LOGINARIAIt was past midnight when I found Damian in the study.The room was dark except for the lamp on the corner of the desk. He was sitting in the chair by the window with a glass of whiskey in his hand, staring out at the grounds like there was something out there worth studying.I stood in the doorway for a second. "You didn't come to bed.""I will.""It's already midnight.""I know."I walked into the room and sat on the edge of the desk beside him. He still didn't look away from the window. "What is on your mind? The meeting with Victor?" I asked."Partly."I watched him for a moment. "What's the other part?"He stayed quiet for a while that I thought maybe he wasn't going to answer. Then he said, "Her name was Nadia."He turned the whiskey glass slowly in his hand. "She was twenty-one when she died. We'd been to
ARIAVictor Bennett sat across from me in Damian's office and looked at the crescent mark on my neck before he looked at anything else."Thank you for agreeing to meet," he said."You sent a formal letter with a pack seal," I said. "It would've been rude not to answer."Damian stood slightly to the left behind me. I could feel him restraining his control. And no doubt Raze was probably pacing circles inside him. Victor looked between us. "I assume Soren already told you why I wanted this meeting.""He told us about the marker," I said. "The bloodline ability. What it can do. Why you were trying to get close to it."Victor shook his head once. "Not close to, but ahead of it.""That's not much better.""Yeah," he admitted. He leaned forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees. "Cael told me everything three months before he died," he said quietly. "He was terrified of it."
ARIASoren arrived at the villa at two in the afternoon. He was older than I expected. Late fifties maybe. Dark hair threaded heavily with silver, sharp eyes.He stood in the foyer for a second too long, and looked around."You can relax," I told him. "Nobody's going to jump out at you.""Old habit," he said. His accent was Eastern European, the same way I had heard in Mara's voice. They had clearly spent years in the same place."Soren," Damian called from behind me."Alpha Hawke," Soren said."You have been underground for twenty years," Damian said. "What changed?"Soren looked directly at me. "She did."Before I could answer, Clara appeared from the hallway, drying her hands on a cloth. She stopped the moment she saw Soren.A flicker of surprise crossed her face and was gone immediately.Soren saw it too. He went
NOVAThe problem with falling for a wolf from a rival pack was that it was a terrible idea.I knew it was a terrible idea. I had known from the exact moment Darius Foster looked at me across a cross-pack summit holding a cup of coffee he wasn't even drinking and made one dry comment about the catering. Somehow that had been enough for my wolf to completely give up on common sense.Weeks later I was sitting in his car outside my apartment at eleven in the morning arguing about something that wasn't actually the real problem."It's not about permission," I said."I know it isn't.""Then stop talking like I need approval before making decisions about my own life.""I'm not saying that." His voice stayed calm, which was honestly annoying. "I'm saying my elders formally requested a meeting and ignoring them will make the situation worse.""Their situation," I said. "Not mine.""Nova.""Dar
ARIAI woke up to an empty bed and the smell of coffee.I stayed there for a minute, staring at the ceiling. I could feel warmth spreading through my chest.“I love you,” I had told him.“I know,” he had answered, like he had been carrying the words for both of us until I was ready.I buried my face in the pillow and smiled.Then I got up, stole his shirt from the chair because it was closer than my own clothes, and went looking for the coffee.He was in the kitchen. Dark trousers, white shirt half-buttoned, leaning against the counter while reading something on his phone. He looked up when I walked in.His eyes moved over me in the shirt before lifting back to my face."That's mine," he said."I know.""You have yours," he said with a glint in his eyes."They're in the other room." I picked up the mug
ARIAThe villa was quiet by nine.I had changed out of the dress from the announcement and was sitting on the kitchen counter eating leftover rice straight from the pot because apparently becoming Luna had not improved my eating habits at all.Damian walked into the kitchen, saw me, and stopped. "There is a dining table," he said."I know where it is.""It comes with chairs.""The counter also works." I held out the fork. "Do you want some?"He took the fork without bothering to get a plate, stood beside me, and ate from the pot. We stayed quiet for a few minutes and somehow it was the most normal moment I'd had for a while."Gabriel cried," I said eventually."I know.""He told me my mother would have been proud." I stared down at the rice. "He said it like he knew it for certain. Not just to make me feel better."Damian set the fork down. "She would have been. I knew her we
ARIA I woke up like I’d fallen from somewhere high—heart racing, sheets twisted around my legs. For a second I didn’t know where I was. Then the thought settled in. Not my apartment. No traffic. No music through thin walls. No Nova pounding on my door because she’d forgotten her spare key again.
At the Villa's guest wing, my suitcase sat untouched at the foot of the bed with its zipper still half-open from when I’d thrown things in earlier. The room was too big—high ceilings disappearing into shadow, dark wood floors polished until they reflected the faint moonlight coming through the wind







