FAZER LOGINNIKOLAI’S POVI tapped the glass table, and the holographic blueprints of the Thorne empire vanished.The war room fell into darkness, leaving only the faint amber glow from the hallway. A moment ago, the room had been alive with maps, financial records, and plans for dismantling Evander’s network. Now, all that remained was the low hum of the equipment and the woman standing near the door.Zosia had been watching me for some time.I checked my watch. 12:01 a.m. October fourteenth.My chest tightened.For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. The familiar weight settled over me, pressing against my ribs until even the air in the room felt too heavy to draw in.I’d known this moment was coming. I’d known it all day. Still, nothing could prepare me for it.“She would have been twenty-four,” I whispered.Zosia’s expression softened.She didn’t ask who I meant. Perhaps she’d already guessed. Perhaps the grief rolling off me had told her more than I wanted her to know.“Celeste,” I added, barely r
The ride back to the estate was a masterclass in silence.Rain lashed against the tinted windows of the armored SUV, turning the city’s neon lights into blurred streaks of color. The Gilded Cage invitation sat in my jacket pocket, its heavy cardstock feeling like a lead weight.Roxanne’s revelations refused to leave my mind. I glanced at the rearview mirror. Malachi’s dark eyes met mine.“How long has Nikolai been at war with Evander?”Malachi kept his attention on the road, his large hands moving over the steering wheel before he signed his answer.[Since before I met him. Evander is a rot in the foundation. Nikolai is the blade meant to cut it out.]“Did he know about the Hollow Pack?”His jaw tightened.[He knew there were ghosts. He didn’t know they had a Luna.]The word sent a strange shiver through me. Luna. Too much, eh? Something deep inside my chest stirred at the title, as though it recognized something I was only beginning to understand.“What about the Thornes?” I asked.
My stomach twisted.“Evander knew about me?”“He knew enough to be afraid. And now you’ve become something he never planned for.” Roxanne held my gaze. “You’re standing beside Nikolai Vane, the one man powerful enough to threaten everything Evander built. If you and the Hollow Pack stand together, his empire won’t survive it.”I stared at her, a new realization settling over me.“You knew who Nikolai was all along.”Roxanne didn’t deny it.“You knew he was the man who saved me. You knew what he was capable of, yet you never said a word.” My voice sharpened. “Why did you hide his identity from me?”“Because I knew him long before you did.” She sighed, reaching for her cigarette. “Nikolai Vane isn’t some stranger who stumbled into power. I’ve known him since he was a boy—the son of Alpha Lucian Vane, a man whose name once carried as much weight in this city as Evander Blackwood’s does now. I watched Nikolai grow up surrounded by power, politics, and people who would gladly use him for t
The burner phone was old, scratched, and barely held a charge, but it was the only phone I trusted.I sat in the back of the armored SUV as Malachi drove through the rain toward the Hollows. Outside, neon signs blurred across the wet streets, turning the city into a mess of red and blue lights. He hadn’t questioned me when I told him where we were going, though I’d caught him checking the rearview mirror more than once.Tomorrow night, I would walk into the Gilded Cage and face Damien. Before that happened, I needed to speak to the one person who might know what I was walking into.I pulled out the burner and typed.Z: I need to talk. The old jazz place on 4th. One hour.Her reply came almost immediately.Roxanne: Come through the alley. The red door is unlocked.When we reached the Hollows, the streets looked much as I remembered them. Rainwater collected in broken pavements, the air smelled of fried food and wet asphalt, and people hurried past with their heads down, minding their o
ZO’S POVTHE NEXT MORNINGI stood before the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the master bathroom, tracing the dark mating mark on my neck.It sat beside the silver scar Damien had left me, two reminders of the men who had tried to claim pieces of me. Except one mark had been forced upon me through cruelty, while the other was a bond I had chosen.The new mark was still tender beneath my fingertips, its presence reaching deeper than my skin. A seal of absolute claim.My own claim, too.The air around me was thick with my scent. White roses, but not the fragile, greenhouse fragrance of the suppressed Alpha I had been yesterday. These were night-blooming roses, intoxicating and impossible to ignore, tangled with the pine and vetiver of the Alpha who had spent the night with me.Nikolai’s scent clung to my skin, but something fundamental had changed.I no longer felt the need to make myself smaller.I washed quickly, though the hot water did nothing to ease the ache beneath my skin. My wolf wa
The ghost of Celeste’s smile faded, replaced by a sudden, violent spike in my blood temperature. I gripped the edges of the bathroom sink, staring at my reflection as a sheen of sweat broke out across my collarbone. It started as a flush, then escalated into a roaring, liquid fire that radiated from my core. Heat. I was going into heat. My skin felt too tight. My breasts ached with a heavy, hypersensitive throb, and deep in my stomach, an empty, violent cramping demanded to be filled. It was an emptiness so profound it felt like my body was trying to consume itself. I stumbled out of the bathroom. The emerald robe clung to my damp skin, but it offered no relief. The air in the bedroom felt like a physical weight. Nikolai was sitting on the edge of the bed. The moment I crossed the threshold, his head snapped up. The gold in his eyes didn't just flare; it consumed his irises entirely. His nostrils flared, pulling in my scent. I knew what he smelled. The distress was gone, re







