ログインAiden finally raised his eyes and locked them on me for the first time since I stepped foot into this hall.My spine straightened involuntarily. I had been watching him manage this room all evening without once looking directly at me and now those hazel eyes were on me specifically and the mate bond registered it before I did. I kept my face neutral.“April” Aiden called out my name like he wanted to get my attention and he did get it because I wondered why all of a sudden he called my name.I looked at him and felt something tighten in my chest because beings with Aiden for some while I knew that Aiden saying your name like that — like it was the beginning of something rather than just a word — was never followed by anything comfortable.“You must be wondering why I invited you to join my family dinner right?” He asked a rhetorical question and I locked eyes on him and slightly frowned knowing it felt like something serious was about to come out of his mouth.Was I wondering? I had b
"You're finally ready to start a war," Finn said, not alarmed but rather assessing AIden."No," Aiden said. "If I wanted a war I wouldn't have called you all, I had preferred that but Nathan had talked me out so now…I want to end the war."I looked at him across the length of the table.End the war.I turned the phrase over in my head.The end implied it was still ongoing. The end implied there was something to finish. The end implied that somewhere in the years of blood shed, territory battles and loss between these two packs there had been a beginning — a moment where this had been chosen.Someone had chosen this.My father had chosen this.And the cost of ending it was apparently sitting right here at this table eating dinner with the people it had been chosen against.That sounded clean and decisive. The kind of sentence a person says when they have already accounted for the cost and made peace with it.I knew my father hated the Stormrider pack to the core and I had already felt
The air in the room changed.Felicity looked at me one more time — the specific look of someone making a note to come back to something — then turned her eyes to Aiden.Melissa had stopped writing entirely now. Her pen was down. Her hands were in her lap. She was watching Aiden with the expression of someone who had been told what they needed to know but suspected there was a room behind the room they hadn't been shown yet.Aiden's face had become serious. He looked at Nathan first. Then at Finn, who had the most dangerous aura in the room despite the complete stillness he occupied — or because of it."I called you all here," Aiden said, "because I have finally decided to kill Howard Quinn and destroy the Black Shadow Pack."The room absorbed this."Tonight," he added.I sat very still. No that was wrong…I couldn't stay still.Did he just say he was going to kill Howard Quinn….my father and destroy the Black Shadow Pack tonight?I had said those words to myself in different forms a hu
Aiden's expression didn't change a bit, in fact throughout his whole meeting, he hardly spoke, rarely reacted , mostly closed his eyes and he felt and looked like a totally different person."Nathan and I are both working on it." Aiden replied back and then looked at Nathan."You've been working on it for some time now, Aiden. I think it’s time I step in. I have an army of vampires at my call and they will be happy to shed blood and take over ," Finn said."I’m not letting innocent people die again…We do it my way and these things take time."I watched them go back and forth with the attention of someone who had learned that what people said was rarely the most important thing happening in a conversation. What Finn was really saying was that he was losing patience. What Aiden and Nathan were really saying was that he wasn't ready to show his hand yet.Neither of them was saying what they actually meant but they understood each other well and clearly."Some things," Finn said, and the
Felicity’s grip on her glass tightened.Ryan went still in a way that was different from his usual stillness.I looked at Hale’s left hand resting on the table. A large burn scar covered the back of it, spreading across the fingers, the kind of mark that comes from something sustained rather than brief.Old enough to be healed but not old enough to have faded into something neutral.The humor dropped off Hale’s face. Not the way it had when Quinn’s name landed — this was quieter. More personal. Something he had been moving around for two years and had decided not to put down.“I got burned in a territory fire,” he said. “Guy, it was two years ago. Nothing significant.”“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Ryan said.“It healed and only left a little scar. In fact it’s a reminder of my victory that day.” He kept going, covering the silence with words the way he always covered things — thoroughly and without pausing for air.Nobody pushed him except Ryan.“Who caused it,” Ryan said anyway.“Ry
Zyla choked on her wine, attempting to avoid the question entirely.Hale patted her on the back with the expression of someone who had been waiting for exactly that reaction.“School,” he said, to no one in particular. “Still a sore subject.”“Zyla is a mini Felicity,” Nathan added without looking up from his plate. “She almost burned the whole school down so she got expelled.”“NOOO—” Zyla’s fork came down hard. “I got suspended. There is a significant difference between suspended and expelled and I would like that distinction noted by everyone present.”“I see,” Ryan said.“Still a ticking time bomb,” Hale said helpfully. “Some things genuinely never change. You and Felicity both.”“And you look and talk exactly the same Hale, which is quite disturbing — we can all agree you need to change something—”“Thank you sweetheart.” Hale smiled and winked.“It was not a compliment—”“You are welcome.”“Finn.” Zyla turned with the energy of someone who had been waiting for the right moment.







