The silence was driving me insane.He was my son.My son.And I wasn’t even allowed to see him.I’d left Barbados because I had no choice. Moonstone had taken over his care, and they’d made it clear I wasn’t welcome. Logan hadn’t said a word to me during that entire final hour at the hospital. Mason
ELENAAiden was awake. I should have felt nothing but joy, and I did. I did.His eyelashes fluttered like bird wings before they opened, and his little fingers twitched around mine like he was afraid I might disappear. But with the joy came something else—an ache. Because some of the first words ou
“If you want to be part of Aiden’s life,” I said finally, softer now, “then you have to show up. Not just with presents. With presence. With love. With support. You have to earn his trust. His love. Not buy it.”He didn’t argue, he just nodded slowly, like each word I’d spoken had cut through to som
ELENAI sat cross-legged on the edge of Aiden’s bed, carefully peeling the corner of a sticker he’d just plastered onto my jeans. He’d decided I looked “too serious” and was now decorating me with sparkly stars and cartoon wolves.“I think you need one right here,” he said, grinning as he stuck a br
Derek stood slowly, watching me. “Only if you’re okay with it.”Aiden looked between us, eyes big and hopeful. “Can we all do something together? Like… like a real family?”A real family? Was something we weren’t. All the traumas with Derek that I’d just relived had me feeling like I was standing in
DEREKI was twelve the first time I thought I might die.The rogues had come out of nowhere—snarling, vicious, too fast to outrun. I didn’t know then that most of them were older wolves who’d lost their pack bonds. All I knew was that I couldn’t shift, and that my cousins had dared me into the woods
She looked up when I entered, surprised but not unpleasantly so. “Hey.”I nodded. “Can we talk?”She closed the book. “Of course.”I walked closer, rubbed the back of my neck, then sat in the chair across from her. “I’ve been… distant. I know that. And I know it’s not fair. Especially with everythin
DEREKAiden had barely stopped talking the entire visit.He’d rambled about his favorite Moonstone warrior stories, asked if I could teach him how to throw a proper punch once his shoulder finished healing, and told me—very seriously—that he planned to make his own battle armor.Out of cardboard and
Amy’s voice was small now. “I believe so.”I set the glass down with a soft clink. “Pour the full glass.”She did.“Now decant the rest,” I said. “I’ve lost my appetite for food. But I’ll be staying to enjoy the bottle.”Amy said nothing. She bowed slightly and stepped away to fetch the decanter.Th
DEREKI didn’t stop for the cameras.They flared like tiny suns as I stepped out of the black SUV, their shutters clicking rapid-fire.Flashes bounced off the platinum buttons of my coat, off the trim of my collar, illuminating the sidewalk in sharp, artificial bursts. I walked straight through the
The temperature in the room shifted.Not dramatically, but enough. Like a subtle drop in pressure before a storm. Erin straightened, her laughter tapering. I smoothed the sample fabric in front of me and didn’t look up right away.“Hey,” Logan said casually. “What’s so funny?”Erin glanced at me. “J
ELENAThe Moonstone packhouse was a flurry of motion and color. Fabric swatches fluttered like flags in a breeze as pack members carried bolts of cloth up the stairs. Someone was arguing loudly in the hall about whether “frosted lilac” was different from “lavender fog,” and a delivery of beeswax can
ELENAThe metronome was ticking again.That steady, deliberate rhythm that Dr. Voss insisted helped center my recall—though half the time, I wasn’t sure if it helped or just made me hyper-aware of how fast my thoughts were spinning.I sat back in the reclined chair, palms resting against the fabric-
“A silver claw?”I nodded. “Yeah. The first. The only. It seared his flesh every time he used it. Every swing hurt. But he used it anyway.”“That sounds… awful.”“It was,” I said. “But he made that pain his purpose. Every battle, every fight he walked into—he carried the silver claw. And with it, he
DEREKThe room still smelled like fresh paint.The new bedding hadn’t quite lost its store scent either—crisp fabric, a little too new, the faint chemical undertone of being unboxed that morning.But it didn’t matter. Aiden was already halfway under the covers, head turned toward the window, blanket
DEREKIt all slammed into me at once.The office, the old leather chair beneath me, the taste of whiskey still lingering on my tongue—and Maggie’s name reverberating like a bell that wouldn’t stop ringing in my head.Maggie. Pierce’s daughter.A rogue who had saved Elena’s life, who had helped her e
I gasped against him, and his tongue slid in—deep, claiming, desperate.I should have shoved him off. Should have screamed at him, reminded him what he was, what I was. But my body betrayed me.I kissed him back.Hard.My fingers curled into the front of his shirt, dragging him closer as his hands s