came up at once. Zea was right behind me. She gathered my dark brown hair with practiced hands
Tristan’s POV I let her go. I stepped aside on the sidewalk and watched Jasmine walk away, her shoulders tight and her steps quick but not quite running. My wolf pushed hard against my ribs, wanting to chase, but I held him back. Tracking a running woman was easier than detaining a frightened one. Right now, the hunt mattered more than the capture. I could feel the curse twisting in my blood, the dark fracture flaring at the edges of my control, but the instinct was stronger. She was already mine. She just needed time to understand it. I gave her a thirty-foot lead before I started after her. My body moved between the obstacles of Cresthaven’s back alleys without disturbing a single thing. No kicked cans. No splashing through puddles. Just silent steps on the cracked pavement. My silver eyes stayed locked on the shape of her ahead in the dark—her dark brown hair swinging slightly, the way she kept one hand near her jacket pocket where she had stuffed the wallet back. She glanced o
Jasmine’s POV I kept my breathing level as I hurried down the street, forcing my legs to move at a normal pace even though every nerve in my body screamed at me to run. The alley was behind me. The man—Glenn—was also behind me. I could still feel the ghost of his fingers on my elbow, warm and strong, sending that same unwanted spark through me that I had felt in the hotel suite. I hated it. I hated how my body remembered. It was supposed to be simple. One night. A transaction. I gave him a fake name, took what I needed from his wallet, and left before the sun came up. A closed deal, done. I had treated the whole thing like any other job. Survival in Cresthaven didn’t leave room for regrets or second thoughts. But now he was here, real, and standing in that alley like he had been waiting for me all along. My heart was still pounding when I heard footsteps behind me. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was him. I kept walking, cutting toward the brighter part of the street where
Tristan’s POV My wolf slammed against my ribs the second her face lifted into the light. Same sharp hazel eyes. Same defiant chin. The woman from the Elysian Moor gala, the one who had emptied my wallet and slipped out of my bed before dawn—was standing right there, three feet away, still trembling from the street thugs I had just put down. My chest tightened so hard it hurt. She was real, not some fevered memory my cursed mind had cooked up during one of the long nights when the fracture in my soul refused to let me sleep. I moved before I could think. My hand closed around her elbow to steady her. The contact hit me like a live wire. A violent tremor shot up my forearm, straight into my blood. It had nothing to do with concern. My body knew her before my mind finished catching up. Her skin was warm under my fingers, soft despite the lean muscle I could feel there. My wolf surged forward with a growl that vibrated through my chest. Mine. He marked her as territory in the same brea
Tristan’s POVTwelve board members sat around the table of Apex Dynamics with their voices rising into a meaningless and annoying buzz.They were arguing over the recent supply chain disruptions at the western borders of our territory. It was a crucial issue and it involved millions of dollars.. complex pack territory disputes and the safety of our cargo. But I couldn't bring myself to care.I sat at the head of the table in silence while my wolf paced restlessly in the back of my mind, scratching at the walls of my skull. The cursed magic in my blood made my skin itch in a constant painful reminder of the burden I carried but I kept my face an emotionless mask with my eyes staring blankly ahead.Next to me, my Beta, Jesse Woodrow was fighting a losing battle."If we reroute the shipments through the northern pass, we lose twenty percent of our profit margin in tariffs," Jesse argued with his cold gray eyes scanning the room, his expression constantly calculating.He was ambitious and







