LOGINThe bathroom tile was cold under my knees.I didn't care. I pressed my forehead against the rim of the toilet and breathed through my nose the way Colette had shown me, slow and deliberate, like I could trick my body into believing this was normal. That this was fine. That I was absolutely fine.I was not fine.I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, grabbed the edge of the counter, and pulled myself upright. My reflection in Alpha Tomas's guest bathroom mirror looked like something that had been wrung out and hung to dry. Hair pulled back in a hasty knot, eyes too bright, jaw set the way it always set when I was holding something together that wanted very badly to fall apart.Sirus.The name had been running on a loop since Luna Elizabeth said the words. A tight, relentless circuit. Sirus is missing. We don't know how long. That's the problem.I knew how he got to him. I'd been turning it over since last night, the same way you press a bruise — not because it helps, but because yo
It was Elara who said it.She hadn't spoken in several minutes — I'd noticed her going quiet in the particular way she had when she was turning something over, pressing on it from different angles, checking for where it gave. Her hand was still resting against her stomach."We haven't talked about Declan Voss at all."The room shifted."Not once," she continued, her voice thoughtful and careful and slightly dangerous. "We've been talking about the organization. The bloodline program. The arranged matings, the seeding, the petition, the council." She looked at me. "But not him. Not specifically. Not his role, not why he was even present for any of this." She paused. "Did Josiah mention him?"I thought back through everything Josiah had said. The way he'd talked — the names he'd offered, the threads he'd handed us to pull."No," I said slowly."Not once?""Not once."Elara nodded, like that confirmed something she'd already suspected. "So we sat across from a man who has been embedded i
The call with Josylyn and Elara lasted forty minutes.I had them both on speakerphone before we made it back through the pack house doors, River driving slowly enough to give me time, Cade quiet in the passenger seat, his eyes on the road and his attention entirely on every word being said.I laid it out the way I'd been building it in my head — methodical, piece by piece, the way you set a table before you ask people to sit down.The bloodlines first."What our father and the organization built over thirty years was a seeding program," I said. "They placed Destroyer genetics into pack bloodlines across the continent. Quietly. Generationally. Some of those wolves never manifested. Some did and were collected. Some — like the hidden pack — were protected from the organization entirely, which means they're unregistered, uncatalogued, and completely off every map the organization has ever made.""Wild cards," Elara said."The best kind."Silence on her end. Then: "Laney. I need to ask yo
"They chose you," I said. "All of you. River. Cade. Josylyn's mate. Elara's. Mara's." The thought had been building since Josiah said it, and I needed to say it out loud to hear how it landed. "Our father arranged it. Maybe Korr was part of it, too. The organization, or something adjacent to it, or just men who thought they were managing something larger than themselves."The silence in the car had weight."All of my sisters," I said slowly. "Josylyn. Elara. Mara." I let the shape of it settle. "Their matings were chosen. Arranged. The trials, the selections, the bonds that followed — our father's hand was in all of it."River was very still."But not yours," Cade said quietly. He wasn't asking."Not mine." And there it was — the thing that had been sitting underneath the cold dread, small and stubborn and warm. "I was the one who wasn't chosen. The trials I passed weren't rigged. The bond that formed wasn't engineered." I looked at River. Then at Cade. "You two are the only thing in m
Laney POV My sister's pack home was beautiful. We now stood in the Alpha's meeting room flanked by soldiers. It did not keep me from speaking in direct tones. "Where do you actually work, Alpha Josiah?" River asked. "Who do you really work for?""Careful, young bloods." His voice dropped to a low, deliberate tone. "This is my pack, and my first priority. You are still addressing an Alpha."Laney spoke up. "And I am also an Alpha — with a Destroyer wolf who can command." She let that settle before continuing. "I am not my sister Mara. I don't use that power lightly. But I will if I have to. I don't take kindly to threats."Cade glanced behind them. Josiah's soldiers had begun closing in, tightening into a circle at their backs, slow and quiet the way wolves move when they want you to feel surrounded before you realize it."River," Cade said softly."Yup," River answered. "I see it."Laney spoke again, and this time something rose in her voice she hadn't consciously put there — someth
Sirus was in the kitchen when I arrived, sitting at the table with a coloring book spread in front of him. Four years old and already carrying the weight of knowing his mother was gone. He looked up when I walked in, and his whole face changed—lit up like I'd brought the sun with me."Laney!" He scrambled down from his chair and ran straight for my legs.I scooped him up, held him against my chest. He was small. Warm. Real in a way nothing else had been since Korr hit the ground."Hey, baby," I said quietly."You came back." He wrapped his arms around my neck. "You always come back.""Always," I confirmed.We sat back down at the table, and I let him show me his drawings—a wolf, a house, something that might have been a tree. I made appropriate sounds of appreciation while my mind was already three moves ahead, already calculating what Josiah knew and what he was hiding.But I stayed present for him. That was the deal I'd made with myself."Laney?" His voice was smaller now. Uncertain
The third initiation task comes at sunrise.Garrett stands at the head of the war room table, tapping a map, like this is just another job. Like he’s not sending me straight into blood territory.“Two deliveries,” he says. “Redwood Pack—your eldest sister. Silverpine Pack—your middle. Medical suppl
Three days later~~~Dawn breaks cold and sharp over the mountains.I stand beside my bike—a matte black Harley Road King, heavy and powerful beneath my hands—and watch the sun bleed gold across the peaks. The air tastes like pine and frost and gasoline. My breath mists in the early light.Shianne c
The riders dismount in unison, practiced and coordinated.Weapons emerge. A Glock from a shoulder holster. A hunting knife with a serrated edge. The length of chain wrapped around gloved knuckles. A tactical baton that extends with a metallic snick.They spread out, flanking us, cutting off any esca
The morning comes too soon, soft and deceptive in its peace.I sit on the porch with Shianne, two mugs of coffee cooling between us. The sun filters through the pines, painting everything gold and green, and for a moment—just a moment—I can almost pretend the world isn't burning.Almost.Shianne di







